The Weekly Gaze

I received no submissions so once again the Weekly Gaze has been postponed for next week!

KrysKrys8 remember to pick up your prize!

The spotlight is still on player-made fishing ponds! 

An enchanted fishing pole and armor set are still the prizes for this spotlight! Don't forget to submit!

Polls & Game Update

The results from last week's poll are in!  Here are our favorite ways to travel:

WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO TRAVEL?

Walking/Sprinting	1 (8%)
Horseback	5 (41%)
Saddled Pig	2 (16%)
Railroad	4 (33%)

This week's poll is now up:

WHICH MOB KILLS YOU THE MOST?

Last week's Where Am I? is going to be re-flown as there hasn't been a winner.  We're upping the ante with a better prize to see if we can encourage you to look harder.

It's time for Where Am I? Wednesday! Here is your mystery server screenshot:

Prize: 

• 20 Glowstone Lamps
• Gold Horse Armor
• A Confused Sheep
• A stack of these babies: 

How to Play and Enter: 

1. Search the server for the place in the screenshot!
2. Once you think you've found it, hit F3 on your keyboard to bring up the coordinates. 
3. Jot down the coordinates for X, Y, and Z on a piece of scrap paper (make sure you correctly identify if they're negative coordinates!).
4. Write a letter to Otter by typing the following command:
• /letter Coordinates (XX, YY, ZZ) <YourUsername>
• (Please replace XX with the X coords, YY with the Y coords and ZZ with the Z coords)
• Please sign the letter with your full username.
5. With your written letter in your hand, send it to Otter with the following command:
• /post Otterun

The winner will be announced along with the weekend spotlight.

Read HERE for more information! 

The Weekly Gaze

The Weekly Gaze

No entries were submitted for this week's Weekly Gaze!  Noooooo!

In that case, let's up the motivation a bit, shall we? The spotlight is still on Fishing Ponds. The prize is still an enchanted Fishing Rod! To complete the theme, though, I am throwing in an Aqua Affinity, Underwater breathing leather armor set! 

Hmm. Maybe I should compete too . . . 

Wednesday Where Am I? Winner!

No one has won this week's Where Am I challenge!  We are upping the ante! In addition to the fireworks, minecarts, and tracks, the winner will also receive a saddle and a name tag!

Preparing for the 1.8 Update!

Just a couple of notes about the release of 1.8.  Mojang is currently saying it will be available September 2nd.  Please be aware that GazerCraft may not be able to update on that exact day.  We do need to make sure that our plugins (like MyHorse, DiscoveryWarps, Lockette, etc.) are able to successfully update to 1.8 as well.  GazerCraft may have to wait a couple extra days, but we'll make it worth your while!  When we do update to 1.8 we'll have a party!  The festivities will include: 

• A firework celebration
• A 1.8 prize pack for everyone who logs in
• Banner making competition
• Expanded world border! 
• (We'll go from a 3000 block diameter from spawn to 8000!)
• Festival Announcement
• Outpost Announcement

Wednesday Where Am I? 8/20/14

It's time for Where Am I? Wednesday! Here is your mystery server screenshot:

Prize: 

• 2 Minecarts
• 32 Rails
• A stack of these babies: 

How to Play and Enter: 

1. Search the server for the place in the screenshot!
2. Once you think you've found it, hit F3 on your keyboard to bring up the coordinates. 
3. Jot down the coordinates for X, Y, and Z on a piece of scrap paper (make sure you correctly identify if they're negative coordinates!).
4. Write a letter to Otter by typing the following command:
• /letter Coordinates (XX, YY, ZZ) <YourUsername>
• (Please replace XX with the X coords, YY with the Y coords and ZZ with the Z coords)
• Please sign the letter with your full username.
5. With your written letter in your hand, send it to Otter with the following command:
• /post Otterun

The winner will be announced along with the weekend spotlight.

Read HERE for more information! 

Firework Show!

Please join us for our Mod Appreciation Firework Show to honor Min, Punisher, and Tana! Meet us at the Twilight Arena (x:2531, y:107, z:806) today at noon Pacific Time OR when the below timer runs out:

The Weekly Gaze

The Weekly Gaze

Greetings Gazers! This week we are featuring Basements!

