I'm going to be rambling here, excuse the mess. I have recently noticed some depression from members of the community. Today alone I've had 4 people tell me they are depressed or have been depressed. Some people make it clear and outright. Most try to hide it. Either way, it's not good. If you've ever had depression (chances are you have) then you know just how horrible it is. And someone who is depressed can be hurt very very easily. One more rejection and they might snap. I think we as a community should be taking action toward this and reaching out to these people. They are out there. I saw four people just today. And those are the ones that talked without me ever asking. For me personally, my ECC experience has gone down over the past six months. It's not because of server issues, it's because of lack of acceptance and lack of friends. For the past three months specifically, I've felt very depressed when I get on ECC. No one says hello to me in chat when I log on. Occasionally people reply to my chat while I'm in-game, and no one says good bye when I log off. No one comes to my town, no one helps me out. I'm friends with the few meager residents that I give plots to and then they move out and move on. Then five minutes after I log on some President or Tycoon logs on and has 20 replies of "Hello!". Now I'm not going to harp on about me, just giving you an example. I think this issue is probably seen in older players better. They stay locked away in their towns as their friends from builder slowly trickle away. They leave, they go inactive, they get banned. And before long you end up with no one who knows you. This is what happened to me. My first mayor went inactive, all the friends I had in my first town went inactive, and other people I've known just kind of...drifted away. We really can't go back to builder and make friends all over again (sometimes I wish I could). And this isn't limited to lonely people that get ignored. It also happens to staff members with lots of friends and popularity (I talked to one firsthand today). I think that as a community we should be taking the extra time to reach out to people. No one in specific, just anyone we see.
You joined long after me. ALL OF MY FRIENDS ARE GONE. Every single one of them is either gone, mod without time for me, or they just aren't friends with me, or are banned. Let me think here, of all my friends from early 2012/2011... about 1 is active, the rest banned. You don't know what losing your friends after a long time feels like. I can never contact them or enjoy the times with them ever again, as after 2 years they are almost guaranteed to never come back.
I too know what it's like to loose dear friends. Everybody from my previous years have slowly drifted away, to the point where I never see them again. Yes, you can go and make new friends, start new towns, and continue... But it isn't the same. I'll never forget my ole' buddies, but I suppose that's what happens in life. You'll find some friends, and make some memories with them. Sadly, they'll eventually drift away. Then, you can find some new friends and start even better adventures, as sad as it may be.
I still have you But you were mid 2012 when you were a resident and I was as well and you were the co-mayor of Miami when I bought a plot Those were the days...
I understand your thread and topic... However, this thread needs to be extremely careful not to go into touchy areas or subjects. Alone, as this thread is, it could really hit some people hard in ways and be a trigger. Depression isn't a light topic - especially when the word is being used in a way that is inaccurate for most people who have serious depression. I, for one, am almost to the point of trigger with the thread... I have had some damn serious depression before, to the point of almost unhealthy. (edit: The thread itself isn't "bad," nor the topic simple.. but for me, using the word "depression" lightly hits some sensitive places.) Just in the case that anyone has serious depression, I do want to quote our Wiki: I'm not saying anyone does need help, but I figure with a thread that could become very touchy, I'd quote it.. :/ More-so on the topic of the thread, I know a lot of people on ECC who have stated to be depressed - past and present - because many people use the word depressed without knowing the full meaning or scope of it. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology_of_depression and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_depressive_disorder ) I do know the feeling of getting no attention, though, when others seem to get a lot of it. Sometimes when I speak in chat, people freak out and many say hello to me - other times, I go completely ignored... Even to the point of my questions appearing to be some of the only ones going unanswered. Why? Who knows. Maybe the popular/famous/infamous people are on, or Staff are chatting, or some big event is happening that I just missed. Over time, people do leave and drift off... It's more evident in the ages for middle school to high school transition, and high school to college transition. People can change a lot during those times, and often around the end of those environments is when people start playing games to get away from stress. (This isn't always the case, but I've noticed it a lot in the past nine years.) So, essentially, you make friends, but not long after, they change or drift away... I've had this happen a lot, and I have also lost (more than I can count) extremely good, close, and highly trusted friends from it, and many other things. However, I do not fully agree on the idea that older users seem more "depressed" - I see many newer users just as "depressed," because of all the bullying they get, how ignored they are, and how much disrespect they receive. It's really hard to get yourself into a community when a lot of the community appears to hate/exclude new users and lower-ranked users. Older users, though, are more quiet and sad... I know I miss the small, tight-knit community of 2011, and the older (actual biological age, not server age) users. That's my own reason for appearing "depressed" sometimes; but I'm not actually depressed, I'm just a little sad that there's so few people I can relate to nowadays. :b But I have found new (even within the old) friends, and I talk to them on Skype and outside of ECC. It's easier to stay friends that way, and can be a more fulfilling friendship imho. On the topic of reaching out to people... That is not our job. We can reach out a hand for help or lend a shoulder to cry on, but the server is not a counseling or youth center. We are not professionals on handling true depression, stress, or sadness. The best help we can give, if we actually meet someone with a serious issue, is to be a kind person (without trying too hard; just be..normal) and provide resources (like the Wiki has).
