Tenth Anniversary of Must Test (Enyekala)

Greetings, folks.

So. Certain persons were telling me that if I didn’t get this page up, eventually there’d be a crowd at my digital door, and they’d be carrying pitchforks, not presents. This Sunday morning, 2026/10/18, a fire had been lit in the stove (first of the fall season) and your titular Archwizard rolled out of bed, looked at the fall tree colors, and said, “Smells like wood smoke. Today’s the day I get this important record done.”

If you were around for Enyekala’s Tenth Anniversary News Announcement, which went live in September, you’ll have read that I don’t consider myself a party pony. There wasn’t, officially, going to be anything like a fireworks fight or a group photo. Both things did happen, but the reputation (or blame) for those sorts of goings-on must fall on heads other than mine. This one’s own contribution to the celebration of the server’s first complete decade came in the form of a number of behind-the-scenes programming updates. As of this writing, the most important of your wizard’s planned additions to the game is not live yet, but hopefully it won’t take me too much longer to fulfill the secret that was promised in the Formal Announcement.

One other thing I did promise, and which rather surprisingly did not happen, was an unstable server. There were no crashes (that I’m aware of) on the Anniversary Day, October 1, when all the new code went live; certainly none occurred during the unofficial party itself—not even when I delegated orders to Grok so that I’d have a chat command to give everyone bows and firework arrows. So this one can’t be too displeased that the prediction did not obtain. What a disaster that would have been!

I think it is surprising, and somewhat alarming to me, that Must Test has lasted this long. As the server’s original name suggests, this was originally a test. It was mainly a test to find out whether hosting a server was something I could accomplish on my laptop, and whether or not I could set it up to “take care of itself.” I had no intention to dedicate ten years of my life to the project. Changing the server’s name to Enyekala was when this server stopped being a test in my mind and became an intentional project, at least insofar as I knew I had to keep everything going so that the history and the builds (and the relationships that formed between the players) would be carried into the future.

Over ten years I have made many changes to the server, generally in the direction of making the game more complex. This was because I have a belief that an effective way to engineer a system to be self-maintaining is to employ an investment filter. Some people like to use the much nicer phrase “desirable difficulty.” I have heard the argument that a certain degree of suffering is needed for moral development, and is thus necessarily part of the solution to the Problem of Evil. Are you surprised? No one expects philosophy in a block game! (Well, it seems to have snuck in regardless.) Probably all of us are aware of the saying, “no pain, no gain.” Ask yourselves, if you will: if you had creative mode in a survival world, would the things you make carry the same meaning for you? Why is it that most people, given a choice, would rather play survival mode than creative mode?

It was my thinking along these lines that led me to ensure spawn would never be populated by mental children begging for items, or—ahem—people asking things like “can I move in with you?” Gatekeeping some would term it, and make big frowny faces at me. But has the difficulty of the server actually succeeded in making better players? You must be the judges.

And now, I would be making a mistake not to take this once-in-a-decade opportunity to talk about a thought that has been growing on my mind for a long time. While I have enjoyed the privilege of being your admin over these ten years (and it is a privilege indeed), I anticipate that a time will come in the future when I will want to step aside and hand the administrative reins of the server over to someone else. That time might come in another ten years, maybe fifteen—I hope not twenty! Whenever it happens, though, come the time will, because the truth is that being a Minetest admin was not my planned goal for my life. All this started because I had been temporarily afflicted with the feeling that I “must test,” in the wake of the shutdown of the justtest server. And that’s very close to being an accident.

This hand-off will surely not be soon. But when it does happen, only then will I be able to consider the server truly self-maintaining, and myself finally free.

And last, folks, I want to end by giving a hearty thanks to everyone who attended Enyekala’s entirely unplanned Tenth Anniversary Party—that many people showing up was an unanticipated surprise! I must also thank everyone who logged in on the Anniversary Day (that was October 1), and mention once again that the 10th Anniversary Reward is still a work-in-progress. I’m sorry it could not be ready on the very day! I also want to thank those of you who were perhaps slightly annoyed and miffed to discover there had been a party and you weren’t invited—my apologies—the party was a spontaneous event and did not receive the dignity of being assigned a specific time. I think there was also a lack of emails.

—— GoldFireUn

Group Photos

Taking these screenshots was a small challenge due to the endless launching of firework arrows, which were constantly pushing me around, and especially off the iron fence, where I initially tried to stand.

Nemo logged in to get photos, too. I managed to snap this one in between episodes of using a healing command on her. Otherwise the fireworks would have resulted in bonebox deployment and, possibly, an annoyed peer admin. That would have been very alarming indeed!

Highlights From The Chatlog

From morning quiet to evening chaos:

