Internet Solutions hosts a South African Minecraft server with the help of the 2Ply Gaming team. We caught up with Alastair ‘Lag Beast’ Bouman to learn more about this Minecraft community.
Assisting Bouman is Brendon ‘Mooncow’ (who declined to provide a full name) and together they spearhead the 2Ply initiative. “We are both responsible for the smooth running of the Minecraft server, proudly hosted by Internet Solutions, as well as attempting to provide a free service for all SA gamers,” said Bouman.
Discussing how 2Ply gaming became linked to IS gaming, Bouman said “We approached ‘Kradenko’, who is overseeing the gaming part of IS with the idea of hosting a Minecraft server, and he managed to organize us hosting. Currently we are just helping IS run the server but eventually we will be providing a lot more services.”
“The main goal [for the 2Ply Minecraft server] is to have a safe and friendly environment for Minecraft fans to come enjoy the multiplayer experience. Our in game goals differ because we offer different aspects on the server. For instance players are able to build on their own in peace, or join forces with other players to work on bigger projects. Players are also able to join a town – towns built and managed by some of our current community – where each town has their own set goals for the area they have to build.”
“We have tried to cater for a multitude of players. Currently the server can handle 25 players; as the server grows we will invest in upgrading the when it is needed,” said Bouman. “After the latest patch that is coming out that fixes a few memory leaks, we are hoping to be able to support up to 50 players without there being any lag. That’s at least what we are aiming for.”
Discussing plans for expansion on the server and initiatives to keep players coming back, Bouman said “We understand that as a server grows we need to keep players interested. One of the projects we are working on is having a dungeon weekend every other weekend where players are able to teleport to the dungeon from the main town and raid huge dungeons filled with creeps and zombies and taking any loot they find back home with them.”
Community moderation
Minecraft by nature can be prone to abuse from delinquent gamers. One of the pleasures of gaming on an organised and moderated server is that there are measures taken to prevent a few ruining things for the many, otherwise known as ‘griefing’.
“We have a number of plugins that monitor the players’ actions on the server; anything out of the ordinary gets reported immediately. The players also have the use of BigBrother (a mod that records every action or event that takes place) to report any type of griefing done to them. 2pLy Gaming has a very strict policy when it comes to griefing and players are only given one chance with this,” said Bouman.
Players can also become more involved in the running of the community if they prove their worth. “We base who we promote to moderator or admin based on their participation with community events on the server as well as their general attitude, honesty, as well as how much they help the new players,” said Bouman.
Discussing player side mods, Bouman said “We allow any texture pack and we recommend that players get Zans mini map mod. Other than that, we don’t allow any mods that give a player an unfair advantage on the server.”
Bouman outlined the server-side mods 2Ply is running that the players can use:
• iConomy – I think the name of this plugins speaks for itself
• BigBrother – Logs all player actions within the world
• mcMMO – Players are able to level up different skills such as mining, swords, archery, herbalism etc. As players get their power levels up they gain bonuses. Eg: Mining, the higher your level the more chance u have to get double drops. Swords, you get a higher chance to parry attacks and inflect bleed effects on to your enemies
• Jail – it’s pretty simple, you break the rules and u get sent to a jail cell for a time period decided by the admins
• Citizenz – this plugins we use for our shops, players are able to go trade with the NPC’s in certain areas
“Right now there are no plans for future mods but we are open to the community’s suggestions to what they think would work for the overall theme of the server,” said Bouman.
Website and server improvements
“We are working on a 2pLy gaming website that’s going to provide the latest news, and updates on what’s happening in the online community. We will be hosting a world map or overview of the current Minecraft world,” said Bouman.
Discussing future server growth Bouman said “As the requirement for bigger and better hardware and bandwidth increases so will Internet Solutions help us with regards to adding additional resource. Worst comes to worst, we will invest our own personal money into it to give players what they want.”
Bouman discussed the likelihood of introducing donation systems or paid-for perks to the community, saying “It’s a free to play service and we are going to keep it as such. Perhaps eventually we will have a donations system for people who are really keen to put money into it but right now it isn’t a priority.”
We asked Bouman to differentiate the IS/2Ply Gaming server from other SA Minecraft servers and large international Minecraft servers. “Well, the server is being run by gamers for gamers for no cost at all. We also run a very tight ship with regards to Internet Solutions’ Rules of Engagement, as well as our own set of rules that ensures every player that plays will have a good time and be able to build without griefing being done to them.”
Joining the 2Ply Minecraft server
Currently the registration process is posted on the Internet Solutions Forums in the Minecraft section under the “Registration” page.
All the information one needs to join can be found there.
Discuss 2 Ply Gaming’s Minecraft server in the forums
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