There’s a lot to unpack here, so I will be as detailed and transparent as possible.
I see and understand all of your concerns. I know you have heard plenty of staff members say this and have been let down, so I hope to change that. KitPvP is dead, and we all notice it. We all see that it needs serious work. However, it is not as black and white as you may think. It is important to look at this from two perspectives: as a staff member and as a player. I am in the position to see both of these views. There will be a change in KitPvP management in the next couple of weeks.
Staff Member
Before I continue, I want to make it clear that I am not trying to single a specific person or group of people out. It is not one person that can be blamed. It is a collection of us for using an inefficient approach. If there is any place where it seems I am implying that someone is at fault, please remember that not only is that not in my intention, but it’s also not the truth.
My frustration is shared with you. The game mode that used to have 100+ people now has 10 on a good day. There has not been an update in two years, and there is nothing to moderate. For these last two years, we have heard players give us great recommendations, but many complain with no valuable input. For the same two years, there have been so many attempts from staff members in all positions to revive KitPvP and plan an update. I have seen a handful of documents that have some updates planned out. There are way too many issues to address with the planning, organization, and delivery of these updates. If I had to generalize the problem with a common phrase, it would be “all bark and no bite.” We have all the ideas, great staff members willing to put in the time and effort, and excellent developers who can make it happen, but it does not get done. And like cheater_ said, limited development resources allocated to different projects have left kit feeling forgotten. The instigator of these great ideas and plans is Mikeal. Yet, I see an insane amount of backlash for him doing “nothing” when he has done the most out of anyone. All the good that has come out of KitPvP is because of him. I’m sure it is clear that he is busier with his life now, but make no mistake; any staff member that would have replaced Mike over the last two years as kit manager would not have been able to make a noticeable difference. Mike did the best he could to leave positive changes for KitPvP. Mike is not the problem. This is more than which staff you see online to adhere to your personal “activity standards” or if several members should resign. I promise you this is no way to dictate change and involvement with the server. It is a collective issue. You may wonder why it has taken so long to change our approach. It hasn’t. We have changed the process several times but still hit a wall. When you are constantly unsuccessful at something, no matter how much effort you put in, the most basic human response is to put less effort into it. We are doing our best to improve our communication within the staff team and outside of it. I want to apologize for my lack of effort and the lack of action from the kitpvp management. We all want the same thing, to see this server grow. If you respectfully bring up an idea, other staff members and I will try our best to include you in our conversations and explain to you why we think the idea is good or bad. We are always open to respectful, constructive criticism.
Regardless of if this is the response you wanted from a staff perspective, it’s the truth.
Player Perspective
When we come online and see 9 people on, 7 of them are AFK, and 2 are mods talking to each other, it’s annoying. Most players and my friends are quitting because nothing is being changed. Every time we raise our concerns, we are met with the same generic response: “coming soon,” or no response at all. We have been fighting with the same boring kits, using the same boring meta, against the same boring players. Why would anyone want to stick around? Of course, the staff members are busy. We all have lives outside this game, but if staff can’t balance their time, they should not be as involved in it — which is entirely okay and normal. Given that there is nothing for us to do, why would we not be frustrated? Why would we not be complaining? We have been asking for feedback, an update, or even an idea of where the server is going for months. We have been met with silence. What else are we supposed to do? We try to approach with respect and give opinions. We ask for communication and transparency. When that isn’t given, all that is left to do is complain. The staff team shouldn’t be surprised by our constant disappointment and outburst. Like McDonalds and CatTech said, first we need a response. Without that, we are stuck in the same loop we have had for months.
(I may write less here because this forum post is basically the player’s perspective.)
With those two perspectives taken into account, I will meet everyone halfway and start with communication on the next update. I will not lie and try to be as straightforward as possible, even if it paints me in a bad light. We are all trying to improve, and that is all that matters.
We are planning a new update that will likely move to 1.19. That is its own conversation that will not be discussed in this forum post. The decision is not yet final, and we still have testing to do, and we want more feedback from you. We are planning to do something special with the kits as well as adding several cool features and map interactions. There will be another post/reply asking where the community wants the direction of KitPvP to go. None of this is final. Things can be added or removed. The event team will also be getting an update. The value of this may not be seen as much as a player, but it will help ease the hosting process for event members and should allow a variety of more events to be hosted. I have no ETA at this moment.
I hope this addresses some concerns. I will do my best to respond to meaningful replies.