Three Months - A Review of the Reporter's 2013 on ECC

First, Happy New Year!
Second, this January marks my third month on Ecocitycraft.
I feel this is a personal milestone, and I would like to spend some time to share a few thoughts.

Without looking through my email for the receipt, I think I entered single player Minecraft back in the early summer of 2013. As fun as it was, I got pulled back into PS3 with Battlefield 3, COD, and eventually GTAV in the fall. But after rampaging through Los Santos... I really got hungry again for an MMO experience. I mulled over treading through Azeroth, soaring through the stars of EvE, firing phasers at Klingons, and wielding the force against the Sith... though it all was so wondrous and fun... it all seemed so limited... I almost lost hope lol, and then I remembered that Minecraft had a multiplayer button... After a google search, the first name I saw that said "I know what I'm doing" seemed to be Ecocitycraft... so I typed in the address information into Minecraft.

Upon arriving on ECC, I had no idea what was going on... Admittedly, I wondered what other servers were like, and I visited their websites (maybe 5 or so). But ECC's website was the most organized and seemingly most active, so I said to myself, this is it. This is the place. This will be my Minecraft experience. I spent many hours reading over the wiki, stressing over all the things that could be done, things that I needed to explore! It was indeed overwhelming. I jumped though the mining portal, created an artificial hill face, and called that my home, whilst I mined, farmed, all by my lonesome self. I watched global chat, but I really was afraid to get involved -- but I did hear that the mining world might get reset soon. I haggled myself over to Trade chat, and began searching for a town.

I think I previewed a couple towns before meeting Izz9 , who teleported me to the town of Bowerstone. I was taken in by the friendly, homey, yet developing feel of the town. It wasn't terribly bustling, and I liked that. I wanted a nice place to acclimate to ECC, and still get to know Minecraft (I was a slightly bigger noob than I am today). Izz9 was very helpful with answering my many questions on Minecraft and some things I was wondering about ECC. I soon met RailefBear, whose house design I found absolutely delicious, and WIMdowz, who I learned was on the other side of the world... and I soon realized that ECC was full of people from many countries, many cultures... I mean, sure, WoW and EvE had people form all over, but my conversations with players on those MMO's never seemed only to revolve around the game, and nothing more. Now, I know I am of the information/web generation, but I've never really engaged in friendly conversation or connection with anyone through the web before, and perhaps I always thought of that as a "young folks" thing -- maybe I finally decided to reach out and say hello, but I would like to think that the environment that ECC presented was more unique, than other MMO's I had experienced before, to encouraging communication and interaction.

(k, I ranted a little there --)

As I said, when I joined ECC, I really didn't know much about minecraft. I crossed paths with the wonderful Ctoolme . He answered several questions I had about enchanting, and tools. He pointed me to a wonderful line of youtube videos that were great intros to mc.

While buttering up my home, I saw that other Bowerstone residents we able to place signs on chests and I didn't know how that worked. ShapeShifter9000 was nice enough to tell me how to place it!

Pretty soon, I really wanted to make a town, and get to experimenting with designs and stuff. I applied for mayor, and established the town of Amestris beside Bowerstone. Soon after, WIMdowz made Brightwall next door, and several of us were discussing how we would work together as a single town -- it actually took a few weeks to take shape, and I spent a lot of time wandering through portals, flying over regions, examining what other town owners did, and how things seemed to work.

I eventually found a town I really wanted to have a home in -- Jikkzz 's town of Oblivian. Izz9 had told me that he started out on ECC in Jikkzz 's town, and I thought it would be really good to be able to learn from someone who was well spoken of. At the time, Jikkzz's skin was that of the great Flash, and it was hilarious to try to hide from him around the town. I was also introduced to, and fell in love with Falconaire 's town of Aquila, and soon got a home there too. All the while I was participating more in chat, and reading the forums more to learn about the ways, means, and meanderings of ECC.

One day whilst voting, I got lucky! I got two horse eggs! I really didn't know what to do with them -- I was frightened as to where I should deploy at least one. I heard you could fly with a horse, but I didn't understand how. I asked in global chat, and the feared moderator, revanrose6 sent me a tp request into a castle -- where she took a horse out of a gate, and then strangled it... with a rope lead... It had to be one of the strangest things I ever saw, but it was quite interesting to witness. It wasn't too long later that I was up really really late a night, and some how ended up in a conversation with the dark lady, talking about town profitability and management for like 3 or 4 hours in chat. It was a really insightful conversation.

