Playing Fair

Hey Guys:

Today I wanted to touch on the topic of playing fair in Minecraft as it has been a hot topic on the Cursed forums for some time now. In fact I have seen countless amounts of threads about playing fair and people's opinions of what it means to play fair.

Now first and foremost we need to understand that Minecraft is a Sandbox Game. According to Wikipedia a "Sandbox Game" is one where the player has tools to modify the world themselves and create how they play. This falls under the definition of "Open World" and can be found here.

Now if we were to purely use the Wikipedia explanation of "Sandbox Game" then it would mean the in Minecraft anything goes. This means that using mods to modify your Minecraft World is certainly acceptable.

On the forums the argument that many have put forward is that playing anything other than Vanilla Minecraft is ch\eating: this includes the use of Mods, Cheats etc.

Personally I do not use mods but not because I think it is cheating. I don't use mods because I am too lazy to go through the process of installing them. Additionally I have heard that a number of these mods are unstable and thus the hassle of downloading and installing them seems like a waste. I however, use and love to use Rei's Minimpa as this for me has been a lifesaver in so many ways. Some people believe that this is cheating, I for one could care less lol. It is my world so i play as i feel.

On the other hand I do think that using things like the X-ray mod to find ores is cheating as it gives you an unfair advantage and personally kills the game. Although I say this I personally enable cheats at times to give myself items. Yes I know that is cheating lol. There are mods like Death Chest, More Items and more that help you out a lot :)

Playing Fair on Single Player Mode

Personally on single player mode I believe that anything is okay. Therefore using mods, maps, cheats and anything else that you want is perfectly fine in my book. This is because it is your own world, and in your world anything is allowed. Sure you can set your own rules and you can decide if you want to play on easy mode (aka cheating) or on hard mode (no cheats at all). The choice is yours. Should you decide to play without cheats, mods then that is fine, the only thing I take issue with is when you decide to make other people feel bad by telling them that they are cheating. Do whatever you want on your minecraft world. It is yours after all :)

Playing Fair on Multiplayer

Now this is where using such mods as the X-ray mod becomes cheating. This is because it gives you a clear advantage over the other players. In fact most Minecraft servers have specific rules that one must follow in order to avoid getting banned. I believe that playing on a multiplayer server means adhering by the rules of the particular server.

Final Thoughts

In the end how you play is completely up to you, especially if you are in single player mode. Go nuts, cheat if you want, give yourself items if you need, play in creative, or Survival in peaceful mode. As long as you are having fun then that is all that truly matters. If you are on a multiplayer server then follow the server rules and don't be a scumbag to the other players.

Till next time my friends.

Happy Mining :)