RIP

[doge can rap levitate]

Is it me, or has PZ been dying? I mean seriously, the whole day there has been less than 200 people on server-wide, and no one in party games, dg, or es. Less than 30 people in creative, 20 people in murder. I swear, all this started when party games was released. I swear, party games has killed this server, not yet, but it probably will. What do you guys think about this?

 

[fizz]

I think quite the opposite. The release of new mini-games has the specific intent to attract more traffic.
It also depends on your timezone, right now (for me) it is 9:28am, most people are asleep right now or are at school. Later on in the day there's usually much more people playing.

 

[CanYouDont]

It's also the fact that most Americans have exams coming up in the next few weeks, so I'm sure that's why there has been a decrease in the American population. It will definitely increase again when summer starts, it did last year.

 

[MariTheVillain]

I can confirm that school is one of a few reasons why I am not online as much, I also am working on some projects that do not relate to PZ, which is tearing most of my attention away.

But if anything, I like the party games, not for the gamemodes themselves, although they are pretty neat too, but because so many people think they can get away with hacking on those games. So many reports to make!

 

[Unstitched]

100% agreed. We must banish party games from this kingdom before it's too late!

We are actually losing players (we always have been) but now we're just struggling to get new ones in to replace those that are gone so there's noticeable differences when people have exams or are elsewhere.

Perhaps in the summer we'll be more alive... hopefully.

 

[Liillii]

It's also the fact that most Americans have exams coming up in the next few weeks, so I'm sure that's why there has been a decrease in the American population. It will definitely increase again when summer starts, it did last year.

The same is happening in Britain.

Also, as summer approaches people are going outside rather then inside gaming. It happens every summer.

Sadly though, less people are playing minecraft and more are starting to play ROBLOX.

 

[AngryRena]

I don't think it's Party Games at all. New content brings in more players after all.

However, it's nearing the end of the school year for most players and they often get busy with testing. I find our usual burst of traffic comes from summer, where players can be free of school and can play minecraft more often.

 

[PrisonBop]

100% agreed. We must banish party games from this kingdom before it's too late!

We are actually losing players (we always have been) but now we're just struggling to get new ones in to replace those that are gone so there's noticeable differences when people have exams or are elsewhere.

Perhaps in the summer we'll be more alive... hopefully.

time to sell out and pay to get some big youtubers on the server

 

[Kraetys]

a decrease in the American population.

If only.

As to everything else, it's not that PZ is dying, but minecraft, the generation that first spawned Minecraft's popularity is getting older and leaving it behind.

And while we did have an influx of in and out each year as people lost interest and new people gained interest, newer better games are coming out, as well as Minecrosofts new updates trying their best to murder MC has kinda started to cool off the major explosion Minecraft had.

However party games is another possibility here, as the PZ clientele was slightly older than your average minecrafter, and party games are a cliche not only from other major servers, but from the unholy Nintendo zombie itself, Mario.
Things like that can really ruin a reputation, and some of the older players may decide to leave because of this, increasing the outflow of player.
(Not to mention change is scary, and that helps too).

Not to mention, most of the regulars here are now old enough to get jobs, and with a lot of summer openings showing up for seasonal positions, people are going to start earning money for spending on real things, not a virtual world, and with time being scarce as it is, minecraft gets moved to the bottom of the priority list.
(Especially where I live, everyone is hiring anyone they can get).

All this combined with school testing is keeping server numbers down.

Tl;Dr It's probably a mix of things, not just school testing.

 

[CanYouDont]

If only.

As to everything else, it's not that PZ is dying, but minecraft, the generation that first spawned Minecraft's popularity is getting older and leaving it behind.

And while we did have an influx of in and out each year as people lost interest and new people gained interest, newer better games are coming out, as well as Minecrosofts new updates trying their best to murder MC has kinda started to cool off the major explosion Minecraft had.

However party games is another possibility here, as the PZ clientele was slightly older than your average minecrafter, and party games are a cliche not only from other major servers, but from the unholy Nintendo zombie itself, Mario.
Things like that can really ruin a reputation, and some of the older players may decide to leave because of this, increasing the outflow of player.
(Not to mention change is scary, and that helps too).

Not to mention, most of the regulars here are now old enough to get jobs, and with a lot of summer openings showing up for seasonal positions, people are going to start earning money for spending on real things, not a virtual world, and with time being scarce as it is, minecraft gets moved to the bottom of the priority list.
(Especially where I live, everyone is hiring anyone they can get).

All this combined with school testing is keeping server numbers down.

Tl;Dr It's probably a mix of things, not just school testing.

Kitty is being depressing, but he has a point.

 

[iNeedSpeed]

Its not party games tbh i knew they would die within the first week like massacre. But in my honest to god opinion, Party zones prime was most likey mid last year when everyone still played and the server hit close to 1000 daily. But truthfully its been dying for a while now. Reasons ive heard people are leaving are "I dont like the staff" "The community is way to childish/annoying" and just many other reasons. On top of that people now have school/exams and everything in between and just dont have time to play, like me. My parents dont let me play becuase my grades are just very bad, so that could be another reason. But ive left partyzone like twice now because i just felt like i didnt belong anymore, all my friends were leaving and i was just lost under a storm of new players. But look ive come back made a few new friends and all that. Plus this is the only server that i was really drawn too. But i agree with @Unstitched in summer the server should be pretty freaking popular again and everything will be a big happy ever after.

