Hi,
Over the past few weeks, the trend of making threads criticising the Mojang partnership has remained prevalent on the forums, and shows little sign of declining. Since concerns over the aforementioned partnership are still growing, I'd like to make a thread covering the good, the bad and the ugly that it will entail. I'm not creating this thread to try to sway public opinion on the matter, I'm simply trying to make people more aware of what the server's partnership with Mojang will likely entail, so that you may make a two-sided judgement on whether or not it's what is best for this server.
If you still believe that the partnership is nothing but bad news and should be ended, that's fine. This thread's intent isn't to sway your opinion, but to make everybody aware of what it will fully entail. There's plenty of threads bashing the partnership, but none that discuss the positives to it, hence why I made this. Discuss your thoughts on the partnership in the comments c:
Over the past few weeks, the trend of making threads criticising the Mojang partnership has remained prevalent on the forums, and shows little sign of declining. Since concerns over the aforementioned partnership are still growing, I'd like to make a thread covering the good, the bad and the ugly that it will entail. I'm not creating this thread to try to sway public opinion on the matter, I'm simply trying to make people more aware of what the server's partnership with Mojang will likely entail, so that you may make a two-sided judgement on whether or not it's what is best for this server.
What is the partnership, and how did this start?
On June 12th 2017, Johncoles, the CEO of Cubecraft, posted an official news thread titled '"Better Together" Update'. Said thread details how the official partnership may benefit Cubecraft and its community in the future.
This sounds pretty neat, so why are people so upset with the partnership? The source of the problems arose on November 3rd 2017, when Rubik_Cube_Man posted the 'Chat Overhaul!' thread to the News section of the forums. One section of this thread ruffled a lot of people's feathers, including my own:
Following a short-lived backlash to this change, the forums was flooded with suggestions on how the chat system could function better, to allow mature audiences to swear in private chats. The response we were given was that Mojang wouldn't allow Cubecraft to do so, that the server must be as child-friendly as possible for the partnership to continue. I believe this is why:
Minecraft currently holds a PEGI 7 rating, unsurprising considering Minecraft's child-friendly reputation. For further reference, here's a list of each PEGI rating and what they mean:
http://www.pegi.info/en/index/id/33/
Retailers aren't allowed to sell products to anybody who falls below said product's rating. I really doubt its PEGI rating would increase if swearing is legalised on the server, but it would certainly intervene with Minecraft's child-friendly reputation, something Mojang are quite proud of. This explains why they do not wish to associate with anybody who is exposing their customers to harmful content. It looks bad on the game, but it looks terrible on the company.
Edit: Chat update was not motivated by the partnership after all.
On June 12th 2017, Johncoles, the CEO of Cubecraft, posted an official news thread titled '"Better Together" Update'. Said thread details how the official partnership may benefit Cubecraft and its community in the future.
This sounds pretty neat, so why are people so upset with the partnership? The source of the problems arose on November 3rd 2017, when Rubik_Cube_Man posted the 'Chat Overhaul!' thread to the News section of the forums. One section of this thread ruffled a lot of people's feathers, including my own:
Following a short-lived backlash to this change, the forums was flooded with suggestions on how the chat system could function better, to allow mature audiences to swear in private chats. The response we were given was that Mojang wouldn't allow Cubecraft to do so, that the server must be as child-friendly as possible for the partnership to continue. I believe this is why:
Minecraft currently holds a PEGI 7 rating, unsurprising considering Minecraft's child-friendly reputation. For further reference, here's a list of each PEGI rating and what they mean:
http://www.pegi.info/en/index/id/33/
Retailers aren't allowed to sell products to anybody who falls below said product's rating. I really doubt its PEGI rating would increase if swearing is legalised on the server, but it would certainly intervene with Minecraft's child-friendly reputation, something Mojang are quite proud of. This explains why they do not wish to associate with anybody who is exposing their customers to harmful content. It looks bad on the game, but it looks terrible on the company.
Edit: Chat update was not motivated by the partnership after all.
Partnership positives
Johncoles sums up the partnership's positives relatively well in his thread, so I'll keep this section concise.
You can access Cubecraft on any platform other than Playstation (Microsoft, you vandals!). If you own an Xbox, Nintendo Switch or mobile device, you'll be able to play Cubecraft assuming you have a copy of the game for your respective console.
This will benefit two areas of Cubecraft that are required for the server to keep going: income and players. I'm not going to sugarcoat anything here, Cubecraft is living in the past and its content is far too ambitious. Few games get as much love as Skywars and Eggwars, with games such as UHC, Line Dash, Barn Brawl and non-OP FFA variants being liabilities at this point. This server was made with a 30,000 player-base in mind when it can barely sustain 10,000. If we want to keep the less popular games that we've grown to love over the years, we need this partnership. Hypixel essentially holds a monopoly on Minecraft servers; so long as it exists, Cubecraft will continue to lose players, unless it finds players elsewhere.
The increased player-counts that will come from the giants that are Minecraft's console and mobile editions, will no doubt result in an increased server income. This money can then be put back into the server, in hiring new builders and developers to create new content for the playerbase. Essentially, the partnership will probably result in us getting new games. Skyblock and Parkour aren't yet on the server, perhaps the developers who eventually make them will be paid from the donations of console players.
Mojang are apparently paying Cubecraft for this partnership. This is just another source of income that can be put back into the server.
Johncoles sums up the partnership's positives relatively well in his thread, so I'll keep this section concise.
You can access Cubecraft on any platform other than Playstation (Microsoft, you vandals!). If you own an Xbox, Nintendo Switch or mobile device, you'll be able to play Cubecraft assuming you have a copy of the game for your respective console.
