I started playing Minecraft in October 2010, and I really liked servers from the start. I played on quite a few. Crazyfrog's server, which existed in Alpha, bootswithdefer's server in Alpha, the 800BC Minecraft server in early Beta, the Aperture Games Minecraft server in early Beta, and OmniaMC in Beta 1.7 and 1.8. I also played on some minecraft classic servers when that was still a thing. 

The Aperture Games Minecraft server I played on had this fantastic "let's play" series (which sadly no longer exists) from the point of view of an admin. This got me interested on how servers are run. When OmniaMC was dying, I decided to try making my own server and made what would become Froobworld.

The first few months were pretty directionless, and there wasn't much activity. The server was new and I didn't know what I was doing or what I wanted the server to be. In fairness, I was very young at the time. We would give people creative, install random fun plugins like BlockBall, and play around with WorldEdit. We even had Factions at one point, and even called ourselves an RPG server for a brief period as we tried to encourage players to build towns. It wasn't a very serious server, more of a playground.

Around mid-2012 the server started taking shape (this would have been map 4 or 5). If you look on YouTube you can find some videos on FroobWorld from this period, and you'll probably notice a lot of similarities to today. The server was pretty active from this period up until 2015 or so, coinciding with the rise in popularity of Minecraft as a whole. The overall level of activity would have been similar to what it is today, maybe a little bit less.

The server itself has been fundamentally unchanged for the last 12 years or so. It's been refined over time as we've encountered challenges and learned from them, but it very much has the same feel.

The server is the same, but the player base has changed dramatically.

One thing I'll note is that the player base has aged. If I had to guess, the average age of our regular players is pushing 20 years old right now. When the server was still young the average player would have been in their early teens.

The first few months were pretty directionless, and there wasn't much activity. The server was new and I didn't know what I was doing or what I wanted the server to be. In fairness, I was very young at the time. We would give people creative, install random fun plugins like BlockBall, and play around with WorldEdit. We even had Factions at one point, and even called ourselves an RPG server for a brief period as we tried to encourage players to build towns. It wasn't a very serious server, more of a playground.

Around mid-2012 the server started taking shape (this would have been map 4 or 5). If you look on YouTube you can find some videos on FroobWorld from this period, and you'll probably notice a lot of similarities to today. The server was pretty active from this period up until 2015 or so, coinciding with the rise in popularity of Minecraft as a whole. The overall level of activity would have been similar to what it is today, maybe a little bit less.

The server itself has been fundamentally unchanged for the last 12 years or so. It's been refined over time as we've encountered challenges and learned from them, but it very much has the same feel.

The server is the same, but the playerbase has changed dramatically.

One thing I'll note is that the playerbase has aged. If I had to guess, the average age of our regular players is pushing 20 years old right now. When the server was still young the average player would have been in their early teens.

Players are also a lot more competitive than they used to be and there's more focus on grinding. At the same time, AFK and assisted gameplay (like litematica) has also become more common. I think this ties into the playerbase aging and wanting gameplay that's a bit more passive - as in, something they can do while doing other stuff in real life. The player driven economy has really taken off in the last three or four years as well. There was always an element of player trading on the server but it was never as big as it is today. 

Probably the biggest challenge was the decline in activity between around 2017 and 2021. Around this timeframe I had started university, graduated and then started full-time work. I didn't make a lot of time for the server, and due to the way the server was set up, this meant activity dwindled over these four or so years. We lost a few generations of players over this period and had to rebuild a playerbase from scratch. It is very telling if you look at our playerbase today that there are very few who joined before 2022.

Interpersonal conflicts between longterm players have always been a challenge to the server. We've lost a lot of good players to them, and given how embedded in the community some players are, it can really bring down the mood of the whole server.

I don't want to change how the server works. My philosophy is that FroobWorld is meant to provide players with an environment that facilitates collaboration and eliminates the fear of losing their work. And that's it. We're not an economy server, we're not a towny server, we're not a roleplay server, but the players can do all of those things if they want. It is up to the players to choose what they do with the template we provide, and I don't want to get in their way.

I have no idea what direction the playerbase will go next, but I look forward to seeing it.

No one moment in particular.

It's always nice when people return to the server after 10 years and say "omg this place still exists" and recount their memories. It's a good feeling knowing that there are people out there who have fond memories of the server, or made lifelong friends with other players, or knowing that the community helped them get through a tough time in their life. 

I also love seeing all the positive interactions between players. One example I'd bring up is Sparta754, who was an admin back in the day. He was 5 years or so older than most players on the server, but made a lot of time to listen and help people with their problems. A remnant of this still exists if you search hard enough on map 6. You will find two massive floating ships, one of which has a circuit diagram on its deck where Sparta was helping someone with their physics homework. General displays of human decency that restore your faith in the race.

I have some plans to integrate the server more with the Wiki. I'd like to make it possible for players to make points of interest in-game that link to the Wiki and can be displayed on Dynmap and possibly in game, both on the main server and on the archive server. On the archive server I'd also like to make a "Curator" role so we can document some more of FroobWorld's past.

More of a backend thing, but I'd also like to make the server a bit more self-sufficient. We've built up a good Staff team over the last couple years whose views align with FroobWorld's philosophy and I can trust to make good decisions. I'd like to eventually hand over more control for things that currently need input from me, like rollbacks and Staff / Trusted selection. 

Chief is a nab.