As most of you probably know, CubeCraft has decided to revamp its java network removing half of its games in a risky bet to try save the java network from dying and end up closing in a near future. I understand the team needs to take some risks to rebuild the Java network and make it more attractive to new players, to try boost the network growth. However, there are many decisions I can't understand.
First of all, many games which were pretty popular were removed, such as minerware, tower defence, duels or some featured games such as among slimes when they were active in the featured games rotation. I understand why games such as Team Skywars, BlockWars or some featured games got removed, to avoid infinity queue times that may cause new players to leave and never come back to the server. Ok, the games I first mentioned didn't fill up during some hours a day, but only during the worst off-peak hours, they used to fill up considerably quickly during the rest of the day. Also, they were one of the most popular games among the community, so I can't understand nor share their removal, as I think it's negative for the network.
The second thing I can't agree with is the removal of most of the maps for the gamemodes that still stay within the network. Solo Lucky Islands, Team Eggwars and Solo SkyWars have only 6 available maps each. Before the update, they used to have more than 2 pages full of original and fun maps. I would understand the removal of the maps the community hates, as they may also increase the chances of new players leaving the network. However, leaving the server with almost no maps makes playing boring and repetitive, which I think isn't exactly what CubeCaft wants to get with this update which intends to attract new players.
The third thing I think that shouldn't be done is the full update to 1.19. Yes, I know it will give you a lot of new mechanics and that you will be able to do a lot of cool things with all the new blocks, mechanics, mobs, etc. But experience tells us that this kind of updates tend to result catastrophic for minecraft servers, we only have to take a look at the CubeCraft's own history. When the server first updated fully to 1.9 back in 2016, most players left because they didn't like the combat system and CubeCraft finally had to retract their decision and split up the network into 2 divided servers. But most of all those players that left never came back, that was the end of CubeCraft as the biggest minecraft server. When Java was fully updated to 1.12.2 and the 1.8 network got closed last year, it used to peak at more than 5k players by June. By the end of the summer it barely used to peak at 3k players, and look where we are now. I agreed with the closure of the 1.8 network, even thought it disappointed me at the beginning. Once again, updating to 1.12.2 gave devs a lot of new things to develop new gamemodes, maps, etc but the change cause a lot of players to leave.
Now they pretend to save the network by updating to 1.19 (almost the most recent) and there are some problems with it. The first problem is that it will result most likely a catastrophy for the server as the experience has shown us multiple times. The second problem is that many people with low-end devices won't be able to run that version of the game and will just leave the server to never come back, as it results impossible to play smoothly for them.
I also think CubeCraft should rethink its entire promotion estrategy to make it more efficient and to be able to promote the server properly again. There are many threads about it, so I'll just attach some of them to this one.
https://www.cubecraft.net/threads/a-little-word-about-the-big-cubecraft-change.321387/ by @BrightDylanPlayz about social media and server promotion
https://www.cubecraft.net/threads/java-future.321335/ by @JGCreate about social media and server promotion too
https://www.cubecraft.net/threads/how-to-fix-cubecraft.321378/ by @Pekfzz, whose thread I think complements my suggestion.
Don't forget to react with if you agree and you want to try save the network.
Thanks for reading.
First of all, many games which were pretty popular were removed, such as minerware, tower defence, duels or some featured games such as among slimes when they were active in the featured games rotation. I understand why games such as Team Skywars, BlockWars or some featured games got removed, to avoid infinity queue times that may cause new players to leave and never come back to the server. Ok, the games I first mentioned didn't fill up during some hours a day, but only during the worst off-peak hours, they used to fill up considerably quickly during the rest of the day. Also, they were one of the most popular games among the community, so I can't understand nor share their removal, as I think it's negative for the network.
The second thing I can't agree with is the removal of most of the maps for the gamemodes that still stay within the network. Solo Lucky Islands, Team Eggwars and Solo SkyWars have only 6 available maps each. Before the update, they used to have more than 2 pages full of original and fun maps. I would understand the removal of the maps the community hates, as they may also increase the chances of new players leaving the network. However, leaving the server with almost no maps makes playing boring and repetitive, which I think isn't exactly what CubeCaft wants to get with this update which intends to attract new players.
The third thing I think that shouldn't be done is the full update to 1.19. Yes, I know it will give you a lot of new mechanics and that you will be able to do a lot of cool things with all the new blocks, mechanics, mobs, etc. But experience tells us that this kind of updates tend to result catastrophic for minecraft servers, we only have to take a look at the CubeCraft's own history. When the server first updated fully to 1.9 back in 2016, most players left because they didn't like the combat system and CubeCraft finally had to retract their decision and split up the network into 2 divided servers. But most of all those players that left never came back, that was the end of CubeCraft as the biggest minecraft server. When Java was fully updated to 1.12.2 and the 1.8 network got closed last year, it used to peak at more than 5k players by June. By the end of the summer it barely used to peak at 3k players, and look where we are now. I agreed with the closure of the 1.8 network, even thought it disappointed me at the beginning. Once again, updating to 1.12.2 gave devs a lot of new things to develop new gamemodes, maps, etc but the change cause a lot of players to leave.
Now they pretend to save the network by updating to 1.19 (almost the most recent) and there are some problems with it. The first problem is that it will result most likely a catastrophy for the server as the experience has shown us multiple times. The second problem is that many people with low-end devices won't be able to run that version of the game and will just leave the server to never come back, as it results impossible to play smoothly for them.
I also think CubeCraft should rethink its entire promotion estrategy to make it more efficient and to be able to promote the server properly again. There are many threads about it, so I'll just attach some of them to this one.
https://www.cubecraft.net/threads/a-little-word-about-the-big-cubecraft-change.321387/ by @BrightDylanPlayz about social media and server promotion
https://www.cubecraft.net/threads/java-future.321335/ by @JGCreate about social media and server promotion too
https://www.cubecraft.net/threads/how-to-fix-cubecraft.321378/ by @Pekfzz, whose thread I think complements my suggestion.
Don't forget to react with if you agree and you want to try save the network.
Thanks for reading.