A Few Questions for the Community

[Onett]

Hey guys, I'm currently working on a search and destroy documentary which will cover the entire history of the SnD gamemode, from EoE all the way up to now.

I'm making this thread to ask you guys for some help/input.

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I need your guys' old videos:

First off, if any of you guys have old SnD videos on youtube that I could possibly use as background footage, please link your channel below.



I need help getting some information:

I also need some help getting some information about the the different servers SnD was hosted on, since I was pretty young during the time.

Here are some specific questions that still need to be answered for the documentary:

Spoiler: Questions

Why do you think it was much easier for servers to grow and prosper in 2012 vs. more recent years?


Why did the Eye of Ender Network shut down? Did they merge with The Fridge?


Do you remember any notable changes to SnD that happened on a certain server?
(An example of this would be the removal of steak signs in Red Warfare.)


What was the average player counts for the different servers? (EoE, Fridge, RWF, Mineplex, RWF 2)
(An approximation is fine)


What was your reaction to the Mineplex merge and why?
(Starting with your initial reaction to the announcement of the merge, leading up to actually trying SnD on Mineplex)


As a community member during these different servers, how well do you feel the community's suggestions were heard/addressed by staff?
(How often were community maps, kit ideas, etc. accepted on different servers?)

In general if you guys have any event you think should be included in the documentary, feel free to leave it in a reply below too

For Example: The "#SteakingIsFaking" movement that happened during The Fridge

I understand that this request is very open ended, but I would just like to encourage you guys to speak your mind on whatever you feel would be important in a documentary about SnD's history. Maybe you could give more of a detailed account on why Mineplex was such a disaster? Or you could talk about what you think made SnD so fun to you back in the day. These are just suggestions, as stated previously, feel free to share whatever you feel would be helpful to include in the video!

Hopefully with your guys' help, I can make a more accurate video to represent SnD

 

[Mythless]

If we’re talking old vids, my own YouTube channel was created originally for RWF (2.0) shenanigans—you can find them as some of the earliest uploads. It consisted of edited skits in addition to a tribute video for the server when it closed. I think there’s even a full 2 hours of raw, unedited footage from the farewell party just for occasions like this (hurray past me for thinking ahead of the times!)

Now, to respond to some questions I can confidently answer:

Why do you think it was much easier for servers to grow and prosper in 2012 vs. more recent years?

It may be due to the fact that Minecraft at the time was still considered a fairly small and simple indie game, with a smaller community and hence a more like-minded audience. It was also the fact that Minecraft youtubers had started to enter their golden age so it should be no surprise that they would attract a large number of their fanbase—which consisted mostly of young children—to play. But as that golden age ended and Minecraft started evolving past its original simplicity, most of those players have either started to grow out of the game or no longer saw any charm in it. Even after the resurgence of the game back in 2019, the simpler times—albeit inferior to the kinds of things we have today—are gone, only to become nostalgic in eyes of those very same players who are all adults now.

What was the average player counts for the different servers? (EoE, Fridge, RWF, Mineplex, RWF 2)

Did not play EoE or Fridge so I sadly don’t have any guesses on them. For RWF, I think it was around 200~500? I do especially remember it was barely 200 when it was nearing the merge.

Mineplex was still popping off during that time, I’d say easily over 10k or 15k at the least.

RWF 2.0 was a far cry from those numbers though—it peaked during launch hype with over 100, maybe even 150 I think. But then it slowly dwindled down to having trouble reaching 10 on weekends.

What was your reaction to the Mineplex merge and why?

I’ll be honest: at the time I was not deeply connected to the community—but I could feel the frustrations as the server neared its end. And it started to rub off on me too—but I also thought a little optimistically given how popular Mineplex was at the time. “If they have THIS much players on average, surely they’re doing something right? Surely the legacy of RWF would be in fairly capable hands” I thought. Oh boy I was wrong.

SnD in Mineplex was a complete disaster. If you remember this—all of us referred it as “SaD” because of how bad it played out. The gamemode’s style was just too different compared to Mineplex’s, so in retrospect I understood why they decided to make such drastic changes in attempt to fit it into their own server. But in the end it didn’t translate well. I mean, Jesus Christ—3 bombs?! 30 second bomb times?! And still only 1 life despite that iteration facilitating even more chaos?! Branching classes that became hard to keep track of on the field... what????

