I had no idea this existed, but now that I do I'm going to check it out!

I've been hoping for a spiritual replacement since I bailed on Minecraft itself -- after many years, originally being an alpha backer -- once Microsoft apparently decided that you need to sign up for a Microsoft account just to play. Your original Mojang account is no longer good enough. I'm not doing that, even if they do give me a stupid cape. (I don't use a Microsoft account with Windows, either. I don't need to be tracked, profiled, or advertised at any more than I already am, thank you.)

I had a feeling when the acquisition was announced that Microsoft would be the beginning of the end of Minecraft, but I have to say it took quite a while longer than I thought it would initially. And I think know what they're doing, here. Minecraft is a hugely popular platform for kids, and they're trying to mitigate potential backlash from kids being exposed to naughty language or objectionable content on private servers (which is a factor of any game that has, or is basically completely built out of, user created content). This all started with their bullshit about banning people for chat content even in private servers, and I don't think even now we've hit the bottom of the ravine on that yet, either.