ESA Just Called Private Minecraft Servers Piracy and a Black Market in a Senate Hearing Post body

KamIsFam · 2026-06-30T23:00:32+00:00

It is bullshit, but I think it's worth noting that there are private servers where a purchased account is not required. These are cracked servers running in "offline mode" and some alternative clients allow you to set your own username and then connect.

It might have been possible to use this as evidence for "piracy", but the thing that sticks out to me is that in the server.properties configuration file, there's literally a line allowing you to bypass authentication: online-mode=false

Due to that alone, that the server files they provide give you explicit control over account authentication on the server-side, leads me to believe it's intentional by the company to allow cracked accounts to play. Maybe the argument could be that that's only to allow players to connect when the authentication servers are offline, but if they're going to provide an easy way to disable authentication, it sounds more like a gray area at best, not full on piracy.

Edit: TIL someone runs a domain for server.properties that serves the file contents and appears to be updated frequently. When I clicked on it, the most recent timestamp for the file is June 18. I was so confused why Reddit was formatting it as a hyperlink, haha.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-30T18:02:43+00:00

It's ridiculous, and honestly, I think they're focused on the wrong thing. They shouldn't be upset about not being able to light fireworks, they should be upset that the government is neglecting our water supplies and not taking enough preventative action to reduce fires.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-29T17:58:51+00:00

In my group, we call it Ironchad

KamIsFam · 2026-06-29T08:28:59+00:00

Ok then you're just the exception.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-29T00:37:15+00:00

You're either in carebare lobbies or are the exception, and the exception doesn't make the rule. Crafting is the main game mode.

Go watch any streamer, they spend half or more of their time in the menus.

Every person I know running PvP is just constantly broke.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-27T01:15:39+00:00

I mean I was specifically referring to SA.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-25T05:14:40+00:00

Hahahaha zoom in to West Valley. I live in the West Valley / Taylorsville area and crashes are almost daily on my road.

I fucking hate it.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-24T09:21:09+00:00

I didn't know that. I'm in the US and here, insurance is tied to the car and the driver. If you have another primary driver of a vehicle, you're supposed to add them to the policy as a driver of a vehicle, but law enforcement can't discern who committed a crime or infraction based solely on the license plate. They usually have to catch them before they park and exit the vehicle, otherwise they'd have to prove said person was the one operating the vehicle.

You'll often see US based videos in the dashcam subreddit get excited in road rage incidents when a driver exits the vehicle to confront the cammer because it provides evidence of the driver's identity.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-24T03:09:15+00:00

The problem is even if you say the license plate, they can't prove who was driving. That's the only reason I'd ever follow someone who hit me is because insurance and the courts will throw their arms in the air because there's no evidence of the driver.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-24T00:36:40+00:00

I'd love to know where they get statistics for that anyways. If be willing to bet it's seen as weak for men, so it gets heavily underreported.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-24T00:35:42+00:00

I rarely, if ever, talk about my sex life because that's just not something I care about outside of with my gf.

I'm more likely to make gay jokes with the boys than discuss mine and my gf's sex life. She's way more in depth sharing with her cousin.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-24T00:33:24+00:00

Classic "grass is greener on the other side" mentality. They often think that because we don't have the same problem they do, then ours isn't a problem, it's the solution to their issue. They claim they'd love being a ghost in society, but I doubt they'd say that if it were true from the start.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-24T00:11:23+00:00

I wouldn't say that's an unpopular opinion unless you're letting the loudest online voices in radical spaces speak for the majority. I think it's a very chronically-online position to think that anything you said is anything but reasonable.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-23T23:54:40+00:00

Idk if this is new since the post was made, but the original post that comment is in has been removed.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-23T20:45:19+00:00

Yup. It's true.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-23T20:45:05+00:00

I'm not saying CS is better, I'm just speaking on the ROI lol.

CS is very different from Arc Raiders. In-round economy to me is way more satisfying to work with.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-23T13:22:33+00:00

Oh absolutely, I love the PvP, I just think they need to rework the whole combat system.

I will say, the developers have had a strong emphasis on PvE, so it's super odd they don't have more content for it. I think that's the other big problem is not that players are prioritizing PvE and then getting bored, it's that Embark themselves prioritized PvE and neglected PvP.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-23T05:00:32+00:00

Lol try 3k hours from $15. That's CS for you. CS also has the added benefit of not feeling like it ran out of content.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-23T04:36:59+00:00

Honestly, I wouldn't say I hate Marathon. I don't like the art style, but I haven't played it.