First up we have Punisher and his basement storage area.

"Not every house has to take up a lot of room on the surface, some of the best homes utilize the ground beneath them. This home's basement has all the storage and tools any player would need, making this home truly a home base for mine craft operations."

That's it for this week's weekly gaze! The winner is: ThePunisher1028! Congrats! Your prize will be available in Z's office at spawn shortly! 

Next week's contest is featuring Fishing Ponds. The Prize will be an enchanted Fishing Rod! 

Remember that anyone can enter into the Weekly Gaze! 

*Note that the pond has to be man-made or altered in some way (bridge, deepened, etc.)

Firework Show

The server has been poppin' lately and it's thanks to our lovely moderators!  To celebrate our wonderful staff and boost in activity, we're going to have a firework show in their honor! Come celebrate Min, Punisher, and Tana!

The show will take place at the Twilight Arena (x:2531, y:107, z:806).  It will begin at 12:30pm 12:00pm Wednesday, August 20th, Pacific Standard Time.  Here's a nifty Time Zone Converter for you to use.  We will make plenty of announcements around that time and we will wait until it's night time in game.

Server Cleanup

We're in the process of doing a server clean up. This does NOT mean you may alter player builds/chests -- doing so is still against the rules.  It just means that we're demoting inactive towns, disabling* inactive Discovery Warp plates, and removing offices to make room for new, active players.

*If you have previously discovered a Discovery Warp, but it has now been disabled due to inactivity, you can still use it.  Disabling just means it won't appear when using '/dw list' and new players won't be able to discover it. 

Wednesday Where Am I? Winner!

Our latest Wednesday winner is Punisher from Sanctuary! Congratulations! The location was just outside of Mourningwood, a forgotten settlement.

New Poll!

Last week we asked about a new plugin, which sadly had some bugs.  While that gets resolved, consider our newest poll: What is the best way to travel?

Wednesday Where Am I? 8/13/14

It's time for Where Am I? Wednesday! Here is your mystery server screenshot:

(Note: Zombies may have been killed after photo.)

Prize: 

• A surprise "Squidward"
• 10 pieces of glass
• A lilypad
• A stack of these babies: 

How to Play and Enter: 

1. Search the server for the place in the screenshot!
2. Once you think you've found it, hit F3 on your keyboard to bring up the coordinates. 
3. Jot down the coordinates for X, Y, and Z on a piece of scrap paper (make sure you correctly identify if they're negative coordinates!).
4. Write a letter to Otter by typing the following command:
• /letter Coordinates (XX, YY, ZZ) <YourUsername>
• (Please replace XX with the X coords, YY with the Y coords and ZZ with the Z coords)
• Please sign the letter with your full username.
5. With your written letter in your hand, send it to Otter with the following command:
• /post Otterun

The winner will be announced along with the weekend spotlight.  Winners will be sent a confirmation letter and MUST pick up their prize in Otterun's office at spawn.

Read HERE for more information! 

Welcome Punisher and Minja!

We posted an application for junior mods back in July.  We were very happy with the applicants we received and were thrilled to see how many people were interested in helping the server.  Unfortunately, our server doesn't justify that many mods, so we narrowed our choices down to two.

Otter and Z are happy to announce that Minja (Minja3101) and Punisher (ThePunisher1028) will be joining the staff ranks as junior moderators!  Their job will include whitelisting, monitoring chat, and answering questions as far as their expertise allows. :)

They have the title of "Regent" which is a person of honor who rules in place of the crowned ruler.  Here is what they'll look like in chat!

The Weekly Gaze

The Weekly Gaze

Greetings Gazers! This week we are featuring Town Building Themes!

Sanctuary has a solid, go with the land building theme! Their cottages are well designed and charming. Let's see, shall we?

This one was built by ThePunisher1028 and KrysKrys8. This home is an example of what Sanctuary expects of its residents and their natural/modernized cottage theme.

Built by KrysKrys8, her home is quite stunning. Another great example of Sanctuary's building style as it is spacious while also keeping the natural integrity of the mountain. 

