The reasons I participate in this video game server is extremely simple:

1) Fun

• This is a video game. If you want a simulation, then this is not the server for you; I recommend any server with a death-ban policy, at the very least, if not a policy that bans anyone who meta-games whatsoever.

2) To use this game to play out my ideas

• There are communes, city-states, and loose cities. People are using a game to play out their ideas.

Regarding metagaming:

Meta-gaming is "the use of out-of-game information or resources to affect one's in-game decisions". The following is a list of actions that qualify as meta-gaming:

• Trading bitcoins for diamonds in-game
• Reading this subreddit
• Reading the Civcraft wiki
• Using the Internet to discover the new features of each new version of Minecraft
• Watching YouTube videos on how to build stuff in-game.
• Using TeamSpeak or Mumble to talk to other players.
• Using Microsoft Word to plan what you are going to do in-game.

Remember: this is a game. Please treat it as such, and don't hate on players for how they play. Its a video game!