Frankly, not everyone agrees on how things should be done. And, unfortunately, sometimes those differences are irreconcilable. So we have to have a Code of Conduct for various services where people interact. PvE (Player vs Environment) is a gametype where the focus of the gameplay involves players working together (or independently, but not antagonistically) and their main opponent is indended to be the environment. Some PvE games allow PvP (Player vs Player) combat as well. Sometimes, this is not actually meant to encourage PvP, but instead to increase the "realism" or even skill required to accomplish a goal (classic example might be games like how in Halo or Call of Duty, you can sometimes shoot members of your own team when in a PvP mode, or when in Co-Op PvE mode, which forces you to position yourself so you do not). Some people cannot behave like adults, especially when they are "bored" (then go play something else) or in a bad mood. So, it has to be outlined what kind of behavior is a bannable offense from PvE services. So far, I haven't had to enforce anything like this in years, and I'd like it to stay that way.
Overall Outline:
Property rights:
If you create it, you own it, so long as it's not on someone else's property.
Owning it does not obligate me or others to remove it, at your whim (I'm not beholden to the GDPR).
No one should mess with it without your permission.
It should not interfere with the properties belonging to other players (I shouldn't even see it from my own property: distance is 20 chunks in minecraft).
Frankly, I don't want to play judge or daddy government. Thing is, with video games, we can't just go full anarcho-capitalist, because no one can reasonably protect their property from a reincarnating threat that can be present when they cannot be due to real-life. Not without actually hurting someone in real-life, which is not acceptable. If you're a problem, the next best thing is to ban your account from that service, and this is effectively capital punishment.
Q&A (Not really a faq if it's not frequently asked):
Q: How do you know who owns what?
A: Depends on the game. In minecraft, where I suspect the most trouble, there is a logged chat where you can declare your intent and ownership and I can use that to determine who really owns something. Best thing you can do is notify me, and introduce me to your project.
Q: What about entities animals lagging the server? (Mostly a minecraft problem.)
A: Yeah, the only people whom are likely to be able to determine if that is the case is Maarkun and Kohlrak (myself). I understand your frustration if it's causing a problem with the server, but you'll have to wait for me to make a decision. If the person is repeatedly lagging the server with foul, that will be considered a DoS attack and a violation of my real-life property rights (intentionally lagging my server), so don't expect it to be a problem for long. Report suspicions to me, and I'll evaluate.
Q: Who owns it if it's built by more than one person?
A: Depends on who declares it as their own first. If I know two people worked together under the premise that they would share ownership, then the problem is the one who is doing damage to it, since you would have already have agreed to share ownership. Would be very, very wise to ensure that you both (or more) verify publicly that you share ownership, and you get public agreement, since if I wasn't part of the project I can only work with what I have so I'll just assume you're trying to hijack it.
Q: What about pranks?
A: If I have to restore a save file to fix the problem, of if it takes the owner more than 10 seconds to clean up, you've created a problem. If the person doesn't report the problem, I don't know about it, however, so know your audience. But if I get a report that a house has been burned down in a game, I'm probably not going to consider that a prank, regardless of what your intent was.
Q: What about you?
A: Yeah, I have to abide by this, too. Obviously I have a few special exceptions, as the server itself is my property so anything you do that negatively affects it is a violation of my property rights, I can do things like slaughtering excess cattle or something.
Q: What about accidents?
A: Try not to make them. If I see you're genuinely trying to solve the problem or reduce the inconvenience, I'm going to be more lenient. That said, if you are playing with dangerous things, and someone's cat dies, you're going to have a bad day. I don't want to have to restore backups, but restoring backups takes precedence over progress. If you've been on for several hours doing alot of work, or someone else has, think about that before you go playing with fire, lava, or demons. Think like a costruction-worker: if something can get out of control, build something to contain it while you're working.
Q: But it's just a digital item, no?
A: Yes, but these things have intrinsic value to the owner. Even if it can be "perfectly replicated," this breaks the illusion and thus the intrinsic value. The digital cat may not be a real animal, but it's that person's digital cat that has value because that's the one that they drug many miles to get it to their house. Spawning a new one isn't that same cat, no matter how much it looks like that. To replace it ruins the intrinsic value placed upon said cat.
Q: What about someone breaking my feels?
A: Digital goods are digital property, but feelings still don't have that tangibility. You're shit out of luck if someone breaks your heart. One should always separate words from actions, but video games live in this twilight zone between the two where digital goods are speech, in that I should not punch you in real-life for burning down my virtual house. Contrarily, what you do in a video game is still real enough to be separated from speech and considered action. Digital actions shall be met with digital consequences, but words are words.