With Microsoft offering a free 90 days Minecraft Realm subscription in their Xbox Perks programme, I decided it’s finally time to close the dedicated server and adopt a realm. It appears nobody from the community (including myself) had really spent much time on the server since last year. While it’s not uncommmon for communities to lose momentum, it’s still sad to see a virtual home no longer be available.
I’d hosted the server with Shockbyte and I do want to commend them for brilliant pricing, reliability and customer service. I used their most basic 8-slot ‘Dirt Plan’ at $2.50 (£2) per month for over 18 months without glitches. That’s a superb price when you consider the equivalent official Realms Plus is £8 per month and has far less features (and therefore less flexiblity) for admins.
As I moved my gaming onto console from PC over the past year, I then struggled to encourage interested players onto the server because of a technical obstacle: Mobile and console clients can’no’t connect to third-party (non-official Mojang-hosted) servers. I’m not sure why Microsoft decided to prohibit this ability (yet retain it for PC clients) as that really undermines the crossplay value of Minecraft. There’s an unofficial workaround that has players change DNS settings but players are often cynical of this; and it’s way too incovenient casual players. Incidentally, if you need this workaround, the commendable BedrockConnect project and this tutorial video are good resources.
So, I’ hav’ve taken up the free realms trial until the 5th January 2024. I’ll advertise for players interested in growing a community together. I’m mindful, though, that it’s easy to attract players initially but sustaining a community is the real challenge. I’ll renew the Realms subscription depending on how active the community remains by January – if it’s just a few regulars, I may step it down to a standard (2+1) slot. Feel free, of course, to give me a shout if you’re interested and, as always, new players welcome.
So, this leaves me with a quick gravestone for the old server:

RIP Paradisium (Feb 2022 – Oct 2023)
Home to: RetroJimmyX, TKL11, FFHayden18729, Redstoneguy9408
And visited by: Fries and Pepso, Haitian Flame, oxymoronoond, paralyzedhorse, StyledRhino9639, ylliqm

And, finally my tour around the island in September 2022…
Goodbye to a beloved server and I’m hopeful that a thriving community can once again exist on the new realms server.
My previous personal survival world (mid-2021) is available to download and explore and the makeusof.com guide is useful for learning to install downloaded maps.