Since the introduction of the "Isle of Murder", Zyre, me and some of my fellow Loka enthusiasts have observed how Loka and its community have begun to fall into a downhill spiral. A spiral of addiction, burnout, and complaining. In this forum post, I will be going over four main things.
1. What goes on through your mind as you play Minecraft PvP, and the chemical reactions in the brain during Gaming.
2. How ganking, and Zyre as a concept, are fundamentally addictive, and have trapped a majority of this community into a cycle where they have no fun and yet cannot stop going to gank isle.
3. The delusion many active gankers have that the issue lies with Loka and that if End is brought back / Cove gets a map change / Old Zyre is back etc. then ganking will finally "be fun again".
4. Some things that can be done to fix this massive problem and help our community heal, so that the Loka player base can have a healthy relationship with the server they enjoy.
It is important to understand what literally happens in your mind as you play Minecraft, Loka and just video games in general. There are actually many ways in which video games can help improve your cognitive performance. This of course varies on the pacing of games and what game it is you are playing. In the case of Loka PvP, it's very fast-paced. The size of Loka when compared to much larger online video games is important. On Loka, the community (although growing!) is relatively small in the grand scheme of things. This makes the competitive aspect of it that much more intense when compared to other online games. On Loka, players form genuine relationships with the community. They make friends, and enemies. This is important to note because while in other online games, if somebody trash-talks you or shows toxicity, you might get annoyed at most and just forget about it because you will likely never meet that individual again. In the case of Loka, you are fighting server regulars that play regularly alongside you. I am sure most are aware, but Loka is an extremely toxic community. The heavy regulations on the server only mean that half the player base get themselves banned, and the other half get themselves permanently muted / show some sort of self-restraint when it comes to toxicity and breaking the rules. These rules Loka enforces don't actually change the players on the server. They are still just as toxic. They only end up getting punished for it or learn to not display it in chat (the negative emotion is still there). This is crucial when understanding what active PvPers feel as they play Loka. The fast-paced combat, and the relationships you form with the players you regularly engage in PvP with, affect your literal gameplay experience on the server.
The concept of ganking adds an entirely new experience alongside just regular PvP and forming relationships with the players around you because of said PvP. "Ganking", in the Loka sense, is just any PvP outside of conquest, usually done in red tag (though we have seen it happen in yellow tag, which you will soon understand why). With ganking, PvP is not temporary, but rather somewhat on-going. In the case of conquest, PvP has a purpose. One could argue that Loka revolves conquest, and the fight to win your respective continent, or the fight to be world capital! Conquest is not constant. Fights last a maximum of 60 minutes and are at most done a few times a day. Ganking, however, is different. Ganking has no purpose. The purpose of ganking, is to gank. There is no real objective to be obtained when you gank. You cannot even argue that people gank for in game profit, because armor sets are worthless and anybody with more than a few hours of playtime on the server has them. Now, some are going to say "You gank for fun! Isn't that the whole point of video games?". When you play a video game, you are usually faced with some sort of objective. A purpose which varies depending on the game and its genre. The purpose of the video game is to make you pursue this objective, while rewarding you with a fun experience in the process. What makes Minecraft special is that there really isn't a purpose. You can do whatever you want, which in some sense is an objective in its own right. With Minecraft servers like Loka, things start to get more regular and specific. While Minecraft's objective can be seen as quite broad, servers like Loka have their own objectives. But what is the objective of Loka? Well, it depends, but I think it's safe to say the "true objective" and the point of the server is to join or build a town with your friends, interact with Loka's world, and eventually be a part of the ongoing conflict between other towns and players on the server. As you pursue these objectives, Loka does reward you with a genuinely fun experience that I do believe is genuinely hard to find on other Minecraft servers, or even other video games. However, with ganking, there is no objective. There is one thing, and its PvP. The addition of Zyre was Loka accepting ganking. At first, ganking had no real "home". Dock ganks, Nether ganks and End ganks were all but killed off, with Loka's reasoning being that these were not places meant for that sort of experience. They each existed to serve their own purpose, and PvP being enabled at those areas was just part of Loka. It wasn't the purpose.
