Coming uninvited.
I am an ordinary Minecraft International Edition player and also a BakaXL user.
As you can see, the question posted on Zhihu on February 5th was raised by me.
For those who don't know, here is a link: https://www.zhihu.com/question/582313498
Last night, I came across an article on Bilibili and found many unreasonable points in it, so I am publishing this column to explain.
Introduction#
Please do not think that I am a complete pirate player, nor do I think that I am a water army hired by BakaXL. As for the former, I have the transaction emails for purchasing Minecraft: Java Edition on July 30, 2020, and for purchasing Minecraft for Windows 10 in March 2021. I am making them public here.
Main Content#
First of all, let's take a look at the content mentioned in this article:
What is a third-party launcher:
A third-party launcher uses some of the same components and services as the official launcher to achieve the effect of launching the game, and the third-party launcher focuses on adding new game management functions and other independent content.
What is a pirated launcher:
The essential condition for a legitimate Minecraft International Edition player is to have a purchased game in their Microsoft account, regardless of the launcher used. However, if the launcher allows players who have not purchased the game or even players without an account to start the game normally, we consider this as piracy. Similar to third-party login platforms for private servers in games like Legend of Mir.
In fact, not only BakaXL has the ability to allow users to start Minecraft with offline verification. Launchers such as HMCL and PCL2 (which can even be said to be made by the majority of domestic developers) can also allow users to start Minecraft with offline verification. The second largest skin website in China, LittleSkin, has fully implemented a set of Mojang's Yggdrasil API genuine verification server using the open-source Authlib-Injector and Blessing Skin Server. It also supports free registration, multiple characters, and functions that can be achieved with any genuine account. However, because it is essentially an offline account, it cannot join servers that have enabled genuine verification. Therefore, personally, I believe that the term "pirated launcher" mentioned here cannot stand. Both BakaXL and HMCL will disable offline login functionality when detecting users outside mainland China, unless they have logged in with their own purchased Minecraft Microsoft account or Mojang account.
The above facts simply reflect Mojang's interests. Any game development behavior that violates the EULA will be dealt with by Mojang according to the law.
BakaXL is fully compliant with Mojang's EULA, as mentioned earlier. BakaXL will disable offline login functionality when detecting users outside mainland China, unless the users have logged in with their own purchased Minecraft Microsoft account or Mojang account.
BakaXL is widely used on the PC platform, and promotional videos featuring its "offline game" function are also widely circulated on video platforms.
First of all, although BakaXL is one of the "Three Great Launchers," the developer TT702 has long mentioned on the official website that it is a "launcher that no one has used since 2014."
_Source: https://www.bakaxl.com
Chat records from users outside the community
Recent AppCenter daily active user data provided by TT702
Even if the recent daily active users are in the hundreds, it is still only a fraction of HMCL and PCL2 today.
Secondly, BakaXL does not mention the offline gameplay function in its promotional videos. The only place where such words appear is in the introduction section of the multiple user profiles and the title of the BakaXL lobby promotional video. In the title, the author's intention is to support offline mode users playing together in the BakaXL lobby, unlike HMCL and PCL2 at the time, whose online solutions did not support offline users joining online rooms.
"Chinese players are not worthy of being Minecraft players," "Chinese developers are not worthy of developing Minecraft content," "NetEase's Chinese version is not worthy of cracking down on piracy."
There may indeed be people who say such things, but I believe that in the international Minecraft community, these people are in the minority. Therefore, please do not accuse all offline users in the international Minecraft community based on the comments of some individuals.
Returning to the main topic, when the pirate community goes all out against the genuine community, acting like a tiger with wings, where are the copyright defenders of the past? Where are the rights of genuine players? When the pirate launchers and their communities come forward, will the future of Minecraft become "more closed, dark, and desolate"?
The Chinese version of Minecraft published by NetEase is indeed genuine, and this cannot be denied. However, BakaXL has not become the leader of the pirate community nor has it gone all out against the genuine community. The developer may have just published this column with the idea of "not interfering with others' business." After all, there are countless comments in the industry like "What is Minecraft? What does it have to do with me?"
A side note: Offline login does not equal piracy. Almost all mod developers use offline login when debugging mods with VSCode or IDEA for convenience. But can you say that this is piracy? Obviously not, because if using offline login is considered piracy, then all launchers (including the official launcher) that have offline login functionality would be considered pirate launchers.
According to the Creative Convention on "Harmful Network Behaviors": publishing cracked software and hardware is illegal; and according to the "Copyright Infringement Convention": without the permission of the copyright holder, spreading or selling their publicly or unreleased genuine/pirated audiovisual works. For violating content, recommendations will be reduced or returned, and accounts with serious violations will be suspended.
BakaXL is just a third-party launcher and does not distribute or spread any copies of Minecraft or its associated files, so it does not violate Bilibili's Creative Convention. BakaXL actually downloads the game using the public API provided by Mojang and the BMCLAPI (including MCBBS) mirror source. If we strictly follow Mojang's EULA, it is actually BMCLAPI and MCBBS that are in violation. However, BMCLAPI and MCBBS have existed for a long time, and Mojang has shown no signs of taking action against them, indicating that BMCLAPI is tacitly approved by Mojang and Microsoft.
Conclusion#
The success of Minecraft and the contributions and creations of the community are of utmost importance. The most representative examples of this are the numerous mod loaders, mods, and unofficial launchers. The so-called "existence is reasonable." In conclusion, the aforementioned content mentioned in the article is not valid.
Thank you, and thanks a lot.
February 12, 2023, before returning to school, I wrote this based on my feelings.