This Minecraft SMP Will Never End

THIS is HermitCraft. It’s probably the biggest  Minecraft SMP on YouTube right now, and it has   been going for LITERALLY 10 YEARS. But..how?  Minecraft has died like…12 trillion times,   and you’re telling me these guys outlasted  CaptainSPARKLEZ? Well, it’s a lot more  

Complicated than that, because HermitCraft is  CLEARLY doing something that NO OTHER SMP has   been doing – they destroyed the Dream SMP, they  crushed SMP Live, and they are hungry for more. For a server to both take off and SURVIVE,  there are two main things that it needs to  

Go PERFECTLY – the CREATORS and the AUDIENCE. The  creators need to not get burnt out, to have fun   making the videos that they’re making, and also  be able to make those videos without losing out   on growth. BUT there’s more, because the audience  also needs to be engaged and interested enough  

To watch the content, support the creators, and  much more – and getting these two to work at the   same time is virtually IMPOSSIBLE. I mean, even  removing the content part of all of this – think  

Of all the SMPs that are started by good friend  groups that just get abandoned after a few weeks. Burn Out. It’s become more and more of a well  known cause for creators quitting, and it is   DEADLY. Everyone thinks that it’d be awesome  to be a YouTuber – you get to play videogames  

All day as your JOB – who wouldn’t love that –  but it really isn’t that simple. Every single   creator I know is always trying to figure out how  to grow faster, how to make sure that they’re not  

Completely forgotten by the time the next big  thing comes about, and a lot of them – myself   included – are OBSESSIVE, with their analytics.  Watch time, view duration, the rate at which a   video grows, even if it’s doing well – constant  pressure from hundreds of thousands of fans and  

Even more from those around you who always  seem to be doing better – it is NOT easy,   despite how it seems. And.. to compensate, a lot  of people work themselves really, really hard. So   much so that they eventually..just can’t anymore  – they lose their drive and fire and passion,  

And just. quit. It’s happened to nearly every  big creator at one point or another – hell,   it happened to Mumbo Jumbo literally this  year – and yet..HermitCraft has kept itself   alive for 10 years. What happened there –  why didn’t all the creators burn out there?

First of all – most, if not all, of the creators  on HermitCraft are like. 30. Mumbo is actually   amongst the youngest, at TWENTY SIX, and this  means that not only are all of these creators   much more mature than the 18 to 20 year  olds that have been blowing up on YouTube,  

It means they know that taking care of yourself is  also – surprise surprise – really important. Most   of Hermits all have healthy, realistic schedules  that they set for themselves – or are setting for   themselves, like Grian also did recently – and  they STICK to that. They give themselves time for  

Their family, time to relax and not work, and they  make sure that their work life balance is healthy.   They’re also usually a bit more…careful with  their platform, and make sure their relationship   with their audience isn’t Too parasocial and  unhealthy. Which is always a good thing, trust me.

But..what about the actual success? HermitCraft,  somehow, has managed to stay relevant – to stay   at the top of the SMP game, even, for YEARS  at this point, with seemingly very little   changing about their actual content. So why is  it that, in the age of algorithm manipulation,  

And crazy intros to optimise for watch time,  the most subscribed Hermit usually starts his   videos with white text on a black background  – why is it that fancy editing and on-screen   tricks are restricted to only a handful of  hermits – and yet they STILL somehow succeed?

Okay, so imagine HermitCraft like it’s one  of those simulating civilisation videos,   yeah – I know, they’re overdone, but bear with  me here. This is where the creators make their   stuff. They need to be both happy and get views.  This is the outside world, and this is..uh,  

The. The U tube. for uh. posting videos. ANYWAY  Let’s take myself as an example – if I was  in this little box here, I make a video,   I put it through the tube, I get some views back,  and some new people might subscribe. Awesome! But  

When I’m not making videos, well, I don’t get  as many views. Hm. How can we fix that? Well,   I could make more videos, quicker – but that would  get me burnt out. What about..hiring someone,   paying them to help me make videos? Well, I could  definitely make more videos then, but all the new  

Extra views I get might get completely eaten up by  this other person, who also. yknow. needs to eat. And HermitCraft, maybe unknowingly,  figured out the solution to this,   AGES ago. Because HermitCraft is on a server  with every single player making content,  

Every single player is constantly making videos  at their own rate, which – and this is the   important bit – involves other hermits, directly  or indirectly. This means that yeah, one person   making a video has all the normal effects, but  it also indirectly might give the person they  

Talked to in that video some of the benefits – and  this knock on effect happens for EVERY CREATOR. Okay, we got a bit..theoretical there, so  let me give you a really really good example.   Basically all Let’s Plays on YouTube have a view  graph like this: You start really really high,  

With lots of people interested in this new thing  and trying to get into the series, and then the   views slowly decline over time, as people lose  interest in the series. Seems pretty obvious,   right? Now let me introduce you to Zedaph, a  member of the HermitCraft server who’s been  

Making videos for ages. Now, Zed has some of the  best editing on the HermitCraft server and is   incredibly funny – so he’s been growing steadily  as time goes on – just like any normal creator,   right? But bear with me here – what do  you think Zed’s most viewed video is?  

