Minecraft Subreddit Loses Dev Support Due To Reddit Disapproval

As protests continue over on Reddit, the world’s largest community forum that is now inexplicably being turned into an engine for shareholder-driven greed, one of its biggest gaming subreddits has announced that it will be leaving the platform for good.

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The official Minecraft subreddit, r/minecraft, a community that at time of posting has 7.4 million members (making it one of the site’s largest), has announced that it will no longer be supported by developers Mojang and that, having served as an incredibly useful place not just for discussion but for tech support and changelogs as well, will now be asking users to contact them directly on their website (or social media) instead.

Mojang’s Mikael Hedberg wrote the post, which reads:

As you have no doubt heard by now, Reddit management introduced changes recently that have led to rule and moderation changes across many subreddits. Because of these changes, we no longer feel that Reddit is an appropriate place to post official content or refer our players to.

We want to thank you for all the feedback and discussion you’ve participated in in past changelog threads. You are of course welcome to post unofficial update threads going forward, and if you want to reach the team with feedback about the game, please visit our feedback site at feedback.minecraft.net or contact us on one of our official social media channels.

Note that it’s shutting down as an official community, a resource where fans could get help and information directly from the developers. The subreddit will remain in place, but will now be just a community discussion hub.

We’re only a few years removed from companies closing down their own internal support and moving their forums to places like Reddit and, less usefully, Discord. To see them already have to start moving this stuff back in-house is as sure a sign as ever that the ‘Enshittification’ of platforms like Reddit, TikTok, YouTube and Twitch is now very much in full swing, and that as useful as their reach has been for people (and games and companies) over the years, as they each collapse under the weight of their own greed it only goes to show the only websites and forums you can ever rely on are your own.

UPDATE 6:30am ET – Headline has been altered to better reflect the subreddit’s future status.

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by pbnbigesdi Posted on

Cyberpunk 2077 Players Protest Reddit By Posting Nudes

Open-world sci-fi RPG Cyberpunk 2077’s biggest subreddit recently switched to NSFW (not safe for work,) with the explanation that the game it is focused on is a mature game filled with nudity and gore. However, Reddit allegedly demanded that mods of the subreddit quickly revert the change. The mods aren’t complying and users are now posting nude images of in-game characters as part of a protest to show why the subreddit deserves to be NSFW.

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Since May, Reddit has been at war with its users and subreddits as the company clamps down on third-party apps and their ability to access the site’s backend or API. It’s not gone well for Reddit, leading to popular subreddits like r/bestof, r/sports, and r/music going dark. And as part of this ongoing backlash, some subreddits switched to NSFW. This designation is reserved mainly for porn-y subreddits and blocks ads from appearing, but also lets users freely post nudity and more adult content. Some mods and subreddits have used this designation to punch back at Reddit and its despised CEO. Now the Cyberpunk 2077 subreddit has seemingly wandered into this mess.

According to a post from July 5 by moderator Tabnam, the decision to make the Cyberpunk 2077 subreddit NSFW was made because the game is “an 18+ game” and happened now because the mods had “never thought to change it until recently”. Tabnam added that this subreddit should have already been NSFW. This decision apparently didn’t go over well with Reddit.

“The infamous Mod Code of Conduct messaged us, demanding we switch back, because ‘[Your users are] likely confused by all the NSFW content you’ve been seeing’. They didn’t allow us to reply, so we couldn’t explain that this is a subreddit for an 18+ game, nor has any of our content changed,” Tabnam wrote.

“Until we change it back we’re in violation of Reddit’s sitewide rules,” wrote Tabnam. “We’re not going to change it back, because this is a sexually explicit game, and also fuck them.” Kotaku has contacted Reddit for comment.

Cyberpunk 2077 players are posting digital nudes to make a point

As part of this ongoing fight with Reddit, Cyberpunk 2077 players have begun flooding the subreddit with loads of NSFW content in an attempt to prove why the subreddit needs to be categorized as such—and also to thumb their noses at a company that continues to squeeze its community tighter and tighter, killing one of the last good parts of the web in the process.

