Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
- LMD
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Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
This is basically a call to action : Should server owners advertise Minetest better ? Probably links to the official client, multi-language welcome formspecs suggesting it, or friendly and helpful chatbots ?
Because right now there's not much I can do about forks like Multicraft gaining far more downloads than the official client (10.000.000+ compared to 100.000). Minetest is in fact "losing" mobile users to it's forks (which I often consider worse, for both servers and end users). But most of the users of this forks like to play on the servers we all know and love, so informing them there would probably be a good option.
What do you think ? Is there something you (especially server owners) could do convince mobile users to use the official client ? Should the website, the icon or the Google Play gallery be "spiced up" ? The forums ?
As a normal player, the only option I see is to ask whenever I "suspect" someone (for example if they complain about ads in chat) of using an unofficial client and try to convince them to use the official one.
Because right now there's not much I can do about forks like Multicraft gaining far more downloads than the official client (10.000.000+ compared to 100.000). Minetest is in fact "losing" mobile users to it's forks (which I often consider worse, for both servers and end users). But most of the users of this forks like to play on the servers we all know and love, so informing them there would probably be a good option.
What do you think ? Is there something you (especially server owners) could do convince mobile users to use the official client ? Should the website, the icon or the Google Play gallery be "spiced up" ? The forums ?
As a normal player, the only option I see is to ask whenever I "suspect" someone (for example if they complain about ads in chat) of using an unofficial client and try to convince them to use the official one.
- Linuxdirk
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
As long as the official client is worse than other clients (and the download ratio implies it is) there is nothing we can do except improving the official client. Advertising is important, but it’s only a small part.
Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
the android version of minetest is very uncomfortable.
the screen shows all the options for fast, fly, noclip and stuff even when you don't have the orivilegues to use them. this is confusing if you don't know and annoying when you do know about them.
the default camera movement is way to fast to pinpoint a target direction.
the settings are totally obscure and even as an experienced player i have no idea how to adjust the controls of the android version.
then, there's this AUX button on screen, which is greyed out and apparently non-functional. there is no way to hide the on-screen buttons or change their size.
compared to other mobile games, it feels operating a keyboard controlled pc game without a keyboard.
i don't think it's impossible to play minetest on mobile devices, after all minecrap can do it too, but currently the entire menu and interface is not adjusted for touchscreen use.
that is probably the main reason why people use those clone apps.
the screen shows all the options for fast, fly, noclip and stuff even when you don't have the orivilegues to use them. this is confusing if you don't know and annoying when you do know about them.
the default camera movement is way to fast to pinpoint a target direction.
the settings are totally obscure and even as an experienced player i have no idea how to adjust the controls of the android version.
then, there's this AUX button on screen, which is greyed out and apparently non-functional. there is no way to hide the on-screen buttons or change their size.
compared to other mobile games, it feels operating a keyboard controlled pc game without a keyboard.
i don't think it's impossible to play minetest on mobile devices, after all minecrap can do it too, but currently the entire menu and interface is not adjusted for touchscreen use.
that is probably the main reason why people use those clone apps.
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
The download count of an app doesn't say anything about its quality, and advertisement is the fastest way to get lots of players. There's a reason why many companies spend more on that than actual product development.Linuxdirk wrote:As long as the official client is worse than other clients (and the download ratio implies it is) there is nothing we can do except improving the official client. Advertising is important, but it’s only a small part.
The Multicraft version with the ten million downloads (there are lots more fakes on Google Play) hasn't been updated since November 2015, so I hope the problem will solve itself if v0.4 servers slowly cease to exist.
Popular servers that get lots of random people joining should in any case advertise the official client, I support that idea.
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
It is exactly this. And I must admit: For being what it it it works pretty well. But since it it not a mobile app but a desktop program with makeshift input system it will always be worse than an actual mobile app.firefox wrote:compared to other mobile games, it feels operating a keyboard controlled pc game without a keyboard.
It would be great if the devs would separate the client from the engine completely instead of stuffing more and more engine features into the client (hint: CSM). This would allow having alternative clients for Minetest and even a mobile app could be created using the core of Minetest but being a distinct mobile client.
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
@Linuxdirk:
Yes.
The problem is, mobile clients for Minetest tend to be very bad, which ends up with modified/improved/(sometimes) hacked clients. That's (probably) why some servers ban mobile users. I do believe that such ban on mobile clients isn't a good idea, but the official Minetest client does need to be improved.
As for advtertising... the fonts in the Minetest clients have a very bad multilingual support, and I don't see how Minetest can be popular without a proper font. Minetest should really design their own font just like Minecraft.
Yes.
The problem is, mobile clients for Minetest tend to be very bad, which ends up with modified/improved/(sometimes) hacked clients. That's (probably) why some servers ban mobile users. I do believe that such ban on mobile clients isn't a good idea, but the official Minetest client does need to be improved.
As for advtertising... the fonts in the Minetest clients have a very bad multilingual support, and I don't see how Minetest can be popular without a proper font. Minetest should really design their own font just like Minecraft.