Shizsnok built his home beneath the cliff above, showing perfectly our motto to keep the land around our homes looking as natural as it was before building.

Built by ThePunisher1028, This building is our housing area's community center and bank to be. Though it is still under construction on the interior, the exterior represents our town's theme exceptionally. 

Also built by ThePunisher1028 this path bridges the distance between Sanctuary and Arendelle. The path reflects Sanctuary's building code in its detail and natural feel. 

Our Winner: KrysKrys8! Congratulations!! From now on, Weekly Gaze prizes will be available in Z's Office. She is in Office number 1 in the South Wing! You will have one week to pick up your prize before it is given away, so be sure to pick it up before the next Weekly Gaze! 

And that concludes this weeks Weekly Gaze! As a clarification on the rules; Anyone can enter into the Weekly Gaze contest! No need to let your town leader take all the glory! It is a contest after all. As per request, next week we will be spotlighting Basements! So if you have a basement, jazz it up and make it your pride and joy to enter into next weeks contest! When Entering please clarify the builder of the item you are entering! Also, don't be afraid to suggest new spotlights. The Prize for next week will be one Wolf Egg! 

Wednesday Where Am I? 8/6/14

It's time for Where Am I? Wednesday! Here is your mystery server screenshot:

(Note: Sheep may move)

Prize: 

• 10 cocoa beans
• A stack of these babies: 

How to Play and Enter: 

1. Search the server for the place in the screenshot!
2. Once you think you've found it, hit F3 on your keyboard to bring up the coordinates. 
3. Jot down the coordinates for X, Y, and Z on a piece of scrap paper (make sure you correctly identify if they're negative coordinates!).
4. Write a letter to Otter by typing the following command:
• /letter Coordinates (XX, YY, ZZ) <YourUsername>
• (Please replace XX with the X coords, YY with the Y coords and ZZ with the Z coords)
• Please sign the letter with your full username.
5. With your written letter in your hand, send it to Otter with the following command:
• /post Otterun

The winner will be announced along with the weekend spotlight.

Read HERE for more information! 

Polls and New Shop Option

Here are the results for last week's poll!

HOW MANY BANNERS SHOULD A TOWN/PLAYER BE ALLOWED TO "COPYRIGHT" WHEN 1.8 COMES OUT?

0	2 (14%)
1	4 (28%)
2	6 (42%)
3	2 (14%)
4	0 (0%)
5	0 (0%)
6 or more	0 (0%)

This week, we are thinking of adding a new plugin.  This plugin creates the option to create chest shops that trade items for items.  The plugin we are thinking of getting is called "FancyShop."

Here's a link with commands and info: http://dev.bukkit.org/bukkit-plugins/fancyshop/

Please watch this three minute instructional video for further clarification.  It's light weight and easy to use! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSsyDBMJwJo

So this week's poll is this:

 SHOULD WE ADD FANCYSHOP?

Please watch the instructional video and do some reading before voting, please!

The Weekly Gaze

Wednesday Where Am I? Winner!

Our latest Wednesday winner is none other than SirMeatwad of the Lost Hills! Congratulations, Meat! The location was just outside of Arendelle at an abandoned work site.



If you want to see the original puzzle, click here. If you want to get in on the next Wednesday game, you can read the competition rules here.

The Weekly Gaze

Greetings Gazers! This week we are spotlighting water features!

First up we have the south gate of Sanctuary, though the castle isn't yet finished, this water feature makes it seem quite welcoming!

Otter's horsey-watery-falley-snowey-flowery-thingey. Her horses like to play in this small natural stream.

Sliding up to the plate is skdavitt's lion, sitting on a podium surrounded by a small moat, very creative!

Arendelle's wishing well. (That rhymes!) Also, try to say that 10 times fast, go ahead, it's fun! Try dropping a gold ingot in and see if your wish comes true!

Here we have Hyper's pond-jumping bridge. I am intrigued how he decorated it with the sugar cane! Very nice. 

Last but not least is the Lost Hills tiered wheat farm!

