How quickly the tide can turn. Just last week, Minecraft landed itself in everybody’s good graces after developers announced that Minecraft will never support or allow NFTs. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that NFTs are wildly unpopular.
As Mojang themselves put it, “NFTs and other blockchain technologies create digital ownership based on scarcity and exclusion, which does not align with Minecraft values of creative inclusion and playing together.” It’s a move that won fans over yet just days later, a ‘Save Minecraft’ campaign has been launched.
Check out the trailer for the upcoming Minecraft Legends below - which features adorable Minecraft bunnies, just in case you were interested.
The fandom is not happy and it’s all down to recent changes Mojang Studios made to Minecraft’s moderation policy. Private servers have now been opened up so they can be moderated and account-wide player bans can be carried out. Fans are worried that this will threaten the future of the game.
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As reported by Kotaku, players can now report each other on private servers for “inappropriate chat messages or dangerous behavior,” which is something you couldn’t do before. Minecraft moderators will then act on any reports, and can potentially ban players. You may think, surely that’s a good thing given that Minecraft generally has a fairly young audience? Well yes, but it’s a big change from what Minecraft fans are used to.
Players are worried that conspiracies could now be carried out, where players are falsely reported and banned. Hacking technologies like Gaslight V2 still exist and allow players to manipulate in-game chat logs. You can see how things could quickly go wrong.
Mojang Studios aren’t backing down from the move, simply claiming that “Every player should enjoy a safe Minecraft experience wherever they choose to play.” This rift could go on for a while.