Save Minecraft Cry Players After Mojang Starts Moderating Private Servers

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Minecraft is on fire. At least that's how it currently feels if you follow the fandom on social media or certain message boards. An influx of angry fans has resulted in Mojang's controversial decision to allow private servers to be moderated and banned players across the entire community. Fans are now rallying around the battle cry "Save Minecraft" against what they see as an existential threat to massively popular online builder.



"If Mojang believes that every skilled coder against this system won’t try to embarrass them, I would bet against Mojang," Taylor "AntVenom” Harris, a big-time Minecraft YouTuber, tweeted. "Not an attack, btw. Just calling it like it is. #SaveMinecraft" A different player was more concise. In a tweet, they wrote "Fuck 1.19.1". It's now been blown up. Some blame the studio. Others believe the policy changes are coming from Microsoft, and blame the tech giant.



Mojang, Microsoft and others declined to comment.



The hate and the hashtag are all because of Wednesday's v1.19.1 update for Minecraft: Java Edition. Players can now report their friends for inappropriate chat messages or dangerous behavior even on private servers. Mojang stated in an FAQ that the behavior that will lead to ban is hate speech and bullying, harassment, sexual solicitation, or threat of harm. Deep space



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The reports go to Minecraft moderators who then determine what follow-up action there should be, if any, including player bans. It sounds like a good system, especially for a game marketed toward kids that anyone can play. But it's also a major intrusion into a part of Minecraft that has historically been ruled purely by players.



Read More: Minecraft's Worst Server Was Exploited So Hard That Griefers Could See the Future



Mojang has said that it will not monitor online chats or use bots to moderate them, but players are still concerned about the possibility of this tool being misused to wreck havoc on private servers. Players could conspire to maliciously notify someone on one private server and then ban them all together. Gaslight V2 (an exploit that allows players to manipulate in-game chat logs) is one tool that has been used in the past. However, its developers claim that it still works in this latest version.



The company wrote last month that it recognizes that private servers operate independently from Mojang Studios. "Many use that independence in order to create remarkable Minecraft innovations which enrich the community." At the same time it maintains that it needs to hold players to its terms of service no matter where they're playing the game. "Every player deserves a safe Minecraft experience no matter where they choose."



Mojang previewed the changes several weeks ago, but the backlash is building after the studio made clear it's not ready to reconsider them. MojangMeesh the community manager wrote that the studio values feedback but that it doesn't mean that feedback can change the design principles Mojang Studios holds to. She also asked that fans stop harassing developers in unrelated threads.



"Harassment does not help anyone: not the devs who receive it, nor the players who are passionate about an upcoming change," they wrote. "We want to have a constructive and open conversation with you, and this type of behavior hinders that." Deep space exploration



"Bullshit! lmao sorry, but this entire shitfest had been on blast for about a month now and there's very, very few true discussions from mojang," one commenter retorted. Another commented, "Simple Question: How long does an appeal take?" "Since a lot of us are worried about false positives, give us a time period."



Mojang states that bans can be from three days to permanently. However, while all appeals and reports will be reviewed by humans, some players worry about edge cases and the freedom to operate private servers as they wish. Mods have attempted to circumvent the new moderation system. One program called "No Chat Reports", has already been downloaded more than 200,000. It says it strips "cryptographic signatures" from messages so they're no longer associated with a particular Minecraft account.



Others in the community take a more nuanced approach. YouTuber xisumavoid, who runs his own private servers, argued in a recent video on the subject that players aren't fairly weighing the abuse and predatory behavior that moderation would help catch. "There is going to be good that comes out of this system," he said. Deep space