Lately, Minecraft has begun to slowly exert domination over much of my free time, in similar fashion to a certain Metro-themed Twitter client that gradually begins taking over your PC’s available memory. Throughout time, I mainly played the game as a notorious criminal alongside fellow gangster Rafael Rivera.

On our adventures, we managed to connect to a vast array of servers, ranging from vanilla servers with nothing built beyond the naturally spawned landscape to complex Bukkit-powered servers with nearly every plugin since time immemorial installed. Getting this exposure tempted us to dip our feet in the server administration waters, so we unanimously decided last week that it was time to get to work. 

As a result of several nights spent knee-deep in the disfigured world of Minecraft plugins, WorldEdit-powered mountain removal, my frequent abuse of the /smite command, and some help from user experience geniuses like David Golden and Long Zheng, Punching Blocks was born. A balance of both survival and creative game types, several plugins were required to implement the functionality we desired both for features we offer now, and features we’ll offer down the road once we launch our tiered subscription packages. We didn’t use anything out of the ordinary; pretty much everything we used is quite standard and can be found amongst the plethora of Bukkit plugins found on several popular servers.

Here’s a list of what we have installed:

• Bukkit - The widely-used framework that the most popular plugins are built to utilize.
• ChestShop - This mod allows us (and our users) to create shops using signs and chests. We use this in conjunction with iConomy.
• DynMap - This was installed mainly for Rafael’s app development. It essentially generates a Google Maps style, er, map of your Minecraft world and allows you to pan and zoom.
• Essentials - This is one plugin that bundles various desired functionality into one package. Pretty useful.
• GroupManager - To be used with the Essentials, GroupManager allows you to manage permissions for the various usergroups (or tiers) that you may have on your server. It allows for more complex permission designation than merely having ops and regular players.
• iConomy - This is a simple yet effective economy system for Minecraft.
• LWC - LWC (Lightweight Protection for Chests) is a plugin that will allow users to protect the chests that contain their valuables. It also allows for the protection of other stuff too, like doors, furnaces, and dispensers.
• OpenWarp - This plugin implements a teleportation functionality. It makes getting around much easier; use the /warp command to take advantage of it.
• PayDay - This allows you to configure automated payments for certain groups or individual players.
• WorldEdit - Though it can often be a pain in the ass to use as it lacks a visual UI, it’s a very powerful and effective tool for editing large portions of the map.
• WorldGuard - This allows you to create protected areas on the map. Perfect for those places that you don’t want to be ignited into flames.

Being a Windows fanboy, Rivera has seized this opportunity to get into Minecraft development. With Windows 8 on the horizon, he started working on a Metro application that allows you to see your Minecraft server at a glance. He’s working on some pretty awesome stuff which you can read more about on his blog.

With that all being said, we hope you come play with us.