Searching For An Owner That Doesn’t Exist: An Unstable Admin Theory
So you see I was minding my own business, happily living my life, safe in the knowledge that the Unstable Smp was supposed to be…well, an anarchy server. And then the ‘I Got Hunted by a Minecraft Hacker’ video drops and I am left in shambles, purely from a 10 second exchange:
Nufuli: ‘Bro we need to report this guy [Hacker].’ Parrot: ‘We could technically report the hacker and get them banned’ ...Excuse me? Report?! You can Report?! To Whomest?! Because that implies something I thought impossible. That the Unstable Smp…has admins. Y’know…the people who actually run the server. A server owner.
So I’ve been haunted with some very important questions clogging all thoughts in my brain:
Who The Heck Could Possibly Own This Server?
Who and Where are the Admins?
And
Have We Met Them Before?
and spoilers: there is some pretty big evidence that we have.
Now to preface, it’s 100% possible that my brain is over cooking and that there is no actual server owner/admins in canon, (because the content creators did not intend for that), and nor did they intend for me to wrack my brain this hard over a few throw away lines for months.
But that’s no fun! And I believe that we have actually collected some substantial evidence here. So come join me down the rabbit hole, and lock in, cuz this is gonna be an absolute yap session!
So how could we tell if someone is an Admin or has OP?
Well, there are a few signs:
-They may be in creative mode or another game mode. So they would show signs of being subject to those different game mode rules (such as instantly teleporting when using a nether portal in creative).
-They would have access to things other players can’t get and can’t do. (Such as having access to commands). Meaning they could do things others cannot (like fly, or change the weather, and obtain things like barrier blocks, bedrock, command blocks etc). So you'd see some suspicious things happen around them.
-They would also have special permissions: Like the ability to break or place blocks that others cannot in server protected areas. (Think along the lines of being able to break things in spawn protected areas). Especially in places that other players wouldn’t normally be able to get to: Like places blocked off by barrier blocks/world border.
So basically, we are looking for someone suspicious; with capabilities that are outside of a normal survival player. Or someone that has odd game breaking things that happen around them or are tied to them.
Now, let’s go over what we already know about our potential server owner. And based on what we know, we can make a character profile of them.
…which is nothing! Because no one talks about them or knows who they are!
However, that in and of itself is actually an incredibly telling hint about the kind of person we are dealing with. Because it gives us a few key take-always.
Now, assuming the server owner still plays on the server itself, here are a few things we can assume about them:
1: The server owner doesn’t want to be found. For whatever reason, they want to be anonymous or just don’t care to reveal their identity.
2: The server owner is unconcerned about and/or does not bother with management of the server. We know this because the server has never had spawn fixed and the item scarcity problem caused by the Invis Mafia's destruction has not been resolved either. Additionally, no server rollbacks have ever been performed to our knowledge. The most the owner has done in the past (that we know about) is update the server to the latest versions, and patched some of the exploits/bugs found on the server.
3: The server owner does not want to interact with normal server activity. More specifically, they don’t involve themselves in major server altering events or drama. We know this because the server owner has never stepped in or made themselves known during massive server altering events. (Such as the Mafia, Law etc). Instead they remain neutral, standing back and letting the players run themselves.
What this tells us is that we are looking for someone with a hands-off approach to server ownership, likely disguising themselves among the populace, and who does not want to use their power on the server, but still wants to protect it as a whole.
Now lets get into who definitely cannot be the owner:
To start off, we can cross off our main 4: Parrot, Spoke, Flame and Wemmbu. For the very simple fact that we get to see their POV at all times. So we know that, at least in the story of Unstable Universe, none of them have admin privileges. (Obviously, in real life they are the actual owners since they invented the series. But we are looking for the in-story owner).
For very similar reasons, we can also cross off our main 4’s close friends: Theobald, Mapicc, Lomedy, and Eggchan. None of these people fit the character profile nor have they ever displayed game breaking abilities. And aside from Lomedy, they have all been very closely involved in major server wide events.
Next up, we can cross off all of our server villains (so far): LettuceK, Clownpierce, Ashswagg etc. Basically, there is no reason to seek power if you already have it. And if any of them were the server owner they would have already used that power to their advantage. They didn’t, so it’s not them. We can also cross off Wifies/The Director as well, because if they’d had administrative privileges, there is no shot that they would not have used that on Parrot.
