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 as 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
Not utilizing the most recent version of the game renders its players as seeking unfair advantages by exploiting unsupported legacy versions of Minecraft, which may be considered cheating.
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.
Minecraft Alpha
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, which may be considered cheating.
Horse saddles from a 1.6.1 snapshot (13w17a)
Debug Versions
Versions of the game that include debug features for the purposes of development testing may be considered 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.
Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3-1 Debug Inventory
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 may be considered cheating.
Often times these versions can't be loaded in regular worlds without file modification, which reinforces them as unintended for normal gameplay progression.
Invalid Mob Stack from 22w13OneBlockAtATime
Nonstandard Java Versions
Minecraft: China Edition and MinecraftEdu Edition are Nonstandard Java versions which, when used in conjunction with regular Java Edition versions, may be considered 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.
Crafting recipe of the disk drive in MinecraftEdu
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, may be considered 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.
A farmer selling air as a result of downgrading
Creative Mode
Utilizing a method or version to obtain Creative Mode may be considered cheating. Allowing the player to change game mode doesn't make it a Survival environment anymore, even if used only temporarily.
Creative Mode is the most prominent but the same can be argued when changing game mode to Spectator or Adventure modes.
Flying in B Creative Mode
Commands
Commands allow for an infinite amount of possibilities, any method or versions that allow for it may be considered cheating.
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.
Cross World Commands Machine
Client Side Mods / Performance Mods
Client Side Mods allow for certain difficult to attain information or actions to be easily accessible or performed, which may be considered cheating.
Performance Mods may have unintentional changes to the game when compared to its vanilla counterpart, which may also be considered cheating.
Mods
Mods in general allow Minecraft to be modified in any capacity. This means that mods may be considered cheating as they allow for an infinite amount of possibilities.
Utilizing general mods is commonly seen as cheating by a large part of the community.