So yeah, all my hopes and dreams were crushed the moment it went into beta testing. At least one of RWF’s games—Wizards—became an actual game... at least until Mineplex had to remove it because of their steep decline in popularity.

Looking forward to the documentary :>

 

[JitterUp]

What made it fun to play for me was that there were so many ways to play, you weren't just limited to PvP. You could chill as ghost, knock people off the edge, even shoot arrows into an area you can't see and end up with a napalm. The uniqueness of the kits and the fact that you could be effective with basically all of them made it different than a lot of other games at the time. That along with high player counts made it so that each game presented a new situation, which made it fun for me. Quick thinking could win you the game even if you were outmatched. If you weren't Tragik at PvP you actually had to have a brain to be a consistently good player.

 

[shadowstarcat]

May add more stuff later, but I did want to correct a small thing and add a potential resource

RWF 2.0 was a far cry from those numbers though—it peaked during launch hype with over 100, maybe even 150 I think.

Lib did a "beta" for RWF 2.0 and it had 300+ trying to join. I remembered he tweeted about it and searched his twitter handle + the term "server" and found something like that.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/737411599766425604

(Myth is right below replying to it :P)
But his twitter may yield additional information, as well as the one he made for RWF: https://twitter.com/RedWarfare
If you don't want to sift through all of the tweets though, I'd recommend just pasting the handle into twitter's search and adding any keywords you think are relevant.

 

[Lizardheart]

I am eternally embarrassed by the existence of my youtube from back in the day, but my ego presses me to link these two videos from the Fridge era: one and two

Anyway, culturally, I think RedWarfare High should be mentioned. It was iconic. At least, I think so. And the other popular story that was going on too. Jelly Chronicles I think it was. Perhaps showcase some of the fanart people drew for RWF at its various stages, too (with permission ofc). I think the fact that SnD inspired various fanfictions and fanart is worth discussing.

What was the average player counts for the different servers? (EoE, Fridge, RWF, Mineplex, RWF 2)

So I am only vaguely recalling because this was so long ago and my memory isn't that great. But I remember that EoE had quite a few different servers for SnD. Usually the first 1 w ould be full, sometimes the second, and the others would have varying amounts down to just a few players.

I can add more later.

EDIT:

The introduction of four team maps was a huge change to SnD. I think it happened on RWF but I'm not sure and that would need further confirmation. Four team maps have been quite popular with many people, but also there has always been a group of people who have strongly disliked them (myself being one such person).

 

[NightWolfy]

Why do you think it was much easier for servers to grow and prosper in 2012 vs. more recent years?


Why did the Eye of Ender Network shut down? Did they merge with The Fridge?


Do you remember any notable changes to SnD that happened on a certain server?
(An example of this would be the removal of steak signs in Red Warfare.)


What was the average player counts for the different servers? (EoE, Fridge, RWF, Mineplex, RWF 2)
(An approximation is fine)


What was your reaction to the Mineplex merge and why?
(Starting with your initial reaction to the announcement of the merge, leading up to actually trying SnD on Mineplex)


As a community member during these different servers, how well do you feel the community's suggestions were heard/addressed by staff?
(How often were community maps, kit ideas, etc. accepted on different servers?)

I joined Search and Destroy during the EoE days, however I was 12 years old at the time, so I will do my best to answer these questions.

1. In my opinion, I think the years of EoE/The Fridge was the heyday of Minecraft. While we have certainly seen a renaissance in the last few years due to some quality updates from Mojang, I'm not sure it is at the same level as it was in the years of EoE/The Fridge.

2. I do not know the specifics, but BajanCanadain and ASFJerome were fans of the SnD gamemode, since they made a decent amount of videos showcasing the game. The Fridge was their server, and I do believe the transition was basically a merge between EoE into a new up-and-coming The Fridge server. Basically a partnership between the former EoE administration and the popular Youtubers.

3. The steak sign example is something that I was very active in during my early Search and Destroy days. I was a huge advocate of the #SteakingisFaking trend, and I was pretty ruthless towards people who abused steak signs...
I think overall, the SnD gamemode has stayed very consistent throughout most of its existence, with the biggest changes being steak signs and also the new addition of kits overtime. The only exception I would say is the Mineplex merge, where Mineplex drastically changed the gamemode into something unrecognizable by most community members. It became more of a 3 bomb per team Champions TDM rather than Search and Destroy.

