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It seems that the good times for online Minecraft play are over

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Re: It seems that the good times for online Minecraft play are over

#11

Post by jstarfish »

8jy89hui wrote: post #2

Does anyone have any insight into why Microsoft thought this was necessary? Minecraft has been server-moderated for years now and has been wildly successful. I've never heard of any hate groups or even hateful servers (I'm sure they exist, but they don't make the news in a way that would harm Microsoft). Is there some legislation that would make it a liability for Microsoft to not moderate all the chat? This move jus…

I don't know The Reason (probably child exploitation), but it's telling that within the first few comments people are discussing how to abuse the system to get Minecraft YouTubers deplatformed.

The haters are in plain sight.

Re: It seems that the good times for online Minecraft play are over

#12

Post by jandrese »

hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #9

Microsoft customer service is abysmal everywhere. I’m currently battling a $20 azure bill that I’m unsure how to pay, customer support keeps directing me to the billing section, which, as I’ve told them, tells me I’m not authorised to access, despite being the subscription owner. Microsoft UX everywhere I’ve seen is horrible and I feel ripe for disruption. Given the shit they’ve put me through with azure the past 18…

The Minecraft account migration process was awful too. It's a mishmash of Microsoft, X-Box, and Outlook/Live branding all with sites that work differently and options are spread around them seemingly at random. By default you can't even play online, you have to track down an obscure option in X-Box chat preferences to allow you to join servers.

It was even worse for me because some bot registered for a Microsoft account using my email address ages ago. I recovered the account using the "forgot my password", link, but the bot set it up in German and I can't seem to get it to change the language everywhere. So while most of the menus are in English, I still get confirmation emails in German.

Re: It seems that the good times for online Minecraft play are over

#13

Post by decremental »

8jy89hui wrote: post #2

Does anyone have any insight into why Microsoft thought this was necessary? Minecraft has been server-moderated for years now and has been wildly successful. I've never heard of any hate groups or even hateful servers (I'm sure they exist, but they don't make the news in a way that would harm Microsoft). Is there some legislation that would make it a liability for Microsoft to not moderate all the chat? This move jus…

You staff a company with the kind of people who think this sort of crap is a great idea and that's what you get. Clamping down on people just saying whatever they want, good or bad, true or false, is going on literally everywhere. This is just yet another instance of it. The majority of it comes from tech companies. This should come as very little surprise.

Re: It seems that the good times for online Minecraft play are over

#14

Post by ninth_ant »

8jy89hui wrote: post #2

Does anyone have any insight into why Microsoft thought this was necessary? Minecraft has been server-moderated for years now and has been wildly successful. I've never heard of any hate groups or even hateful servers (I'm sure they exist, but they don't make the news in a way that would harm Microsoft). Is there some legislation that would make it a liability for Microsoft to not moderate all the chat? This move jus…

You may underestimate how truly horrific some of the online communications are in any non-trivial service. Especially when kids are involved.

Having been exposed to some of the stuff going on at other companies communication systems, I have total sympathy for mojang wanting some people off of all their platforms, forever.

Most any system is built like this from the ground up, it’s rather surprising it took them this long.

Re: It seems that the good times for online Minecraft play are over

#15

Post by jandrese »

teaearlgraycold wrote: post #5

I think having an opt-in (on by default in Realms) universal bans system is a good idea and something only Microsoft can properly provide. Can you really not turn this off per server?

As far as I know there is no way to disable the reporting, nor is there any way to request a review after you are banned. It is a system set up to enable abuse even more than Youtube's content ID and demonetization bans, and that's saying something.

Re: It seems that the good times for online Minecraft play are over

#16

Post by karaterobot »

amiga wrote: post #8

Anyone who has ever seen an MS acquisition play out before knew this was coming. Minecraft has been open for some time, and that has an effect counter to the control that MS seeks over its products. "Embrace, extend, extinguish" has been the strategy for decades.

