Dear MineZ

This is my story of what I achieved and what I lost to shotbow. I’d appreciate this post not being blocked for some barely relevant reason, I made a wake up call to Shotbow once where I held up the mirror and I was forum blocked because some people can’t face the facts. I felt it belongs here in the MineZ forums as that is where I spent most of my time and made all of my memories although it does seem off topic to begin with. As a customer of Shotbow I have a right to preach so I’m making that clear for the safety of what I have to say. This is goodbye, sorry for any typos in advance.

Today I lost this inventory, one of my rare storage’s.

I lost this inventory because I joined a new group hoping for a fresh start and within two hours a member of the group who I barely knew killed it after I said I’d give him a book to do 5k with. I could tell him to kill himself as everyone does, curse or whatever but I lack the patience and I can’t expect others to not be toxic if I’m doing it myself. Individuals don’t realise what this game is, people use the ‘it’s a game’ excuse to justify their behaviour when they know they are being horrible, a computer is still a part of reality and if you deny that you’re ignorant, there are people behind screens who have feelings and emotions. Just because you call me Stroby, CashClient, JustTheSomebody or anything else doesn't mean I’m just a visual on your screen, we all have names and memories and different reactions to what occurs, just because someone can easily pretend to be someone else doesn’t mean they are anything less than human. The amount of my life I have put into minecraft is insane. Sadly I could believe statistics if they said I’d been playing for nearly a year of my life, I’m sure it’s less but who knows I’ve been playing since I was 12 and now I’m 18.

I have poured around $275+ into Shotbow and many many others have put in far more than that. In return I have seen a decline in what Shotbow stood for and MineZ as a whole ever since I first clicked direct connect to us.shotbow.net back in 2012. What was once a prime Minecraft server has slowly died because of both neglect and and a decline in Minecraft in general. I was lucky enough to be on the staff team for a short while where I learnt what goes in behind the network, there are positives and negatives and in general a large amount of work that goes in however none of it is applied. Building is a talent sure, not every person can do it however I and many other staff members put countless hours into work that was never released and just sits there on the build dev server collecting dust because very few people can code or know how to carry those over into content for players. Because of this, stuff doesn’t get released, but more importantly Builders don’t get a cent, they put their time into creating stuff and it's really hard for them when you have such a small community where most of the people are using clients and and are making death threats and exposing each other, I don’t understand how people get pleasure in that and maybe that’s why I don’t belong here. The lack of love for this game is obvious, and I don’t blame the staff team when most of them haven’t even talked to Highlife and he shows no effort to keep his games alive because he is a man of business who wants to get every last coin out of Shotbow that he can. This may seem like a harsh statement but to be honest saying ‘he/we do a lot behind the scenes’ isn’t acceptable anymore, although MineZ and Shotbow have been very successful in the past they aren’t some big organisation anymore who have to prioritise keeping everything a secret because frankly so few people care anymore, it’s a small community and they should constantly be told what is being done and getting peaks at what is happening, and this has improved significantly and for that I thank the staff team but maybe just a bit more. However on the other hand the community shouldn’t expect a lot or at least shouldn’t expect it quickly. MineZ isn’t a big game anymore.

Now for my personal MineZ and Shotbow life.

My first Shotbow friend was named WootBot and we would talk through the game and tell each other when we were going to get on via Skype, he was a positive person to be around and I enjoyed the mystery of exploring MineZ without knowledge that the map existed till far later. I still have trauma from when I was 14 when me and a person who went by abug (numbers followed but I can’t recall them) were murdered up north near Elliom by a group of 4, the name RewriteEons still gives me vietnam like flashbacks to this day, for some reason I thought I could use my ender-eye to log out in time even though him and his group were only about 20 blocks behind me, I was a noob. I the age of 14 I earned the rank of minecraft slayer as I regularly hung out with a 2 groups of MineZ girls KuraTheNinja and Kayla, and then Sky and CJtheOneAndOnly, I’m sure they only hung out with me because they thought I was a girl due to how my voice sounded at the time, but on a serious note I hope they are doing well in life.

