Hi everyone I've got an update for you on Skyblock today!
We've been making a ton of progress behind the scenes in creating our Skyblock server and the beta should be ready to launch this Saturday at 12 PM EST. We plan to run the beta for 1-2 weeks, to be determined, while we find all of the bugs and work on balancing the economy and gameplay. Ideally we are aiming for a balanced economy that supports farming early game, remains useful throughout, but slowly allows you to upgrade and grind for spawners as well.
We will strongly appreciate any and all feedback from you and hope the beta will allow us a lot of interaction with the community before making an official launch
Now, for the important and soon to be controversial topic of ranks in Skyblock... I know this will be met with some push back, but I ask that you read the entirety before you post a response. We want you guys to understand our reasons, and if you understand them and still dislike our decisions, then feel free to post in a respectful manner why you disagree.
Ranks on Skyblock will have to be separate from Prison, for a number of reasons.
1. Just to be clear up front... we have not taken any profits from OPBlocks since we purchased and took over the server in July. In fact, given the investment we paid up front, we are still significantly negative more than most of you would believe. We spent every dollar made on development and advertising from YouTubers, as well as builds, a trailer, Buycraft and payment processor fees, etc. Trust me a lot adds up, and we are not currently profitable at all.
2. Daniel (hihihih565) and myself both agree that if we were to release Skyblock with merged Prison ranks it would continue to be very unprofitable, and we would not be able to advertise the server in a meaningful way. The biggest purpose of having separate ranks is so that dozens of users that already have ranks don't just hop on and immediately have everything on this brand new server. Sorry, but that's not what you paid for when you bought a Prison rank, and while many of you may expect it to just be given to you that's not the route that will sustain the server in the long run. We want what is best for the community and that means things have to be paid for to cover all the expenses of doing so.
3. The other issue is that Daniel and I really haven't been compensated for our time at all. We're not looking to get rich off of Minecraft by any means, but we also don't want to continue spending 80-120 hours a month (full time job hours) dedicating our lives to the server and not getting anything in return, by being break even or unprofitable every month. Currently that will continue to remain the case for the next few months, because even if we do release Skyblock and it does great, we will spend all of the proceeds on continued advertising. Hopefully we will begin to take some profits in exchange for our time early next year if the growth of the server can support it.
So... yeah. I know a lot of you will be upset with this because you expected a free rank on Skyblock. I truly hope you understand our reasons above and recognize that we are not doing this for profit, we are doing it to make OPBlocks sustainable in the future. We also really hope that those of you that do support us and do decide to purchase ranks or etc in the future recognize that you're not putting money in our pockets, you are directly supporting how much we are able to advertise and how much new content will be created. You are directly supporting the community in one of the best ways possible. The other best way, of course, is just to be a dedicated player and a friendly member of OPBlocks
Apologies for the long explanation but I know it's going to be a big deal and I just hope you guys understand. It seems like OPBlocks has a more mature community that most, so I hope that if you players see someone complaining about ranks you can direct them here, or maybe engage them and explain your own point of view. The worst thing for us is when the community gets really divided over an issue like this because eventually one side turns very toxic, and that's definitely not what we want.
Thanks for reading and thank you for your continued support of OPBlocks!
We've been making a ton of progress behind the scenes in creating our Skyblock server and the beta should be ready to launch this Saturday at 12 PM EST. We plan to run the beta for 1-2 weeks, to be determined, while we find all of the bugs and work on balancing the economy and gameplay. Ideally we are aiming for a balanced economy that supports farming early game, remains useful throughout, but slowly allows you to upgrade and grind for spawners as well.
We will strongly appreciate any and all feedback from you and hope the beta will allow us a lot of interaction with the community before making an official launch
Now, for the important and soon to be controversial topic of ranks in Skyblock... I know this will be met with some push back, but I ask that you read the entirety before you post a response. We want you guys to understand our reasons, and if you understand them and still dislike our decisions, then feel free to post in a respectful manner why you disagree.
Ranks on Skyblock will have to be separate from Prison, for a number of reasons.
1. Just to be clear up front... we have not taken any profits from OPBlocks since we purchased and took over the server in July. In fact, given the investment we paid up front, we are still significantly negative more than most of you would believe. We spent every dollar made on development and advertising from YouTubers, as well as builds, a trailer, Buycraft and payment processor fees, etc. Trust me a lot adds up, and we are not currently profitable at all.
2. Daniel (hihihih565) and myself both agree that if we were to release Skyblock with merged Prison ranks it would continue to be very unprofitable, and we would not be able to advertise the server in a meaningful way. The biggest purpose of having separate ranks is so that dozens of users that already have ranks don't just hop on and immediately have everything on this brand new server. Sorry, but that's not what you paid for when you bought a Prison rank, and while many of you may expect it to just be given to you that's not the route that will sustain the server in the long run. We want what is best for the community and that means things have to be paid for to cover all the expenses of doing so.
3. The other issue is that Daniel and I really haven't been compensated for our time at all. We're not looking to get rich off of Minecraft by any means, but we also don't want to continue spending 80-120 hours a month (full time job hours) dedicating our lives to the server and not getting anything in return, by being break even or unprofitable every month. Currently that will continue to remain the case for the next few months, because even if we do release Skyblock and it does great, we will spend all of the proceeds on continued advertising. Hopefully we will begin to take some profits in exchange for our time early next year if the growth of the server can support it.
So... yeah. I know a lot of you will be upset with this because you expected a free rank on Skyblock. I truly hope you understand our reasons above and recognize that we are not doing this for profit, we are doing it to make OPBlocks sustainable in the future. We also really hope that those of you that do support us and do decide to purchase ranks or etc in the future recognize that you're not putting money in our pockets, you are directly supporting how much we are able to advertise and how much new content will be created. You are directly supporting the community in one of the best ways possible. The other best way, of course, is just to be a dedicated player and a friendly member of OPBlocks
Apologies for the long explanation but I know it's going to be a big deal and I just hope you guys understand. It seems like OPBlocks has a more mature community that most, so I hope that if you players see someone complaining about ranks you can direct them here, or maybe engage them and explain your own point of view. The worst thing for us is when the community gets really divided over an issue like this because eventually one side turns very toxic, and that's definitely not what we want.
Thanks for reading and thank you for your continued support of OPBlocks!
