[amitlevy49]

reminds me of the path Minecraft could have taken - they also had a massive amount of community developers building servers, but instead of encouraging monetization and taking a cut, they banned it and cracked down aggressively

Of course, unlike Roblox, Minecraft was profitable

[RockRobotRock]

I appreciate how they left Java edition alone and chose Bedrock edition to dump all the MTX bullshit on.

[HaZeust]

For now.

[skeaker]

That ship has sailed. People can and will just play on old versions if it comes to this. They already do for older versions that have better mod support.

[RockRobotRock]

i've been thinking that for 10 years. they forced msft accounts, which is annoying. other than that, hasn't been too bad

[HaZeust]

So they're empirically making progress towards it.

[zamadatix]

MTX?

[RockRobotRock]

microtransactions

[Gigachad]

What is the Minecraft online experience like these days? I only ever hear about people playing self hosted servers with friends. Are there still big servers with unique game modes kicking? Seems like it would be hard to keep sustainable

[skerit]

I've been running my own (not-for-profit, for people over the age of 21) server for the past 5 years. We're basically just a Vanilla+ server, we have no problems finding new people to join (thanks to /r/MinecraftBuddies)

[xrd]

My kids love Minecraft. They often run a curseforge mod (create?) and then open a port so they can play together inside the home LAN.

But, I don't really understand how this works, and I would love to host it in a way that their cousins in another state could join. Do you know how I research this?

I get a bit confused between the curseforge mods, the java edition. Should I start by downloading a JAR of the server and host it on a cloud server somewhere, and then firewall it off to only permit my NAT IP and the cousin's NAT IPs? At some point maybe I can run it all within a wireguard/tailscale network.

How do I get started in my reading? I'm worried I'll get overwhelmed by reading /r/MinecraftBuddies, but perhaps that is a better place to ask?

[password4321]

This may be enough to get the ball rolling:

https://blogs.oracle.com/developers/post/how-to-set-up-and-r...

[HaZeust]

First off, it's generally a good idea not to port-forward your own home router outside of defaults (Even if it's just 25565; I created a nightmare scenario for the ISP guy back at my parent's house when I was around 13 doing this).

There's tons of options to host servers in the cloud with near absolute control. I used to use a SaaS company called Minehut (https://app.minehut.com/) before I got into cloud computing and using AWS EC2 (https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/gametech/setting-up-a-minecraft... - like $8/month).

If they're interested in learning the nitty-gritty on cloud computing and hosting (they probably do if they're already learning Curseforge), then get them into the AWS method. If you want something one-and-done, opt for Minehut.

[theshrike79]

There are "Realms" that are essentially MS/Mojang hosted massive servers.

[shkkmo]

Minecraft took the moral approach of allowing independent servers and mods (in the Java edition.)

Roblox took the scummy approach of monetizing child labor and taking a cut.

I am so glad, despite the other bad things Microsoft has done with Minecraft, that they haven't taken the Roblox path.

[amitlevy49]

I had a Minecraft server when I was 12, and now as an adult I feel it was a very valuable experience for be personally

And it was more fun to run the server than play the game