When MineZ2 first came out I joined my first clan MapleZ which died pretty quickly however I still hung out with other members and did battles at Kuwana and adventures for a long time after that. My most positive memories where with the clan Auxiliary lead by GreenSabr_ or Marc who was a genuinely good person who respected me and I enjoyed his company and the other members of the group, it’s where we first recruited AsianLittleKidd who grew up to be a well known PvPer and I meet my favourite trapper Just_Jake, both who I still consider as my friends today even if I don’t talk to them all that much. I miss killing koreans at Kholheim and looting their houses to grow mine to that of a skyscraper and I miss MineZ2 which had so much potential but once again a lack of love and promises that were never met ultimately lead to its death which unfortunately it will never come back from - facts.

MineZ2 slowly died and months followed of complaining about houses being lost and hours of work put in by players such as Kelestami and RosieBlock whose work had gone to waste, a community where both PvE and PvP players joined as one was lost.

This lead me to MineZ and Corsair which I thought to my illusion was somehow better than Auxiliary due to the leadership of wmn although he was a great person the clan was only held together by him and it turned into a toxic mess, when I face what happened there I had a lot of bad times however one memory easily outweighed days of negativity.

I apologize if this next part seems like admitting to cheating but it’s worth the share for the laugh and in all honesty it is one of my favourite memories, a lack of what I could do as a staff member ultimately lead to this and the unprofessionalism of what followed when I was banned just gives evidence to my feelings about Shotbow.

One day the latest mini-builder Stroby took a break from a hard days work of building floating islands to play MineZ with his best friend Jake, where he discovered he could interact with blocks whilst punching some grass on his journey to Portsmouth, however he could not use commands of any sort.

‘Can you break this grass?’ said Jake
‘Yeah’ replied Stroby
‘Can you access this furnace, what about this anvil’? Asked Jake
‘Wow yeah dude’ replied Stroby
‘Bro. Do you understand what this means?’ stated Jake

Yes I have no potted all elite dungeons. Infinite rare items that popped off blocks, Legendary sets all renamed on iron armor on incorrect places, weapons of mass destruction at our fingertips, the power obviously went to my head for that next day, if a player hit our group they were given debuffs that filled their screen whilst our ‘Ninja Sandals’ iron leggings sent us full speed into them, we were unstoppable. However during those days of January 2017 the dupe glitch was easily abused by all and Koreans with Therum’s Strength’s tore through our god armor like paper even though they were on fire had slowness and poison during the process. We then killed a Korean players rare alt so as you can imagine we had more than enough fire power but no protection. We ran for Zerbia we lost a few people and logged with inventories that looked like storage ALTS rather that PvP setups, all of which where eventually wiped.

My favourite memories were watching DomJules tanking with no armor in water whilst hitting Korean players back with a raw fish renamed Simoon’s Song, cursing at the top of his lungs like he had lost a limb.

Casey who had a Wither Shot (worth about $200 in real life apparently) saying ‘Nigga I shaking like I had parkinson's, I was so scared to die I was splashing when I heard other people getting hit’.

To everyone there, the ban was worth it and I’d sacrifice a platinum account any day to recreate those memories. I was easily my best minecraft memory, even though there was a lot more to it I feel I’ve shared the joy, how I wish there was footage.

I took a break from MineZ that year as I went to boarding school, when I came back the game died significantly and my group was split into other clans and I ended up PvPing against my friends. I made new friends who turned out to be toxic, because if people can’t benefit from you or lack the patience or to accept their wrongs they may as well just be toxic right? I know no ones really a horrible person deep down but everyone can be and people are petty and lack the respect they need in the real world, which I guess is why I lost my rare ALT today because they feel they can be a complete dickhead in a game.