NOTE: It's important to mention that Loka's way of killing off ganks at the named areas was by changing them over to yellow tag (the area right outside of docks used to be red tag, and so did the Nether too, for those unaware). Therefore, this removed the incentive to gank at those areas, and made people move over to a different area. But wait, didn't I say that ganking wasn't for profit? Does this not prove me wrong? No. Yellow tag ganks are a thing. They happen every once in a while. It's just that people like to convince themselves that they are doing it "for profit", or "for fun". "Yes bro, I need my 10th dub of sets, I am just doing it to earn some extra sets Bro". We have already seen that when faced with no proper efficient alternative, people quite literally just go and gank at yellow tag areas. Although it is important to note some newer players genuinely do start ganking with the intention of earning some material gain. This does not usually last long.
When Loka added Zyre. It did something. For starters, it responded to a pretty popular request by the player base, an area MADE for ganking, though Loka would soon realize the player base and their demands were anything but consistent. It also accepted ganking as a part of its server. Zyre has no purpose or reason to exist. There is no objective on Zyre. You go to Zyre, you enter the PvP area and you PvP. Zyre exists because the gankers of Loka (who make up an ever-growing portion of the player base) are addicts. This might seem silly, but I think the addiction to Zyre and ganking is quite comparable to being addicted to pornography. A porn addict watches porn, and does their thing as they watch it, purely for the mere moment of satisfaction that will instantly fade away the moment they are done. Only for them to go back and do it over, and over and over again. This is what addiction is. It's an activity you do regularly which you have no real control over. It triggers some part of your brain, and your brain rewards you with that feeling of satisfaction (dopamine). However, as you keep doing that same activity over and over and over again, your brain starts to get bored. It gets used to that dopamine, and in order to feel something again, you often have to keep going more and more. I believe ganking is quite similar. Let's go through the average ganker routine. They go to Zyre, and they engage in PvP. Their goal is to beat the person or group they are fighting. Loka PvP is quite fast paced. 4 well timed hits and you are down from maximum health to none at all! You have to be constantly engaged as you play, or else you might mess up and die. When you do get that sweet quickdrop, and watch them implode into a bunch of items, you feel something. Your brain rewards you. Excitement. Dopamine. It only lasts a little bit, but you feel it. It probably feels very good when you do it the first few times. Of course, you probably die. Maybe not every time, but definitely regularly. Dying isn't good. It's not rewarding. Of course, keep in mind that Lokas small community once again enhances this feeling. "Ugh, can't believe I died to him out of all people!", or perhaps the person who killed you sends you a not so kind message. A message that makes you want to go back with your friends, so you can get some nice revenge. The relationships the ganker has with the players around him influence him. You give yourself these false objectives ("I do it for profit", "I do it for fun", "I'm doing it to kill that guy!" etc.) to make yourself feel like you aren't addicted. However, as is constantly viewing pornography, constantly ganking isn't natural or healthy. They are both different ways of cheating and tricking your brain. Your brain rewards you as you watch pornography because it rewards you for following the steps to reproduction, a natural process. Ganking is very similar. You are cheating the system. You aren't playing for an objective. You aren't rewarded with good feelings as you pursue an objective. Instead, with ganking, you just fight endlessly in search of those few moments of satisfaction, which getting increasingly less satisfying, and fade that much faster as you do them.
What comes next? Burn out. It's a routine now. Like how a porn addict stops really feeling anything, the ganker stops feeling it too. They still keep going, but it just isn't the same anymore. So, what does the ganker do in response? Well, they don't stop ganking for starters, they still do it. They just become a lot better at it (no learning curve means even less purpose) and they become a lot more bitter. Maybe more toxic, or just a whole lot sadder (keep in mind the regular ganker does it for hours on end). They also delude themselves even further. Nostalgia. "It used to feel good and now it doesn't feel as good anymore! They must have changed something that ruined it! Bring back End / Main Zyre / KB Swords!!!". So, Loka is now faced with a dilemma. Zyre was a big thing. They worked on it quite hard, and the community already wants them to go back to *insert old thing*, but would that really fix anything? No, it wouldn't. Bringing back the End ganks won't fix it. Bringing back the Nether ganks won't fix it. Bringing back the KB swords won't fix it. Nothing will fix it. New maps and features are only temporary. The issue isn't Loka's implementation of these features. It's the player mindset around them, and it is not a healthy one. Loka is aware of how addicting its server can be. It's how the entire model of banning players for such extended periods of time is sustainable. People are willing to wait months and months to get just one more chance at their favorite Minecraft server.
