Background Info
The new game on the flagship Bedrock Edition, Chaos Skywars, requires the purchase of items from the CubeCraft store to join. By spending money on Minecraft worlds and skins etc., a player can accumulate VIP Experience, the value dependent on the content purchased. If a player racks up 300 VIP experience they are able to click and join this game on the server. Simple enough.
Why I'm against it
First of all, I'm sure it's all been agreed with Mojang, what with CubeCraft being an official partner, so I'm not going to try and argue that it's a breach of the EULA. There are more subjective points I'd like to share:
I've said this before, and maybe I'm behind the times and can't see where Minecraft is headed, but I still feel that a pay to play approach is completely against the spirit of Minecraft. Upon buying the game I believe all players should have equal access to publicly hosted games, no matter how much they've paid. Once you've got the game, you should have the whole game. Little extras like cosmetics or other non-game changing items are fine. Things that affect a game are not. Things that prevent a player from even joining the game should in my opinion not be a part of Minecraft.
Non-VIPs are able to join the game if warped by a VIP's party. I'm honestly not sure why this decision was made. Very few non-VIPs are going to find a VIP to play with. Even if they do, the team format of four solo players doesn't work well when your party takes up at least half the teams. It certainly doesn't give the average player the opportunity to play a representative game. Perhaps it's meant as a taster to entice more purchases. Perhaps it's there in case no other VIPs are playing. But if it's to lessen the severity of the paywall, I'm afraid it's ineffective since it'll be an option for too few people.
Really CubeCraft is just separating its valued customers from the majority who for whatever reasons haven't shelled out on the marketplace content. Are these people ever going to support the server if they're being excluded? It's too easy for them to just join a different server with much more free choice. I just don't want CubeCraft to become a segregated hierarchy of patrons and prospective customers.
It might be good for the cash flow, but there's no doubt in my mind that today's release left a poor impression in the minds of most players. Obviously CubeCraft needs to make money, but the further the bulk of the player-base is left behind, the fewer people there will ultimately be to gather all those Minecoins from. Drawing everyone in with the proclamation of a new game, only to turn the vast majority away disappointed will only leave them less responsive the next time something big happens.
What should we expect in the future?
Most of all I'm fearful for what is next to come. Back in August Minerware was introduced to Bedrock, where for the first week only players with the Pioneer rank could join. The event was posed as a chance for an exclusive preview rather than the first iteration of pay to play, which @johncoles was quick to dismiss:
Ultimately I realise that CubeCraft works as a business and so to be successful it must pursue the most profitable model possible. I just want to know if it's worth sticking around - or if in another half a year I won't even have the choice of which game I get to play without buying the next Candy Kingdom Survival Spawn.
I'm interested to hear other peoples' opinions on the release of Chaos Skywars!
The new game on the flagship Bedrock Edition, Chaos Skywars, requires the purchase of items from the CubeCraft store to join. By spending money on Minecraft worlds and skins etc., a player can accumulate VIP Experience, the value dependent on the content purchased. If a player racks up 300 VIP experience they are able to click and join this game on the server. Simple enough.
Why I'm against it
First of all, I'm sure it's all been agreed with Mojang, what with CubeCraft being an official partner, so I'm not going to try and argue that it's a breach of the EULA. There are more subjective points I'd like to share:
I've said this before, and maybe I'm behind the times and can't see where Minecraft is headed, but I still feel that a pay to play approach is completely against the spirit of Minecraft. Upon buying the game I believe all players should have equal access to publicly hosted games, no matter how much they've paid. Once you've got the game, you should have the whole game. Little extras like cosmetics or other non-game changing items are fine. Things that affect a game are not. Things that prevent a player from even joining the game should in my opinion not be a part of Minecraft.
Non-VIPs are able to join the game if warped by a VIP's party. I'm honestly not sure why this decision was made. Very few non-VIPs are going to find a VIP to play with. Even if they do, the team format of four solo players doesn't work well when your party takes up at least half the teams. It certainly doesn't give the average player the opportunity to play a representative game. Perhaps it's meant as a taster to entice more purchases. Perhaps it's there in case no other VIPs are playing. But if it's to lessen the severity of the paywall, I'm afraid it's ineffective since it'll be an option for too few people.
Really CubeCraft is just separating its valued customers from the majority who for whatever reasons haven't shelled out on the marketplace content. Are these people ever going to support the server if they're being excluded? It's too easy for them to just join a different server with much more free choice. I just don't want CubeCraft to become a segregated hierarchy of patrons and prospective customers.
It might be good for the cash flow, but there's no doubt in my mind that today's release left a poor impression in the minds of most players. Obviously CubeCraft needs to make money, but the further the bulk of the player-base is left behind, the fewer people there will ultimately be to gather all those Minecoins from. Drawing everyone in with the proclamation of a new game, only to turn the vast majority away disappointed will only leave them less responsive the next time something big happens.
What should we expect in the future?
Most of all I'm fearful for what is next to come. Back in August Minerware was introduced to Bedrock, where for the first week only players with the Pioneer rank could join. The event was posed as a chance for an exclusive preview rather than the first iteration of pay to play, which @johncoles was quick to dismiss:
I saw this as a disapproval of the of the notion that CubeCraft would adopt a permanent pay to play scheme, but just 5 months later we have a game with no plans to ever open up to the common Minecraft player. Sure, Chaos Skywars is just another mode of a game that everyone can play; sure, normal Bedrock players have four different games they can join, but as with in August my main concern is what's yet to come. I want to know how far management are going to take this new model. Will it only be applied to new releases, or will it spread to our current games? If it's happening on Bedrock, will we find remnants of the Java network being cut off?
Ultimately I realise that CubeCraft works as a business and so to be successful it must pursue the most profitable model possible. I just want to know if it's worth sticking around - or if in another half a year I won't even have the choice of which game I get to play without buying the next Candy Kingdom Survival Spawn.
I'm interested to hear other peoples' opinions on the release of Chaos Skywars!
