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Conversation with a job applicant that I had a while back: "I run this minecraft server. I've modded it so that if someone kills you, you are banned for a week

Conversation with a job applicant that I had a while back: "I run this minecraft server. I've modded it so that if someone kills you, you are banned for a week. But, you can unban yourself at any time for $5. This pays my rent." "So, people come to your server specifically because it adds a heavy penalty that does not exist in the standard game and then they pay you to remove that penalty?" "Yes." It sounds ridiculous, but it makes sense for a subset of hardcore players. They want PvP. But, ganking you just isn't satisfying if you just respawn next to me a second later. However, if I know that over on the other end of the internet you are genuinely pissed that I ganked you --that's satisfying! Similarly, if I know that getting whacked has real consequences, it makes the game much more exciting and intense.

irremediable 12y ago
That's fascinating. A friend of mine ran a server a bit like this, for his friends, although there was no pay-to-unban. We enjoyed the extra challenge, but it eventually died out because people got banned too often.
wfn 12y ago
These are called hardcore survival servers. They are basically what made me attracted to the idea of playing minecraft multiplayer, actually. I remember seeing a picture of someone discovering a random build in the middle of a forest (in a large map) on /r/minecraft. Apparently people still do builds on these kinds of servers! Even if that's usually dangerous! And how interesting it is to find such a build.. or bump into someone, and do a bit of game theory ("should we try to kill each other, or should we trade?") (the latter is not that usual, granted!) (Normally, you start by running away from the spawn point (which is a safe zone), to find food (nearby food sources are usually nonexistent), and make a small shelter. You then move on to building an underground base (e.g. under an ocean floor), building up armour, maybe going back to spawn eventually.. Or maybe you stack up resources, and just roam around the lands, or go out with some friendly people to found a city. There are spawn-campers who try to kill noobs, and then sometimes there are people who try to hunt down the noob-killers. Sometimes there are also people who plant seeds around the spawn to help out... etc.)

irremediable 12y ago

That's fascinating. A friend of mine ran a server a bit like this, for his friends, although there was no pay-to-unban. We enjoyed the extra challenge, but it eventually died out because people got banned too often.

wfn 12y ago

These are called hardcore survival servers. They are basically what made me attracted to the idea of playing minecraft multiplayer, actually. I remember seeing a picture of someone discovering a random build in the middle of a forest (in a large map) on /r/minecraft. Apparently people still do builds on these kinds of servers! Even if that's usually dangerous! And how interesting it is to find such a build.. or bump into someone, and do a bit of game theory ("should we try to kill each other, or should we trade?") (the latter is not that usual, granted!) (Normally, you start by running away from the spawn point (which is a safe zone), to find food (nearby food sources are usually nonexistent), and make a small shelter. You then move on to building an underground base (e.g. under an ocean floor), building up armour, maybe going back to spawn eventually.. Or maybe you stack up resources, and just roam around the lands, or go out with some friendly people to found a city. There are spawn-campers who try to kill noobs, and then sometimes there are people who try to hunt down the noob-killers. Sometimes there are also people who plant seeds around the spawn to help out... etc.)