Yeah, a lot of the points mentioned in here are good ones.
Honestly, had I not been turned onto FH, the idea of potentially creating a new game is a pretty darn exciting one, to be frank. One can easily see how people of all ages could get tons of ideas for what they'd want to see in their own IT server, but as it is with most things, ideas become an entirely different animal when it comes to actual execution of these many great plans. Even more so when you're (as with most users) new to coding, server hosting, and administration.
That said, server costs are a big issue, even if you did manage to use what resources there are around the FH/IT community to get one coded to your desire. If you're young and have schoolwork, even if you knew about coding, I'm sure it turns out to be a much bigger undertaking than was expected to run the game itself. Servers are expensive. And frankly, even in FH, we're blessed to have Raz, who is able to host our servers (and happy to do so). So, finding a steady balance like that is difficult to find, put simply, however great the intentions. o:
But, assuming you get the coding under your thumb for the most part, and you find a server host (or figure out how to host and afford it for yourself), there's always another issue that I see establishing new challenges to new games--the social side of it all.
By social, I mean administration, choosing staff, and starting off your own community, all at the same time.
In FH, we're fortunate enough to have had a fairly strong userbase from the beginning (since the game transplanted the old oIT community here, whether or not many have remained since then), and it's remained that we have a plethora of users running around the game and forum on a daily basis. This said, we've essentially had our pick of users among the community who show themselves to be a positive influence on the community, and show general qualities that we'd like to see in staff--therefore, usually folks like that are good eggs, and we can train them to be staff if they wish to be.
However, let's say you're fresh-faced and starting up a brand-new game and community. While you'll always find users out there who are excited to get out and check out a new server, it's not like you've got much to start off with, except maybe a forum you're running by yourself, and perhaps with a friend or two.
The thing with IT servers is that they don't just "start off" and have a firmly established system of staff, and/or expectations of staff to start off with. Normally, it's not as detailed as the one that we have, either. Or, if they do, it's likely a very slow and long process of choosing them--since it's hard! And in a small community, the options are even more limited when choosing them, especially when you've got a tiny tea with a LOT of work to do, and you're hard-pressed to find new ones. This is where, in order to get a workable amount of staff for the game, sometimes server admins may choose friends, etc., to be staff, and run into issues if they aren't suited for the position in some way. Even if they put up applications for mod positions (FH does not), people can sometimes very easily "fake" the application, talk themselves up, but in reality, they may just be seeking out some power for the sake of "being" a mod or admin in a server of their own.
Which, no matter how active they are, there will always be issues if someone's heart is in the game for power, and not the community itself. Inevitably, the administrator who just wanted to run their own game is faced with issues of staff misbehaving and/or causing power struggles in the team, or simply not functioning as a team at all. When your community is barely standing on its own two (or four, because quadrupeds) feet, this can be absolute kryptonite for you and the community.
Administration is hard, especially when you're running the game and trying to keep it functioning. Throw staff drama into the mix, and that's when you get ugly blowouts that trickle down into your community. (And, it's due to note that when you enforce rules and kick some rule-breakers out of the community, you do get people who try to jump at you and attack you personally for it--but this one we don't need to touch on so much).
So, establishing the social side of things is another big one, even if you are very stable-minded and functional on your own. Finding a team is hard, and finding a good one is one in a million. Finding one among a community of mostly young people, as well, is still harder.
Not that there's anything wrong with making your own IT server, of course. It's pretty cool that people can, really. o: However, they do face some great challenges that FH does not necessarily have to contend with. This said, it is an impressive feat when they're able to overcome these challenges and find a suiting staff team for a stable game, and I commend those who are able to accomplish this. It's tough!
But, for the servers that don't quite make it.. Well. They're certainly not the only ones, and I suppose those who made them wouldn't know if they could do it or not unless they tried, so. To each their own, yeah? ^^"
