For those who do not know, I have recently(ish) gotten pretty into Minecraft and have been spending a lot of time on it. I enjoy the sandboxyness(yes, that is a word okay...) of it. Over the past two weeks, I've been searching for a well run, buzzing multi-player server populated by (mostly) mature adults who are capable of displaying even a morsel of etiquette to strangers.
So I joined the server owned by Exiled Gaming. At first glance, I liked what I saw. They had some stable mods running and a buzzing community. The website was detailed and helpful. I spent a bit of time browsing over the rules to make sure there wasn't anything that would hinder what kind of game play I and my friends would like. Mostly assured, I logged into the server and began the polite but insistent procedure of injecting myself into an admin's attention.
Shortly, I was offered a plot and began to build. During this time, I watched the chat to get some idea of what the community was like and how the server economy and maturity was. Everything seemed on the level. Over the course of the next two days, I invited 5 friends to join me in the lovely town of Redstone, where we worked to "keep it western." We are the foundation of this town, as it was mostly uninhabited when I first started building there.
Other than a few incidents (getting my chicken farm /butchered every day, getting blown up by TNT randomly, being PvPed and then outsmarting those same pvper's and getting my diamonds back...), I have not been disappointed and have enjoyed my time.
Today, I checked the website again, as I have every day, to see if the donation page was still down. I wanted to contribute because I know running something like this takes time, work, money and blood and tears. The page was still down.
MasterKnives(MK for short) is one of three listed server owners. I jokingly said to MK, "The donation page is still down." The response I got? "No shit!"
Wow... isn't that pleasant.
Now let me back up a bit. I have had no trouble with any of the staff other than MK. Ever since I first heard MK speak, I disliked them for their abusive attitude towards everyone. Everything that came out of their mouth was insulting, down to lines such as, "Some of your parents should have had abortions." I disliked them with a passion, but was also smart enough to know they ran the show (in part) and so mostly kept my interactions limited and tried to ignore the onslaught of verbal abuse this player dealt out constantly to likely 15 year old kids.
Tonight, though, after being offended myself with this rude response to my subtle way of saying, "Hey, I like what you guys are doing and want to show my appreciation," I was less inclined to just bend over and let this stanger slap me around like I'm one to be bullied.
A short while after the initial lines the following dialogue summary occurred. I am now pasting what is my ban appeal ticket, all grammar issues included! It's authentic!
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MasterKnives and staff,
The following (not to the exact letter, but accurate nonetheless) conversation lines occurred tonight.
Me: the chat does suck (referring to the Mine craft base chat UI)
MK: (I can not remember the exact wording, but MK informed me there was a
mod for that, and there was a website used to find mods, called Google)
Me: You're sarcasm and constant over reacting to everything is getting old.
MK: Your. You're is a contraction of you and are
Me: (apologized for typing fail)
MK: Spelling has nothing to do with typing skills.
Me: (and here's the ban line) It's called muscle reflex, if you don't know what it is, try google.com.
This server is a good one, and I have found potential enough with it
that I have invited five other friends (with a few more on the way) to
join. We are searching for a mature environment and would like to give
this server a chance. I never join a server asking for a babysitter, nor
do any of my friends. We are all old enough to think for ourselves and
appreciate knowledge and sharing. However I do not appreciate the
constant verbal abuse that is being spewed out. The concept of mutual
respect was completely absent during this entire conversation. I started
a neutral line of a discussion and was delivered a condescending
response and an knee-jerk ban.
As the payer for the server and one to be looked up to, I did not expect
these kinds of over reactions. With a simple retort and no direct
violation of any rules, I skipped three levels of ban punishment for
defending myself in an offensive and pointless little back and fourth
over something so miniscule that I feel like the players on this server
are there to be subject to verbal abuse for any small thing at any point
MK is logged in.
I have not had any trouble with any other staff. I find, in general,
everyone is very friendly, and they carry the weight for making me put
in the time and effort for this appeal. I have 5 friends who look to me
for the next move and I can not help them or give them ideas when I get
banned for refusing to deal with being someone's punch bag on my hours
off. I don't get paid for that either.
This entire line of conversation began when I jokingly mentioned that
the donation page was still down. I asked about the donation page the
first day I was here. I liked what I saw and wanted to contribute, but
all this nonsense makes its impossible to tell if it's even valued.
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The server rules state that you are not promised any rights. When I read this, I understood that it could mean the staff may at any time do anything such as wipe the map, the assets, your money, your town, your city, etc. You play on the server to have fun and don't technically have "ownership." All this was understandable to me. However, running/paying for a server does not give you the right to transcend the golden rule.
Just sayin'.
Inb4 I never get a response, and if it's a 48 hour ban, I'll never get a response before the time is over.
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Edit (Dec 14th, 2011) - For those I have not spoken with since this post, I was unbanned the following day after a half-hearted attempt to slap me on the wrist. Whatever, it got me back in but MK still wanted to get a few sly google.com jokes in on me which I was more than happy to play along with.
After some idle conversation, MK gave me a tour of some old structures he had worked on in the past. Admittedly, these structures were impressive. His projects seem in line with something I know some of you guys have heard me say maybe one too many times, "Go big, or go home!" I have to say, I have not considered building on such a large scale, but yes, they were some very ambitious and successful projects. He's still as ass. But I can respect someone who speaks with that kind of creative passion.
I still get to wear a :smugface: however, as I was given, much to my surprise, an apology for my ban. I'm almost ready to sweep this under the bridge, but I think several more google.com joke are still required. And he's still an ass.
