Challenges:
Minecraft is a tricky game. For many, the fun lies in going to explore, fighting dangers, discovering treasures, and then building ... building whatever home, castle, fantasy world your heart enjoys. So from what I can see, it's tricky to build a community when 1. everyone wants to go off and enjoy the game. 2. everyone comes on at different times, so it's not always easy to do things together. 3. people like building apartments and rooms for other players, but other players want to build their own apartments and rooms.
Community playstyle:
I know there are many other game mechanics that I didn't mention, but those are some obstacles to overcome or adjust for in order to make a "community." For example:
Abea makes her own home or church or temple. But Abea also goes forth and visits everyone's place, checking out to see what they've done, and making them feel special, and proud of their work.
Me. I like to build a waystation of sorts, have people stop by and rest the night on their way out to explore or build.
Catakou. While Cat liked to go off and build big, he was also good and visiting people and helping them build too.
Everyone has a different playstyle, and it's fun to work those playstyles together. That's why I like the jobs addon. Some people can be certain professions and use that to help others. But of course for that to work, people have to make the effort to help each other and work together. And I know not everybody is going to do that.
Past enjoyments:
In Tribe of Judah - Gamma world, people would come in and settle nicely into some little area or valley. Some would get together and go mining and some. I helped one guy start a town, but he stopped playing. (That's when I build my airship, and then watched it burn down to a forest fire. I learned to not chop down trees with flint and tinder.
) I remember helping Abea build the temple, and getting someone's permission (I forgot who) to build a to-scale Noah's Ark in his area. People were active, and we were showing off our stuffs, and it was fun.
I always enjoy talking about Christ in channel, and having /local chat services and places for scripture reading and study. I haven't seen much of it, but each time I have, it's greatly enhanced my minecraft enjoyment.
One thing I loved was the concept of other worlds. I loved the desert world, and it felt so stargate like, going to a place with huge volcanos, giant underground dungeons, and no vegetation. I remember going in there with someone and exploring til we found a volcano. And then I created a shelter while he dug in for valuables. That was fun! It also reminds me of the Halloween event that someone hosted. It was a temp world that you went it to fight monsters and trick or treat random chests. Some would explode, some would be empty, and some would have all kinds of cakes, cookies, and foods. That was fun! So to me, wondering what the next new temp Stargate world, and then exploring it together with a buddy, is undescribable. (sp)
Past frustrations:
Information sharing has not always come easy. But then again, only a very small droplet of our membership actually visits the forums. Which is understandable as it can seem intimidating at first. I remember when we were talking about handling the new build transition to 1.0, nobody really knew what was being planned, or what was going on. There were many ideas thrown in about home worlds and adventure worlds. But unless you were present in teamspeak to hear a conversation or two, you were left in the dark. Same was with the concept of multiple "servers". It was pulling teeth to get people to tell me what this concept was of multiple worlds. I thought they meant different server addresses and didn't even realize you could have different world saves, and connect them together via a plug in. So getting information was always frustrating.
Inconsideration. Even when we created a temp world during the 1.9 betas and everyone was building close, people would still end up building on other people's land, modifying other people's structures, and making ghastly neighbor changes that completely blocked a view or created a huge netherrack wall. It was less like a community and more like an invasion. But 1. This is nothing we did wrong. It was just playstyles of people. We just had to continually remind them to respect other people's properties. 2. People were playing, and were active. You had community, but you also had frustrations. I suppose those will always go hand in hand.
Having to rebuild over and over and over again. As many times as one might build up a structure, the server would crash, become griefed, or become corrupted and it would all be lost. Or a new build would come in. Sometimes a backup could be used, sometimes not. So while starting fresh is fun, starting over repeatedly is not always so. Sure, it's not always in our control. But this has always been a frustration. I've built several reditions of the Caspertine because of either finding a good server home, or enduring world crashes. But sometimes you just have to roll with the punches.
Tribe of Judah success:
So what is going to make a tribe of judah success? That's hard because I wasn't here for the glory days of the Beta world. Tek was playing, and so where others. I know there are going to be game mechanic obstacles to overcome (like claiming rights to NPC villages, fortresses, and netherkeeps). I know people have different playstyles, many independant, and some co-operative. I know people come in, have fun and build up, then get bored and leave. There are things we can do I'm sure like maybe having temporary adventure worlds, more scripture talk, centralized town (like having a town where you can build a small house or live in an apartment, a place to come in and fellowship before going back out to your own place or to an adventure), more information sharing and the like. But which will work best and which won't? That, I really couldn't say.
Any other 2 cents? Any other 255 cents? (I know my post was long, and I apologize for it.)
