My darlings,
it deeply saddens me to hear about these thoughts and feelings at a point where they seem to have already surpassed a boiling point. I appreciate you finding the time to bring them forward and discuss them with us. I don't want to downplay any of the concerns and arguments brought up thus far as I know they are valid in their own ways. If you will allow me however, I will attempt to add some context where possible and shine a light on a few things that I've also brought up to the previous leadership, and my perspective on how to solve them. I'm sorry if this becomes too much about my personal experience. I don't really know how else to show you that there is reason behind our actions and that I do relate.
In the very beginning... there was the Big Bang... and science tells us that everyone and everything originated from it. I'm kidding ofc ... but I will have to go back at least a little. Maybe to the beginning of
2018:
I was building Erebor together with a friend on a sky block server, as you do, and managed to get my ass banned for using mods to build faster. That day, my friend showed me MCME, and my immediate reaction to seeing Moria was: I want to be part of this and I want to build Erebor on this map. So with no hesitation, I started my first themed build (RIP) for my artist application (also RIP).
Two weeks in, Finrod_Amandil, legendary Head Builder and the inventor of such things as the custom inventory, MCME custom-modeled blocks, and overall godfather of the current era of MCME, resigned seemingly out of nowhere. This left BWOT, at the time only 16 or 17, and with less than half a year of Build Leader experience, in charge. In the coming weeks, reading through the forums and talking to a few people I realized that being the only one online at times was in no way normal for MCME. From that point on it has been
my only goal to expand our resources to ensure progress and continuity of the MCME project and community. Little did I know at the time that there was no singular answer to this problem.
I've brought up these same issues in communication, organization, building progress, and leadership with BWOT on countless occasions. As I got to know later, once granted access to the archives, these issues have always plagued MCME to some extent which only emboldened me to try to fix them. These are a few of the approaches different members of the community and I initiated over the years and their outcomes:
- Recruitment. While this has nothing to do with the internal issues in organization and communication, as a powerless commoner the most obvious issue was a lack of manpower and expertise to finish ongoing projects. Something that has been brought up here a couple of times as well. So getting our name out there was my main priority over the first few years. Founded the Media Team, started making videos, and organized collabs. The influx of new players did pick up again and we grew our social presence which put us on the radar of quite a few very talented people. This approach seems to be fruitful and could be explored again at any point in time imo.
- Retention. With the new player influx, the cracks in our system, the ones you are also talking about became more obvious. Lack of leadership, communication, and organization in the wake of Finrods departure had left us with a few unfinished projects that were weighing heavily on everyone's shoulders diminishing motivation. This also resulted in many of the new people not finding anything to do on MCME and leaving again. So we finished Dol Amroth and actually made a decent push in Moria. Founded new committees where people who were not interested in the building could get involved in different ways and valued community events and activities more. At the same time, BWOT standardized project planning and made a push towards better organization and communication through the forums. No one is using that for the build projects but other areas have seen benefits from it. This approach has resulted in a great development in the non-building activities but has not resolved our bottom line issues.
- Development. Finally, after only seeing limited success from the first 2 approaches toward fixing our primary issues, build progress and motivation, I realized that reform on the building level has to happen in order to push this project forward and satisfy our team members. I only made this graphic to illustrate to the other valar my approach to dealing with this issue 2 years ago. While I don't quite agree with it anymore I think it was a good way of illustrating the resulting conclusion of all the different approaches we had attempted at the time and what could actually make a change. It's a little confusing but it helps if you read it from left to right and imagine all the lines are arrows connecting rp dev to a flourishing community. This approach has seen some success and is still ongoing.
I'm not going to pretend like any of the outlined approaches actually fully solved our issues, the ones you also brought up. Especially along the lines of communication and leadership. In order to not repeat ourselves I will agree mostly with bart and credoo on those points. I do want to add that while I don't blame anyone for not coming forth with their concerns, I have heard many claims of Valar or Staff not being forthcoming when approached over the years. This makes me very sad to hear as the one thing I wanted to make sure is upkept when BWOT asked me if I would take his place, was communication. That is the reason I persuaded bart to split the role with me (as he was in very close contact with the builders at the time) and that is why I've always emphasized the importance of reacting to all messages or posts made by the community for our members in leadership positions. While this may not always work flawlessly I would argue that there have always been enough valar and staff members to hit up in case your problem could not be resolved by the first one you contacted. Especially in recent years where Credoo has stepped up to take care of these exact cases specifically. I may not know which cases are being referenced exactly but I can assure you that we've never intended to ignore or ridicule anyone approaching us. Regardless of the issue or our personal view on things.
Unfortunately in my experience, as soon as someone makes it into a leadership position on MCME communication from the community starts dwindling. Not blaming anyone but myself for that. I understand the idea of leadership figures being too busy or unreachable and I am totally at fault for not acting against the formation of that image. I want to assure you, however, that in my 4 years as Valar, there has not been one Commoner, Adventure, or any other community member who has not gotten a swift and honest answer to their direct inquiries to me. So I would encourage you to get in contact if you have something you would wish to address. In my experience, these situations only evolve when there is a lack of information on the well-being of the community on our part.
