The monopoly of HytaleHub

[Mwex]

Hey all,

First of all, I'll start with some disclaimers. I'm not an active member on here, nor in the Discord, but I can say that I have joined a long time ago. A few months after the creation of the Hytale trailer, I joined this community because it seemed like the right place to be. My opinion has changed and I will explain why.

My intention is not to harm anyone specifically, I just want to share some opinions and gather feedback, hopefully of the owner of HytaleHub himself.

1. The problem
The monopoly of HytaleHub is real. You can see they really invested to be the #1 place to be when it comes to Hytale. Granted, this is probably the earliest community that did so.

The problem is the fact that HytaleHub seems to control everything:

1. Community: this is the most central place for someone to be when it comes to Hytale. This is not a problem though, since it was the original intent of the forums.
2. Servers Lists: HytaleHub has access to all most popular server-site URLs, and continues to do so. A little bit more diversity would be cool here, especially the fact that they use different URLs for the same project implies their intentions here.
3. Market: besides this forum, they also started HytaleMarket (I think? Long time ago). Either way, they want to dive into this particular sector as well.
4. Server Hosting: Yes, they also have a server hosting. Despite the fact that they don't even know how servers will work! Maybe Hytale will use the Roblox approach, where the ingame currency is used to buy stuff (opposite to Minecraft's EULA approach).

When we look at Minecraft, all these points are split up fairly evenly.

1. SpigotMC, DevBukkit (now inactive), PlanetMinecraft, ...
2. Endless list
3. McMarket, SpigotMc (a bit), ...
4. Server.pro, Minehut, Pebblehost, ... (endless list)

Then note the fact that HytaleHub has some sections like builds, server monetization (like Tebex for Minecraft), etc.: they really want to be an all-round place.

2. Is this a problem though?
One could argue it is not, and to be honest: I don't know either. The future will tell us the answer, but my question is just why they would do this. HytaleHub is NOT a community anymore, it's a company. This is something I really like about the Minecraft forums like SpigotMc and PlanetMinecraft: they don't behave like companies.

Nevertheless, the amount of work put into the project is amazing and you can see the results. I just hope other initiatives will be able to develop.

Please share your opinions. I'll repeat: this is not a rant/hate speech. Just a concern of mine I wanted to share. It can be that I am completely off the rails here and said some incorrect things.

 

[Antnest8]

Your correct that Hytale Hub is the largest community and (I think) the only company in the Hytale Space as of the moment. There are some areas where other communities exist! r/Hytaleinfo is completely seperate from r/HytaleForums (a seperate reddit with loose ties to Hytale Hub). In discord there are plenty of other communities however. Including Kweebec Corners server that is currently growing at a fast rate.

The reason why there are communities in these mediums and not in websites and forums is because, although some of the examples you gave might not act like companies, they still run off of money. Websites are hard to manage and run, and expensive too! Same with these forums that we are using right now. Hytale has so much potential, but the current energy is incredibly low.

There are not that many people looking up Hytale at the moment and that means that advertisements and donations are not going to work to keep any community that has upkeep going. Hytale Hub is large as you have stated, and only because these websites are under one banner can they float. I have seen how much Pearson care about this game and it's community. He works really hard.

I'm not worried that Hytale will have a lack of community diversity when it launches. There are TONS of people wanting to make money, showcase and discuss the game. There is just nothing to do at the moment. At least now we have some 3rd party infrastructure for when the game launches.

If we start to see a lack of diversity after launch, then there could be some cause to worry.

Thanks for posting! I am honestly surprised someone else hadn't by now on this subject

 

[Jordan]

Not sure I trust these guys.... Maybe we should throw a coup and overtake them.

 

[Pearson Wright]

Hey all,

First of all, I'll start with some disclaimers. I'm not an active member on here, nor in the Discord, but I can say that I have joined a long time ago. A few months after the creation of the Hytale trailer, I joined this community because it seemed like the right place to be. My opinion has changed and I will explain why.

My intention is not to harm anyone specifically, I just want to share some opinions and gather feedback, hopefully of the owner of HytaleHub himself.

