The State of Brawl

Hey guys you know I'm back at it again with another Minecraft Brawl forum post.
This time I want to discuss the thread title.


Brawl is doing great!

Brawl is currently experiencing a minor revival. This has been very well-timed with summer, and the spring update has brought a ton of new content that makes CTF feel like a fresh, new experience. We also got a staff Q&A that made Brawl's intentions with regard to CTF much clearer, and the transparency really helps us maintain a sense of community. On top of that, we received the testing for the new map wave almost instantly, and the shorter the wait before the release of Wave XV, the better. I feel like I've seen some players I haven't seen in a very long time, and at this rate, we might just get a few new active players out of the deal!

TL;DR: We're on the right track, and nearly everything that could have gone well really did.


But a success hasn't come without losses.

The community really stalled out as soon as it switched to Brawl. This isn't a hate thread against Brawl, but it has to be acknowledged that a great deal of the former MCPvP community stopped playing as soon as the switch was made. Since then, we've definitely gained traction among players already playing on Brawl, as well as a few players who found CTF after the switch, but (forgive my calculus) the rate of change of losing original players is higher than the rate of change of gaining new ones. In other words, we've gained fewer new players than we lost old ones.

TL;DR: We had a lot of trouble getting back on our feet, but we're here now!


So what?

I think we can use what's been happening more recently to help us regain traction. I'm aware of some pretty loose plans regarding Hytale, but before that becomes a more concrete and definite plan, I think it's important to focus on maintaining the recent momentum that came with the spring update, staff Q&A, and map testing. Pessimist that I am, I can't help but think of all the years we've had when the CTF community has come back in force during the summer, only to lose more players in the fall who wouldn't end up coming back the next summer. So how do we stop ourselves from falling into the same trap?

Namely, I think it's important to continue a good pace. Spring might end up becoming a "busy" time of year for CTF, but that shouldn't mean CTF has to go dormant for the rest of the year. It might be too ambitious, but I believe that new content at a regular, steady pace will go a long way. Certain projects require much less work and fine-tuning, so things that can be fine-tuned relatively quickly and easily like new maps should be kept on a more frequent schedule (6 months?) than more complex things like new classes (12-18 months?). All in all, though, I think it's important to set goals. Promises don't have to be made or kept, but if the CTF community expects "X content at Y time of year," we will probably either get it or (depending on maturity) be understanding for any delays (e.g., "We had to delay the map testing because we didn't receive as many maps as we'd expected.").

TL;DR: Moral of the story is don't let the progress we've made go to waste for another year. Keep up the relative activity and momentum, even if it's unfeasible to reach the same peak as this spring/summer.


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Thanks for reading.

Smol edit: I realize that CTF isn't Brawl; I was more referring to the administration of CTF by Brawl. Thank you for understanding.