ok this is gonna be a long comment. the owners. I agree that they need to work on communication to put it lightly. I've sent them numerous messages asking them to take hold of the community. I made a thread on forums that was 2 parts attack on owners handling of the community and a plea for them to change. I guess that is not "beneficial" but it led to a good discussion. this is a critical issue and they need to acknowledge this. (thread here-
https://havocmc.net/threads/my-brutally-honest-opinion.6457/ )
next. you speak of the moderation team and the drama being common knowledge. obviously what i say next, i have a personal stock in. when i was a helper about 8 months ago, i noted there was a leak in the team. people knew about updates before they were announced. I tracked this leak for weeks. i eventually pinned it on one person who i wont name for sake of no drama. I've since realized that it was not one big leak, but many small ones. I spent a lot of time figuring out where various rumors came from. my conclusion? staff have friends, after all they are players too. however, many of these friends dont know how to keep their mouths shut. "whats the harm of telling 2 of my friends this awesome story?"
https://9gag.com/gag/4437818/this-is-how-secrets-spread this coupled with the "telephone theory" leads to rumors- worse yet, inaccurate or exaggerated rumors. information is potent in the wrong hands and can lead to misunderstandings.
what about the info? you mention that we "looked stupid" when the ban reset happened. i couldnt have put it better myself. here is the information chain. owners-> sr mod/admins --> staff meeting (monthly or bi-weekly) --> staff (jr mods,helpers,apprentices)--> server eventually. the problem is the chain is slow, and at times the owners do full 180 turns on what their plans are. That's not ripping at them, im honestly confused on some of their decisions. The info that the srs get downward is useless if the owners change course. and i cant tell you how much it sucks that what are essentially the owner's messengers are taking hate while there is no word from the owners- yes, now im calling them out.
regarding tmdc- i personally dont play on tmdc as im not good at pain spamming, and its just not "my style" of combat. that being said, there is a small but dedicated following on that server. however those players are the same saying tmdop would be the best thing for tmd. at this point our player count is low enough that its worth the gambit. if removing tmd classic and replacing it with tmd op loses those roughly 5 regular players, it wont be a worse call than removing minewars. if tmdop works i can think of about 20+ people offhand that have said that tmdop would "save" havoc. while that may not be the case on its own, it shows there is 4-1 risk reward to this plan. an almost certain increase of 75% at the low risk of 25%? thats a VERY safe gambit.
regarding minewars. As im not staff i dont have specific details on mine wars' progress. What i do know is that most of the maps were done, that many creatures were made, and weapons created. i know they had a dedicated person making side quests for the game. as far as i know the only thing possibly needing to be done was coding on weapons, or creatures. this update was large, and i believe it is the best "insurance policy" that the owners could hope for. from a economic standpoint, both minewars and walking dead are very powerful franchises with a cult following. should one server fall they can invest in the other. both gamemodes are largely unique in terms of servers, and both have insane levels of potential.
regarding tmd kyritic. you said it was 1.8 or 1.9 that the owners didnt want to upgrade from. the reason they thought/think this is because "many players use 1.8 and it may make some quit if we upgrade the server" or something very close to those lines. i aggree with the logic of an upgraded server. honestly? the server is in a dark period and has been for some time. there is still hope or i wouldnt be typing this. but if havoc is to survive- the owners need to grow bolder. they need to take on risks.
regarding owner strategy- im going to use a metaphor. and forgive me because im a history nerd. lets say its ww2. europe is under nazi rule. the allies know they need to take out the nazis. the owners are essentially flying bombers dropping a few, and turning tail. sure that does have some effect, and it may stall the problem for a second. but the problem cant be stopped like this. in this metaphor europe is the server. the nazis are its slow decline and these bombers are the updates over the last several months. what if instead they tried something risky? something bold and decisive? D-Day. that is the update they need. not this potshot thing they have been doing. D-Day came at a terrible cost. many fell, but the allies landed and started slowly but surely taking back europe. this decisive update i speak of will make us lose players. that is a guarantee. but so do these small updates we have been doing. there needs to be loss before gain, hurt before healing. whats that saying? the night is darkest just before the dawn.
community manager "extra" owner- honestly i doubt the owners would hire another unless they trusted them implicitly. that makes sense as owners have the keys to the kingdom so to speak. further, i suspect there would be a substantial "buy-in" cost even if they found someone they trust. community manager is something we had back in the day, you may not remember staff hiring day- but i do- painfully. not many paid attention to peach as community manager. for the rank to work the owners would have to find someone they trust not to leak stuff , that would meet with them, gather information, and distribute it on the forums as well as answer questions. this person would have to be knowledgeable about public relations, calm, patient, and have a lot of time.
staff "leader" - you mentioned this a few times. an admin is one step beneath the owners and i believe the owners appoint them directly.however just because you hold a higher rank does not make you a leader. they may have more authority, but that does not make them a leader. leaders are respected by the people they lead, and are looked to in times of crisis or critical decisions. say what you will about peach- he was a leader. I can say with confidence, i dont think there is anyone on the team currently that shares this talent. all the staff kind of do their own thing. The only person ive spotted is beetley. he knows how to handle power, but is not a crisis leader. if **** hits the fan on the server (say exo comes on with bots and those italians that deleted the map returned to the server, someone may take charge, but that is something you cant give. there is a leader there, they just dont know it yet.
kyritic- honestly your voice is fine. your not a squeaker. your accent did kind of mess the transcript up a bit, but fine otherwise. i like the frankness of the video, and the fact you are trying to help, but people like us- the community leaders of havoc can only do so much. reagardless of what the community decides, if the owners fail to communicate it will have been for nothing. so quite frankly. im not spending much time helping until they start to help themselves.
