More creative yet simple gamemodes would help a lot. Also higher level of player engagement. I see Prison Escapes commonly at the top, but upon joining then, there's a long wait until spawn, and then the actual "escape" part is very unclear unless you've been around a while. Something like Pload's (I believe that was his name?) Prison Escape was fantastic as there were no vague rules to go by and it was very easy to just jump in to the server and immediately understand what's going on.
I also see a lot of RP's, which cater to the younger audience as it's mostly free and not mod based. These are hard to get in to and unattractive for new players as they don't feel like playing "make believe" and there's no clear goal or objective.
There's enough topics concerning the enumerable issues with City RPGs. Despite having more structure than RPs, these take some time to get in to and require significant grinding. These also seem to be a lot less consistent than they used to be; The same host used to continue theirs for months at a time whereas now, they seem to come and go very quickly, discouraging players from getting started as they'll just wipe soon. Something similar to City RPGs was Mr. Wallet's Rise of Blockland, which followed a similar city model but was a little easier to get in to.
Mining servers are very grindy and hold very little reward. You grind so that you can grind harder deeper down? Pass.