Censored examples of NSFW posts found on the Cyberpunk 2077 subreddit.

Screenshot: CD Projekt Red / Reddit / Kotaku

As of July 6, the subreddit is chockablock with boobs and cock. Some of these screenshots containing nudity come from the game, while other images are fan art of the popular open-world RPG or its related anime spin-off, Edgerunners.

It’s a buffet of NSFW content over there. So, and this really goes without saying, if you are at work or standing near random people on a subway car, maybe don’t check the Cyberpunk 2077 subreddit today. Or do. I’m not your dad.

And as for the mods of the subreddit, they say that if they get removed by Reddit they at least “got to go out on a fantastically fun flair event” and added that if the subreddit changes back from NSFW “then [you’ll] know [we’re] no longer in control of it.”

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by pbnbigesdi Posted on

Starfield Fan Banned From Massive Gaming Reddit For Snitching

Starfield leaks began blowing up across the internet last week after 29-year old Darin Harris allegedly stole dozens of copies of the game from a warehouse and started selling them online. One Reddit user immediately reported the leaks to Bethesda and Memphis police, and he’s now been banned from the r/GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit after posting about it.

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I know this because the commenter in question, Jasper Adkins, emailed Kotaku to inform us it had happened. “It seems to me that the subreddit is running on ‘bread and circuses’ mode mixed with bystander syndrome,” he wrote in his initial email. “They’re perfectly willing to ignore a crime that hurts a developer they claim to support, in exchange for a few minutes of shaky gameplay filmed from a phone.”

r/GamingLeaksAndRumours, one of the biggest hotspots for insider gaming info and speculation on the internet, has indeed been in rare form lately. After Harris uploaded the first 40 minutes of his playthrough and it began to make the rounds on the subreddit, it was like a dam broke. One of the most anticipated open-world sci-fi RPGs of the year, and possibly the decade, was finally getting into people’s hands ahead of schedule.

Commenters on the subreddit picked apart every new screenshot and piece of footage for new information. One of the most popular leak posts recently? Evidence that you can grab ledges, a first for a Bethesda RPG. Despite the criminal charges against him, Harris has become something of a folk hero within the community of fans hungry for Starfield leaks. As The Commercial Appeal reported, memes hail him as “Lord Tyrone” (his middle name) and one player even vowed to name their Starfield ship “Memphian” in his honor.

Adkins hasn’t been part of the ongoing bonanza though. He was banned from r/GamingLeaksAndRumours on August 24 shortly after posting about how he tried to help get Harris arrested. “An officer at the station told me so himself when I called him about it,” he wrote in the middle of a long comment thread. Adkins soon received a notification that he had violated the subreddit’s rules.

He protested, but the r/GamingLeaksAndRumours admins weren’t having it. “Just not interested in having someone here who takes action against the community like that,” they wrote back.

I reached out to one of the subreddit’s admins to confirm what had happened and the thinking behind the ban. “If he just did it I wouldn’t think badly of him but to come on the sub and brag about calling the cops on the dude just rubbed me the wrong way,” one of them told Kotaku in a DM. “Might unban him at some point but for now he’s behind the bars of the internet.”

“I am now a pariah of that subreddit,” Adkins wrote in his initial email. “I get it, hype and excitement are at an all-time high. I’m just as excited as the next person, but I draw the line at theft. I was raised to believe that crime doesn’t pay. I had hoped our society, and so-called Bethesda fans could be held to a higher standard. It seems that is sadly not the case.”

Adkins showed Kotaku screenshots of his communications with the Memphis PD and Bethesda to demonstrate that he did in fact reach out with links to video footage of Harris’ Starfield leak and tips that the copies of the game may have been stolen. “Hey, you got him!” Adkins wrote to the police officer at one point. “That was fast. I just saw that on Reddit (r/gamingleaksandrumours).”

