jonnysurvives
Peacekeeper
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2013
- Messages
- 1,375
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- 1,801
Most people reading this will be aware of two recent sources of controversy: the removal of Demon’s Breeze and Better Sprint Mod. In my opinion both of these have been handled very poorly and have frankly made MCSG look pretty bad.
Firstly, Demon’s Breeze being removed just baffles me. Philly67 already went over this in his thread but the main reason cited for it happening was that there shouldn’t be two of the same map on the server, i.e. it and Breeze Island. It’s not the removal of the map itself that bothers me in particular, but the way in which the administrative staff went about it- the only similarity between the two maps is the general topography of the main island and a couple of the outlying ones. Even so, the lack of leaves on trees, cobwebs, absence of a moat at corn and the entirely different chest arrangement differentiate these areas from the original Breeze, while the lava and bridges, added structures and underground area give the map a whole new dynamic.
What made Demon’s Breeze so fun for me was that I was able to take out teams I had no right to be taking on- land a fishing rod combo on them and they go flying into the lava. This made the map tactically challenging like no other map was. I also think it’s fair to say that the majority of people who complained about Demon’s Breeze either didn’t know how to strategise and ended up in the lava a lot, or didn’t turn their sound down to combat the lag from the lava bubbling. Furthermore, it’s not really a problem for the minority of people who disliked the map- there’s nothing stopping them from leaving the server when it gets voted- whereas those who liked it (the majority, judging by how often it got voted) may never get the chance to play it again.
But what worries me is the lack of consultation with the community (and no, a faulty poll conducted months ago does not count as consultation). One of the reasons I play MCSG over Hive is that, especially in the last few months, MCSG has been on the whole very transparent. They listened to the community about the Chest Update, and have been using in-game polls to good effect when making decisions. However on the Hive, whenever I made a thread complaining that BSM was unfair (prior to 1.7), it was soon locked along with a moderator ‘informing’ me that BSM in fact gave no advantage, which was clearly b******. I value transparency when looking for a server to play on, and when a map is inexplicably removed for no good reason, it upsets me. What it looks like to me is that the staff member at fault for the Demon’s Breeze fiasco does not want to admit his mistake, and instead believes it is okay to lock the thread which exposed this mistake. This strikes me as pretty childish, and reminds me a lot of the Hive.
A lot of this is also evident in the handling of Better Sprint Mod with respect to the 1.7 update. Personally, I see no reason for Better Sprint Mod to be disallowed. This may be hard for a lot of people to get to grips with at first- perhaps you have reported many BSM users in the past, or have raged at getting killed by one- but please bear with me. With the introduction of the sprint key, BSM no longer offers and advantage, but removes an inconvenience. Everything BSM gives you can be achieved in vanilla by having a weight on your sprint key, with the added bonus that your sprint engages in mid-air and not just when you’re in contact with the ground. The same goes with the sneak toggle- easily performable with a weight in vanilla Minecraft. Mac users can even use the caps to avoid having to hold down another key. The only argument against Better Sprint Mod is trying to keep things as vanilla as possible, which isn’t a great one in my opinion. So you can imagine that when the announcement is made that BSM can now be detected and is banned on the ground that it lets you ‘sprint sideways and backwards’, I was pretty appalled. Either Chad is badly informed, or clueless on the matter. Perhaps BSM is not allowed because that would somehow be admitting that the Hive were right all along to allow it.
The same goes for Gamma- texture packs like Maplecraft and my custom Faithful are allowed, as is increasing the gamma of your monitor, but gamma, a vanilla feature, isn’t, despite them giving the exact same advantage and all being completely undetectable. It makes no sense.
In conclusion, I’m worried about the way MCSG is going. When the owner thinks that BSM lets you sprint backwards, and an admin thinks Breeze and Demon’s Breeze are similar maps, you know there’s something wrong. But when they refuse to even consider putting things right, or discussing the decision with the community, that’s even worse.
Sidenote: Do not lock this thread for no reason. This is me voicing my opinion, which I am entitled to, not being hateful towards MCSG. I have not broken any rules in posting this thread nor have I been offensive, so to lock it would be pretty much censorship.
