Minecraft on fire. At least that’s how you feel right now if you follow the fandom on social media or on certain message boards. Part of the community is taking up arms following news that developer Mojang won’t back down from a controversial move to open private servers moderately and account-wide player bans Fans are now rallying around the “Save” battle cry. Minecraftagainst what they see as an existential threat to very popular online builder.
“If Mojang thinks that every skilled coder against this system won’t try to break it and embarrass them, I’ll bet against Mojang” Minecraft YouTuber Taylor “AntVenom” Harris tweeted out. “Not a threat btw. Just call as is. #SaveMinecraft.” Another player was more succinct. “Fuck it 1.19.1”, they wrote in a tweet that has since exploded. Some blame the studio itself. Others believe the policy change came from Microsoft and blame the tech giant.
Mojang and Microsoft declined to comment.
The hate and hashtag stems from Wednesday’s v1.19.1 update. Minecraft: Java Edition. Players can now report each other for “inappropriate chat messages or dangerous behavior”, even on private servers. “The type of behavior that will ban you is hate speech, bullying, harassment, sexual encouragement, or threatening others,” Mojang said. wrote in an FAQ.
The reports go to: Minecraft Moderators then determine what follow-up action should be taken, including player bans, if any. Sounds like a good system for a game that anyone can play, especially for kids. But it is also a major attack on a part of it. Minecraft It has historically been entirely managed by players.
Read more: Minecraft‘Worst’ Server So Hardly Exploited, Grieves Could See The Future
While Mojang says it won’t monitor online chat or use bots to moderate it, players fear the new tool could be misused to wreak havoc on private servers. The thinking is that players could conspire to report someone on a private server as malicious and then ban them from the entire game. An exploit called Gaslight V2 is a tool players have used in the past to manipulate in-game chat logs and its developers still claim it works in the latest version of the game.
“We know that private servers operate independently of Mojang Studios, and many use that independence to create compelling content. Minecraft innovations that enrich the community”, the company wrote last month. At the same time, he argues that it should keep players on their terms of service no matter where they play the game. “Every player should enjoy a safe Minecraft experience wherever they choose to play. ”
Mojang previewed the changes a few weeks ago, but backlash is mounting after the studio has made it clear that it’s not ready to rethink them. In a comment that has now been rejected more than 1,000 times He Minecraft subdirectoryWhile the studio values feedback, “this does not mean that feedback will always change the design principles that Mojang Studios adheres to,” community manager MojangMeesh wrote. MojangMeesh also urged fans not to follow developers in unrelated threads and discussions.
“Harassment doesn’t help anyone: not the developers who bought it or the players who are passionate about an upcoming change.” they wrote. “We want to maintain a constructive and open dialogue with you, and such behavior prevents that.”
“It’s bullshit, sorry but this whole shit fest has been blowing up by your community for about a month now and very, very little real discussion has come out of mojang,” said one commenter. fired back. “Simple question, then: How long will the appeal take?” wrote another. “Give us some time, as many of us are worried about false positives.”
Bans range from three days to permanent, and while Mojang says all reports and appeals will be reviewed by people, some players are still concerned about extreme cases and the freedom to run private servers as they see fit. This caused mods to try and circumvent the new moderation system. a program calledNo Chat Report” has already been downloaded more than 200,000 times. It says it removes “cryptographic signatures” from messages so they are no longer associated with anything specific. Minecraft account.
Others in the community took a more nuanced approach. YouTuber xisumavoid, which runs its own private servers, and a new video that players don’t fairly weigh the abuse and predatory behavior that moderation will help catch. “There will be good things coming out of this system,” he said. “People will be protected, and I feel like a lot of things in life are exchanges.”