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
maybe every spawn area on a public server schould have a billboard with the official Minetest logo and some basic text or informativ pictograms educating new users in a glance.
Maybe the simple statement "This server was created using the official Minetest from www.Minetest.net" shown at joining or in some other prominent place might allready help.
Maybe the simple statement "This server was created using the official Minetest from www.Minetest.net" shown at joining or in some other prominent place might allready help.
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
Yes, but for some server spawn point with less space (like a spawn point in a train station) often end up with little or no space left for advertising (and some users simply don't even read the rules). All they can do is to have a Wiki that says something like "Welcome to ... Minetest Server Wiki" and provide a download link to the official client.twoelk wrote:maybe every spawn area on a public server schould have a billboard with the official Minetest logo and some basic text or informativ pictograms educating new users in a glance.
Maybe the simple statement "This server was created using the official Minetest from http://www.Minetest.net" shown at joining or in some other prominent place might allready help.
- LMD
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
Probably have a mod detecting unoffical clients and accordingly showing a formspec ?
Like : "It looks like you are not using the official Minetest app. In order to have full compatibility with our Minetest server, we recommend downloading the official app at [...]. If you are happy with your current app of choice, there is no need to switch. But if you experience lots of bugs, have to view ads or are charged money, you may want to use the free, official and well-working Minetest app. This message will be shown to you each time you join. To turn it off for this account, do /official"
Like : "It looks like you are not using the official Minetest app. In order to have full compatibility with our Minetest server, we recommend downloading the official app at [...]. If you are happy with your current app of choice, there is no need to switch. But if you experience lots of bugs, have to view ads or are charged money, you may want to use the free, official and well-working Minetest app. This message will be shown to you each time you join. To turn it off for this account, do /official"
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
Mods can't detect unofficial clients because any of these clients csn claim to be official (the version number can be changed). Maybe this text would work better:LMD wrote:Probably have a mod detecting unoffical clients and accordingly showing a formspec ?
Like : "It looks like you are not using the official Minetest app. In order to have full compatibility with our Minetest server, we recommend downloading the official app at [...]. If you are happy with your current app of choice, there is no need to switch. But if you experience lots of bugs, have to view ads or are charged money, you may want to use the free, official and well-working Minetest app. This message will be shown to you each time you join. To turn it off for this account, do /official"
"Please note that there are unofficial forks of the Minetest app, and such forks may cause compatitability problems. Therefore, we recommend downloading the official Minetest app at [...]. [... (same as yours)]"
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
EDIT: I removed my comments that were offensive to MultiCraft.
Celeron55 has Minetest marketing covered, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD1TVZ47xZY
Celeron55 has Minetest marketing covered, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD1TVZ47xZY
Last edited by paramat on Thu Apr 16, 2020 22:05, edited 1 time in total.
- LMD
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
> The official Android app is actually now 'better' than any forked app, as it functions roughly as well as the others, but also doesn't have ads or scams, and is not sloppily put together.
Exactly.
Exactly.
- Linuxdirk
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
Obviously people do not care about or know the official version. It is not helpful insulting those people or other apps.paramat wrote:The official Android app is actually now 'better' than any forked app [but] many players will still prefer particular forks to the official app, due to their poor taste
Multicraft has multiple million downloads while the official Minetest app didn’t even reach 2% of Multicraft’s downloads. Even if for you personally the download count does not matter it is a fact, that Muticraft is the number 1 downloaded Minetest app (even their servers are the majority of the top 5 in the official Minetest server list having more players than all of the other servers in the list combined).
Even if Multicraft HAS to be seen critical due to their business concept it is an undeniable fact that this app is relatively and absolutely more successful than Minetest’s app. A three years old low-quality (but admittedly self-ironic and funny) video with under 1500 views won’t help much.
Speaking of videos, why didn’t THIS made it into the game yet? This would be a real unique selling point – to my knowledge no other voxel-based game or engine of the same genre has rolling mechanics (airplane mods or games where flying actually feel like being in an airplane, anyone?).
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
Multicraft servers are quite unfairly competing with Minetest ones - they can spend a lot of money on servers while some MT servers only cost 10€/month.
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
oh a traitor ?
... and they are still in the list after started Sat May 25, 2019 15:23 -
and I have still too less help from us minetest users/admins ... may be need a mod, that repeat a few, maybe 5 repeating messages to all users there ...
"please use minetest.app to join more options on minetest.servers"
"?"
"?"
"?"
... and they are still in the list after started Sat May 25, 2019 15:23 -
and I have still too less help from us minetest users/admins ... may be need a mod, that repeat a few, maybe 5 repeating messages to all users there ...
"please use minetest.app to join more options on minetest.servers"
"?"
"?"
"?"
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
Yes he helped two times but which benefits do he have?