Thanks to everyone for their submissions, this Weekly Gaze is the most successful! 

As I said before prizes are now being offered to the winner of the spotlight. I struggled between two submissions but eventually decided on skdavitt as the winner of this week's spotlight. Congrats skdavitt! Your prize will be awarded to you as soon as possible.

On another note, next week's spotlight will focus on town building themes. Is your town cohesive in its building style? (Tribes and personal builds can also be submitted if the theme is cohesive throughout several buildings) Do the players in a town work together? The Prize for the winner of this spotlight will be some records for the winner to enjoy some new music! 

On yet another note, here is the format for submitting spotlight entries to z2liion:

1. You must have the name of the player who built the object being submitted for the spotlight.
2. You must have the coordinates.
3. Town name the object is being submitted from. 
4. (Optional) Any stories about the object, or anything you want said about it on the spotlight, this must be in quotation.
5. (Optional) Recommendations for next weeks spotlights, been wanting me to do a spotlight? Tell me what you want here, as well as what prizes you would like to see!
6. Submit these to z2liion through personal messages in Skype, OR in game by using the letter system.

HOW TO USE THE LETTER SYSTEM:

EXAMPLE:

• /letter Hey Z here is my submission for the spotlight. Gooberbiscuit built it, it is at (to add more words if you are cut off, hold the letter in your hand and continue:)
• /letter 1000, 64, 1000. It is a dispenser for carrots, when you hit the button to dispense, it grows, harvests, and refills itself using a bonemeal dispenser, a piston, hopper, and another dispenser!

To send the letter to me, while holding the same letter type:

• /post z2liion

Always make sure that the coordinates you are sending me are correct, and not being accidentally cut off. If I see 1000, 64, 100 I will go to those coords, not knowing that the Z coordinate is supposed to have a third 0. Z WILL NO LONGER SEARCH FOR SPOTLIGHTS WITH INVISIBLE COORDINATES. *makes angry face* 

Thank you all and I look forward to the next spotlight! 

Wednesday Where Am I? 7/30/14

It's time for Where Am I? Wednesday! Here is your mystery server screenshot:

Prize: 

• Iron horse armor
• A saddle
• Two leads
• A stack of these babies: 

How to Play and Enter: 

1. Search the server for the place in the screenshot!
2. Once you think you've found it, hit F3 on your keyboard to bring up the coordinates. 
3. Jot down the coordinates for X, Y, and Z on a piece of scrap paper (make sure you correctly identify if they're negative coordinates!).
4. Write a letter to Otter by typing the following command:
• /letter Coordinates (XX, YY, ZZ) <YourUsername>
• (Please replace XX with the X coords, YY with the Y coords and ZZ with the Z coords)
• Please sign the letter with your full username.
5. With your written letter in your hand, send it to Otter with the following command:
• /post Otterun

The winner will be announced along with the weekend spotlight.

Read HERE for more information! 

Special Opening Postponed & Tuesday Poll

Grand Opening
Our special event was postponed.  There was a Mojang/Minecraft related issue that effected all servers, so we were down at the time the event was scheduled.

We will try again tomorrow, Wednesday, at 11am Pacific Standard Time.  Click here for a time converter to help. :)

Tuesdays Poll
The results are in for last week's poll:

WHEN A PERSON LEAVES ONE TOWN, HOW LONG SHOULD THEY WAIT BEFORE JOINING ANOTHER?

No limit.	9 (39%)
3 days	1 (4%)
7 days	13 (56%)
14 days	0 (0%)
21 days	0 (0%)
22+ days	0 (0%)

The majority tips in favor of having some sort of time limit to prevent people from town hopping and stealing materials.  We will test out a 5-day limit for people who leave towns on their own choosing (not including town inactivity resulting in the desire to leave).  Those in this 5-day cool down will receive the title of "Explorer" which will automatically be removed after the 5 days are up.

This week's poll is up.  Some people are concerned about banner (see below) design theft being a problem when 1.8 comes out.  This question is about whether Gazer staff should regulate banner designs to ensure that players can't "steal" another player's idea.

