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by JasonWang1027 3134 days ago
It needs quite fast network between distributed servers in clusters. A distributed database, MongoDB, is used to store Minecraft terrain and entities.
1 comments

So what is the benefit for distributing this data?

I haven't played multiplayer MC in quite a while, but from what I can remember, lag could be a bummer, so I could see how being able to connect to a low-lag "local" server and yet still play alongside players from around the world with their own low-lag connections would be nice. Yet if someone places a block on the ground and it still takes a couple seconds for that block placement to be distributed to my local server's Mongo instance and sent to me, I don't know how much the user experience is really improved for anyone.

The placed block isn't synchronized to MongoDB immediately. Chunks data is stored in memory, while some players nearby.