NewspaperCrane
Well-Known Member
I'm going to start this off by saying that anything that is written in this article is my opinion, and my opinion alone. It may or may not represent the views or opinions of Team9000. Before you reply to this thread, read the entire post, and think about what I am trying to say.
Ranks in minecraft, specifically classic are something that is necessary, and has helped build our server into the wonderful place that it is today. Our ranking system helps us to be free from griefers, spammers, trolls, and the other nasty crap that an unmoderated server brings. Unfortunately, I think that this has become out of control, especially as the server has grown. As the minecraft server has grown, so has our community.
I feel like as our server has grown, the ranking system has kind of gotten out of hand. Members respect a person in the community based on rank. If you're pro ranked people are more likely to respect you just because your name is red. It's fairly common in most situations for individuals of higher rank to be super highly respected, and idolized because of their power.
The issue with this in our server I believe comes from two things: the attainability of a higher rank, and the abstractness of minecraft. Minecraft is, by definition, unbeatable. There are people who have put two hundred hours in this game only to find that they have nothing more to show from it than they started, except for some pixel art, and a life size one to one replica of the starship enterprise. For some people this is enough, for others it's not. When you turn a game like minecraft which was invented as a fun little time waster (like a flash game), and turn it massively multiplayer, people want more to show for their achievements.
Why do people even want to play minecraft online? My initial thought of this was that it was to collaboratively build with other players. In my experience that doesn't happen a lot (we've seen a lot more of it in SMP than we have in classic). Players in classic tend to build their own creations and say "Look at what I made!" I've come to the conclusion that it's less about collaboratively building, and more about showing off your work.
There's nothing wrong with showing off something that you've worked hard to make. I feel like that the way things are going though people are no longer building for the sake of building. They aren't building because they enjoy it anymore, they're just building to get to the next rank.
Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down and I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel-Air. In West Philadelphia born and raised on the playground is where I spent most of my days chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool and all shootin' some b-ball outside of the school when a couple of guys who were up to no good started makin' trouble in my neighborhood. I got in one little fight and my mom got scared and said you're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air.
I begged and pleaded with her day after day but she packed my suitcase and sent me on my way. She gave me a kiss and then she gave me my ticket I put my walkman on and said I might as well kick it. First class yo this is bad drinkin' orange juice out of a champagne glass. Is this what the people of Bel-Air live like? Hmmm this might be all right.
But wait I hear they're prissy, bourgeois and all that. Is this the type of place that they should send this cool cat? I don't think so I'll see when I get there. I hope they're prepared for the prince of Bel-Air. Well uh the plane landed and when I came out there was a dude looked like a cop standin' there with my name out. I ain't tryin' to get arrested yet I just got here. I sprang with the quickness like lightning disappeared.
I whistled for a cab and when it came near the license plate said "Fresh", and had dice in the mirror. If anything I could say that this cab was rare but I thought nah forget it, yo home to Bel-Air! I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8 and I yelled to the cabbie, "Yo Holmes, smell ya later!" Looked at my kingdom I was finally there to sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel-Air.
I experienced the same thing with world of warcraft. I picked up world of warcraft last year (yes I was late to the game), and played up to level 73. I stopped enjoying the game at like level 55. I kept playing because I thought that maybe as we got further in the game, it would get more fun. Sure, every once in a while I would get a new feature that amused me for a while (such as flying), but that would die down and I would just go back to leveling (which I hated).
I feel this happens to a lot of players in minecraft. They build a lot when they are a guest or cool, then they reach the builder rank. I think the title "Builder" is actually pretty ironic these days. Most of the builders that I see aren't very interested in building. They kind of just go around helping people. I'm not trying to rag on helping people, but I feel like a lot people don't do it because they want to, they do it because that is what they are supposed to do to get to the next rank.
I've always felt that engineer was the most important rank in our minecraft server. Engineers are the ones in the trenches, dealing with the users, and helping us keep the server clean. I also believe that becoming an engineer should be the hardest rank to achieve in minecraft. Engineer marks an important achievement in our server, that a lot of people think comes at the awesome rank. The rank of engineer is a mark of trust. As an engineer, you get kick privileges. Kick privileges are drastically different than any other privilege to date.
When you become an engineer, you are now tasked with keeping the server clean. You may not be able to ban, mute, or revert, but the things that you do are just as important as any of those things. I think a lot of people look at the rank of engineer as a lower rank for a community member (as a lot of the respected members of the community are awesome+), but I don't really think ranks in minecraft should be viewed that way.
I've been saying this for a long time but, I'm going to reiterate it here: Engineer+ is a service position, not a rank. At engineer+ you are no longer given privileges, you are given responsibility. It is your responsibility to make sure that the server is kept clean and griefer-free. It's no longer about you, it's about the community. I think that's where a lot of people go wrong, they view going up in rank about themselves.
People put too much meaning into ranks around here. While I have said it myself that users with a higher rank have proven their trust to the server, that does not mean that users that do not have a higher rank are less trustworthy. I'm tired of people trying to do things to get ahead in the community just so they can finally "Beat Minecraft". Just sit back, relax and have a good time. At the end of the day, that's why we're here, isn't it?