If you answered anything other than episode THIRTY  EIGHT of HermitCraft Season 7 – you’d be wrong,   because this video is Zedaph’s most viewed  – and it’s in no small part..because   he switched bases with Grian. I mean,  just listen to the video’s top comment.

“Mumbo is a genius. To be honest, I didn’t watch  a single episode of Zedaph’s episodes until today.   By switching bases, the viewers will have to watch  the videos of other hermits, thus connecting the   hermitcraft community, and  helping each other out.”

Mumbo being Mumbo Jumbo, who had organised the  entire base swap as part of a huge server wide   event for Season 7 – this base swap was just  the normal effects of the HermitCraft server,   but ramped up to 10 trillion.  HermitCraft is an ecosystem,  

And this helps to keep every single creator  growing while they make content on the server. This also means that – let’s say you get into  the HermitCraft ecosystem from a Mumbo redstone,   but you’re actually a bigger fan of building  – HermitCraft has the perfect creator for  

You. What if I like building, but  I want the creator to be hyper,   with pretty heavy editing, who does some lore,  and who HAS to have over 1 million subscribers,   AND who lives in North America, so they post at  a normal time for me? There’s a creator for that.

Now if you’ve made it this far in the video,  chances are your attention span is pretty   good – congratulations on not being like  literally 99% of the rest of YouTube – and   here’s the point I’m trying to make. If you  aren’t editing with 32 cuts every 5 seconds,  

If there isn’t always something on screen  or fast talking or something else happening,   the amount of people who stay for more  than 5 seconds for your videos PLUMMETS.   HermitCraft makes up for this, though, by  being extremely smart, and leveraging TWITCH.

You see, it itches something in monkey  brain to see big progress happen in a   short time – there’s a reason timelapses  are so popular – and very early on,   Hermits realised that when an episode had a  lot of progress, it was much more enjoyable  

For the viewer than one where it felt like  nothing happened. Therefore – they use   TWITCH – where being live for a lot of time, all  the time helps a lot – to grind out these huge,   gigabase projects that wouldn’t be feasible  without livestreaming them, and then condense  

Those projects into videos – so that there are  constant dopamine hits for viewers on YouTube,   who keep watching for longer, and so that they can  be live and doing something on twitch for longer,   which not only grows their platform there, but  also gives them another source of income. This  

Kind of HUGE progress on a weekly basis means that  every video feels like it’s useful and necessary   to be watched – which makes the likelihood that  people watch past that episode 1 much higher,   which gets them invested and interested in  the actual series – not just the premise.

Also! A lot of the hermits audience are kids,  and because of the family friendly nature of   their content, it’s really easy for parents to not  only be okay with their kids watching HermitCraft,   but for the broad concepts of the video  to appeal to them as well – in short,  

They make content that is accessible to kids,  but appealing to all: which has led to countless   stories of HermitCraft becoming a family  THING – sitting down at the end of the week,   and watching the new episode with the  family. It’s fun, free entertainment.

Finally, though, we need to talk about the actual  server itself – because the way HermitCraft runs   itself is INCREDIBLY important to how the  server has stayed alive this long. Xisuma,   the unofficial leader of the group, is making a  video series on how HermitCraft is run – and his  

Insight is SUPER interesting. You see, HermitCraft  is an extremely democratic server in that every   hermit is consulted on server decisions before  they’re made, and everyone’s vote is the exact   same. There is no distinction or even perceived  barrier to two hermits collabing, talking,  

Or having different opinions, no matter their  size on YouTube – everyone has an equal say,   no matter what. The server also has regular  meetings where members are able to voice   their concerns and criticisms without having to  fear retribution in any way, which makes every  

Member accessible and contactable – there  is always a way for every Hermit to have   their voice heard. This means that every Hermit  feels at home and comfortable with the space,   and for huge decisions like adding new members to  the server, the decision must be UNANIMOUS – every  

Single hermit has to agree. Although the initial  motivation for HermitCraft came from trying out   making let’s plays, which were new on YouTube  at the time, the drive to continue came from the   server itself being as fun and productive  as it could possibly be for the hermits,  

While retaining the extremely important trait of  *being a group of friends*. New hermits freshened   up the server with their ideas, and when older  hermits felt the need to move on, they were   allowed to do so with grace – there was no drama.  Take a look at this clip from Xisuma’s video:

Now compare that to how Eret has  described how the Dream SMP was: We do have a #script-plans channel in the discord,   but that is talked in only about once  per month nowadays. Outside of that,  

Most lore is planned in DMs and group chats  and as a result, a lot of people are left out. Like, you can see the huge difference there,  right? One server CLEARLY has more organisation,   because the members know that it is  their responsibility to communicate  

With each other clearly and make time  for the server. Now, hopefully that’s   changed with the new seasons of the Dream SMP,  but…it’s already Been a thing for HermitCraft. And that is why HermitCraft will never die.  It’s got a wide selection of incredibly  

Diverse creators, who know how to balance making  smart, entertaining videos with their lifestyle,   who are responsible enough to make time for  the server, and who are incredibly driven. Oh,   and all those years ago? They  also got very, very lucky.

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