1. The problem
The monopoly of HytaleHub is real. You can see they really invested to be the #1 place to be when it comes to Hytale. Granted, this is probably the earliest community that did so.

The problem is the fact that HytaleHub seems to control everything:

1. Community: this is the most central place for someone to be when it comes to Hytale. This is not a problem though, since it was the original intent of the forums.
2. Servers Lists: HytaleHub has access to all most popular server-site URLs, and continues to do so. A little bit more diversity would be cool here, especially the fact that they use different URLs for the same project implies their intentions here.
3. Market: besides this forum, they also started HytaleMarket (I think? Long time ago). Either way, they want to dive into this particular sector as well.
4. Server Hosting: Yes, they also have a server hosting. Despite the fact that they don't even know how servers will work! Maybe Hytale will use the Roblox approach, where the ingame currency is used to buy stuff (opposite to Minecraft's EULA approach).

When we look at Minecraft, all these points are split up fairly evenly.

1. SpigotMC, DevBukkit (now inactive), PlanetMinecraft, ...
2. Endless list
3. McMarket, SpigotMc (a bit), ...
4. Server.pro, Minehut, Pebblehost, ... (endless list)

Then note the fact that HytaleHub has some sections like builds, server monetization (like Tebex for Minecraft), etc.: they really want to be an all-round place.

2. Is this a problem though?
One could argue it is not, and to be honest: I don't know either. The future will tell us the answer, but my question is just why they would do this. HytaleHub is NOT a community anymore, it's a company. This is something I really like about the Minecraft forums like SpigotMc and PlanetMinecraft: they don't behave like companies.

Nevertheless, the amount of work put into the project is amazing and you can see the results. I just hope other initiatives will be able to develop.

Please share your opinions. I'll repeat: this is not a rant/hate speech. Just a concern of mine I wanted to share. It can be that I am completely off the rails here and said some incorrect things.

First and foremast, thank you for taking the time to write all of this and convey your thoughts in such an organized and respectful manner. Critiques made with respect for another person's humanity in mind are always the best way to get your point across.

So now, hopefully I can respond in a way which alleviates most, if not all of your concerns/perception of our network.

HytaleHub.com was not the first Hytale community to be formed, in fact, HytaleHub.com was originally owned and operated by another group entirely. We were given this domain by them in late January of 2019 after our original site (hosted at hytale-hub.org) started gaining tremendous traction. Several other forums at the time also joined forces with us, including hytale-forum.org. There are still truly well over a hundred competing Hytale forum-oriented websites. We just happen to be the most active since we engage with the community very regularly. If you go to any other forum websites centered around Hytale, you'll notice that the Staff don't really do this, which is why they're so dormant in terms of overall activity. Many of these websites are also essentially clones of HytaleHub.com, which is another reason they haven't taken off as much.

It is true that we own two Hytale server lists, but neither is ranked as the #1 or #2 list when searching "Hytale Server", or "Hytale Server List". In fact, there are dozens of other competing server lists run by other groups and individuals. The reason we have two server lists is because we intend to use different models for each one (in terms of usability, monetization, etc.). We'd like to take different approaches to see which one the community prefers the most.

We did announce the upcoming reveal of "Hytale Market" a few months ago. This was done because many people were complaining about the emphasis being made on the market aspect of HytaleHub.com, which many felt should focus more on content sharing and game discussion. Hytale Market came about in reaction to this as a compromise so that we could provide two different sites for two different types of users.

We do have a Server Host planned. However, once again there are dozens of other server hosts which have already announced server hosting solutions for Hytale as well. A simple "Hytale Server Hosting" search will show you this. Independent Hytale-oriented Youtube channels such as "Hytale News" and "Kweebec Corner" are paid to promote other server hosts in almost every video they create.

We have announced the reveal of a Free to use Tebex alternative (Buytale), since we want Hytale server owners to have the ability to generate revenue from their Hytale servers without having to spend hundreds every year on monthly subscription fees, which is what the current dynamic is due to Tebex having a true monopoly over the G-Commerce industry.

