tl;dr: a siloed community will derail any project in the long-term
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I'm flattered people thought I was a good owner. Hats off to Conor, who I really just supported.
One thing OB HAS to solve is how siloed it's become. OGs in one channel, and I don't even know how many others groups hang around in the other channels. Is that my fault? Probably slightly, but I am less active than I've ever been now. No, it's not black and white OGs vs. the world, but this community is circles within circles. Conor had a fair point when he said people don't talk to him on the day-to-day from these posts. They had a point when they said, conversely, Conor didn't talk to them.
Why did it work in the old days? Coherency, for one thing: people played with more or less everyone, and OB had (and I'll say it again, as I have for the last year) a brand. OB Members were consistent: consistently good CSS players, good wardens, good Ts, good community members. They were almost all friends, too: at least without the immediate trolling. I think people have rightfully pointed out that when the mods felt obliged to police the community, people did care more about being inclusive. It meant they actually played together, and the community was exactly that: a community. And because we had a coherent community, it meant OB could and did take jailbreak dramatically more seriously, and more creatively, then most any other rival jailbreak community in existence. For two years, whenever we ventured onto Hellsgaming or any of the other JB communities, we always stole the show with our commanding. Thus, a virtuous circle.
How do you fix it? I know I'm sounding like I'm reeling off corporate bullshit here, but OB needs to produce a product again. Two parts to this: it has to be
good
marketable
Yes, I know this is obvious to everyone. But if it is going to be (1), it has to be consistently good, which means getting the community - yes, the real, whole community - to play it together. Break down the barriers, meet the new upstarts, or the old fogeys upstairs, whichever one you are. And if it's going to be (2), it actually has to have a realistic chance of success. Minecraft servers do not achieve this because unless they're massively innovative and set-up like Hypixel (which is, as far as I can tell, a multi-million dollar company) because Minecraft is not, to my memory, particularly conducive to people stumbling across it. Without VoIP, it's also very hard to actually give an OB-brand or touch to. Jailbreak's genius was that it was a game that revolved around characters. Our best wardens were good characters. Outbreak has, and still does have, a wealth of characters. People here are funny as hell. And they're funnier now than they've ever been, no doubt. Unless OB is hoping to transition to a soulless corporate machine like Hypixel, then it has to solve all these problems simultaneously:
What will actually bring the whole community together? If the answer is genuinely nothing, then you've already got two+ communities.
What gamemode is actually conducive to people stumbling across it? YouTube or Twitch help with this stuff, but there has to be some natural osmosis - e.g. a decent and reliable server browser that we can feasibly sit on top of, all day long.
What game has sufficient controls and mechanics, as well as VoIP, such that OB can actually put some character into it?
If I'm sure of one thing, sustained contact builds community bridges. Gaffer and Mintlou hated each other. Five years on, and Mintlou will make an appearance at Gaffer's (send out the damn invites already) wedding.
