Keeping players on your Minecraft Server
Strategies to increase player retention in Minecraft
Finding players to join your server can be tough; however, having them stay is even harder. This article covers some strategies to stop players leaving your Minecraft server and keep them returning time and time again.
Create a reason for players to return
Players need a reason to come back to your server. The number one reason that players join servers is for entertainment, so you should of course be aiming to make your server as entertaining as possible. However, why should a player join your server instead of the many others available? Action and discovery are two reasons many players enjoy the game — does your server appeal to these two factors?
One way to give a reason for players to return is by offering something unique. Aim to provide an experience that the player can’t have on another server. This could be through amazing builds, engaging minigames or custom plugins. Creating plugins is an incredible way to offer something unique as they can be created on any scale. For example, a small plugin could periodically hire treasure chests around the map for players to find, or a larger plugin could be an entire unique minigame that no other server offers.
Plugins for Minecraft (Spigot, Craftbukkit) are created in Java — you could either hire a plugin developer or develop the plugins yourself. However, if you don’t have any funds or Java experience, there are still options to create custom plugins. Skript is a very powerful plugin that allows you to develop scripts which alter the game in the same way plugins do. Skript provides the ability to develop almost any type of plugin you can imagine without needing to know any Java. Skript uses a custom language that is much easier to learn than Java and is certainly a good introduction to programming.
Building a community
Building a community for your server makes players feel a connection to your server and will make it more likely for them to return.
Communities are a way for users make friends and interact with each other. Your Minecraft server itself is of course a platform for your community; however, growing your community externally can be even more powerful. Two great options to build a community are forums and Discord servers.
A forum is essentially a message board where users can communicate with each other and discuss topics. If you’re reading this, we can guarantee you’ve at least read one before and probably already know exactly what we’re talking about. To start a forum, you first need a website, which requires both a domain and web hosting. Neither of these are free, however they’re both incredibly cheap. At NameCheap, you can order both a domain and a year of web hosting for roughly $1 per month. We won’t get into details on how to set this up, however both our support and NameCheap’s support are certainly willing to assist you..
Discord is also a good place to build a community because it’s absolutely free and most Minecraft players are using it already. Discord is a communication tool built for gamers and is also a powerful tool for businesses. In other words — it’s like Skype, but infinitely better. Even if you’re not building a community, if you’re still using skype, it’s time to make the switch.
At Shockbyte, we’ve been using Discord as a replacement for Skype ever since the alpha preview. We believe in it so much that we even have our own public Discord community that you are welcome to join. This is a great way for our clients to share their servers and help each other. Many of our staff can also be directly contacted through this server. You can join our Discord community through the following link: https://discord.gg/0temoGmdN9dqCNxr
Choose a powerful server host
Server performance is one of the most important things to players on your server. Players want to be able to move around your server 100% lag-free. I’m sure even you have quit a server before due to a poor connection. Having good server performance will keep your players online, and returning as they know they will have a consistent experience.
Finding a good host for your Minecraft server is very important to ensure that your server’s performance is up to par. Shockbyte provides powerful Minecraft servers at a low cost, which makes it the perfect choice for your server. Shockbyte supports both Minecraft PC and MCPE servers.
Visit Shockbyte at https://shockbyte.com
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