After I left them on my own terms and getting grief for it for reasons so dumb they actually don’t make sense I hopped onto UTC for 1 day and then onto Soular’s group for 2 hours where his friends then betrayed him and stole my stuff for no reason whatsoever. I guess that’s how this game works, Soular seems like a genuinely nice person however I don’t have a clue what went on with his ‘friend’ FaM_Rem who for some reason involved me which has lead to me sitting here and writing out why I’m quitting this game once and for all.

As said, people on here just aren’t friendly anymore, everyone only looks out for themselves and there’s nothing I can do when some hacks or tells me to kill myself as I don’t record and death threats get you muted or something small, I know this because I’ve seen it. Nice people aren’t respected and it’s as simple as ‘no one gives a shit, it’s a game’.

I think I’ve said all I have to say, maybe I’ll come back in five years just to see if it’s dead or not, maybe I’ll check in when there’s a new generation of MineZ players that hopefully understand the mistakes of others in the past, but I doubt it I haven’t seen any good at all lately, private messaging should just be removed, it’s only to tell player to kill themselves or L or some other trash talking.

You’re better than others if you just don’t give into the toxicity, if you treat others with respect eventually it comes around. Maybe that works in the real world but it certainly doesn’t work here.

To Halowars, 66tee, EmeraldChef, Gallihad and others it was cool knowing you for a bit, I enjoyed making stuff with you back in the day. To the Cloudboyz, Corsair, Auxillary thanks to most of you for being there for me despite the ups and downs. To the individuals who are now my friends outside of Minecraft I’m glad some good came out of the time I wasted staring at a machine.

I hope this post is both a wake up call to others and good note I can leave on and not just another post to be removed because someone got offended that I got offended because I’m treated poorly most days I come on here, maybe it just feels like I’m just feeling sorry for myself but seriously this place is just horrible and I don’t know why. Good luck all, make memories wherever you choose Minecraft or in Life, the choice is yours, but I’m really done with this game and the people in it.


Some of my first MineZ2 friends.


My old PvE friends in MineZ2.


After winning one of my first MineZ2 organised battles.


Corsair SS.


Making it to the Christmas Island in 2016 with CamoShark.


A build that was complete (use your imagination) that I was making for MineZ2, this is the only screenshot I have of it sadly before completion, I lost 72 hours work when it was deleted.


An ironically funny screenshot.


Farewell MineZ.

- Stroby

It truly is a loss for us to see someone who has been around for so long quit.

Farewell Stroby, may happiness and good luck follow you wherever you might go.

Well that went downhill really fast.

Hit me right in the feels, it's really sad how people think they can get away with anything because "it's just a game!" when, like you said, actual people are behind those screens with actual personalities and feelings. Sad to see you go even if I didn't know you that well or know you at all.

preach

Godspeed space wizard

Written beautifully, read the whole thing and it's sad to see you go.
Just like what Crispy and you said, people have actual lives and when someone says stuff like kys, it can hurt their feelings.
I am still wondering why shotbow doesn't censor inappropriate words? Yes, they did just make an announcement but shouldn't the censorship have happened years ago? I know I sometime say the words, but usually not towards people.

Good luck in life!
P.S Why doesn't anyone use indent in these long stories?

Because it's time consuming and takes effort.
Oh and you don't gain too many likes off of it.

It's harder to read paragraphs though, especially if it's long.

Fair

Don't really post of the forums so I'm not even sure what you mean haha

Thanks to everyone who has posted kind words, I wish the good weren't the few, what you have said has had a positive impact on my day

In the heat of battle people forget its just a game. Sam summed it up very nicely, "Always remember the person behind the screen".

Why can we not like this anymore?

Also no like button for me, just this post though :?

farewell mate, that sucks, good post

Admins moved it to offtopic for some reason, not sure why.

Why do admins move this post when I specifically said not to, it's not off topic. I swear to god this staff team fails as it's run by a bunch of teenagers who can't read and have no respect.

Not sure how I'm just getting around to reading this but I have to agree fully, that night running from the Koreans after killing that storage alt was easily the best time I've ever had on minecraft. miss you bro

Kinda miss the old days tbh.