After the first survey, we also put
this together... no one it was discussed with was too keen on going this route, however. Maybe there is a different way? Or maybe I don't quite understand what type of communication is needed.
As for organization. Big one... I admit that I've not addressed this one enough over the years. Since BWOT more or less got mobbed away for trying to impose organization on the MCME community I've been very careful with that. We have however been making progress on that front. As you may know, I am personally in love with organization. Many of you know my spreadsheets and detailed plans for the different RPs. I'm not pointing any fingers but I know that the community as a whole has always been very reluctant to do much of that, however. Thus the emergence of the paper-pushing meme. More recently people started using the forums again but not even a year ago we had set up project threads on Discord and asked our builders to provide more frequent updates there if nowhere else. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think that worked out. In my opinion, our current build leaders are probably some of the most organized we've ever had. I don't think there have ever been frequent updates to forum posts and in the times like now since I joined. I don't mean to say there is no room for improvement. We can always do better but since I don't really see how that is an issue I will assume you mean organization on a higher level. Like a roadmap. Well ... here is a roadmap I've put together in 2021:
I've spent way too much time on this post now (all time that now delays the forest update release) to be able to look for the subsequent variations and different approaches for putting something like this together we've had over the years. Believe me... we've tried. The problem with making something like this for MCME is in my opinion that most projects around here are fueled by passion. And as leaders of this community, we want to make use of that. If someone comes around and pushes a project into production we won't stand in their way as long as it's properly planned and makes sense for the server in the grand scheme of things. In the same way, if that person decides to leave again, there is no guarantee that someone else will come to pick up where they left. As it has been noted a few times here before, we really have limited power over what a community member does on MCME. Letting them follow their heart has been a good approach thus far and I would argue that it works in favor of our goal to keep it that way. So we are not opposed to a road map. We all know the rough path our server is set to take. That's pretty much what the image above outlines. I would be interested in your approaches tho. As what I showed above is barely a roadmap and obviously does not take into account the volatility of the MCME environment.
Finally, a few words on RPs. I know the forest update has been a long time coming. And I know you really want Mordor to be started. I understand the frustration with having to wait for anything like this. I wouldn't argue that our RP updates have not followed our build projects, however. Over the 3 years that the fores update has been in the making, we've had 3-4 RP updates themed around Anorien, Cair Andros, and Lithir. I've promised before and I intend to keep that promise. RP updates won't always be this big. As you may have already seen or will soon notice, the forest update is a fundamental evolution of the MCME build style. It requires a comprehensive rework of many textures and models. We will already have to replace almost all of the trees created with the prototype branch system released 2 years ago. While I didn't enjoy carrying this burden on my shoulders for so many years, I still think that releasing most of it at once has been the right decision for that reason. I know in the beginning I did tell builders to wait for the forest update. I wasn't able to foresee the developments in technology that now allow us to compete with modded communities. I hope no one is dissatisfied with that. As bart said tho, I don't think anyone in a leadership position argued for anyone to wait on any RP developments in the last 1-2 years, however. Other than the projects that are simply not possible with our current selection of blocks please never use this argument again. You may build whatever is possible for you to build. Using textures as an excuse really puts a lot of pressure on the RP team which has led to many of us burning out multiple times. All the RP dev decisions have been taken in accordance with the community thus far. I even wasted 6 months because you felt like Avallone would be a good project. If people would actually be hyped about building in Mordor I think we would have prioritized that more. It is very demotivating to hear that builders are not all too excited to work for the goal we thought we were all following.
I feel like there are quite a few parallels now, to the state MCME was in when I joined. While we've done very well on some aspects there are others that have been lacking which unfortunately also results in our current active players dip and general dissatisfaction. While I'm sure a collaboration or something more exciting for a change would also improve that I think this time around we'll have to brute force our way through it. If you do care for the future of this community, please get involved where help is needed. We hear your cry for a concrete plan, something to look forward to. We will address that to the best of our capabilities. In the meantime, there is no shortage of work to be done.
Finally, I want to say that every one of us has our own vision, expectations, and plans for MCME which is what makes our project so intriguing. I think, however, that we should all be respectful of everyone else's wishes as well. While we are all acting toward a common goal, there are 1,000 paths we can take. And the fact that each step may take multiple years due to simple bandwidth limitations, this being a pastime for all of us, is really not making this easier. But there are a few very important life lessons MCME has taught me: patience, perseverance, flexibility(openmindness), and understanding. If we all exercise at least a little bit of each I've already seen us create some of the greatest things.
Oh and mark my words. I am going to lead Erebor. Even if it takes another 5 years to get there. I call dibs or whatever people say...