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
Tell me, in what way is "quite unfairly competing"? I rented several servers, paid money for them, did not get a penny from it. I could have made them exclusive to MultiCraft, but I let all Minetest players play on them. There are very few Minetest 0.4.17 servers left, I'm one of the few who support this version of Minetest.yw05 wrote:Multicraft servers are quite unfairly competing with Minetest ones - they can spend a lot of money on servers while some MT servers only cost 10€/month.
The cost of maintaining servers a little less than 100 euros per month. Potentially, I can combine several hundred players and thousands of mobs on one server. What do I get for it? Oh yes! The bill for payment at the end of the month and criticism from the owners of unpopular and terribly working servers. I'm flattered!
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
For your information. MultiCraft has not been published on Google Play for nearly a year and is distributed to Android only as a source code. What a news! I do not receive money from advertising in MultiCraft, because MultiCraft does not exist! :)LMD wrote:TBecause right now there's not much I can do about forks like Multicraft gaining far more downloads than the official client (10.000.000+ compared to 100.000).
Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
I think the main question is:
Why not Minetest? Why an own fork? You can also contribute to Minetest.
Why not Minetest? Why an own fork? You can also contribute to Minetest.
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
Well, I think this is an advantage of open source. Minetest has its own vision of the game, I have mine. As long as a person fully complies with the license, he has the right to do whatever he wants with the source code. I want to develop my game and enjoy my right. I’ve done some PR in Minetest and may continue to do so in the future. It seems to me that the three main advantages of MultiCraft are the completeness of the game (the player gets a ready-made game with many functions and elegant textures, he doesn’t need to look for mods, subgames, etc.), developer rewards (I pay for MultiCraft contributions) and having a certain idea and leader, if I may say so. MultiCraft has a clear idea, goal, and goes for it. Minetest - engine. MultiCraft is a game.Lejo wrote:I think the main question is:
Why not Minetest? Why an own fork? You can also contribute to Minetest.
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
yes !
but how ?
* one side we have too much servers, depending on everybody's own few of optimal ... = spreading gamer = less points in list ranking
* other side STILL minetest server list "allow" multicraft clone to be ranked ... = suicide
* servers need admins - you just cant open an server without a near 10/24 hour service
* servers need informative spawn points to guide some first steps
* yesterday I told in chat every 5minutes via 4 text gamer should use minetest.app and join then on servers without multicraft in name, as there is admin service most time, and protection ...
* ... open source code, no ads ...
* today after crash I true xdecor, homedecor and alphabet - to show more advantages of minetest
and what are you doing else then discuss here ?
sure an MTs takes some money (at me to buy hardware and to run with time to invest and electric payment), but did you have to pay anything to the code ? ha - that you have forgotten ... so you WANT own server, why ? - whatever, your decision was instead of join an existing server and help there, for
* builds
* may more than 10/24 hour support - what can be done by every gamer, no need to be admin or moderator
yes !
but how ?
* one side we have too much servers, depending on everybody's own few of optimal ... = spreading gamer = less points in list ranking
* other side STILL minetest server list "allow" multicraft clone to be ranked ... = suicide
* servers need admins - you just cant open an server without a near 10/24 hour service
* servers need informative spawn points to guide some first steps
* yesterday I told in chat every 5minutes via 4 text gamer should use minetest.app and join then on servers without multicraft in name, as there is admin service most time, and protection ...
* ... open source code, no ads ...
* today after crash I true xdecor, homedecor and alphabet - to show more advantages of minetest
and what are you doing else then discuss here ?
sure an MTs takes some money (at me to buy hardware and to run with time to invest and electric payment), but did you have to pay anything to the code ? ha - that you have forgotten ... so you WANT own server, why ? - whatever, your decision was instead of join an existing server and help there, for
* builds
* may more than 10/24 hour support - what can be done by every gamer, no need to be admin or moderator
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- Linuxdirk
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
Actually having too much players also lowers your ranking, because MUH PLAYUR DISHTRIBUCHN (sorry for the dumb speak here.)Festus1965 wrote:* one side we have too much servers, depending on everybody's own few of optimal ... = spreading gamer = less points in list ranking
Yeah, that is the absolutely and most utter stupid idea ever. Who thought having a competitor listing their own servers in the official server list of the game is a good idea? And if the core devs think that is not a good idea why isn’t there someone working on sorting those out?Festus1965 wrote:* other side STILL minetest server list "allow" multicraft clone to be ranked ... = suicide
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
and I fear they still don't see the proof of my just fast set 0.4.17 server had 140 gamer in.Linuxdirk wrote:Actually having too much players also lowers your ranking,
Maybe that punish was meant in future thinking of MC ? Oh no - they cant do that future thinking, they need about a year for new things already, so ... is was more a try to spread the gamer over more servers ... is that true, mean try to force us us other servers if one is too full (whatever they mean to be full) where is our free will of choice ? and then punish the server owner for it ? that he did good server, build, prepared, keep it up ... no, that is a bad Idea
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Re: Should we "advertise" Minetest better ?
I guess this isn't yours Festus ?
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