Minecraft Made a Mistake

Minecraft is a game I care very much about. I’ve been playing for over 10 years and have logged thousands of hours into the game. Needless to say it holds a very special place in my heart. But recently there was an update that has caused quite the stir in the community. No, I’m not talking about 1.19 and how Mojang has overpromised and under delivered, but rather 1.19.1 Pre-Release 1. What would normally just be a patch to deliver minor tweaks and changes actually has a sinister side to it.

If you’re unaware, Mojang has been quietly adding some social interaction features into the game. With the release of 1.16.4, the social interactions screen appeared. A small menu accessed by pressing P that allowed players to mute people on servers. This is a nice feature to see, but not something that was being demanded by the communities. Most multiplayer servers already offered similar options with things like chat filtering and server wide mutes, but this addition was nice to see for servers that don’t offer those capabilities. However, this is not the concerning part. To understand that, we first need to understand what was added in this latest update. To quote the patch notes directly:

• Along with the support for reporting chat, reported players can now be banned from online play and Realms after moderator review
• The game will show a notice screen on startup if you have been banned from online play
  • The reason for the ban is shown as well as how long the ban is valid for

If you’re curious about the chat reporting, that was introduced in 22w24a, the snapshot right before this prerelease. This feature applies to all online servers, not just the official Realms. And the kicker is, the reporting system is automated, which means they can be easily abused. Say something bad? No more multiplayer. Get mass reported? No more multiplayer. Do anything that doesn’t fit with Mojang and Microsoft’s family friendly vision even if everyone on the server is OK with it? No more multiplayer.

There is still a lot of information that is unknown about this. There is no cut and clear answer on what will result in a ban, or for how long bans will be, or if there is an appeal system, or anything else. The game files even provide text for permanent bans from online play. All this is just being dropped on the players and server admins on the 28th of this month.

The Java version of Minecraft has always focused on the community. For ages, the community has run servers, created resource packs and mods, and so much more. Most of my memories about Minecraft involve the myriad of interactions I had with people who were just as passionate about the game as I was, but Mojang and Microsoft are tampering with this. I have no doubt there are good intentions behind this, but the Java community has already created the solutions and tools needed to solve these issues. This decision is not a good one.

Literally 1984