I think there are a lot of factors that go into the concentration of hackers in Eastern Europe, and I will try to address them without offending anyone or sounding racist. (I am just saying what I remember from AP human geography.)
The first big source of the problem is the fact that Eastern Europe has huge language diversity, whereas well over 99% of both genders in the US are literate in English, the language of MCGamer. Australia also has excellent literacy in English, as it is the second most developed country in the world, according to
a study done by the United Nations Development Program in 2014. Canada has excellent literacy in English as well. But Europe is full or hundreds of native languages. Some of the most common languages include English, Swedish, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Andorran, (I think that's what it's called) Icelandic, Greek, Russian, Swiss, Turkish, Slavic, as well as a massive mixing pot found especially in southeastern Europe. Eastern Europe is one of the most culturally diverse places in the world, and it has been known to have been a victim of many wars, "ethnic cleansing", and underdevelopment within the European Union. Also, players from the three surrounding continents generally play on EU, only adding to the diversity. Overall, EU has an astounding amount of ethnicities, religions, and anything else you could include in "culture".
What is wrong with diversity within this context? The obvious answer is that the players cannot read the rules. However, even Western European players hack more than the other three global regions. Part of the problem with the "mixing pot" in Eastern Europe is that few people speak the native language in a local area than in an area like France, where the entire country speaks French. Word about rules and expectations are less likely to get out if there are few players that speak a language. A person who speaks Swedish, has Swedish friends and has played on here for a year cannot honestly say that they do not know the main rules. (No hacking, DDoSing, abusing, etc...)
Getting to my point, the main reason Eastern Europe has more hackers than Western Europe is probably because the western Europeans have more friends who speak their language, etc... After reading the following post, I had another inspirational thought.
Idk how someone could be bad at hacking?
On topic.
When I kill a hacker, I feel a giant pulse of adrenaline. To me, that's like beating a team that cheats in a sport to some people. I immediately start to trash talk. Some people may think this is bad, but it's not. If a hacker is getting trash talked, because they are killed, that would discourage them from hacking, since trash talk isn't fun :=)
Part of what makes people want to do well and play like a legit person is the
image it portrays to other players. A player who hacked or boosted their first fifty games may feel proud of themselves when someone says "Wow! Nice ratio!" to their 38/50 ratio despite the fact that it isn't legit. The same can be said for the shame. A player who gets insulted by another for their bad ratio may wish that they couldn't understand what they said. Players who hack and can't understand or communicate with most other players feel that they are under a mask, or disconnection from everyone else. This not only prevents them from getting called out or feeling shame for what they have done, it also makes them hate the community more. Imagine if you walked into a server and all you saw was:
"js0gn powovnm opqx, pqmpw mwpbikwm ;owl"
"hh 13 j;vl w;flkj"
"fjgu otu"
How would you feel? Would you want to get to know these people and contribute to the community, or would you feel dehumanized and lost? Would you want to stick around or simply get a small burst of fun from hacking and just leave? You can't say I'm not right when I say that people from small or diverse cultures feel less welcome. Look at these forums. We have a very small portion of Eastern European posters considering their numbers. And... MODERATORS!
Now for the more controversial, less accurate portion of my post.
The fact that Eastern Europe and the Middle East have been a source of many wars in the past three decades may contribute to a"wanting to win" attitude. The people may be psychologically less inclined to play fairly because of political events. This may be a brash statement, but if your country has ever been in a state of turmoil, you will agree that it affects the state of mind of all of its members. War changes people. Once we start thinking about real events, we once again realize how silly our little block game is in comparison to wars and ethnic issues, etc... One could even say that players who live in these places hack more because they realize it is just a game in comparison to real events, and despite what everyone here says, hacking is okay because it is more of just a block game in their eyes.
Development of individual countries continuously comes into play when talking about issues like this. The countries that have been mentioned for being more full of hackers are less developed in comparison to Western Europe, and especially compared to the other three regions. Being less developed generally means being poorer, having less computer access, being less literate, and being less politically stable. How does that increase hackers? It means people have worse equipment but still want to be as good at the game as everyone else. It also means they are less likely to be able to play MCSG long-term, and therefore want to get more of a bang-of-fun out of it from hacking. It may, once again, have a psychological effect on people.
To throw out a final wild card point, southeastern Europe is also a lot hotter than western Europe, and especially the US, Canada, and Australia. Studies have shown that places that are hotter always have more violence and an angry overall attitude among their people. It affects the very political stability and mindset of it its inhabitants.
To add to these more controversial points, players who are familiar with the US servers know that people who appear to be Latin American tend to be more likely to be hackers. Whether this is because of political stability, language diversity, a "shame factor", development, or even climate, who knows. More than likely, it is a combination of many things, and we must not simply point out that "players cannot read rules". Truth is rarely ever so simple.
If anything in this post is offensive to you or anyone you know, I will delete it without a second thought. -BitoBain