Pointless new features and updates and additions won't save the ganker from themselves. It's up to the ganker to wake up and realize what they have done to themselves. You are playing a video game with no purpose or objective. Are you even having fun? Because that little temporary spark of excitement you feel as you shout out to your VC of fellow addicts "I QUICKDROPPED HIM!!!! HES DEAD!!!!" is equivalent to that of a meth-head's spark of pleasure as they do another round of meth surrounded by their fellow addicts in the crack house. That isn't fun. Its temporary, meaningless, and it is anything but healthy. If you genuinely made it this far into the post as a regular ganker, I am proud of you. Not only do you have proper literacy and reading comprehension (many of your fellow gankers cannot say the same), but it also means that deep down, you realize what you read is the truth, and that deep down you wish to change. You want to have fun as you play video games. You want to feel that joy again. And my friend, that joy won't be found in ganking. You need to let go. Not only is it the ganker's responsibility to fix themselves and heal, but it is also Loka's responsibility to help their community heal. How? By turning back on the mistake that was adding Zyre. There is no solution to make the ganker happy. The ganker needs to find their own happiness. Loka needs to stop directly aiding the addiction of many in its community. What Loka does need to do however, is embrace what makes it special. Conquest, towns, community, PvE! There is so much more to Loka than just dropping Zyre. The average modern Lokan has experienced little to none of the things I have just mentioned. Loka is a great server owned by great mature people. However, in an effort to satisfy its community, Loka only ended up hurting it. That can still be fixed. Turn your back on ganking and Zyre, and embrace what makes the server special. Play video games like a normal person. Pursue the objectives the game presents to you and be rewarded with a special fun experience with people you value. Friends you make as you play, and experiences you will genuinely cherish as you grow up.
TLDR: If you need a TLDR, this post is not for you. If you are an active ganker and are unwilling to read through this post, it is safe to assume you are quite addicted and unwilling to help yourself. I wish you the best of luck. If you are a Loka staff member, I might be even more disappointed. As a member of our amazing server's administration, you should be completely ready to read through this post and understand its truth.
1. What goes on through your mind as you play Minecraft PvP, and the chemical reactions in the brain during Gaming.
2. How ganking, and Zyre as a concept, are fundamentally addictive, and have trapped a majority of this community into a cycle where they have no fun and yet cannot stop going to gank isle.
3. The delusion many active gankers have that the issue lies with Loka and that if End is brought back / Cove gets a map change / Old Zyre is back etc. then ganking will finally "be fun again".
4. Some things that can be done to fix this massive problem and help our community heal, so that the Loka player base can have a healthy relationship with the server they enjoy.
It is important to understand what literally happens in your mind as you play Minecraft, Loka and just video games in general. There are actually many ways in which video games can help improve your cognitive performance. This of course varies on the pacing of games and what game it is you are playing. In the case of Loka PvP, it's very fast-paced. The size of Loka when compared to much larger online video games is important. On Loka, the community (although growing!) is relatively small in the grand scheme of things. This makes the competitive aspect of it that much more intense when compared to other online games. On Loka, players form genuine relationships with the community. They make friends, and enemies. This is important to note because while in other online games, if somebody trash-talks you or shows toxicity, you might get annoyed at most and just forget about it because you will likely never meet that individual again. In the case of Loka, you are fighting server regulars that play regularly alongside you. I am sure most are aware, but Loka is an extremely toxic community. The heavy regulations on the server only mean that half the player base get themselves banned, and the other half get themselves permanently muted / show some sort of self-restraint when it comes to toxicity and breaking the rules. These rules Loka enforces don't actually change the players on the server. They are still just as toxic. They only end up getting punished for it or learn to not display it in chat (the negative emotion is still there). This is crucial when understanding what active PvPers feel as they play Loka. The fast-paced combat, and the relationships you form with the players you regularly engage in PvP with, affect your literal gameplay experience on the server.
