Project Metropolis Wiki/The Demise of Project Metropolis

Since its creation in 2012, Project Metropolis and its associated Wiki have gone through varying periods of popularity. The server usage peaked in 2015 but has been offline since early 2016. The wiki is still regularly updated by two long time users of the server.

Usage
The server was created in 2012 and it is known that there were a small number of players who used it. The number of regular users dropped substantially in early 2013 but as the year continued many new players joined. Many of these new players were long term users and regularly played until 2015 or 2016.

From 2013 through to 2015, the number of users slowly increased with an average of 4 players online at least once a week (core players). There were also many players who would come online at least once a month (occasional players). In April 2015 the server record was broken with 7 people online at once. From this moment onwards the number users gradually dropped off with only 2 core players and 2 occasional players still using the server in April 2016, when Project Metropolis was hosted for the last time.

Reasons for Demise
There are multiple reasons which led to the demise of Project Metropolis. In the early years of the server (pre 2015) there were relatively few rules and regulations regarding building. The server ran smoothly with limited lag, an up-to-date version of Minecraft and regular, predictable up-time. Also for the first few years users had plenty of free time to play.

Building Regulations
As the years progressed the building regulations were tightened enormously, with the introduction of World Heritage Sites. The purpose of WHS was to protect important or special work of players, particularly if that player no longer used the server. Any block located within a WHS could not be altered or removed in any way without the permission of player who put it there or the server owner. However, the WHS policy eventually grew more widespread, to cover every single block in the world more than a month old and you may not alter anything without direct permission from the server owner. This included players who wanted to alter their own work after it was completed. Unfortunately the server owner was extremely reluctant to allow any alterations of any sort, even minor ones. This made it extremely difficult to build on the server and many players chose to stop playing altogether.

Quality of Play
With the growth and expansion of the world came lag, especially near spawn. This mostly came about due to the amount of item frames used on the server. The version Minecraft being used on the server did not progress past 1.7.2 which caused controversy amongst players when 1.9 was released. Up-time of the server became ever more erratic, sometimes not being hosted for days on end during weekends or holidays. Often there was little or no reason for the lack of continuity with the server up-time. This was a large contributor to users deciding to not play, favouring games which could be played when they wanted rather than when the server owner felt like it.

Free Time
All the players of Project Metropolis came from the same year group, class of 2018. This meant that everyone grew older together and players found they had less time on their hands as workload from school increased. This was inevitably going to happen and out of all the reasons the server came to a close, this is perhaps the saddest one of all of them. Once 12 year old kids playing minecraft are now young people learning to drive, preparing for their HSCs and getting ready for the real world. While it was great fun for everyone while it lasted, Project Metropolis was never going to last forever and deep down, the players knew that. The four years which Project Metropolis was hosted marks some of the most memorable and important moments of the players' childhoods and early high school years. While the users might not spend hours gaming together during their weekends like they once did, the server created friendships which will last a lifetime. If Project Metropolis is ever revisited at some point in the future, it will be an archive full of events, memories, friendships, debates, memes and a view of the world from a child's eyes which have long since been forgotten.

The End
Project Metropolis inevitably came to an end in April 2016 due to reasons both avoidable and unavoidable. Little did the players know that on that day when /stop was typed and the 'Server Closed' message popped up on their screens, it would be for the last time ever. Despite the lack of server, the Project Metropolis Wiki is still actively updated by at least 2 long time server users (as of August 2016). Instead of focusing on the server however, it mostly is based on the fictional world in which Project Metropolis is set.

Project Metropolis 

May 4, 2012 - April 2016.