HOW MANY BANNERS SHOULD A TOWN/PLAYER BE ALLOWED TO "COPYRIGHT" WHEN 1.8 COMES OUT?

In-Game Banners
While we anxiously await 1.8 and the arrival of banners, play around with the banner maker in the mean time: http://algoin.de/bngn/

It's tons of fun and you can planning what banner you would like to represent your village or just to decorate your own builds!

Wednesday What Am I?
Finally, Wednesday's What Am I will be posted at a random hour on Wednesday as opposed to the set 4am PST schedule.  This will hopefully give people from other timezones a better opportunity to solve it.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the game!

Weekend Update

The winner for Wednesday's Where Am I is... Minja! Congratulations!  Here's the answer to this week's puzzle.  The location was just outside of Haven (though there was a bit of confusion as the location was altered after the puzzle was posted -- sorry!  Otter will be more careful next time). 

If you want to see the original puzzle, click here. If you want to get in on the next Wednesday game, you can read the competition rules here.

Greetings everyone! A few updates. We are planning a grand opening on Tuesday (be on around 12pm Pacific Standard Time to catch it!  Here's a time converter).  We hope to see a big turnout of people attending the opening!

Also, for the Weekly Gaze, it has been postponed to next weekend. The same spotlight, water features, and the same prize will be awarded.

Click here for last week's Weekly Gaze.

Wednesday Where Am I? 7/23/14

It's time for Where Am I? Wednesday! Here is your mystery server screenshot:

Prize: 

• A magical sheep
• Ten daylight sensors
• A stack of these babies: 

How to Play and Enter: 

1. Search the server for the place in the screenshot!
2. Once you think you've found it, hit F3 on your keyboard to bring up the coordinates. 
3. Jot down the coordinates for X, Y, and Z on a piece of scrap paper (make sure you correctly identify if they're negative coordinates!).
4. Write a letter to Otter by typing the following command:
• /letter Coordinates (XX, YY, ZZ) <YourUsername>
• (Please replace XX with the X coords, YY with the Y coords and ZZ with the Z coords)
• Please sign the letter with your full username.
5. With your written letter in your hand, send it to Otter with the following command:
• /post Otterun

The winner will be announced along with the weekend spotlight.

Read HERE for more information! 

Poll: Townless-ness

The results are in from last week's poll!  We were toying around with the idea of opening a new spawn building, to encourage players to build away from spawn, but it looks like our current system is fine and traveling is all part of the Minecraft journey.

WHERE SHOULD NEW PLAYERS SPAWN WHEN 1.8 COMES OUT?

In a new spawn building, far away from the current one.	5 (27%)
In the same spawn snowy building we've all come to know and love.	11 (61%)
I don't have a strong opinion either way.	2 (11%)
Another idea! (Post in the news comments)	0 (0%)

This week Otter would like to know your feelings on people leaving new towns and joining new ones.  Do you think it would be fair to put a limit on how long someone must wait before joining a new town?  Some people feel it takes away from the community feel when players are able to hop around from city to city.  Behind the scenes, it's also kind of a pain to move a single person around 3 times in a week.

The new poll question is this:

WHEN A PERSON LEAVES ONE TOWN, HOW LONG SHOULD THEY WAIT BEFORE JOINING ANOTHER?

If you have other ideas or suggestions, please comment on this post or the GazerCraft Skype group to start a discussion!

The Weekly Gaze

The Weekly Gaze

Greetings Gazers! This week we are featuring interior decoration! 

First up is Omega with his castle's throne room! 

And we have Krys' house! 

And the Resident bridge to Auriel!

Min and Nikki's hotel lobby:

Before I get finished I want to apologize for the abruptness of this spotlight. Been doing schoolwork since 8am (set my alarm earlier than I normally wake up for work!) and barely got it finished at 7pm. Add in a small break for dinner and I am purely worn out. 

I was thinking of ideas to get the spotlight a little more popular. I decided to make it a small competition. I will air every submission just as before, however I will pick one out of the bunch as a 'winner' and give the town or player that submitted it a prize. Granted, it will be hard to give an entire town a prize, it will most likely go to the person responsible for the construction of the project. So if someone built the paths, and another person build the lamps, if they are the spotlight I need to know who build it so they can receive the award.