4. I really don't remember the exact numbers, but there were pretty solid numbers during EoE/The Fridge for sure, and RWF started off well before it began to reach its decline days. I'd say 20v20s were not uncommon (but also during EoE they had multiple servers running that could usually have similar numbers throughout all 21? of them).

5. I think there's two perspectives I can offer to this question: being staff during RWF/Mineplex, but also as a longtime SnD player. Personally, as a longtime player, I was a bit worried; the community that I had gotten to know and love was going to be thrown into a huge Minecraft server that really had not even a semblance of "community". However, the prospects of RWF being able to continue with the former strength it had in its earlier days seemed idealistic at best, and so I decided to bear through the merge like many older members of the community did. I tend to have a more optimistic outlook, so I was hopeful that we would be able to preserve the SnD gamemode and the community that I had come to hold so dearly to me, whilst also sharing the amazing gamemode with a broader audience that could have a more stable future. However, by the time that @Smalusion and I were able to become Quality Assurance members at Mineplex, it was more-or-less already too late for Search and Destroy on Mineplex. It was extremely unfortunate, however I am very glad that we as a community have been able to stick together, and also welcome newcomers into our family.

6. My answer for this question may be a bit biased, as I was staff during the majority of those periods, so take my answer as you will. However, in my opinion, the strong-knit community that we have had since RWF has made it more possible for staff to hear the community and interact with them in a nonchalant and informal manner; something that I believe is a strength rather than a weakness. EoE/The Fridge/Mineplex were huge networks, and one of the weaknesses of big server networks is that it is much harder to get an idea of what the community wants, and to interact with them more directly. The relationship between the staff and community is, at least I hope, cooperative in nature; where, through open, honest, and constructive dialogue, we are able to continue to make Search and Destroy an enjoyable gamemode for everybody.
To answer the specifics of your question more directly, I think kits have always been something that have been accepted on very rare occasions. Maps are accepted quite liberally, and I generally believe that the quality of maps has improved since the EoE days. I love to see maps that take the old nostalgic maps and improve upon them. The biggest community contribution is definitely the technical suggestions to make SnD a better gamemode. SnD, while being very consistent as a gamemode, has slowly progressed and changed in an incremental fashion throughout the years. Big changes (like removing steak signs) are few and far between, but where SnD truly shines is through the small changes that help tweak and balance the gamemode slowly over time. These suggestions come from both staff and community members alike, and I believe demonstrates the way I perceive the cooperative nature of staff and the community.

Last, but not least, here are a few videos that I had made back in the day... even though they are quite cringe! (Feel free to check out the channels to view more videos, I had two different YouTube channels

Spoiler: Cringe Old Videos!

...I had a lot of fun watching my old videos despite their cringe...

I hope this helps you out Onett, and I look forward to seeing your documentary video!

 

[Anak]

I am eternally embarrassed by the existence of my youtube from back in the day, but my ego presses me to link these two videos from the Fridge era: one and two

I remember you asking me for music to put in those videos and to design your channel header lol

What was your reaction to the Mineplex merge and why?

Not optimistic about it I'm pretty sure. Felt like the end of an era, endless migration, marginalisation and sterilisation of creativity, inevitable doomsday moment, omen of dwindling interest looming. Maybe not so pretentiously worded though.

Trying SND (and Wizard Battles) on Mineplex was... pretty abysmal, and my expectations weren't high. Granted I did already play on Mineplex occasionally for some of the gamemodes like Build Battles, but the PVP stuff I didn't find as enchanting as SND. So the ways they managed to mangle the gamemodes surprised me quite a bit, even if it was under the guise of experimenting with them to see how they'd fit amongst their existing roster (which I found unnecessary to begin with).

This was also the point where I lost touch with the community and several friends since the forums also went down. A few I kept in touch with albeit peripherally but I started talking to everyone again for the most part when I heard about Athios launching. So the whole Mineplex moment for me highlighted the need for a dedicated digital space to host a community and for that space to be nurtured and allowed growth. When the merge was announced and carried through it definitely felt like that space was destroyed in some way, even if it only existed metaphysically.