So now we look for some incredibly suspicious groups and see how they stack up to our owner profile and base assumptions.
Right off the bat we have a few:
The 1st Gen Farlands Players: Firestar2008, Lakerek, GeeGeeGamer, Serpentbound333, & Nitenly
These people have clearly been on the server for a very long time. And they fit the character profile of being uninvolved with the main server. However, there are not too many game breaking abilities that are displayed by these players. The one exception being Lakerek who is implied to have game breaking items tied to The Forge. However, gameplay wise, they appear to be subject to the normal server survival/hardcore rules; so while they are suspicious, they are lower on the list of suspects.
The Underworld Players (Soul Keepers): AumvorUndead, ThirdEyeOpened, Kevindamezgame1, SoulDestroyer67, & DooDespair8
These people are highly suspicious. Not only do they reside outside the theoretical boundaries of the normal Minecraft server, but they also have abilities that regular players do not. The Underworld itself is the equivalent of being a spawn protected area that normal players cannot affect. But the fact that the Soul Keepers can break blocks means that they have access to abilities, commands, or other server permissions that regular players simply do not. It is possible that these are people who know the server owner/admins and may have been given special game permissions.
However! There is ONE player on the server that embodies all of these ideas, and even has a canonical connection to our most suspicious groups.
Give it up for 🎉JamatoP🎉 Our number 1 suspect!
Listen, this dude is incredibly suspicious. Let me give you the run down.
So remember when I said that the server owner has not done much aside from update the server and patch exploits?
Well there was only two people on the entire server that supposedly knew about those exploits existence:
Spoke and JamatoP.
And then all of sudden these exploits just so happened to get patched the second the Mafia finds out and goes looking for them? Coincidence? I think not!
Not only that, but some of Jamato’s exploits are suspicious in the first place. Remember when Spoke went to find Mapicc in the Farlands? (In the field of flowers where Jamato was living?) Well, we see some very suspicious flowers there. Flowers that are floating in mid air. And we’ve also seen flowers placed on blocks that should be impossible to be placed on inside of Jamato’s duplicate base as well. But what's interesting is that this kind of exploit requires server update suppression (which is not a normal exploit done in survival). Instead its usually done using commands, or world edit. So how did Jamato do it? Spoke himself even comments 'This isnt natural' upon seeing it. But you know, Jamato is an expert exploiter, so I’m willing to let this slide as possible exploiter behavior.
What I am Not willing to look past is the fact that he can instantly teleport when he walks into a nether portal! That is some op/creative mode shenanigans! Highly suspect! We also know that someone with commands can affect weather patterns. Well guess what? The weather acts very oddly around Jamato as well. There are consistently short lightning storms that just appear and disappear whenever he is around. And this happens no less than Three Times while Spoke is in Jamato’s presence when he goes to find Mapicc. Even Wemmbu gets the same odd lighting storm experience during his encounter with Jamato in the Farlands.
Jamato also fits our server owner character profile. Because Jamato has not yet directly gotten involved in the server’s drama/events. On the contrary, he's actually made the ultimate achievement of being able to escape and go undetected by the Invis Mafia (a group who were notoriously able to find players/civilizations and explored the vast majority of the server).
Additionally, the people Jamato knows are also highly suspect. He has been shown to personally know the 1st Generation Farlands players, to the point of implicitly trusting someone if they even knew their name. He also also has a positive relationship with, and bears armor trims similar to that of the Soul Keepers in the Underworld (who are already highly suspect and may have a connection to the server owner).
Even JamatoP’s actions right from the very moment we meet them speak of someone who is investigating a server that they know a lot about, but is displaying oddities that they have never seen before. In other words, the actions of a concerned server owner trying to figure out what is going on.
And when Jamato saw Spoke go too far with the exploits, which he believed would lead to the server's demise, he became even more concerned and protective of the server. Which is something a server owner would naturally be concerned about. It would also provide a logical explanation for why the exploits got patched in the first place. Jamato has stated that he is ‘protecting’ the server from Spoke, and Jamato ran from the Mafia for the same reason.
But the real kicker is the fact that of all the exploits, the one harmless exploit that JamatoP seems to be fond of (the flower exploit), just magically never ever gets patched.
In conclusion, they are SUS!
