By Espark on Mon 27 Dec, 2021.

Ai-Mo Times

Dec 26th, 2021

“The only literate tribe deserves the best in information and entertainment.”

Opinion

Save the Server

by Espark

The main Polytopia server is dying and mods should do more to save it.

There is no question, activity across all polytopia discord servers is at record lows. Tribe servers, competitive servers, and polymain are losing steam. One day last week in Polymain, server activity dropped below 3k messages, a new low and half of what it was only a couple months ago

There are many factors behind the drop in activity, the biggest being that the game is old and getting boring. The pace of meaningful in-game content updates has slowed. However, many members do not hang out in Polymain because they play Polytopia. Quite the opposite. Many members are here for the community, despite the game being not very entertaining.

What can mods and admins do to keep the server alive? Besides flying to Sweden and helping Midjiwan improve the game, they can do several things to revive the server.

  1. Make belonging to a tribe matter Sure being in a tribe gives you a nice color for your name, but beyond that, it is meaningless. There was a time when tribe pride mattered. Contests were structured to encourage tribe participation and rivalry. People wanted to be tribe leaders. Tribes held their own contests and tournaments. We saw a bit of this during the tribe duels. Activity rose. Rivalries stoked activity. People in the server were encouraged to play the game and represent their tribe. The rise in activity around the tribe duels event proves that this kind of tribe focused event can breathe life into the server.

  2. Purge inactive channels We hear it time and time again - the server has too many channels. New members are often overwhelmed by the sheer number and variety of channels. It made sense to have a plethora of channels when the place was bursting at the seams and some chats had so many messages, the words flew by. Now, we don’t need so many channels, especially when many are dead. Having too many of them dilutes what little activity the server has left. Consolidating the channels will make the server less intimidating while focusing and encouraging chat.

  3. Role model active behavior Most mods and admins in the main server rarely participate in public chat or events. Yes, the moderation staff’s primary duty is to monitor for trolls and enforce the rules, but they could do more. Mods shouldn't just lurk while restricting their chat to private, mod only, spaces. They and the admins should chat with members, ask questions, participate in events, and be good citizens of the server. If mods aren’t interested enough in hanging out in the community, why should the rest of us? And if mods don’t have the time or energy to actively participate in the server, then they should not have that role any more.

  4. Harness game updates to spur activity When Cymanti was released, there were no new events, channels or other ways to capitalize on the new game content. Some fans went outside Polymain and made a new tribe server, which blossomed with new life. Why didn’t the main server jump on that new tribe train and ride that fan energy too? Imagine if the next time a new tech, tribe, or other in-game content is released, that the mods create some new event to celebrate and encourage it? Here are some examples. If/when Diplomacy is released, the mods create some type of tribe alliance event. What if they create new roles for tribe diplomats to hype both the new tech and revive tribe affiliation? If/when a naval rework happens, make a boat building contest. If/when balance pass 3 comes out, host a strategy guide contest to reflect the new meta. The server can take better advantage of the rare times that the game is updated.

Overall, the Polytopia discord community is a rare and special place. When you ask people why they are still here, they don’t say it is because the game is great, they say it is because the people are fun and the community is active. But that fun community is at risk. Moderation staff in Polymain need to do more to sustain what little activity we have left by restructuring the server, being good role models, and taking advantage of in-game updates when they are released.

A few months ago, I was interviewed on the Polytopia servers’ overall declining activity, including Polymain. Give it a listen on YouTube.

Credits

Thanks to all our contributors, Espark, Tmas, and Hoodwick. Also, thanks to our faithful readers. A big thanks to Artemis for setting up the website for the newspaper.

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Keep up, Ai-Mo!