If a player suffers an internet drop out, a home emergency, maybe the server has an issue, or the player experiences lag and has to disconnect without having time to close a locked door, or lock a chest, then another player can come along and take all their materials from any unlocked chests?
This seems a bit unfair to me. I would also argue that humans are forgetful/ignorant too, and having someone take advantage of that situation isn't what Minecraft is about.
If you leave your car door open and someone takes your phone, the police still consider that stealing. You worked hard for that phone, so you popped a brain fart and forgot to lock or close your door or glove box, does that mean it was your fault?
I know some will say it was the persons fault for leaving the door open or the chest unlocked, but then why did the person leave the chest or door unlocked? Assigning blame isn't a solution here and to go a bit serious for a second, we have lots of evidence that points to us not having free will and no evidence that points to us actually having free will. Look up Sam Harris who explains it in detail.
I know it's not real life, but the principle is the same and still applies. Lots of things about the game are not the same in real life, yet still apply. To simply say "it's only a game" isn't a refutation of the points being made. That's just saying "It sucks to be taken advantage of in real life like that, but it's OK to promote that behaviour in a game". It's not like it's GTA and the point of the game is to steal from other players.
People who go around looking for opportunity to steal probably aren't in the mind frame of contributing much to help others, and if you're looking for that kind of short cut then maybe it would be better to go on the creative server.
I feel in the long run this rule will lead to more player conflict and more staff time being taken up by trying to resolve that conflict. A possible solution may be to have all chests locked by default to the player who created them, with an option to unlock them.
Please correct me on where my thinking may be going wrong or let me know if you have anything to add in support of what I'm saying. Thanks!
