Long term

Not always. It usually means no routine full wipes of the main world. Some servers keep the overworld for years but refresh the End, rotate a resource world, or expand the border with new updates. The defining point is that your base and progress are expected to survive, and any resets are rare and clearly communicated.

Lock in a location you can live with, then build quality-of-life first: secure storage, reliable food, and basic enchanting. After that, invest in systems that scale, like villager trades, a clean Nether route to key areas, and one or two farms that cover constant costs (iron, rockets, blocks, or food).

Yes, but expect a different start. Established players may be stacked, yet long term servers often have economies, public farms, and transport links that let you catch up fast. The bigger hurdle is geography: space near hubs gets claimed, so you either travel farther out or join an existing town or district.

They plan around it. Common approaches are resetting the End periodically, encouraging farther-out exploration, or using additional End islands depending on rules. For overworld resources, automation and controlled expansion do the heavy lifting, so the area around spawn does not turn into permanent strip-mined wasteland.

Rules that protect time investment and reduce drama: clear expectations on claiming space, stealing, griefing, and how disputes are resolved. In a long term world, people build bigger and closer together, so clarity beats vague promises.