Many Minecraft Players Fail To Understand What Anarchy Is
Douglas Muth from Ardmore, PA, USA
If you have been following Minecraft for a while, you may have noticed the proliferation of so-called "anarchy servers." Places such as 2b2t & MC Prison where there are allegedly "no rules." Players are permitted to cheat, steal, and kill other players (virtually) with reckless abandon.
These servers are entertaining to play, and I am a massive fan of the YouTuber FitMC, who covers the history of 2b2t. They are not anarchy, though, and this pop culture example allows us to set the record straight about a widespread misconception.
What is anarchy?
Anarchy comes from combining the Greek word an (without) and arkhos (ruler). It refers to a philosophy of trying to break down hierarchies, often by pushing against the state, capitalism, and really any rigid power structure that exists.
It is not, as what it is commonly referred to, as having “no rules.” Anarchist organizations have many rules and frequently try to craft policy and leadership roles in as decentralized a way as possible. Though like any philosophy, there are different methods and even disagreements on how to achieve this objective.
Now, this is probably not the definition you have heard, instead being told that anarchy is the opposite of structure and order. This misconception comes down to a philosophical disagreement. Many believe that the absence of strict hierarchies will lead to the worst aspects of humanity surfacing (e.g., rape, murder, etc.) — a belief that conveniently benefits those at the top of many hierarchies.
Yet when we look at history, we often see a different picture emerge. A common historical example brought up frequently in this discourse is pirate ships. The pop culture perception of pirates is that they were evil merciless plunderers, but the past was more complicated. Although there were a diversity of pirate governments (not all of them kind), some ships had robust democracies, constitutions, greater gender and racial parity among crew members, and a more equitable distribution of shares than their British counterparts. As The Guardian explains:
“It wasn’t as hierarchical as the Royal Navy. Captains were elected. And they lived according to a code.”
According to article one [of a code that prevailed on Black Bart’s ship]: “Every man has a vote in affairs of moment; has equal title to the fresh provisions, or strong liquors, at any time seized, and may use them at pleasure.”
Contrary to common misconceptions, pirate ships were not more violent than, say, the British Navy (the entity that eventually mercilessly stomped piracy out of existence). In fact, pirates often relied on deception and branding to cause ships to surrender before an actual fight ever broke out (see The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates, CGP Grey's video How to be a Pirate Captain!, or David Graeber's Pirate Enlightenment).
There are many other historical examples of anarchy that contradict the popular definition (see also Freetown Christiania, Exarcheia', etc.) We don't have time to cover them as this aside is more meant to highlight that the pervasive conception of anarchy in pop culture is often false, including, as we shall soon see, in Minecraft.
"Anarchy" in Minecraft
Anarchy Minecraft servers try to meet the second, more conservative definition of anarchy, advertising themselves as places with "no rules." Yet even with this definition, these servers fall flat. All games are a series of rules: that's how you can play them in the first place. Sports are based on collective norms. Take, for example, soccer. You are not physically prevented from picking up a soccer ball. Instead, you agree to kick it to participate in a soccer match.
Video games, unlike the agreed-upon rules and norms of in-person games, are conversely governed by universal laws inside a simplified virtual reality. You can edit and slice a game's code all you like, but the moment you do, you are constrained by those new limitations. Unlike soccer, there is no rule-breaking in video games from an architectural standpoint, merely adjusting the reality around you and adding or removing new constraints.
This problem becomes even more complicated with servers (i.e., "a computer that acts as a central authority to define the current state of a multiplayer game"), which require social norms, on top of the ingrained game mechanics, to even participate in them. Or, put more simply, players who act like dicks on these collective platforms will routinely find themselves booted from them completely.
In anarchy servers, even though one can often use modifications, bots, and an assortment of traditional "rule breaks," there are still social rules — the biggest being that you cannot disrupt the functioning of the collective game you are participating in, and still expect to participate in it. For example, in 2b2t, players sometimes weaponize items such as item frames and enchantment tables to create "lag" machines that lower the server's Transactions Per Second (TPS) rate to crash it. The owner behind this server, who goes by the moniker Hausemaster, has booted players, banned items, and patched mechanics that cause this lag — in essence, for violating a core social norm of the server.
Many of these servers also adjust code and implement various plugins to create a status quo on how players should behave. Lifesteal SMP has created an elaborate heart-stealing system (see more here) and enforces a strict code of conduct where they bar people from insulting moderators. Mineberry prevents hacks and selling accounts. Purity Vanilla likewise bans hacks, lag machines, and duping exploits.
Look at all these rules we've found. One may argue that these adjustments make sense, but that's not the point. It's instead to reinforce the fact that the conservative concept of "no rules" is nonsense. This narrative of anarchy is more about fostering a Hobbesian "war of all against all," a conservative hell where players hunt and destroy everything in their wake than it's about creating a real place with “no rules.” Again, this is impossible. The mere act of coming together demands organization: it demands rules.
What it does not always demand is a strict hierarchy, but even by this definition of anarchy, these servers usually fail. These anarchy servers do not have decentralized leadership. They are typically owned by one or two individuals. Players have little say in the decision-making, even for wide-reaching policies that impact everyone's experience, such as implementing a tiered queuing system where players who pay receive preferential treatment (a real example that happened with 2b2t).
It's argued that there is no governance here because server administration is frequently focused solely on maintenance rather than moderation. And yet, as we have already seen, this is a lie. Governance is still happening. If you are making decisions for a group — that is governance — and just because you have decided to abdicate many (though certainly not all) of these decisions, that doesn't mean you lack the authority to do so. Players have no formal control over the operation of servers like 2b2t, merely less oversight and even less input.
And when they do "abuse" that lack of oversight, they can be punished if these abuses are considered dangerous, harmful, or inconvenient by those in charge. Rights can be taken away without due process or mediation. That's not anarchy in any sense of the word.
A chaotic conclusion
Now I am sure there is that "one true anarchy server" out there ready to point out that not everyone thinks this way. No doubt, somewhere on the Internet, a small group of people is democratically maintaining the operation and governance of an anarchy server, doing some awe-inspiring things under the radar (see this short-lived socialist revolution on the Stoneworks server as an example).
But this is not the majority stance — either in mainstream society or in this subculture of Minecraft anarchy servers. Anarchism is poorly understood in both these worlds, often used as a stand-in to represent a cynical belief about human nature being “evil” and needing society to correct it. These organized “unorganized” servers are far from natural and require a lot of work to maintain. They are constantly under threat because the “survival of the fittest” attitudes they foster encourage behavior that is just as destructive to the servers themselves (see lag machines) as it is to their fellow players.
In the end, Minecraft players don’t understand anarchy, but while you still may not agree with it, hopefully, now, you, at the very least, realize what it is. The fantasy of “no rules” is appealing, but it is a fiction, and it might be time to start questioning why this belief exists in the first place.