<miwiwi> are we having a party?
<OTIT> is there a certain time today for like a party?
<LordOfTheRelams> Hey so what's the Big Deal anyway where's the party going down
<iisu> Is there going to be a party or sth?
<iisu> We still don't know if there will be a party?
<js12> But wait! Today's the anniversary!
<iisu> marim: Goldfire tricked everyone into thinking there will be an anniversary event, and now we're waiting for the party.
<iisu> MustTest: Is there gonna be some kind of a party?
<Prairiesky> he said he's not a party pony! LOL
<MustTest> iisu: i wasn't planning a party really ... I presumed I would be too busy fixing the bug reports that roll in.
<sorcerykid> i'm still waiting for my goodie bag
<LordOfTheRelams> You can put them in a Silver Chest by my house in Ice City:)
<MustTest> oh dear I thought i had said i wasn't a party pony!
<MustTest> i have no clue what makes a good goodie bag
<katfish> if only i knew what a 'party ponny' means...
<sorcerykid> i like ponies, where do i find one that likes to party?
<MustTest> Pollywog: they need a party, stat! What can you do?
<Pollywog> A party?!
<sorcerykid> i'm more interested in the pony myself. the party is secondary
<Pollywog> Give me 9999 firework arrows of both colors
<MustTest> yes .... apparently it's not a real anniversary without the party lol
<Pollywog> actually, just give everyone on the server 100 firework arrows and a royal bow xD
<Pollywog> FOR FREE!
<MustTest> done.
<!MustTest!>  EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE FIREWORK ARROWS
<OTIT> wheres the party?>
<!MustTest!> ARROWS FOR EVERYONE
* <MustTest> added a chat-command for it just now.
<Pollywog> bruh I got "fire arrows" too
<MustTest> may the arson start.
<Pollywog> TIME TO ARSON
<katfish> he wants us TO BURN EACH OTHER
<sorcerykid> wouldn't that be ironic if for the 10th anniversary of the server, players burned everything down so nothing was left O_o
<!MustTest!> Impromput party at city central
<!MustTest!> *impromptu
<sorcerykid> oooh what if that was the big secret surprise that MT was promising. to nuke everything?
<Pollywog> I count 7 players nearby
<Pollywog> lol my fps got nuked
<sorcerykid> it's a battle zone!
<sorcerykid> what kind of insanity did you unleash MT?
<GoldFireUn> lol
<Pollywog> BOO
<OTIT> BACK OFF
<GoldFireUn> I'd add TNT arrows but there'd be a lot of deaths and unhappy players
<Pollywog> IM UNDER ATTACK
<Pollywog> INCOMING BOGIES
# Server: An Iceland Native jumped the mad-hatter dance under <MacheteDeOro>’s 'Potato Fist'.
<FinestKind> LOL
<Pollywog> DRIVE-BY SHOOTING
<Pollywog> er, fireworking
<Prairiesky> oo[s put out that fire sorcerykid !
<sorcerykid> lol
<katfish> how do you take corners with the kart ?
<sorcerykid> this party is getting LIT!

FinestKind discovers gene differences:

<FinestKind> Even you are taller than me
<iisu> lol, ur smål.
<FinestKind> You big headed, pixelated man

...

<!MustTest!> I'M TAKING A BUNCH OF PHOTOS, LINE UP WHEN YOU CAN
<sorcerykid> WH000t!
<OTIT> yay
<OTIT> move twin
<FinestKind> Why am I still the smallest one in this group, gene diff ;(
<Pollywog> are you really?
<FinestKind> Heheh, yess...

Katfish plans a mass bombing:

<katfish> the wicked intrusive thoghts about popping some TNT arrows on the veteran's heads

During the unexpected party at city central:

<GoldFireUn> I'd add TNT arrows but there'd be a lot of deaths and unhappy players
<Pollywog> haha
<sorcerykid> this is exactly why i constructed a bomb shelter under my base, in preparation for a day like today xD
<Pollywog> You had a bomb shelter?
<katfish> i brought TNT arrows, you guys wanna play
<GoldFireUn> uhoh
# Server: Ritual box detected. <GoldFireUn> kicked the bucket at (Enyekala: 1073,2,-8909).
# Server: <GoldFireUn> exploded.
# Server: <katfish>’s 'Steel Bow' apparently wasn’t such an unusual weapon after all, as <GoldFireUn> found out.
# Server: Criminal <katfish> was sent to gaol for fatally harming <GoldFireUn> within city limits.
<sorcerykid> HAPPY 10TH TO ENYEKALA
<katfish> lmao got arrested
<OTIT> W
<FinestKind> LOL
<Pollywog> ROFLLLLSIDJGSA
<OTIT> pleasure to meet you kind sir
<katfish> couldn't resist
<MustTest> ok that was unexpected
<Sternin> arrested?
<MacheteDeOro> Ahhhhhh
<Pollywog> get rekt
<MacheteDeOro> finally!
<FinestKind> Heh, low XP!
<MustTest> but how to get katfish out of jail? I don't have a command for that
<FinestKind> Can't teleport him?
<sorcerykid> there's no command to get people out of jail?
<katfish> i wasn't expecting to kill in a single hit
<MustTest> Let me try
<katfish> oh, hi there
<MustTest> yep works. /teleport must be clearing the jail flag. dunno when I did that
<katfish> thanks, sorry for killing you =P
<Pollywog> Oh? >:)
<GoldFireUn> np it was fun
<katfish> i thought that might be the goal for the riddle
<katfish> i forgot you get sent to jail

DragonsVolcanoDance playing the temptress:

<Pollywog> imagine someone drops a tnt arrow rn
<J2> don't give any ideas
<OTIT> lol
<Pollywog> >:)
<katfish> IM GONNA DO IT
<Pollywog> NUHH

After the group photo:

<katfish> missed opportunity to TNT the whole group
<OTIT> >:(
<Pollywog> :O

Anniversary Monument

CaptainHobbs built a monument commemorating the server’s 10 years. As of this writing, the monument portrays fragments of several of the Known Realms: the Outback, Jarkati, Saravinca, Carcorsica, Ir-Xen, Channelwood, the Nether, and the Caverealms.

CaptainHobbs’s hard work on this monument and its stunningly accurate representations of the Known Realms will undoubtedly be remembered for years to come!

Videos From The Event

Hawkeye’s PoV:

GoldFireUn’s PoV:

Archive links: Hawkeye and GoldFireUn.