Well to be honest moofink my goal was to never offend anyone. I'm not sure how this thread could offend someone, to be perfectly honest. I was simply trying to shed some light on this issue, spread some attention to it, and perhaps have a little discussion get going. I agree it's a touchy issue, but it's not a touchy issue that gets angry. It's one that takes careful handling. I do agree that I should have mentioned it a bit more clearly. But the word "depression" can be anything from a feeling of loneliness from being ignored to something a lot deeper. In both cases the same response can help. That's just what I'm trying to generate here.
I can relate to this thread most of the people I knew when I was resident are either inactive or don't really remember me, but i went inactive for a few months so its understandable. This thread made me think of a Doctor Who quote, not sure if others will see the relevance like I do but its warm and fuzzy nonetheless. We all change. When you think about it, we’re all different people all through our lives. And that’s okay. That’s good. You gotta keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be.
There are differing levels of depression just as MoofinK has stated. Some is very serious and some is mild. There are even different causes of depression. One form of depression is called seasonal depression. People can become depressed merely from lack of exposure to sunlight. And with the colder shorter days, people tend to have less time where they get out in the sunlight because of no evening sun and cold weather. There is an actual chemical reaction that occurs there that causes some depression. This might partially be the phenomenon that you are witnessing. During winter months, it is good to force yourself to get some extra exposure to sunlight. Some depression is caused by lack of human interaction. Online is not a good place to remedy this. And when I say online I mean all sorts of online. Real life human contact is what you need. It is very hard to be "real" when you are online. It is very hard to know if another online person is being "real". Real flesh and blood human contact is what you need in this case. The hard part is realizing that you need that. Once you realize that, it is going to be a lot easier to find it. Some depression is caused by stressful life circumstances. You need to find an outlet for your stress, find ways to relax, find was to be calm. Finally, some depression becomes cyclical or chronic. This is what you want to really avoid. This depression is caused by having been depressed overtime due to other factors and not remedying the cause. If you get to this level of depression, then even if you remedy the initial cause, you have already created self-talk where you deride your own self-image, perpetuating the depression. Your body may have even entered a state where there is a chemical imbalance that needs to be fixed. That is when you may need to seek professional help to understand that despite what you may have come to believe and may repeating to yourself via self-talk, you are a worthwhile individual. You might even need to be prescribed medication to fix this imbalance. This is a serious matter and a person doesn't suddenly enter this state of mind, but it occurs over time. The best thing that anyone here can do if they find out that someone is depressed is listen and encourage the person to find help from real life people: parents, siblings, friends, church, doctors, etc...
I understand where you are coming from and i agree, most of the people i played with on here have gone, long gone. Of course there are a few members of 2011 that are still here and for me that gives me the buzz i need to get on everyday. Todays chat is like trying to read every second on a stopclock, it moves incredibly quickly so its easy to say hello or ask a question to people and for it to be ignored. I ask questions in the Donators chat and more often then not i dont get a reply. Its how you take it, if you take it on the chin and go off about your business and build and mine then it wont bother you as much. After all, it is only a game, you are not forced to play on the ECC server. its sad that people have come and gone and you dont get to play with your friends on the server anymore. But there is hundreds more servers to try and more likely then not, you will still want to come back to ECC, thats what happened to me.