A few days later, I was shopping around the market for the best nstar buy signs, and I happened on the shop of KMaxwell . She was stocking a cake sign, and I thought, it would be nice to have a cake item -- I never had one, and it was pretty cheap. So I bought one. Kmax suddenly whipped around to my surprise. I was scared, and /home 'ed out of there. But I started wondering about market shops a lot. I remember a few people in my home area talking about maybe getting shops -- so I went back to the market, and KMaxwell was more than happy to discuss her experience with the shop and various item sales.

At some point, I noticed some talk about Pokemon in global chat. I don't quite remember what prompted me, but I recited a line from the Pokemon song... and people joined in !WIN! and soon the entire song was sung by so many! I was laughing quite a bit a the sight.

It was not long later that I saw Skylexia advertise plots for the town of Halivaara, where I established another home, or two, wait no, I bough three plots... Anyways sky recounted that the town used to belong to Harryhaz1 , who still resided there... Harry told me about 'Warlight', an browser game of RISK played by many across ECC. I was soon invited to a match and teamed with Harryhaz1 , and... I can't remember -- but the match lasted many hours. I was almost wiped out twice, but my teammates gifted me land and armies to rebuild my fledgeling empire of bystanding.

Through this time, I was also excavating a chasm under my town. There really is not much down there, but on one of my adventures out amongst other towns, I was invigorated to see a acrobatics trainer ride. I made one similar to it in my under-world, but I wanted there to be redstone controlled doors... I looked online and thought I could fashion a mechanism using a boat (don't ask me how)... But I couldn't figure how to place a boat... I asked in global several times and eventually generaljoecool sent me a tp request. He showed me a method of using sponges to help place a single block of water, and then how to place a boat on it, remove the water, and tada, boat on land! Unfortunetly the boat did not work in my redstone plan, and I was soon asking in global if anyone has experience with redstone -- and guess what? generaljoecool answered, and transported to my odd machine. He spent the next three hours tinkering and testing, and created what I only know to be that of fastastical cool magic, and the doors worked. Ooo I was so pleased. I tried to throw money at generaljoecool but he threw it back at me, and said he enjoyed working with redstone. I showed entire device to Jikkzz , and he soon started spending time meandering on it much to my surprise and honor. Jikkzz is also the only person who has decided to place an advertisement on my water ride lawl.

One day I was voting, and suddenly my PM's exploded with people asking to buy a horse from me. I responded that I only had one egg, and I wasn't selling it -- but they told me I had two?! What? Oh wait, I have two more lucky eggs in my inventory! Oh what a joy... I told the buzzards to flutter, and I mulled over the thought of deploying a horse... I was still scared... But, I recall that revanrose6 had a castle in the middle of no-where, devoid of people save for her trusted few... I sent her an offer, one of my beloved horse eggs, in exchange for a safe haven to deploy another egg. revanrose6 introduced me to a very safe place in her castle, and granted me access to a stable for my dear horsey. She showed me what to do with the horse, and told me tales of her head bashing steed. Core_Diver was working on the castle, and took me on a very grande tour of its facilities. A couple hours later, revanrose6 , Core_Diver , and I went on an excursion to search for a dragon statue I thought I had seen near Starleana 's pile-o-heads... We didn't find it, but we found a quite fabulous castle in the middle of some forsaken piece of land... much fun!

I don't remember what kicked it off, but ECC had a red-scare, and welikeike22 fashioned a guillotine and needed people who had the ability to place anvils. I was so honored to place the anvil above and witness the cherished merriment that took place below to the fanfare of many witnesses. The best quotes of the day came from welikeike22: "Strange black and white cat, you have been found guilty of un-ecocitycraft activities by the Ecocitycraft activities commission and are to be executed. Do you have any last words?"
Cat: "Meow"
I was just informed the cat was Gernen


RailefBear wanted to get a market shop, so we went in together, RailefBear applied, and managed the shop, and we both sought resource collection. It was at this time that I was introduced to the nether, and in a few minutes of entering, I was followed by a Gnast... that had me on the run for a good while.

I've had the pleasure of coming upon Joliver1998 and outerlocal 's towns of the Zodiac nation. they are truly awe inspiring designs of grande yet comfortable settings. I still often visit and explore the regions of the Zodiac -- and one day I shall purchase a residence in each town.

Wandering the forums, I saw quite a few amazing forum signature graphics by annyonion . I was really interested in placing an order for one... but I really wanted to be able to play around with the image myself. In a pleasant conversation with annyonion , she was so awesome to tell me the web tool she had been using to make the signatures! She even told me of another tool she began using. I admit, I am not a good artist. A lot of what I do in my own work in rl is repurposed, repackaged, modified, and mashed together things of what I see other artists do. I really enjoy analyzing and dissecting annyonion 's work. It's like she's teaching me how to be a better artist, leading by example. I've also had the pleasure of listening to annyonion sing and strum on TeamSpeak a few times. To be honest, I don't listen to music much -- and most often I find that when I hear music, I don't really care for it, not necessarily due to genre preference, but more because I am so unaccustomed to enjoying such ambient articulations. But I have found Anny's renditions to be quite soothing, almost like taking a sidewalk stroll into twilight. It is really awesome to see such a turn out too for her performance offerings.

