I appreciate how they left Java edition alone and chose Bedrock edition to dump all the MTX bullshit on.

For now.

That ship has sailed. People can and will just play on old versions if it comes to this. They already do for older versions that have better mod support.

i've been thinking that for 10 years. they forced msft accounts, which is annoying. other than that, hasn't been too bad

So they're empirically making progress towards it.

MTX?

microtransactions

What is the Minecraft online experience like these days? I only ever hear about people playing self hosted servers with friends. Are there still big servers with unique game modes kicking? Seems like it would be hard to keep sustainable

I've been running my own (not-for-profit, for people over the age of 21) server for the past 5 years. We're basically just a Vanilla+ server, we have no problems finding new people to join (thanks to /r/MinecraftBuddies)

My kids love Minecraft. They often run a curseforge mod (create?) and then open a port so they can play together inside the home LAN.

But, I don't really understand how this works, and I would love to host it in a way that their cousins in another state could join. Do you know how I research this?

I get a bit confused between the curseforge mods, the java edition. Should I start by downloading a JAR of the server and host it on a cloud server somewhere, and then firewall it off to only permit my NAT IP and the cousin's NAT IPs? At some point maybe I can run it all within a wireguard/tailscale network.

How do I get started in my reading? I'm worried I'll get overwhelmed by reading /r/MinecraftBuddies, but perhaps that is a better place to ask?

This may be enough to get the ball rolling:

https://blogs.oracle.com/developers/post/how-to-set-up-and-r...

First off, it's generally a good idea not to port-forward your own home router outside of defaults (Even if it's just 25565; I created a nightmare scenario for the ISP guy back at my parent's house when I was around 13 doing this).

There's tons of options to host servers in the cloud with near absolute control. I used to use a SaaS company called Minehut (https://app.minehut.com/) before I got into cloud computing and using AWS EC2 (https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/gametech/setting-up-a-minecraft... - like $8/month).

If they're interested in learning the nitty-gritty on cloud computing and hosting (they probably do if they're already learning Curseforge), then get them into the AWS method. If you want something one-and-done, opt for Minehut.

There are "Realms" that are essentially MS/Mojang hosted massive servers.

I had a Minecraft server when I was 12, and now as an adult I feel it was a very valuable experience for be personally

And it was more fun to run the server than play the game