This will benefit two areas of Cubecraft that are required for the server to keep going: income and players. I'm not going to sugarcoat anything here, Cubecraft is living in the past and its content is far too ambitious. Few games get as much love as Skywars and Eggwars, with games such as UHC, Line Dash, Barn Brawl and non-OP FFA variants being liabilities at this point. This server was made with a 30,000 player-base in mind when it can barely sustain 10,000. If we want to keep the less popular games that we've grown to love over the years, we need this partnership. Hypixel essentially holds a monopoly on Minecraft servers; so long as it exists, Cubecraft will continue to lose players, unless it finds players elsewhere.
The increased player-counts that will come from the giants that are Minecraft's console and mobile editions, will no doubt result in an increased server income. This money can then be put back into the server, in hiring new builders and developers to create new content for the playerbase. Essentially, the partnership will probably result in us getting new games. Skyblock and Parkour aren't yet on the server, perhaps the developers who eventually make them will be paid from the donations of console players.
Mojang are apparently paying Cubecraft for this partnership. This is just another source of income that can be put back into the server.
Partnership negatives
The most vocal negative, to me, is hardly the most problematic. Because Cubecraft must comply with Mojang's strict rules, the rules that the players have to abide by may also become stricter. We've seen this happen already, with swearing in private chats officially becoming disallowed and punishable via mute. To mature audiences, this is a major turn-off, for they can no longer be themselves when in the presence of their friends. Cubecraft is far more restrictive under the partnership, meaning that it's still missing a demographic that makes up a significant portion of the Minecraft community.
With console controllers being far less responsive and fluid than the traditional mouse and keyboard, console players are going to be beaten to the ground so hard they'll be dining with Hades and Persephone. No really, they're going to be absolutely slaughtered, which will be a major turn-off for competitive players, who are already feeling deprived of challenge on the server. This may inspire a tier-based system in the future, perhaps one that puts all the server's existing games into a rotation and assigns opponents based on Win/Loss. However, I doubt the playerbase could sustain such a game for long enough to justify its addition.
Lastly, we may see easier or lackluster content added in the future that has console players' skill levels in mind. If you've ever played Minecraft on console before, you can probably recall how stiff the controls feel. You have far less control than on PC, and the learning curve for the game on consoles is not as steep. Again, this could justify the addition of a much-requested competitive ladder, but with the current player-count, I doubt it'd be worth it.
The most vocal negative, to me, is hardly the most problematic. Because Cubecraft must comply with Mojang's strict rules, the rules that the players have to abide by may also become stricter. We've seen this happen already, with swearing in private chats officially becoming disallowed and punishable via mute. To mature audiences, this is a major turn-off, for they can no longer be themselves when in the presence of their friends. Cubecraft is far more restrictive under the partnership, meaning that it's still missing a demographic that makes up a significant portion of the Minecraft community.
With console controllers being far less responsive and fluid than the traditional mouse and keyboard, console players are going to be beaten to the ground so hard they'll be dining with Hades and Persephone. No really, they're going to be absolutely slaughtered, which will be a major turn-off for competitive players, who are already feeling deprived of challenge on the server. This may inspire a tier-based system in the future, perhaps one that puts all the server's existing games into a rotation and assigns opponents based on Win/Loss. However, I doubt the playerbase could sustain such a game for long enough to justify its addition.
Lastly, we may see easier or lackluster content added in the future that has console players' skill levels in mind. If you've ever played Minecraft on console before, you can probably recall how stiff the controls feel. You have far less control than on PC, and the learning curve for the game on consoles is not as steep. Again, this could justify the addition of a much-requested competitive ladder, but with the current player-count, I doubt it'd be worth it.
To conclude:
Positives
-More money means more games (CCG is being beaten to the dust by Hypixel in terms of quantity)
-More players means games become more active (If we want to keep the likes of Arcade, UHC, FFA, etc., we need the partnership)
-More money means a larger staff team (Even Helpers and Mods aren't free by the way, management have to pay for each individual account's security to prevent hijacks. They're probably spending more on Mods a month than I spend on Runescape membership a year)
-Benefits a minority of people who have peasant friends (My friend for instance has a Switch, but her laptop isn't good enough to run Minecraft)
Negatives
-Chat restrictions will only get worse (Mature audiences have limited freedom, and general chat remains a chore)
-Broadens the skill gap drastically, makes the server less competitive and devalues wins (Turns off competitive players, makes certain activities boring)
-May result in easier or lackluster content in the future (Aimed at console or mobile players, who have less fluid movement)
Edit: The chat update may not have been motivated by the partnership. I've heard two conflicting sides to this, so not sure what to believe now :/
Also edit: Chat update was not motivated by the partnership.
Positives
-More money means more games (CCG is being beaten to the dust by Hypixel in terms of quantity)
-More players means games become more active (If we want to keep the likes of Arcade, UHC, FFA, etc., we need the partnership)
-More money means a larger staff team (Even Helpers and Mods aren't free by the way, management have to pay for each individual account's security to prevent hijacks. They're probably spending more on Mods a month than I spend on Runescape membership a year)
-Benefits a minority of people who have peasant friends (My friend for instance has a Switch, but her laptop isn't good enough to run Minecraft)
Negatives
-Broadens the skill gap drastically, makes the server less competitive and devalues wins (Turns off competitive players, makes certain activities boring)
-May result in easier or lackluster content in the future (Aimed at console or mobile players, who have less fluid movement)
Edit: The chat update may not have been motivated by the partnership. I've heard two conflicting sides to this, so not sure what to believe now :/
Also edit: Chat update was not motivated by the partnership.
If you still believe that the partnership is nothing but bad news and should be ended, that's fine. This thread's intent isn't to sway your opinion, but to make everybody aware of what it will fully entail. There's plenty of threads bashing the partnership, but none that discuss the positives to it, hence why I made this. Discuss your thoughts on the partnership in the comments c:
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