I don't really know if I've ever been "depressed", as far as I'm aware I've had some small moments where I was sad or upset, but it never really lasted more than a day or 2 and didn't affect my overall personality, I just was feeling a bit down. I do have a friend (whom doesn't play on here, but is from minecraft) who is depressed per-say, she takes medication(s), and such. She seems like a pretty bright (smart) person and she seems at least a little bit happy, but she's definitely not the same level of happiness you or I have. I can relate to loosing good friends, I have a friend whom I met on here, at this point over 2 years ago, who I used to talk to EVERY DAY. But then I introduced him to a couple other people, and he started liking them. Nothing wrong with having other friends, we'd had a couple other groups of friends that we (both) stopped talking too. This group was different, I had major issues with a couple of the people, and made my own decision (after many curse filled fights) to stop being "Friends" with them. But he wanted to stay, and he did. I think he might still talk with them. Me and him had a fight, him telling me I should give them another chance, etc. We had other issues too. And we just slowly stopped being the friends we were, we stopped talking every day, hell, it's rare if we even talk every month now. But anyhow. That might've gone off topic and ran on a bit. I'm not sure how to end this so I'm just gonna leave it with this.
Jason I have not yet seen any good come from these long rambling threads you post occasionally. I daresay you are A) overanalyzing B) bored and want attention. Just play the game, or not. Each person makes their own choice. I don't see the good of making it so personal and trying to get in people's heads like this.
Nico let me first say I appreciate your true opinion. I value real opinions, be them good or bad. EcoCityCraft is a community. We stick together, we know each other, and we help each other out. If you don't want to try and be part of that community, then you don't need to post on this thread. Like you said in your post, it's your own choice. If you just want to "play the game", you can. And I won't stop you. Please don't stop me from making my choice. I'm not pointing fingers at anyone in this thread. If you don't want it to be personal, don't post here. If people don't want to say anything on this thread, they don't have to. They can ignore it and go on their way. They have a choice.
I can't stress enough how true this is. Back when I started playing, I cannot re-call of one player that I talked to everyday. Most are banned, few went inactive, however, none are still here. When you are a long time player on ECC and have seen absolutely everything and know the server like its the palm of your hand, interest on the server slowly decreases (Which is what has happened to me a few times) and thats because there is nothing new to entertain you. Thats why friends are something I care dearly about on ECC, even though almost everyone is from a different side of the world from me, I still try and meet new people everyday, however, this doesn't suffice. Simply having a few people you talk to In-game isn't something that'll keep you entertained. At least for me. Not having a really good friend of ECC currently makes me not want to play as much. When I did have great friends that I talked to every single day over skype or even TS my interest on the server was always as high as it could get. Thats what makes ECC a wonderful commmunity. Now, I don't really have anyone I talk to every day, which in a way I can relate to being sad, however, not a depression. :c
Who says anyone needs to greet you when you start, or say farewell when you leave? There shouldn't be a dependence on receiving attention in order to be happy on this game. I never say hello/goodbye to ECC in global, but just go on doing my own thing. I'm happy with what I do, despite not constantly being in a conversation with multiple members of the community. My nation largely talks to itself and it's customers, and that's good enough for me. I'd suggest that you should make a few key friendships on the server and stick with them. There's probably 10 players that I look for when I first come on, and if any are online I go from there. Don't be sad; be happy for what you can do and do have instead!!
There are four groups on ecc. 1. Popular, loved by almost everyone (normally high ranked) 2. Not popular, almost no one knows who they are (normally low ranked) 3. People close to andrew (normally moderators, or older players) 4. Scammers/rule breakers/disliked people (ranks may vary) How to become popular? I don't know, but I do agree that sometimes it sucks not having anyone say hello, or goodbye to you. The only way I can think to help your situation is to be super upbeat in global, and talk to everyone.
I've noticed that ECC seems to be falling apart... Everyone's getting banned/or quitting and and we're all arguing about everything
One thing I will say is that ECC is becoming less active. I've heard of some servers being able to sustain thousands of players at a time, which is crazy, and we struggle to get over 300.
