Everything you would ever want to know about
The Castle Siege Community
and
Our #ReviveCS Movement
Castle Siege (CS) was first introduced within the Mineplex Network back in 2013, on May 24th. However, this version of CS is quite different than the one we are fighting to revive.
CS, as we know it today, was introduced back in 2014 on April 27th. Since then, the game has gained a substantial number of followers within the Mineplex community.
The 2014 game was comprised of two teams. One team, titled as the Defenders, is responsible for defending their King. Originally named King Sparklez, after the YouTuber CaptainSparklez, the King was renamed to King Chiss in the 2017 Castle Siege update.
The Second team, the undead, is comprised of undead beasts whose goal is to exterminate King Chiss and all those who oppose them.
The game was (and still is) extremely popular amongst the Mineplex community. However, through a decision made by the Mineplex Leadership Team in 2018, Castle Siege, as well as a large number of other game modes, were removed from the live Network and shoved within an MPS. Their reasoning pertained to server costs and popularity.
In her address to the Mineplex community, titled “Addressing Concerns” and published on February 22nd, 2018, former Mineplex Community Manager, Nuclear_Poptart (in regards to the removal of numerous Mineplex game modes), states: “ Production assessed our games on 3 basic aspects: most popular, in terms of players; what had the potential for growth in the future; and what was user-friendly, and welcoming for both old & new players (especially the latter).” (Nuclear_Poptart). She then continues, stating: “Like we’ve said and come through on before, 2018 is going to [be] a year of heavy-hitting and putting quality first… Continuing this trend, we want to focus on updating our current games with quality content & produce the highest quality experience we can offer. We don’t want to be the kind of server that waits months at a time before fixing problems & giving the community what they want.”
In his address to the Mineplex community, titled “Re: Recent News” and published on February 22nd, 2018, former Mineplex Project Manager and Leadership Team member SJSampson states: “We currently have 3 (count em) 3 PC devs. Alex and Sam being the only frontend devs who ever touch games. There are only so many hours in a month and we feel it would be unfair and unrealistic to keep as many games as Mineplex has featured in the main hub as if they are good examples of the quality standards we want to have going forward.” (SJSampson). He continues, stating: “ As a lot of you know, the EULA changes that came a few years back have hurt every server considerably in terms of revenue. This is why we have pushed cosmetics and other items into the shop in order to continue supporting the server by having people producing updates, games, and maps. We would love to have the resources in order to maintain and create new games, but at this time it just isn't possible.”
SJSampson, continuing to address the reasoning behind many games’ removals, states: “We had to choose a reasonable amount of games that we could keep regular, quality updates rolling out to in the foreseeable future, that's how we landed at the list of games we are keeping featured. We chose the games that had communities with consistent player counts that could keep games going more than just on the weekends” (SJSampson).
Though the CS community was extremely vocal about not wanting their game being removed, the decision was, nonetheless, pushed. In the March 2018 update, Castle Siege, Wizards, Castle Assault, Heros of Gwen, Skyfall, and a few others were shoved into the MPS menu, while the majority of arcade games that previously held their own dedicated lobbies were made only accessible within the Mixed Arcade rotation.
Though many attempts were made to keep the Castle Siege community together, they all failed in the end. The players who fought the initial battles felt as though their efforts were all in vain, as all of our complaints, suggestions, feedback, etc., appeared to fall onto deaf ears.
It was the popular opinion at the time that Mineplex would likely not survive the year of 2018. The player count continued to spiral downwards, eventually reaching a low of less than 1,000 players on a Saturday afternoon. Players felt Mineplex's priorities were not in order. They felt that the new lobby was an eyesore and felt that they had no say in any decisions that were being made. Many can recall users stating on the March 2018 Update thread's reply section something along the lines of "What do you mean 'this update would not have been possible without the help of the community?' Last time I checked, I did not ask for my favorite games to be removed, nor did I ask for this new disgusting lobby!"
Still, even years after the game's removal, many players continue to ask questions like "Where can I play [such-and-such]." Often, these users are met with "Removed" or "MPS/Arcade exclusively." At which point, the user who initially asked the inquiry simply ends up disconnecting, likely never to return to the Network.
Nevertheless, throughout the forums, dozens of threads have been created stating "Readd [this game]." Often, however, these threads were locked for the reason of "Not planned / Denied by Production," despite never directly quoting an actual production member. This isn't to say that this reasoning is uncredible; rather it is to say that direct communication between the general population of Mineplex and the highest levels of management (such as Production) is rather unheard of, instead only hearing what one party said to the other through a "middleman."
Despite this, many community members continue to be adamant about the reintroduction of Castle Siege. And, on the 28th of March, sxnd and Blitzzard created the Mineplex Castle Siege Discord server, eventually promoting Uraniume as the new owner.