*Note. If town leaders submit nothing but their own projects they will lose quite often as I will not give a prize to the same person very often.

For next week's spotlight I decided on WATER FEATURES. If you have a pool, pond, hot spring, creek, stream, waterfall, toilet, share them with me! The prize this week will be five invisibility potions!

Wednesday Where Am I? Winner!

Our latest Wednesday winner is none other than Minja!  Congratulations, Min!  The location was atop the cloud in CRMVille (if you haven't been there, you should check it out)!

If you want to see the original puzzle, click here. If you want to get in on the next Wednesday game, you can read the competition rules here.

Wednesday Where Am I? 7/16/14

It's time for Where Am I? Wednesday! Here is your mystery server screenshot:

Prize: 

• A wolf spawn egg
• A name tag
• Half stack of glowstone lamps
• A stack of these babies: 

How to Play and Enter: 

1. Search the server for the place in the screenshot!
2. Once you think you've found it, hit F3 on your keyboard to bring up the coordinates. 
3. Jot down the coordinates for X, Y, and Z on a piece of scrap paper (make sure you correctly identify if they're negative coordinates!).
4. Write a letter to Otter by typing the following command:
• /letter Coordinates (XX, YY, ZZ) <YourUsername>
• (Please replace XX with the X coords, YY with the Y coords and ZZ with the Z coords)
• Please sign the letter with your full username.
5. With your written letter in your hand, send it to Otter with the following command:
• /post Otterun

The winner will be announced along with the weekend spotlight.

Read HERE for more information! 

Tuesday Poll!

The results are in! Here's what the Gazer group thinks about tamable mobs!

Cat	4 (23%)
Dog	7 (41%)
Horse	0 (0%)
Donkey	1 (5%)
Saddled Pig	0 (0%)
Mule	0 (0%)
Rabbits (with 1.8!)	5 (29%)

Dogs hold the place as the favorite, but it looks like a lot of excitement is getting drummed up for up-coming rabbits in 1.8!

Speaking of 1.8... How do you think we should handle spawn when 1.8 comes out?  When 1.8 is ready (and our grief-protection plugins update), we are going to expand our world border, generating new lands so we can find the added mobs and blocks.  

How should we handle spawn when that happens?  Do you think we should build a new spawn build beyond the current world so new members start out there? Or should we leave the old spawn building as is and make everyone travel to find the new lands?

Please vote on the poll.  If you have another idea, please post it in the comments below.

The Weekly Gaze

The Weekly Gaze

Bridges!

Greetings, Gazers, this week's spotlight focuses on Bridges!

First up, Zotterdale with their water-less bridge! Quite a feat from our favorite admin, Otterun!

Next is the Hotdog bridge, an entry submitted by Sirmeatwad. Quite the charming little bridge!

To sum up our spotlight, a bridge in Arendelle spanning their small pond! It is quite picturesque, I love the roses too!

Next week's theme is interior decor!  Have you been able to repurpose Minecraft items to look like real life decorations?  Have you come up with any clever creations for the inside of your builds?  Send a letter ( /letter) to z2liion ( /post z2liion).  Tell her who you are, what town you're in, what your spotlight entry is, and the coords where she can find it.

Rock Bottom

Rock Bottom has joined the ranks of the other villages and it rocks!  This whimsical town looks like it came right out of a Minecraft fairytale!  Be sure to collect the Discovery Warp -- it's located in the boat so you feel like you're traveling there by sea.  If you're interested in joining, talk to Squire Rivalcat!
Coordinates x: 900  z: -1100

Wednesday Where Am I? Winner
We had quite a few participants this round, but the prize goes to the quickest!  This week's winner is SirMeatwad!  Congratulations!  Here's the answer, just outside of Oatmeal's place:

If you want to see the original puzzle, click here. If you want to get in on the next Wednesday game, you can read the competition rules here.  

GazerCraft is on Youtube

Our very own Arrowninja has started a let's play series about his time on GazerCraft.  His soothing voice and quick wit makes it a good watch.  Check it out!