Ranks

Hi,

I've been on and off the server for a couple years now; mostly inactive after the whole Minecraft EULA enforcement happened.

It would be a lie to say that Meepcraft was doing great before the whole EULA situation, but it was in a pretty decent state. After the enforcement of the rules started, the situation was dire considering Meepcraft's ridiculous rank prices were rationalized by the perks you were getting - and most of those had to be get rid of in order to comply with the EULA.

Some perks were removed, some were kept, there was no certainty and no clear discussion on how we would be moving forward. I remember there were some promises regarding the perks - "we are getting everything back", which lead to the whole debacle with Meepcraft going rogue (with a 3rd party launcher required to log in for a lot of people), then it was back to a nice, EULA-complaint server yet again, but the chaos which was created surrounding ranks was never cleared up, even many months after the fact.

Look no further than the very website we are on right now. Go to the store section, open up ranks and look at the perks that are listed there. From the top to the bottom it is all just cosmetic rewards (still for almost the same ridiculous prices as prior to the changes - more to that later).

Right. Why does it not say that Ultimates have /fly in Towns? That /chest 1,2,3 is still a thing for a couple of ranks? That we have /nv and the ability to claim more plots in creative? I am just naming a few things from the top of my head, I am sure there's more of this. Outdated stuff like /fix, /feed, etc. sending you to the website to upgrade your rank. Why?

Both the website and the in-game spawn fail to mention those perks - quite conveniently. So you make the ranks look EULA-complaint, but they simply are not. You are still selling in-game advantages for real life money.

Next issue. The /help GUI in-game has been outdated ever since the aforementioned changes. It still lists all of the old perks which, all things considered, is ironically more accurate than the description in spawn and on the website. Did no one bother to update it? No, I don't think so. We have more than enough talented and motivated people in the staff team right now... it's just such a sensitive and clouded topic that no one dares to touch it. There is only one person who should come clear with this and sort the mess out. @Fuzzlr

As a pretty experienced Minecraft and Meepcraft player, I am left confused by the state of the rank system. Where do I go to look for accurate information on what I am paying for (or rather paid for)? My sincere apologies if there actually is an up to date command or site which does indeed have this information, but I for one can not find one and even if it exists, it still does not affect my previous points.

Alright, why should you all care? I take it, most of you have a pretty good idea what your rank does and how things operate. The problem is with new players.

I for one was looking forward to every next tier of the rank system. There were cool perks, still for crazy prices, but it could be justified. Now, if a 12 years old Bob sees what the server has to offer; like an orange chat with a few particle effects, disguises and other fancy stuff for 200 dollars, he might reconsider donating. But what do I know, today's children are pretty weird.

I have noticed you have been reducing prices and even though it must hurt for the people who bought those ranks for the original price, it is a good step going forward if you want to be a cosmetics only server (or at least advertised as one). It's not my place to make any suggestions in this direction, but having a base 10 dollars rank with a factor 1,5 steps ($15 for premium, $22.5 for exclusive, all the way up to $76 for Ulti) would be more reasonable... but hey, besides the point now.

The point here is; for a 500 players server a $320 dollars rank overloaded with perks could be justified. A $200 dollars cosmetics-only rank in a server peaking with 50 players is just silly - especially with the way you advertise it.

Still the main point and a TL,DR here is: @Fuzzlr, clear up the ranks mess. There is not one single place with accurate information on rank perks. Your website and spawn conveniently only lists EULA-complaint stuff, while your /help guide still has the old era perks - some of which work, some don't.

With the website/spawn you are avoiding the EULA - breaking one law, with the /help guide you are straight out lying to your customers spending real life money on the server - breaking another law.

 

I’m not the most informed on this issue but let me give you a rundown: when you buy a rank you are buying a “100% chance” to get the perks for said rank. Without buying the chance, you have a lower, but still probable, chance of winning the same perks. Therefore, players who have spent nothing can get perks for free occasionally. The Eula says (to paraphrase) there cannot be “paying only” perks. Since people who haven’t paid can win perks, it is Eula compliant

 

Can you win the chance to have more plots in creative? Or is that a thing everyone has now?

Thanks for addressing this point, however.

EDIT:

Alright. I went ahead and checked this out myself.

My main being a Supreme can claim at least 5 plots (didn't try more).
My alt being a VIP can only claim 2 plots.
I would assume a citizen can only have 1 creative plot.

This is in direct violation of:

"If all players get access to a feature such as a plot of land, can I sell access to multiple plots for hard currency?
No - that would be a gameplay affecting change, so it’s not allowed. All player who access your server must have the same gameplay features offered to them. The same rule applies to items, such as potions."

Which I am not paraphrasing now, but taking directly from this site:

Let's talk server monetisation - the follow-up Q+A

I am confident I could find more loop holes like this.

On the other hand:

"Can I sell ranks on my server?
Yes. Ranks are allowed so long as any perks gained are cosmetic. Coloured names, prefixes, special hats etc. are fine."