Also, can anyone replying to this thread please not give a staff member any excuse to lock it by flaming, etc.
Firstly, Demon’s Breeze being removed just baffles me. Philly67 already went over this in his thread but the main reason cited for it happening was that there shouldn’t be two of the same map on the server, i.e. it and Breeze Island. It’s not the removal of the map itself that bothers me in particular, but the way in which the administrative staff went about it- the only similarity between the two maps is the general topography of the main island and a couple of the outlying ones. Even so, the lack of leaves on trees, cobwebs, absence of a moat at corn and the entirely different chest arrangement differentiate these areas from the original Breeze, while the lava and bridges, added structures and underground area give the map a whole new dynamic.
What made Demon’s Breeze so fun for me was that I was able to take out teams I had no right to be taking on- land a fishing rod combo on them and they go flying into the lava. This made the map tactically challenging like no other map was. I also think it’s fair to say that the majority of people who complained about Demon’s Breeze either didn’t know how to strategise and ended up in the lava a lot, or didn’t turn their sound down to combat the lag from the lava bubbling. Furthermore, it’s not really a problem for the minority of people who disliked the map- there’s nothing stopping them from leaving the server when it gets voted- whereas those who liked it (the majority, judging by how often it got voted) may never get the chance to play it again.
But what worries me is the lack of consultation with the community (and no, a faulty poll conducted months ago does not count as consultation). One of the reasons I play MCSG over Hive is that, especially in the last few months, MCSG has been on the whole very transparent. They listened to the community about the Chest Update, and have been using in-game polls to good effect when making decisions. However on the Hive, whenever I made a thread complaining that BSM was unfair (prior to 1.7), it was soon locked along with a moderator ‘informing’ me that BSM in fact gave no advantage, which was clearly b******. I value transparency when looking for a server to play on, and when a map is inexplicably removed for no good reason, it upsets me. What it looks like to me is that the staff member at fault for the Demon’s Breeze fiasco does not want to admit his mistake, and instead believes it is okay to lock the thread which exposed this mistake. This strikes me as pretty childish, and reminds me a lot of the Hive.
A lot of this is also evident in the handling of Better Sprint Mod with respect to the 1.7 update. Personally, I see no reason for Better Sprint Mod to be disallowed. This may be hard for a lot of people to get to grips with at first- perhaps you have reported many BSM users in the past, or have raged at getting killed by one- but please bear with me. With the introduction of the sprint key, BSM no longer offers and advantage, but removes an inconvenience. Everything BSM gives you can be achieved in vanilla by having a weight on your sprint key, with the added bonus that your sprint engages in mid-air and not just when you’re in contact with the ground. The same goes with the sneak toggle- easily performable with a weight in vanilla Minecraft. Mac users can even use the caps to avoid having to hold down another key. The only argument against Better Sprint Mod is trying to keep things as vanilla as possible, which isn’t a great one in my opinion. So you can imagine that when the announcement is made that BSM can now be detected and is banned on the ground that it lets you ‘sprint sideways and backwards’, I was pretty appalled. Either Chad is badly informed, or clueless on the matter. Perhaps BSM is not allowed because that would somehow be admitting that the Hive were right all along to allow it.
The same goes for Gamma- texture packs like Maplecraft and my custom Faithful are allowed, as is increasing the gamma of your monitor, but gamma, a vanilla feature, isn’t, despite them giving the exact same advantage and all being completely undetectable. It makes no sense.
In conclusion, I’m worried about the way MCSG is going. When the owner thinks that BSM lets you sprint backwards, and an admin thinks Breeze and Demon’s Breeze are similar maps, you know there’s something wrong. But when they refuse to even consider putting things right, or discussing the decision with the community, that’s even worse.
Sidenote: Do not lock this thread for no reason. This is me voicing my opinion, which I am entitled to, not being hateful towards MCSG. I have not broken any rules in posting this thread nor have I been offensive, so to lock it would be pretty much censorship.
Also, can anyone replying to this thread please not give a staff member any excuse to lock it by flaming, etc.
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