This doesn't make sense. They bought Minecraft 8 years ago, and it's grown by an order of magnitude since then. It's a huge cash cow for them. In what way is that consistent with the "embrace, extend, extinguish" strategy from 26 years ago, when they had an entirely different leadership team and business model? How is this not just a dumb move on their part, and actually part of some master plan to ... what... lose money?

Re: It seems that the good times for online Minecraft play are over

#17

Post by Georgelemental »

ninth_ant wrote: post #14
8jy89hui wrote: post #2

Does anyone have any insight into why Microsoft thought this was necessary? Minecraft has been server-moderated for years now and has been wildly successful. I've never heard of any hate groups or even hateful servers (I'm sure they exist, but they don't make the news in a way that would harm Microsoft). Is there some legislation that would make it a liability for Microsoft to not moderate all the chat? This move jus…

You may underestimate how truly horrific some of the online communications are in any non-trivial service. Especially when kids are involved. Having been exposed to some of the stuff going on at other companies communication systems, I have total sympathy for mojang wanting some people off of all their platforms, forever. Most any system is built like this from the ground up, it’s rather surprising it took them this…

Is it "their" platform if the server is hosted by people who are not them on hardware that is not theirs? They are just selling a license to use their executables, no? Or should be (I don't play Minecraft)

Re: It seems that the good times for online Minecraft play are over

#18

Post by yodon »

amiga wrote: post #8

Anyone who has ever seen an MS acquisition play out before knew this was coming. Minecraft has been open for some time, and that has an effect counter to the control that MS seeks over its products. "Embrace, extend, extinguish" has been the strategy for decades.

Are you seriously arguing that Microsoft is intentionally trying to "extinguish" it's own IP? I realize that "Embrace, extend, extinguish" is a hopelessly tired and outdated meme, but trying to freshen it up by arguing they've now reached a level where they are intentionally trying to kill their OWN products as part of some grand and 30-year-in-the-past EEE "plan" is simply absurd.

Re: It seems that the good times for online Minecraft play are over

#19

Post by garciasn »

ceeplusplus wrote: post #10
8jy89hui wrote: post #2

Does anyone have any insight into why Microsoft thought this was necessary? Minecraft has been server-moderated for years now and has been wildly successful. I've never heard of any hate groups or even hateful servers (I'm sure they exist, but they don't make the news in a way that would harm Microsoft). Is there some legislation that would make it a liability for Microsoft to not moderate all the chat? This move jus…

1. Minecraft has a lot of kids playing it, particularly kids whose parents blame Microsoft for poor behavior rather than learning to parent. 2. California recently passed a bill which would fine companies which fail to prevent kids from accessing features which are "detrimental" to children's health [1]. Naturally, Microsoft doesn't want to get fined for what edgy gamers say online. 3. (speculation) The censorship po…

My 12 year old has been bombarded with the message this is coming and will be the end of HyPixel/SkyBlock from many of the prominent Minecraft YouTubers he watches.

Let me tell you: if my money is down the drain because some little jackwagon mass-reports some random server and my kids’ accounts are locked, I’m gonna be fucking furious.

If the hoopla around this is true, Microsoft is going to relive its 1990s level hatred from the nerd community—just as parents instead of dorky teens and twenty-somethings running Linux.

Re: It seems that the good times for online Minecraft play are over

#20

Post by api »

Georgelemental wrote: post #17
ninth_ant wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may underestimate how truly horrific some of the online communications are in any non-trivial service. Especially when kids are involved. Having been exposed to some of the stuff going on at other companies communication systems, I have total sympathy for mojang wanting some people off of all their platforms, forever. Most any system is built like this from the ground up, it’s rather surprising it took them this…

Is it "their" platform if the server is hosted by people who are not them on hardware that is not theirs? They are just selling a license to use their executables, no? Or should be (I don't play Minecraft)

Software that you run that is under your control? How quaint.
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