Ranks in minecraft, specifically classic are something that is necessary, and has helped build our server into the wonderful place that it is today. Our ranking system helps us to be free from griefers, spammers, trolls, and the other nasty crap that an unmoderated server brings. Unfortunately, I think that this has become out of control, especially as the server has grown. As the minecraft server has grown, so has our community.
I feel like as our server has grown, the ranking system has kind of gotten out of hand. Members respect a person in the community based on rank. If you're pro ranked people are more likely to respect you just because your name is red. It's fairly common in most situations for individuals of higher rank to be super highly respected, and idolized because of their power.
The issue with this in our server I believe comes from two things: the attainability of a higher rank, and the abstractness of minecraft. Minecraft is, by definition, unbeatable. There are people who have put two hundred hours in this game only to find that they have nothing more to show from it than they started, except for some pixel art, and a life size one to one replica of the starship enterprise. For some people this is enough, for others it's not. When you turn a game like minecraft which was invented as a fun little time waster (like a flash game), and turn it massively multiplayer, people want more to show for their achievements.
Why do people even want to play minecraft online? My initial thought of this was that it was to collaboratively build with other players. In my experience that doesn't happen a lot (we've seen a lot more of it in SMP than we have in classic). Players in classic tend to build their own creations and say "Look at what I made!" I've come to the conclusion that it's less about collaboratively building, and more about showing off your work.
There's nothing wrong with showing off something that you've worked hard to make. I feel like that the way things are going though people are no longer building for the sake of building. They aren't building because they enjoy it anymore, they're just building to get to the next rank.
Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down and I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel-Air. In West Philadelphia born and raised on the playground is where I spent most of my days chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool and all shootin' some b-ball outside of the school when a couple of guys who were up to no good started makin' trouble in my neighborhood. I got in one little fight and my mom got scared and said you're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air.
I begged and pleaded with her day after day but she packed my suitcase and sent me on my way. She gave me a kiss and then she gave me my ticket I put my walkman on and said I might as well kick it. First class yo this is bad drinkin' orange juice out of a champagne glass. Is this what the people of Bel-Air live like? Hmmm this might be all right.
But wait I hear they're prissy, bourgeois and all that. Is this the type of place that they should send this cool cat? I don't think so I'll see when I get there. I hope they're prepared for the prince of Bel-Air. Well uh the plane landed and when I came out there was a dude looked like a cop standin' there with my name out. I ain't tryin' to get arrested yet I just got here. I sprang with the quickness like lightning disappeared.
I whistled for a cab and when it came near the license plate said "Fresh", and had dice in the mirror. If anything I could say that this cab was rare but I thought nah forget it, yo home to Bel-Air! I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8 and I yelled to the cabbie, "Yo Holmes, smell ya later!" Looked at my kingdom I was finally there to sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel-Air.
I experienced the same thing with world of warcraft. I picked up world of warcraft last year (yes I was late to the game), and played up to level 73. I stopped enjoying the game at like level 55. I kept playing because I thought that maybe as we got further in the game, it would get more fun. Sure, every once in a while I would get a new feature that amused me for a while (such as flying), but that would die down and I would just go back to leveling (which I hated).
I feel this happens to a lot of players in minecraft. They build a lot when they are a guest or cool, then they reach the builder rank. I think the title "Builder" is actually pretty ironic these days. Most of the builders that I see aren't very interested in building. They kind of just go around helping people. I'm not trying to rag on helping people, but I feel like a lot people don't do it because they want to, they do it because that is what they are supposed to do to get to the next rank.
I've always felt that engineer was the most important rank in our minecraft server. Engineers are the ones in the trenches, dealing with the users, and helping us keep the server clean. I also believe that becoming an engineer should be the hardest rank to achieve in minecraft. Engineer marks an important achievement in our server, that a lot of people think comes at the awesome rank. The rank of engineer is a mark of trust. As an engineer, you get kick privileges. Kick privileges are drastically different than any other privilege to date.
When you become an engineer, you are now tasked with keeping the server clean. You may not be able to ban, mute, or revert, but the things that you do are just as important as any of those things. I think a lot of people look at the rank of engineer as a lower rank for a community member (as a lot of the respected members of the community are awesome+), but I don't really think ranks in minecraft should be viewed that way.
I've been saying this for a long time but, I'm going to reiterate it here: Engineer+ is a service position, not a rank. At engineer+ you are no longer given privileges, you are given responsibility. It is your responsibility to make sure that the server is kept clean and griefer-free. It's no longer about you, it's about the community. I think that's where a lot of people go wrong, they view going up in rank about themselves.
People put too much meaning into ranks around here. While I have said it myself that users with a higher rank have proven their trust to the server, that does not mean that users that do not have a higher rank are less trustworthy. I'm tired of people trying to do things to get ahead in the community just so they can finally "Beat Minecraft". Just sit back, relax and have a good time. At the end of the day, that's why we're here, isn't it?
) and to have fun of course! The tools that comes with ranks should be taken with great responsibility and the notion that we are entrusting YOU to know how and when to use such tools.
