Thank you Yennage. That was all I wanted. I'm not so disappointed with the perk structure as I am with Alien. And I get where god mode would be used, I just hate seeing these options offered when there are worlds designed specifically for that. Back in the day when I donated, it was exactly that. I didn't give a stuff about caps and what not. But now it's not so much a donation. I understand that people may be needing more incentive to keep the server afloat. I also get that there is still access to everything else without paying a cent. But I didn't think the good ol' MCA would stoop to these marketing techniques.
No problem eaten, I see where you're coming from with your point about donations and not needing an incentive to offer support too (I feel the same way every time I'm faced with the inclination of "donating" for something) I guess the best I can offer is that we won't be setting up a telemarketing team to call you at dinnertime extolling the benefits of creative access
I'm unsure of how valid this analogy is or whether it'll help but try and think of the perks system as being like Kickstarter except people who don't financially back still get the finished product, whilst the backers get the perks and what not.
To try and vaguely answer your issues Jesse, I'm afraid the very same drop-down PvP and factions section that you mention as being fun is the same thing that a bunch of users didn't like at the time. Unfortunately, PvP and factions worlds have never really been our core focus and so far it's proven impossible to find a configuration that seems to please the majority of users long-term, to use an example, initial factions was seen was one-sided (with later complaints being more focused on it becoming stagnant once everyone got a decent setup), PvP village was heavily criticised for it's small size and the inability to build "bases", larger "factions 2" was cited as being too big and, by extension, too boring whilst the most recent "Civ" incarnation didn't really have any longevity at all. People [un]fortunately tend to recall only the good times of things they remember whilst forgetting anything negative associated with it, heck I remember every hype moment of 2012 whilst conveniently forgetting every annoying incident.
Not a day goes by that we don't regret having found a workable pvp solution that seems to please the majority without requiring a reset every few months (again, another divisive issue) but our core focus will always be the Build world and it's associated setup.
As with eaten, if you've got any other questions about it drop 'em in and we'll try to answer (just try to keep this on topic to eaten's issue, if you feel you'll be straying into other queries separate to donations, PMs or another thread may be better)
Continuing the spirit of Jesse's don't hate the poster ethos, for what it's worth, alien does a heck of a lot of work for us behind the scenes on the technical side of the server. It's unfortunately something that users don't always directly see but plugins and the server itself are kept regularly up to date and running thanks to his efforts.