Ohh I encountered a player in mining world once who had a Jawa skin. I can never remember your name, similar to how I can't remember what tbh means, but when I see you in global I remember. Lawl.

I don't quite remember how it happened, but I am quite pleased to have met laff80 . He showed me his awesome realm with a massive sphere in the sky and a giant arena nearby. I have also been pleased to meet ReDnAx1991 with his awesome town of Bunschoten. I eventually purchased one of the exquisite homes in the town.

welikeike22 was advertising his gigantor town area one day, and I wanted to look around. It is a really well built town with a lot of nice nick-nacks, features, and great color/material combinations. He even showed me his vault and trove of diamond blocks. But the best part about the tour has to have been Ike's commitment to showmanship. His presentation drew me into the whole experience and filled in the inherent gaps of the virtual world to make it all come alive.

I don't remember the events preceding this tale either, but at some point Tommy_T began showing me his realm of Bluecoast, and a couple other places. He took me on a little trip through Ecocitycraft history. The tour lasted for some three or more hours into the wee morning. It was fantastic. I've tried wandering around Bluecoast, but I can't find my way around... I've also been trying to find that mountain, to no avail... Not too long later Tommy_T made a cute garden to annyonion . Did I mention that was cute? There was also a kidnapping of CHISM at some point... Ooo that was fun...

Speaking about CHISM_101, I finally saw CHISM exploring the mining world after the 1.7 update. I recorded the experience for posterity, and I have watched it over many times, trying to understand the ways and means of lord CHISM.

As the weeks went on, andrewkm announced the development of Rising and the auction of surrounding towns. I really fancied getting involved. I began raising large amounts of funding, but I admitted to myself that I would not be able to raise enough funds alone, and building a town by myself would be too lonely. I began seeking partners, and I had met quite an array of interesting people. Oh the drama of the spawn auction from my vantage is quite a story that I really ought to describe fully at some point.

Andrewkm finally announced the spawn design competition a couple weeks ago - something I had been waiting for a long while. I quickly asked around and got a team to work with. There were debates and debacles, but the whole thing was a lot of fun.

I haven't played Pokemon in a long time. But I have been trying to catch Pokemon on ECC. The only two pokemon I have successfully caught were BlueNinjaMC , and LegendaryTrio . However upon trying to capture another staff member, LegendaryTrio thought I was playing catch, and caught my pokeball -.- *sigh*... I also tried to evolve LegendaryTrio with a moonstone... but it instead devolved into LegendaryDuo, that only seems to eat food, and has no other useful abilities... As these are the only two pokemon I have managed to capture, I guess I will have to keep them. I still haven't encountered any other trainers though, and no gym leaders...

Hmm, oh one more thought -- Recently at the conclusion of my 1 million dollar random christmas giveaway, I was about to log off when King_of_the_Dot gave me several materials to continue the drop maddness at spawn.

Oh, I am sure there are many other things I am not thinking about at this moment. Perhaps I really should jot them down as they return, and thank people properly. But there are a few last thoughts I do need to address before I hit "Create Thread".

andrewkm - Thank you so very much for making Ecocitycraft what it is I had my doubts when I first stepped on the server, but I do believe I shall remain for a good deal of time to come. I am so mesmerized by the awesome structure that Ecocitycraft has taken, and my jaw is dropped so low by the educational contribution that Ecocitycraft presents to younger players with reference to economics. This all may be a very decent example of a digital education tool. Regardless, I don't think any other MMO has tantalized my imagination quite like Minecraft on Ecocitycraft.

@the Players of ECC. A server and an owner are only the foundation... and as solid or sturdy as it may be, at the shutdown and restart of the server, you the players are what Ecocitycraft is. Your participation makes this server an awesome place to hang out. Thank you so very much.

 

Additional thanks to:
Lady_Frost
peregrines3469
mikeace60
kconahan
Billybue24
TheKDshowz_Kevin
Nicodemux
liamfrench
zardgyer
xpurexcorex
Mendiboi
emongolab
Joseph01234
expoldzibo
OhMrsKittyKat
WeirdBuilder
StoneIronZ
anvildash
legoking236
Unknownrider
Gogoplatau
kukelekuuk00
WiKiDOne
Stolio