Minuvix SMP is a modded fantasy RPG server in which featured content creators play alongside their communities. I spoke to the server’s owner, Minuvix (or Minu), to talk about this unusual blend of creator and viewer SMP, the practicalities behind it, and what the future looks like for the next season.
Minuvix’s server deviates from the classic SMP mould by being a hybrid between a creator and community server. The recently-ended Season 2 had nine featured Twitch streamers, in whose chat anyone seeking to join the server could redeem channel points in return for a “ticket” to play.
I asked Minuvix – shortened to Minu – how this concept originated. “We’ve just gotten done with Season 2, but Season 1 was a similar format – a community SMP that viewers were able to join with tickets,” Minu explains. “It was just my channel having those tickets, and I had a couple streamers join, like DantheNoodleMan. He had some of his community members join, but it felt a bit unfortunate that in order for them to join Dan, they had to spend time watching my stream to get a ticket.”
Each ticket costs 700 channel points on Twitch – equivalent to following the channel and watching around 3 hours of a stream. This acts as a safety barrier – being easily obtainable for a true fan (even one who is fairly new to watching the streamer), but requiring enough effort to reduce the chance of unscrupulous characters joining the server to troll.
“Going into Season 2 I talked with my staff team and brought up the idea of finding some creators that we all trust,” Minu tells me, “and inviting them and their communities to expand on the SMP.” This means that the tickets can now be redeemed on any of the featured creators’ channels – not just Minu’s own. “Obviously I’m hosting it, but we see it more as we’re creating a big community together.”
Balancing the needs of both creators and their audiences isn’t without its challenges. “We want the players on the SMP to feel they can get involved. We focus a lot on player enjoyment, but since we’re doing lore, and we have streamers playing and streaming on the SMP, we also need to consider their safety,” Minu explains. “Most streamers are a bit wary of having people they don’t know on their stream. Going into next season, we’re pushing more for players to get involved in the main lore without sacrificing that sense of security for the streamers, which I’m very excited about.”
How the streamers themselves interact with the server and the player base varies from streamer to streamer. “The hybrid creator/community model gives viewers the ability to get as involved in our stories as streamers, as comfortably as we like,” DantheNoodleMan tells me. “Some streamers have communities that go as far as roleplaying on stream, or do as little as living in, or on the outskirts, of the factions we create. It’s a unique way to interact with your community.”
So how does the lore work across two groups of people? “We try to do a centralised lore plotline decided amongst the streamers,” Minu says, “and then we have certain moments where the viewers can participate in those centralised plot moments. For example, we recently had a big war, where us streamers divided ourselves, and then players got to join whichever side they wanted.”
There’s no set writer for the lore – decisions are made communally in meetings between the featured streamers. “I really loved going to the writing meetings throughout the season,” featured Season 2 streamer Rinzeon tells me. “We all got to catch up and decide what was next for the world, and what part we wanted to play in the events.”
It’s not just the streamers making the decisions though, because the community also gets a say. “Before every season, we’ve done a form for feedback and ideas,” Minu says. “We start off by asking the community what kind of themes they’d like to see, and if they have any ideas or suggestions – both for general world-building and for plot points. We also asked what parts of the lore they enjoyed the most.”
“The community Minuvix has created makes the server come to life in its own ways,” adds community member QuietNono, “because everyone can integrate their individual ideas.”
All players – regardless of their roles – are allowed and even encouraged to create their own characters. These are tracked in a wiki, started by community member QuietNono, and now managed by the community. “People have been able to send in their characters that they’ve come up with for the SMP,” Minu says, “and they can read up on whatever everyone else is doing – streamer or not. The wiki team are absolutely amazing, I’m so impressed.”
“It reminded me a lot of Dungeons & Dragons in the way that I made a character, gave the character a couple reasons to be involved in side plots that were already official lore, and just did improv from there,” says another community member, glitchymoss. “Everyone I reached out to was super willing to work with me to make stuff happen, on my streams and their own.”
“This server feels more inclusive, compared to the application-based and open ones I’ve gotten into,” adds community member Scout. “I can tell there is a lot more love in it, and not ‘Hey I put a modpack together, throw it into the world and hope people come play it,’ kinda vibe. The modpack is carefully put together. There are a lot of interactions between viewers, streamers and anyone really. When I first joined, I joined through a friend – and today, I have a lot more. I realised this is a healthy, growing community who actually care about the people in it.”
QuietNono, glitchymoss and Scout, alongside another community member, Shay, are all joining the main cast for Season 3. “Some people from Season 2 are leaving us, but we have plenty of new people joining us, and it’s all people who were streaming on Season 2 but weren’t partnered streamers,” Minu tells me. “I’m so excited about the new partners, having seen them already create content on the SMP. I’m a massive fan of what they’ve been doing, and now that we’ve been having a lot of meetings about Season 3, I can’t wait to get started and actually do a lot of content with them.”
Any readers looking to join the server for Season 3 can get their ticket from any of the featured streamers’ channels, after which they’ll be guided through the joining and mod installation process by the Minuvix SMP’s staff team. Players who were on the server for Season 2 will have their tickets carry over. More info can be found in the community Discord server, which is open for anyone to join, regardless of whether they have their ticket yet or not.
Minuvix SMP will re-open for Season 3 in late September.
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