The concept of ganking adds an entirely new experience alongside just regular PvP and forming relationships with the players around you because of said PvP. "Ganking", in the Loka sense, is just any PvP outside of conquest, usually done in red tag (though we have seen it happen in yellow tag, which you will soon understand why). With ganking, PvP is not temporary, but rather somewhat on-going. In the case of conquest, PvP has a purpose. One could argue that Loka revolves conquest, and the fight to win your respective continent, or the fight to be world capital! Conquest is not constant. Fights last a maximum of 60 minutes and are at most done a few times a day. Ganking, however, is different. Ganking has no purpose. The purpose of ganking, is to gank. There is no real objective to be obtained when you gank. You cannot even argue that people gank for in game profit, because armor sets are worthless and anybody with more than a few hours of playtime on the server has them. Now, some are going to say "You gank for fun! Isn't that the whole point of video games?". When you play a video game, you are usually faced with some sort of objective. A purpose which varies depending on the game and its genre. The purpose of the video game is to make you pursue this objective, while rewarding you with a fun experience in the process. What makes Minecraft special is that there really isn't a purpose. You can do whatever you want, which in some sense is an objective in its own right. With Minecraft servers like Loka, things start to get more regular and specific. While Minecraft's objective can be seen as quite broad, servers like Loka have their own objectives. But what is the objective of Loka? Well, it depends, but I think it's safe to say the "true objective" and the point of the server is to join or build a town with your friends, interact with Loka's world, and eventually be a part of the ongoing conflict between other towns and players on the server. As you pursue these objectives, Loka does reward you with a genuinely fun experience that I do believe is genuinely hard to find on other Minecraft servers, or even other video games. However, with ganking, there is no objective. There is one thing, and its PvP. The addition of Zyre was Loka accepting ganking. At first, ganking had no real "home". Dock ganks, Nether ganks and End ganks were all but killed off, with Loka's reasoning being that these were not places meant for that sort of experience. They each existed to serve their own purpose, and PvP being enabled at those areas was just part of Loka. It wasn't the purpose.
NOTE: It's important to mention that Loka's way of killing off ganks at the named areas was by changing them over to yellow tag (the area right outside of docks used to be red tag, and so did the Nether too, for those unaware). Therefore, this removed the incentive to gank at those areas, and made people move over to a different area. But wait, didn't I say that ganking wasn't for profit? Does this not prove me wrong? No. Yellow tag ganks are a thing. They happen every once in a while. It's just that people like to convince themselves that they are doing it "for profit", or "for fun". "Yes bro, I need my 10th dub of sets, I am just doing it to earn some extra sets Bro". We have already seen that when faced with no proper efficient alternative, people quite literally just go and gank at yellow tag areas. Although it is important to note some newer players genuinely do start ganking with the intention of earning some material gain. This does not usually last long.
When Loka added Zyre. It did something. For starters, it responded to a pretty popular request by the player base, an area MADE for ganking, though Loka would soon realize the player base and their demands were anything but consistent. It also accepted ganking as a part of its server. Zyre has no purpose or reason to exist. There is no objective on Zyre. You go to Zyre, you enter the PvP area and you PvP. Zyre exists because the gankers of Loka (who make up an ever-growing portion of the player base) are addicts. This might seem silly, but I think the addiction to Zyre and ganking is quite comparable to being addicted to pornography. A porn addict watches porn, and does their thing as they watch it, purely for the mere moment of satisfaction that will instantly fade away the moment they are done. Only for them to go back and do it over, and over and over again. This is what addiction is. It's an activity you do regularly which you have no real control over. It triggers some part of your brain, and your brain rewards you with that feeling of satisfaction (dopamine). However, as you keep doing that same activity over and over and over again, your brain starts to get bored. It gets used to that dopamine, and in order to feel something again, you often have to keep going more and more. I believe ganking is quite similar. Let's go through the average ganker routine. They go to Zyre, and they engage in PvP. Their goal is to beat the person or group they are fighting. Loka PvP is quite fast paced. 4 well timed hits and you are down from maximum health to none at all! You have to be constantly engaged as you play, or else you might mess up and die. When you do get that sweet quickdrop, and watch them implode into a bunch of items, you feel something. Your brain rewards you. Excitement. Dopamine. It only lasts a little bit, but you feel it. It probably feels very good when you do it the first few times. Of course, you probably die. Maybe not every time, but definitely regularly. Dying isn't good. It's not rewarding. Of course, keep in mind that Lokas small community once again enhances this feeling. "Ugh, can't believe I died to him out of all people!", or perhaps the person who killed you sends you a not so kind message. A message that makes you want to go back with your friends, so you can get some nice revenge. The relationships the ganker has with the players around him influence him. You give yourself these false objectives ("I do it for profit", "I do it for fun", "I'm doing it to kill that guy!" etc.) to make yourself feel like you aren't addicted. However, as is constantly viewing pornography, constantly ganking isn't natural or healthy. They are both different ways of cheating and tricking your brain. Your brain rewards you as you watch pornography because it rewards you for following the steps to reproduction, a natural process. Ganking is very similar. You are cheating the system. You aren't playing for an objective. You aren't rewarded with good feelings as you pursue an objective. Instead, with ganking, you just fight endlessly in search of those few moments of satisfaction, which getting increasingly less satisfying, and fade that much faster as you do them.