Meanwhile, on the first of May, 2020, Danese, inspired by the now organized Castle Siege Community, posted a thread on the Mineplex forums, which was titled "Bring Back Castle Siege [Evidence Regarding Its Justified Revival]."
This thread has attained over 3.5 thousand views and over 80 first-post likes. You can view the thread here.
This thread quickly became the most commented on and second-most viewed thread within the "New Game Discussion" subsection of the "Ideas Discussion" Mineplex Forums section.
As the thread grew in views, it grabbed the attention of hundreds of community members, both players and staff alike. As of the 10th of June, 2020, the Mineplex Castle Siege Discord server has a resounding 329 users.
Continuing the effort to revive the beloved game mode, Danese (a current Map Tester for Mineplex) adopted the concept of "making noise." This concept and its executions are listed below under "Methodology."
Meanwhile, Uraniume continues to organize, moderate, and overall coordinate the staff teams within the Discord server. More on his works below under "Methodology."
Just as it has always been, this movement relies entirely on the community that is backing us. Without them, we are nothing more than a few shouting people who are easily ignorable.
As briefly mentioned earlier within "Our Community," the methods in which we employ to further our movement can be defined as "making noise."
A philosophy originally adopted by Danese, this concept is defined as "creating enough positively-charged 'noise' throughout the Mineplex Network as to inevitably attract the attention of those within the hierarchy of Mineplex" (Danese).
There are many ways in which we have been generating this "noise" throughout the Network. Publicly, the thread created by Danese (referenced and directly cited within "Our Community") has, in itself, attracted the attention of hundreds of individuals. Amassing over 3,500 views and over 80 first-post likes on the forums, just about anyone who has any presence within the Mineplex forums is at least aware of its existence.
Additionally, in an effort to gain the attention of those who do not frequent the forums nearly as often, Danese has submitted over a hundred different Map Fixes for each and every presently live Castle Siege map. With the help of Joshuart_, the Mineplex Map Issues lead, these issues are presently being tested and will be implemented very soon.
More publicly, Uraniume has refined the Discord staff team as to allow for maximum coordination and, further, professionalism. One of these aspects includes creating community events that are suggested, tested, and implemented through the community's direct involvement.
Additionally, our community has established a build team. The idea is to get a few Castle Siege maps live onto the Network under the author "Mineplex Community CS Build Team." This will allow for added publicity regarding our community, and will undoubtedly establish additional awareness of our movement throughout the general Mineplex population.
As a side note, Danese was promoted to the position of Build Lead, due to his experience with map-making, both in regards to its construction and, further, methods regarding its actual gameplay testing.
Both Danese and Uraniume now hold a direct presence within the Mineplex Community Game Insights Discord server. They both continue to advocate for the game's reimplementation and have swayed many official GI members towards our cause.
Additionally, Danese is in direct contact with both Joshuart_ and Dutty (Mineplex's Build Admin) due to his work within the Mineplex Map Testing Team.
Thus far, we have gained the attention of a large number of various Mineplex individuals. Flaym, the newly appointed Clans admin, is currently present within the Discord server. Additionally, numerous Moderators, Map Testers, GI members, QAT members, and other high-profile community members are also present within the Discord server and are for our cause.
We have also established the fact that reimplementing the game mode is not nearly as much of a risk as previously anticipated. We continue to run daily MPS servers, which continue to gain quite a lot of attention throughout the network, often peaking at around 30 players and, on weekends, even reaching more than 50 players.
If it wasn't obvious already, we desire for our beloved game mode to be reintroduced to the Network. Of course, accommodations are needed to allow for lobbies to fill easier, as the daily Mineplex player count is nowhere near where it was in 2016 and 2017. All of the suggested changes can be found in Danese's forum thread, referenced and sighted under "Our Community."
But, to keep it brief, our primary requested accommodations are as follows:
- Set the minimum starting player count to 20 players
- Set the maximum lobby size to a hard 50 or 60 player cap, not allowing anyone to join the server after this point in order to reduce server lag
Aside from our current objectives listed under "Our Methodology," our primary plans mainly focus on continuing to vocalize our community's desires. We continue to ensure that the entirety of our community's voices are heard.
Meanwhile, we continue to advocate for the game's reimplementation in various different areas within the Network, such as within the GI Discord, on the Mineplex server, and through the Mineplex forums.
Even if Castle Siege never gets reimplemented onto the Network, our goal is to, at the very least, revive the CS Community in its entirety. The past two years have been rough for all of Mineplex, and our hope is that, through working together and continuing to make our voices heard, we can, at the very least, inspire others throughout the Network to do the same.
We will continue our efforts until the very end.
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