Hytale Hub is ultimately a network, not just one website. This network will be linked together with our own fully custom single sign on feature which allows you to have one account on all of our websites. The idea here is to make locating and uploading content, as well as finding and marketing servers and server solutions as easy as possible. We welcome any and all competition, and many people on our own team actually run their own independent websites (ex: hytaleguide.net, skynode.pro, etc.) That said, we do want to provide as much utility as we possibly can without trying to cram in an overwhelming amount of features into a single website.

I hope this answers/alleviates some of your questions and concerns.

 

[Mwex]

First and foremast, thank you for taking the time to write all of this and convey your thoughts in such an organized and respectful manner. Critiques made with respect for another person's humanity in mind are always the best way to get your point across.

So now, hopefully I can respond in a way which alleviates most, if not all of your concerns/perception of our network.

HytaleHub.com was not the first Hytale community to be formed, in fact, HytaleHub.com was originally owned and operated by another group entirely. We were given this domain by them in late January of 2019 after our original site (hosted at hytale-hub.org) started gaining tremendous traction. Several other forums at the time also joined forces with us, including hytale-forum.org. There are still truly well over a hundred competing Hytale forum-oriented websites. We just happen to be the most active since we engage with the community very regularly. If you go to any other forum websites centered around Hytale, you'll notice that the Staff don't really do this, which is why they're so dormant in terms of overall activity. Many of these websites are also essentially clones of HytaleHub.com, which is another reason they haven't taken off as much.

It is true that we own two Hytale server lists, but neither is ranked as the #1 or #2 list when searching "Hytale Server", or "Hytale Server List". In fact, there are dozens of other competing server lists run by other groups and individuals. The reason we have two server lists is because we intend to use different models for each one (in terms of usability, monetization, etc.). We'd like to take different approaches to see which one the community prefers the most.

We did announce the upcoming reveal of "Hytale Market" a few months ago. This was done because many people were complaining about the emphasis being made on the market aspect of HytaleHub.com, which many felt should focus more on content sharing and game discussion. Hytale Market came about in reaction to this as a compromise so that we could provide two different sites for two different types of users.

We do have a Server Host planned. However, once again there are dozens of other server hosts which have already announced server hosting solutions for Hytale as well. A simple "Hytale Server Hosting" search will show you this. Independent Hytale-oriented Youtube channels such as "Hytale News" and "Kweebec Corner" are paid to promote other server hosts in almost every video they create.

We have announced the reveal of a Free to use Tebex alternative (Buytale), since we want Hytale server owners to have the ability to generate revenue from their Hytale servers without having to spend hundreds every year on monthly subscription fees, which is what the current dynamic is due to Tebex having a true monopoly over the G-Commerce industry.

Hytale Hub is ultimately a network, not just one website. This network will be linked together with our own fully custom single sign on feature which allows you to have one account on all of our websites. The idea here is to make locating and uploading content, as well as finding and marketing servers and server solutions as easy as possible. We welcome any and all competition, and many people on our own team actually run their own independent websites (ex: hytaleguide.net, skynode.pro, etc.) That said, we do want to provide as much utility as we possibly can without trying to cram in an overwhelming amount of features into a single website.

I hope this answers/alleviates some of your questions and concerns.

Thanks for taking the time to react. It was very helpful and cleared things up.

You're indeed right in many of your arguments: server hosts will automatically get saturated once Hytale releases, as was/is the case with Minecraft server hosts.

I also have to say that the 'company' statement of mine was also incorrect. In the beginning, you had the MC-Market approach (you had to pay for certain functions to be available), but you quickly abandoned that approach and replaced it with a more fair system, centred around donations and less about the pay-for-functions, and I love that.

It's just that some things seem over the top for me, but as you said: Hytale already has a lot of communities and the market will hopefully and probably be expanded beyond HytaleHub. The server hosting though seems a bit too much for me, but from the business perspective: you need to be able to keep running the forums, which is a costly job.
The other great factor that comes in play here is that you guys do not know how servers will be managed. I thing they will opt for a Minecraft approach, but you can't really know. It can be a mix between Roblox and Minecraft, meaning that server hosts maybe will play a different role in the Minecraft scene.

Overall, you guys do listen to community feedback very well, so my post was probably an overreaction. We'll see how things evolve