What comes next? Burn out. It's a routine now. Like how a porn addict stops really feeling anything, the ganker stops feeling it too. They still keep going, but it just isn't the same anymore. So, what does the ganker do in response? Well, they don't stop ganking for starters, they still do it. They just become a lot better at it (no learning curve means even less purpose) and they become a lot more bitter. Maybe more toxic, or just a whole lot sadder (keep in mind the regular ganker does it for hours on end). They also delude themselves even further. Nostalgia. "It used to feel good and now it doesn't feel as good anymore! They must have changed something that ruined it! Bring back End / Main Zyre / KB Swords!!!". So, Loka is now faced with a dilemma. Zyre was a big thing. They worked on it quite hard, and the community already wants them to go back to *insert old thing*, but would that really fix anything? No, it wouldn't. Bringing back the End ganks won't fix it. Bringing back the Nether ganks won't fix it. Bringing back the KB swords won't fix it. Nothing will fix it. New maps and features are only temporary. The issue isn't Loka's implementation of these features. It's the player mindset around them, and it is not a healthy one. Loka is aware of how addicting its server can be. It's how the entire model of banning players for such extended periods of time is sustainable. People are willing to wait months and months to get just one more chance at their favorite Minecraft server.
Pointless new features and updates and additions won't save the ganker from themselves. It's up to the ganker to wake up and realize what they have done to themselves. You are playing a video game with no purpose or objective. Are you even having fun? Because that little temporary spark of excitement you feel as you shout out to your VC of fellow addicts "I QUICKDROPPED HIM!!!! HES DEAD!!!!" is equivalent to that of a meth-head's spark of pleasure as they do another round of meth surrounded by their fellow addicts in the crack house. That isn't fun. Its temporary, meaningless, and it is anything but healthy. If you genuinely made it this far into the post as a regular ganker, I am proud of you. Not only do you have proper literacy and reading comprehension (many of your fellow gankers cannot say the same), but it also means that deep down, you realize what you read is the truth, and that deep down you wish to change. You want to have fun as you play video games. You want to feel that joy again. And my friend, that joy won't be found in ganking. You need to let go. Not only is it the ganker's responsibility to fix themselves and heal, but it is also Loka's responsibility to help their community heal. How? By turning back on the mistake that was adding Zyre. There is no solution to make the ganker happy. The ganker needs to find their own happiness. Loka needs to stop directly aiding the addiction of many in its community. What Loka does need to do however, is embrace what makes it special. Conquest, towns, community, PvE! There is so much more to Loka than just dropping Zyre. The average modern Lokan has experienced little to none of the things I have just mentioned. Loka is a great server owned by great mature people. However, in an effort to satisfy its community, Loka only ended up hurting it. That can still be fixed. Turn your back on ganking and Zyre, and embrace what makes the server special. Play video games like a normal person. Pursue the objectives the game presents to you and be rewarded with a special fun experience with people you value. Friends you make as you play, and experiences you will genuinely cherish as you grow up.
TLDR: If you need a TLDR, this post is not for you. If you are an active ganker and are unwilling to read through this post, it is safe to assume you are quite addicted and unwilling to help yourself. I wish you the best of luck. If you are a Loka staff member, I might be even more disappointed. As a member of our amazing server's administration, you should be completely ready to read through this post and understand its truth.