This would explain why the spawn and website only lists cosmetic perks. Also taken from the official Mojang page.

 

IMO if people want to play around in creative, there are creative servers or single player to do so. However, /sethome still isn't cosmetic. Can everyone "acquire" more sethomes?

 

"If's" should not play a role here.

Yes, you can "win" /sethome by voting. Players with ranks do get those without it being advertised and is also violating the rules.
Nowhere on the official site does it says it is 'okay' to have ranks with perks which provide in-game advantages as long as it's also possible for not-paying users to have a chance of "winning" those perks in any way or form. /fly, for example, is furthermore only awarded for a day via voting, but it is a permanent perk in Towns for Ults.

Therefore I also think it's not pure coincidence that the in-game advantage providing perks are not listed anywhere (except in the forgotten /help guide).

 

And it probably isnt pure coincidence that Meep hasn't been removed from the blacklist.

 

Oh it still is blacklisted? Well that changes things. I thought they sorted that out, hence the false advertisement of ranks, but I guess they just found a way around it.

Alright, if the server is blacklisted and we still have a way to connect to it with a normal launcher, why are we not transparent with what perks each rank gets?

 

The thing I keep hearing is that "Fuzzlr has tried contacting Mojang, but they won't listen." Maybe its because we aren't compliant and making the perks available through "random chance" isn't kosher with EULA or how Mojang wants things done.

 

Well yeah, they were and are pretty strict with the rules. No exceptions and Meepcraft is certainly doing a few exceptions.

You can see that effort has been put into making the server EULA complaint, but after it failed and Meepcraft got blacklisted, it just have been left as it was. Some parts try to comply with the rules some do not.

Now that the server found out how to get around the blacklist, no one bothered to at least make the ranks transparent again for the users/customers - that is the sad part and a point that still holds from my original post.

If you are not even trying anymore to make the server EULA complaint and are therefore hampering with its future, why are you not being transparent with the ranks and updating the various information sources to be up to date?

 

I understand the anger and want things fixed too, but we need to take a step back. There's no need to point blame right now. Blame will only cause confusion.

If we want to fix the rank inconsistencies we need to agree on our goals first instead of yelling about each inconsistency.


My opinion is that the server should be transparent about what it's doing. As long as the server doesn't take away the perks it's given to people and gives a fair warning before lowering the prices of any ranks I see no reason people should feel entitled to being angry about prices changing since prices can change for any item in the real world without issue without even a warning.

It's nice that players can slowly earn many of the perks of the other ranks. I was over-joyed to receive an extra virtual chest from the perks crate! At the same time, I agree there should remain at least enough cosmetic perks for higher ranks to warrant whatever costs they have at any point in time.

Finally, I'm certain that just about no one enjoys a lack of transparency. The rank perk listings should be standardized. Players should be able to know where the server is trying to move EULA-wise. I understand why such systems may exist currently, but I am against maintaining systems which are technically fine with the EULA such as the 100% chance of receiving certain perks when ranks are bought. Those are the types of systems which Mojang would use to not allow Meepcraft off the blacklist.

 

Alright... where to start. Thanks for your feedback. Sorry if you got the impression that I am yelling at someone and that I created this thread just to cause confusion or drama. No, far from it. Believe it or not, I do care for Meepcraft and am opening this discussion YET again in the hopes of turning things around a bit. Do I blame someone? Sure I do. Does it mean we can still have a nice and productive discussion? Sure it does.
Let me start with a quote from the start of 2017, more than 1.5 years ago (as your creation date on the forums indicates, you were not around to see how things actually were);

This was after the server lost a lot of data and had to restart. I was playing back then for a couple weeks. Focus on towny - check, re-balance economy - check, EULA compliant - nope!

To my disappointed, I returned to a server in a similar rank-wise state as it was back 1.5 years ago.

The server is still BLACKLISTED, we are not EULA complaint and are only able to connect to Meepcraft with the official client due to a work around many other blacklisted servers also applied.

To your first paragraph: I agree. That's the ideal situation and props to Meep for being transparent about the EULA situation back when it happened. I would not mind any rank price reductions or perk removals if that means a growth of the server.

Your second paragraph: I also agree. It's an exciting system, but it is not EULA complaint. Simple as that. Please refer to the page I linked before.

Last paragraph: You are absolutely right. The thing I am fighting here is that we have been stuck between two different directions for a WHILE here. We are neither EULA complaint nor are we transparent as a blacklisted server.

The goals are pretty clear to me: Either make the server completely EULA complaint by removing all the hidden rank perks and voting rewards providing in-game advantages or stay blacklisted while being completely transparent about what players are spending their money on.

 

This isn't "yelling." Dockson and I are having a discussion and the blame you're referencing is questions we/he has/have.

Right that what's being said here. The lack of consistency in rank perks leads to confusion among players and probably confusion to Mojang too.

 

We are already aware of the inconsistencies within the pages and are currently working to resolve the matter. Thank you all for your patience.

 

You necro a thread from January expecting the same thing Lol. Gg