It’s not clear whether or not Adkins’ actions ultimately contributed to Harris’ arrest. According to an affidavit filed in Shelby County, it was the Vantiva warehouse who first told the MPD about the alleged theft. “I feel like my information helped connect the two faster than it would have been,” Adkins told Kotaku. He said he still lurks on r/GamingLeaksAndRumours and remains excited for Starfield’s release.

“No doubt the community will vilify me, while criminals are elevated to meme and legend status,” he wrote. “It’s no wonder why people are losing faith in humanity.”

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by pbnbigesdi Posted on

Reddit Could Pay You For Your Best Posts

Social site Reddit, which hosts some of the internet’s largest gaming communities, is now handing out a little bit of cash for good posting. As announced in a September 25 blog, Reddit has a new Contributor Program, and it’s made changes to “gold” upvotes, which it temporarily removed earlier this month.

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The program will reward redditors for popular posts and shares, so long as they are eligible (over 18 years old, live in the U.S., have received at least 100 of Reddit’s reputation points and 10 gold in the last year, among other restrictions), similarly to Twitter’s ad revenue sharing mission. Reddit’s program requires you complete a verification process where you submit tax and other identifying information.

Those who successfully become contributors will be bound to the aforementioned yearly karma and gold minimums, which will determine their “Contributor Level.” You won’t be paid without hitting those minimums.

How will Reddit pay you to post? And how much?

If you check all of Reddit’s miniscule boxes, you’ll start getting paid 30 days after the end of the month you’ve reached your minimum in. So, “if you met the Minimum Contributor Level on October 18th,” Reddit writes in its announcement post, “Reddit will pay you within 30 days after October 31st.”

Now: you might think everything I’ve already explained sounds way too complicated, totally not worth enduring when posting in r/Starfield is already so exhilarating in itself. Well, buckle up. Things become even more elaborate when determining your Reddit check, or what the site calls your “pay rate.”

Your rate will be determined by your monthly karma (reputation points) balance, but it’s not impacted much by exceeding Reddit’s minimum threshold. If you’ve made the baseline “100 karma since September 25th,” Reddit writes in an explanatory article, “your October payout will be $9 (10 gold at $0.90).” Amassing over 5,000 karma since September 25th will give your October payout only a little nudge; it’ll be “$10 (10 gold at $1).” Yeah, $10. Thanks for the one-way Uber rate, kind stranger.

How will Reddit gold change?

On that note—Reddit gold is a super, purchasable upvote you gift other people. It’s like giving a TikTok livestreamer a rose sticker or buying Twitch bits. In the wake of Reddit’s creator program, gold will reappear to play that part, only with a different user interface.

“We’re simplifying the experience of awarding content that redditors like with a new gold system,” Reddit wrote in its Program announcement post. Either hold down the upvote icon on mobile or hover over it on desktop—“A suite of six gold awarding options will appear,” Reddit says, “starting at $1.99 for one gold, and up to $49.00 for 25 gold.” It will not be available “in NSFW, trauma support, or quarantined subreddits,” a Reddit admin posted.

Those subreddit restrictions add another interesting texture to Reddit’s program. Though safe-for-work posts reach a remarkable number of users (several tame r/BaldursGate3 posts made in the last 12 hours, for example, have over 1,000 upvotes), Reddit tends to operate under the same laws as other social media: create controversy to prosper.

Reddit’s new gold restrictions could be good, then. They discourage people from milking a support group for its money, or from joining restricted groups to exploit their reactiveness. But the restrictions could also stop eligible contributors from making worthwhile comments in certain subreddits where they wouldn’t be rewarded for it. It also presents NSFW users with the short end of the stick, as per usual.

This gold system is currently rolling out slowly to “Reddit native mobile apps.” But it, like the Contributor Program, some are saying, could engender “karma farming” spam posts.

It might saw down Reddit’s utility for many users, who share their thoughts with strangers because they want to, not to generate engagement and a couple of dollars.

Reddit’s Program seems like it could make a worse product and more desperation, right? But on our internet that’s smothered by perverse weight loss ads and intimidating headlines, I think this is just how we live.

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by pbnbigesdi Posted on
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