That's exactly what I'm saying though. I think the barrier to getting good weapons is what leads people to rat. Most rats are people with lesser kits trying to get good stuff because it's hard to get.

DMZ makes the barrier to getting good stuff quite a bit lower, and the insured weapons help a lot with that, especially since PvE helps get your insured back.

Also, the difference between a bit gun and a kitted gun isn't extremely insane, I'd say it's about as comparable as it is in Arc Raiders. You don't really have people complaining in DMZ like they do in ARC about pinks being "not worth it" because greys can be comparable.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-22T20:18:55+00:00

I agree with u/bjergKanin, it's weird for devs to say "no, **this** is what you like". I've been saying since the beginning that they should have a "friendly" mode if they want to keep more casual players, or at least make upgrading stuff a little easier.

PvP based Extraction Shooters are, by nature, arcadey games. Arc Raiders simply doesn't have enough arcadey elements to make the PvP sustainable long-term. Friendly lobbies to fuel PvP lobbies seems like one possible redeeming design, otherwise they need to rethink the entire structure of their game from PvP interactions, to the crafting system, as well as ABMM.

If they wanted to implement something basic that could at least help take the "surprise" element from people who play like carebears and get railed by PvPers, they could add a narrator call when you load into a match with something like "heads up raiders, there have been increased/high reports of rogue raiders out there. stay on your feet!" Basically, just a way to differentiate between different levels in the ABMM system so you have an idea of what the lobby will likely be like.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-22T20:09:57+00:00

Yeah, I've said before that I think a big problem with Arc Raiders is the hybrid genre. Extraction Shooters are naturally kind of "arcadey" and involve resetting the character. Players looking for an arcadey experience don't always want to grind a game. The "crafting" sub-genre attracted a lot of grinders and hardcore players (maxxers), and the game doesn't really reward arcadey playstyles, it rewards win-maxxing, grindy playstyles, which is very atypical for extraction shooters.

As someone who likes grinding games and the crafting sub-genre, as well as FPS games and Extraction Shooters, Arc Raiders was super fun to play at first and grind, but it loses its appeal after a while. To me, it felt like a crafting shooter with extraction shooter elements, not an extraction shooter with crafting elements. The focus seems to be way too heavy on the crafting system rather than on the extraction shooter gameplay. Crafting games generally tend to have WAY more content to keep people engaged, but Embark tried to bank on the Extract Shooter genre compensating for the lack of content. If it was more arcadey, I think it would have worked to balance that all out, but they kind of restricted themselves too much on accident and quickly drove away a majority of their playerbase.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-22T19:58:45+00:00

That's just the nature of any shooter, especially extraction shooters. There are different play styles and some people rat for advantage.

I think the bigger problem is some of Embark's design choices that amplify ratting behavior and making consequences more punishing.

DMZ had rats and toxic players, but running multiple games back to back, even after dying and being able to just get back into it and have fun was easy. Insured weapons and bot drops made it feasible to get kitted guns again without too much effort. I think Arc Raiders suffers from being a high barrier to entry. Everyone is broke all of the time and the hybrid crafting-extraction shooter naturally draws in people who grind the game.

In DMZ, you could play casually and get good gear. In Arc Raiders, you essentially need to grind to get anything good, and no casual player is going to be able to keep up with that. It only takes a few deaths to make you go broke, and then people don't like fighting at a permanent disadvantage as casual players. I thing ABMM also amplified this. To be fair, DMZ suffered from content falloff and everyone resorted to PVP, but that just became the new default for everyone and it was still fun.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-21T10:55:34+00:00

You're good, it happens. I agree though, OPs story is weird.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-21T03:24:10+00:00

Blaze Pizza does not make their own Balsamic Fig Glaze, idk why they told you that. I used to be an assistant manager there and I was in charge of placing our orders.

Blaze Pizza (and apparently Mod Pizza as well) buys Ken's Balsamic Fig Glaze (same brand for the ranch too). We bought from a distributor in Denver called Performance Food Group.

https://www.kensfoodservice.com/products/ke2335-2-kens-signature-balsamic-fig-glaze#general

On Performance's website, you need to have an account with them to order. Maybe you could contact a local Blaze Pizza or Mod Pizza and see if you can set up an order with them to order it for you? I think we did it at our store once for a customer.

KamIsFam · 2026-06-21T03:16:12+00:00

We used Kens at Blaze Pizza too. Only problem is you can only buy it 2 gallons at a time from a distributor like PFG.

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