Welcome to our FAQ! This is where we’ll stick some common questions and answers for those questions. We may also have information here that will help you get to know our servers a bit better!
As of 3/10/2022 this FAQ is largely outdated due to the permanent closing of SHG. We will still keep most of it around for posterity reasons.
Some minor tweaks have been made towards the end of the page to redirect to the world/server downloads.
Q: What is Square Horse Gaming?
A: Square Horse Gaming is a people-focused community that revolves around both gaming and game servers, particularly for sandbox games. We pride ourselves on making a safe and fun environment for people of all ages, but if you were to ask us our priorities; we try to cater to adults instead of minors. As such, our community will likely revolve around more serious content (while still trying to maintain the fun aspects of gaming), but nothing ever explicit or NSFW. We also pride ourselves in how we handle community interactions, often favoring and seeking community input for how we operate. We are a community of the people, for the people.
Q: What servers do you offer?
A: At the moment, none. Many things have happened since SHG first started back in 2011, but the past few years have not been kind. Motivation and activity issues among the staff team, lingering and persistent community inactivity, and a general lack of funding have left us at square one. There were multiple attempts to try and fix this, but we ultimately decided that merging with another community was the best course of action. Unfortunately, this didn’t go as planned and a bulk majority of the players and staff didn’t transfer over for a variety of different reasons. It could have gone better, it didn’t, and now we’re here.
Q: Okay, but when you do have servers which ones will you have?
A: We plan on having a few “staple” servers for SHG, these include (but aren’t limited to): Discord, Hytale, and Project Zomboid. Other servers may be on the table as we find more interesting games to make servers for! Smaller servers which aren’t meant to be long-term may also be done, such as Factorio, Space Engineers, Rust, etc.
Q: You had a Discord before. What happened to it?
A: A lot. But in short we have decided to move on. There was also a massive and persistent inactivity issue, so we figure it’s best to start fresh. If you’re new, or even and old member from the community, you’ll be welcomed on our new server when it’s ready! Keep an eye on the home page for when it launches!
Q: You’ve had Minecraft servers for 99% of your entire history, are you planning on making one again?
A: Probably not, but we’ll never say never. Minecraft servers rely on content to stay sustainable, and with the 1-2 updates from Mojang each year it’s very hard to keep the core survival audience entertained. There’s ways, such as encouraging roleplay, meaningful events, and server content (dungeons, mini-games, etc.), but those take a lot of energy and commitment which is hard to come by these days. But whatever we do, know that it probably won’t be pony related (not primarily, anyway). Promises and commitments have been made on that front, and I don’t intend to break said promises.
Q: How do I become a member of the staff team?
A: Currently? You don’t. We intend to do some recruiting once we have the Discord up and running, but I imagine the initial staff will be limited to close friends. Once we’re more established a public application will be released through a Google form, or something similar.
Q: I was banned before for reasons x, y, and z. Can I come back once you have servers running?
A: Potentially, yes. There’s been enough time for us to consider most old bans void, but some people have caused extensive problems for both our community and staff, so if it sounds like you fit that bill we’d ask that you submit a “ban appeal” of sorts to lift your ban (think of the old “letters to Celestia” system on the forums). We want to see that you’ve changed for the better, and if you have then you’re more than welcome back! However, if you’re still doing what got you banned and plan on doing it again, we kindly ask that you refrain from joining again.
Q: Do you have the old MLC/SHG worlds available for download?
A: We do! They are available on this page, along with our usage conditions: https://squarehorse.com/shg/world-server-download-links/
Special exemptions may be made for this on a case-by-case basis, and if you wish to submit a request for this you can contact us at [email protected]. As of now, the only server/community to be exempt from these conditions is BronyTales.
Q: I need to contact the staff team, how can I do that?
A: As of writing, the only way to contact our staff team is through our email: [email protected]
