5 awesome free Minecraft servers you should check out

Playing Minecraft on PC? Want to play on a free server with a ton of people? There's a lot of free servers out there, but be careful! Not all of them are good. There's a lot of griefing and trolling that you have to look out for. Here's five free servers you should check out. A lot of them run the same type of games/modes, but these servers are some of the best you should try out.

OpAnarchy.com / Prison Anarchy

OpAnarchy is a prison server with a great community behind it. In case you're unaware, in prison servers, there are usually no wilderness, and players must earn money to advance in the prison ranks. Some servers let you gain freedom as you advance, with some even letting you escape. There's easy ranks, hard ranks and a prestige system, and everyone is pretty helpful.

www.prison-anarchy.com

The Shotbow Network

Home to the original MineZ — the multiplayer zombie survival server for Minecraft inspired by Arma 2's DayZ​ — the Shotbow Network is a multiplayer server for Minecraft​ that features a nice collection of high-quality modded servers that are all interconnected. There's a lobby where players can connect and travel to whichever Shotbow game mode they'd like to play without having to disconnect and see a loading screen. There's XP and money and a ton of game modes. The current game modes include MineZ, Wasted, Smash (kind like Smash Bros.), Annihilation, Ghostcraft, CivCraft, and Last Man standing, among others. If you love it that much, you can go Premium, which gives you even more perks.

Shotbow.net

LavaCraft

LavaCraft has been around over a year, featuring a 24/7 dedicated Minecraft server. There's a huge community and is well-known for its HungerGames — four active arenas holding 48 players running 24/7. But LavaCraft is more than the HungerGames game mode. There's Capture the Flag, PVP arenas, Spleef arenas (you really need to try that!), Snowball arenas, Mob arenas, Parkour, and a grief-free Survival mode with plots. There's also an economy at work here, with players earning money by completing tasks on the server — like winning a game of spleef or helping their team win a match. With the money, players purchase other players' items at the bazaar or on the global market.

MClava.com

Phanaticmc

This server started back in November 2011 and is dedicated to Skyblock, but features other minigames. Skyblock is a type of survival game that is challenging but fun. Spawning on an island with limited resources, you goal is to expand and become and empire. The Phanaticmc server embraces that fun and frustration while adding world events, custom recipes and perks, co-op mode and anti-griefing.

http://phanaticmc.com/

Lichcraft

Created in March 2012, this server has quickly grown to be one of the most popular Minecraft servers. There's a ton of awesome servers open and always something to do, with servers dedicated to Factions, Survival, Skyblock, Skygrid, War, HungerGames, LichZ and Creative. So there's something for everyone's taste. There's also an active community and forums for help and support.

http://www.lichcraft.com/

You can follow Senior Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ. He likes talking sports, video games, movies, and the stupidity of celebrities. Email at LLiebl@GameZone.com