An Open Letter to Server Owners:

What have we become as a community? Over the past few years, we (the Minecraft Community) have turned a blind eye to many of the problems that have plagued the game we all love. However, one issue has become synonymous with Minecraft; rapacious servers and their owners.

Before I get too far, this is not me ranting on why I hate large servers; it’s the opposite. I love the open interaction that Minecraft offers to players. Large servers foster interaction in a way that no other game or server can. This is my way of trying to help the Community improve the standards for all players.

All of the concerns that I present will lead to one overarching issue that runs rampant through our Community; and is spreading through the gaming industry at an alarming pace. I don’t expect to change the world with a letter, but I do ask that you take what I say to heart. The most useful weapon we have in this fight is knowledge.

So, when did “donations” become sales? So many servers use the phrase “donate to the server”; yet offer goods and services in return for your “donations”. Paying for ranks undermines the value of said rank. Whether you are on a PvP, creative, or survival server (or any variation of the three), Minecraftians who buy a rank devalue the work of everyone that has preceded them. When server owners allow new players to be on equal ground with those that have invested time and effort spanning up to years, it creates an atmosphere of complacency which is almost certain to kill innovation and creativity.

If your goal is to turn your server into a viable business, why do many servers alienate their “clientele”? Server owners tend to put power and trust into their friends, regardless of whether they are what is best for the server/community and ignore the larger number of regular players that log in everyday. Server owners tailor their product to a small portion of players; yet expect the entire community to “foot the bill”.  After enabling this behavior for so long, it has become normal for owners and administrators of the server to no longer be publically accessible, instead opting to play on parts of the server that are only accessible to themselves. They remove themselves from the creative process and servers become stagnant and lack innovation.

Both of these issues lead to the overarching problem, peer pressure and idolization in gaming. Gamers, kids in particular, are pressured into “donating” to servers because their idols from YouTube and Twitch asked them to. These internet celebrities know how influential their opinions are to their younger viewers and play off of that idolization. Now I know not every YouTuber and streamer use this method, but it has become commonplace. AND IT ABSOLUTELY SHOULDN’T BE! Donating because of the pressure to do so, or a pipedream that they may get to meet their idol for more than a fleeting moment due to a colored name in the chat, does not solve the broken system that has become the go-to business model for many servers.

Minecraft servers used to be a place where innovation was displayed proudly. Now, the standard has become cookie-cutter servers run by quasi-celebrities that say they need money to improve their server. All we are doing is throwing money at a problem, hoping that it will resolve itself. It is the equivalent of family members “making it rain” in an operating room because the surgeon doesn’t feel like performing a surgery that day. You might think that this is an exaggeration, but I strongly believe that the Minecraft Server Community is on life support. We continue to pump money into these servers, hoping that they can fix these issues because the owners say that’s what they need.

Sincerely,
soxhawk of Paradox
@soxhawk
@GroupParadoxMC

To read the follow-up response to article, click here.