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Not really. Take Minecraft for example – before the acquisition by Microsoft, servers were entirely run by individuals/groups who set their own moderation polic
by fastball 4y ago
Not really. Take Minecraft for example – before the acquisition by Microsoft, servers were entirely run by individuals/groups who set their own moderation policies. Some servers were entirely PG-rated, some allowed cursing/sex stuff/etc. Mojang technically still had some level of control over things like skins (which were centrally managed), but otherwise it was choose-your-own-moderation for each individual server.
However recently (and widely discussed on HN[1]) Microsoft has started censoring the entire ecosystem, to the point where you can get banned from all servers for chat behavior in one server, because your MC account is now your MSFT account. So they can just ban the latter to block you from all of MC (except for cracked servers).
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32772810 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32772810
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- meheleventyone 4y agoBut the point of an MMO is to share a space with thousands of people so individual servers with differing rules don’t really work in that context. And individual servers doing moderation is the same as individual server based games doing moderation, it’s just a difference in scale. I’m sure there are loads of other games people can play. For example Rust is infamous for a lack of moderation and has all the racist and otherwise edgey content in it your heart desires.
- 5560675260 4y agoUltima had plenty independent (pirate) servers with vastly different cultures and even game mechanics. Even WoW, I think, has servers with different moderation - those that require roleplay and those that don't. Unified experience IMO would be a detriment for most games.
- Kiro 4y agoThose servers still had moderation. Very different from "no moderation".
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Kiro 4y agoThere's no difference between a Minecraft server implementing moderation policies and an MMO implementing them. The self-moderation we're talking about would be on an individual level.
- xani_ 4y agoa minecraft server yes, but this is forcing same set of rules to every server
- Kiro 4y agoThat's not what we're talking about though.
- fastball 4y agoYes it is, we're discussing moderation coming from a single source vs moderation from many different sources.
- Kiro 4y agoWe are not. We are discussing moderation vs no moderation (i.e. where you need to block every troll yourself).
- fastball 4y ago> people can do their own moderation, instead of relying on a central entity which makes the same broad rules for everyone "People doing their own moderation" includes a community of people who get together, appoint moderators, and enforce their own rules.
- Kiro 4y agoModeration on Minecraft servers are done by admins, just as it's done on MMOs. Both controlled by a central entity. What is the difference? The people appointing moderators are part of the central entity, unless you mean that the trolls being muted also have a say in it. Show me one such server that is not a tiny one with just a bunch of friends, where moderation is not needed anyway.
- madeofpalk 4y agoYou still have centralised moderation there - moderation is centralised on the server admins.
- fastball 4y agoYes, the world is not black and white, there are levels of decentralized.