 

[_LaserKiller3000_]

I gotta be honest I have been brought back. I have really thought things have been going uphill. Even if we are losing players rn, we have to gain more soon. The servers good enough to get those players.

 

[Kraetys]

I don't like that they're closing suggestions now, they should be left open, and if still relevant they will gain support.
If they're confirmed it's okay, at that point you're suggesting something that exists, but for things that are just a maybe or a "might be too hard." They should be left open to gain more support to see if it's worth adding.

 

[PrisonBop]

"I dont like the staff" "The community is way to childish/annoying"

yeah the amount of players who have left for one of these two reasons has got to be unreal
the chat in creative is, for lack of a better word, insanely cringey. There's hundreds of messages per minute that're spammy and annoying like "L()()K! MYOC RP GUYS AND GIRLS AND BI'S AND GAYS AND STRAIGHTS NEEDED! TP TO ANNOYINGDUDE47 TO JOIN!!" and they spam it fifty times before the RP fills up.

not even gonna get started on how many people the uptight lower/middle staff have probably pushed away

 

[iNeedSpeed]

yeah the amount of players who have left for one of these two reasons has got to be unreal
the chat in creative is, for lack of a better word, insanely cringey. There's hundreds of messages per minute that're spammy and annoying like "L()()K! MYOC RP GUYS AND GIRLS AND BI'S AND GAYS AND STRAIGHTS NEEDED! TP TO ANNOYINGDUDE47 TO JOIN!!" and they spam it fifty times before the RP fills up.

not even gonna get started on how many people the uptight lower/middle staff have probably pushed away

Omg yes couldn't of said it better myself

 

[J3T]

If only.
Not to mention, most of the regulars here are now old enough to get jobs

I'd have to disagree. The majority of the community is 12-14 or younger. Most the people who are above that age aren't really active, or they're staff. Not to say that there's nobody above that age, but I'd say the vast majority is in that preteen-teen group. I don't really go on the server all that much, but just by looking on the forums, I can get a feel for what it's like on there too, especially from going on in the past and seeing the players.

 

[PrisonBop]

In a more detailed analysis though, it's not party games at all. if you think about it, PZ released murder (very successful), Creative (more successful) and then a series of flops. Downgrade, SG, SW, Massacre, and now Ditto and Freeze Tag. I might've missed one.
I think the key is the target audience. They're young, and not competitive. If the server was a little bit more lax on the rules and targeted slightly older people (the 13-16 range) they'd do much better with games.
Additionally, there needs to be more seasonal/monthly competitions like Halloween
There's no real incentive to play right now. Besides the top3 in murder (which is virtually unassailable, it would take either hacks like Heckomon proved, or thousands of hours invested and learning the game really well) or top3 in downgrade which is equally impossible to get because there's rarely an actual game going on.

The events don't have to be big and hyped up like the halloween one was with prizes, it could be automated with coin prizes or name-in-mur prizes w/o an announcement every month. The monthly leaderboards for each game (mur and dg) would bring sooo many people to the server you don't even know- it's definitely a large part of why Hypixel is huge, it's because someone joining the server after a week of playing can be competitive with the top players, instead of having a slowly creeping rank that barely goes up and doesn't connotate anything important anyway

Someone could probably phrase this nicer and make it a suggestion thread, so the tl;dr is "server needs to target the competitive side of MC which is slightly older to increase players. additionally, give us monthly events to foster a sense of competition that would also increase the daily players which in turn increases the new players who will see it's an active network"
"also chill with the rules a bit because currently staff are too heavyhanded with warnings which annoy people and don't really accomplish much except tell people who slip up "this server doesn't really want you" and a warning is the equivalent of a reprimand from a teacher for littler kids, making them not want to come back"

 

[iNeedSpeed]

Also I'm not trying to be that guy or discriminatory torwards anyone but this is a mainly lgbt+ supportive server and ik a lot of people may not like that or just agree in general but honestly I couldn't care less some people on here are really cool. But ik for a fact it's not the mini games leading people away I just think that's it that people just don't like the community which is perfectly acceptable everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

 

[MariTheVillain]

Also not to mention, the younger audience for the general majority brings immaturity, and in it's presence brings the people who accuse others of hacking and rage-qutting in downgrade (falsely). Or "better" yet, end up getting so angry that they install a hacked client themselves, and then they get reported.

The point is, Downgrade is too competitive for the incredibly young audience to have much of a "lifespan" in playing the game.

That's one gamemode down

Ditto.

It got lost after a few days for the most part, didn't it?

Freeze Tag.

Generally the same fate as Ditto, but a little better off than Downgrade and Ditto. However it's from what I remember (haven't played much) flooded with hackers, and just these obscure map secrets that are easy to use.

The lower player counts in Murder and Creative, as seen previously, be attributed to finals weeks inbound, making up grades, etc.

 

[_LaserKiller3000_]

I have to agree with the points above. But I also want to say that I thought factions was also an amazing game mode rip. I also feel like SG and SW could still have done a job if improved. The staff can be a bit heavy on the warnings but it's normally the newer less experienced ones so I could let that off. The thing PZ has over any server is how close everyone is to the community and how they interact with there community. Thats what makes PZ, and I think they should work on that as its already really good.