Cheating

Cheating is a very subjective and controversial topic when discussing Minecraft Discontinued Features in a Survival environment.

Cheating in this context can be defined as "acting dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage.". To be more specific, cheating is reaching the point where the intended Minecraft Survival experience and progression is disrupted by the use of unintended features.

This page aims to document various methods that could be argued as cheating as well popular stances on the cheating spectrum.

Please do note that each individual has its own definition of what is considered cheating, and there's no "correct" guideline for it. The information below is simply to document and spark discussion on Minecraft Discontinued Features in a Survival environment.

JE Cheating Methods
These are Java Edition methods that could be argued as cheating.

To be clear, there isn't a "correct way" to look at these methods and every player should decide for themselves what they consider to be cheating.

Legacy Versions
The mere fact of not utilizing the most recent version of the game renders its players as seeking unfair advantages by exploiting unsupported legacy versions of Minecraft.

This is one of the extreme views on cheating. This point of view is incredibly restrictive when it comes to collecting Discontinued Features but is also very uncommon among the community.

Snapshots
Playing in snapshots, release candidates, pre-releases and combat tests allows for players to take advantage of features that have not finished development and were never intended to be part of normal gameplay in their current state.

Debug Versions
Versions of the game that include debug features for the purposes of development testing are cheating if used in a survival context. These versions with debug features are often released accidentally, giving the player a lot of advantages that were never meant to be used outside of testing.

April Fools Versions
April Fools versions of the game are meant to be purposefully experimental, silly and ridiculous by nature. Considering them as regular versions and utilizing them in a survival environment is cheating.

Often times these versions can't be loaded in regular worlds without file modification, which reinforces them as unintended for normal gameplay progression.

Nonstandard Java Versions
Minecraft: China Edition and MinecraftEdu Edition are Nonstandard Java versions which, when used in conjunction with regular Java Edition versions, are cheating.

Converting worlds from these versions to a regular Java Edition world carries unintended consequences, which can also be potentially dangerous for the integrity of the world.

Downgrading
Unlike upgrading a world to a new version of the game, downgrading is not officially supported and carries a lot of unintended consequences with it, which renders it as cheating.

Downgrading is directly discouraged by the game in certain versions. It's also very dangerous if not handled properly and can lead to game crashes and data corruption.

Creative Mode
Utilizing a method or version to obtain Creative Mode is cheating. Allowing the player to change game mode literally doesn't make it a Survival environment anymore, even if used only temporarily.

Creative Mode is the most prominent but the same applies when changing game mode to Spectator or Adventure modes.

Commands
Commands allow for an infinite amount of possibilities, any method or versions that allow for it are cheating if used by the player.

Not only does it completely break the regular survival mode experience, but it's also potentially dangerous and can lead to game crashes and data corruption.

Utilizing commands is generally seen as cheating by a large part of the community.