Mojang to Require a Microsoft Account to Play Minecraft • Hacker News Board

Re: Mojang to Require a Microsoft Account to Play Minecraft

#21

Post by cdirkx » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 4:46 PM UTC

surlyadopter wrote: post #14

I have an ancient minecraft account (so old I paypal'ed 9 euro to Mojang) that doesn't have an email associated with it. Does anybody have experience with MS helping recover an older MC account?

I'm in a similar situation. From what I could find the easiest way to resolve the issue is to report the original transaction ID [1], if you still have access to it.

They list the instructions for PayPal:

> The PayPal transaction ID is a seventeen-character alphanumeric code: 1AB23456C7890123D

> To locate this transaction ID, log into your PayPal account and find the ID in your transaction history. If you no longer have access to your PayPal account, or if you made a purchase that doesn’t appear in your transaction history, you must contact PayPal to request the ID.

[1] https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/360029977371-Wh...

Re: Mojang to Require a Microsoft Account to Play Minecraft

#22

Post by c7DJTLrn » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 4:46 PM UTC

Guess I won't be playing Minecraft anymore. At least not in online mode.

Pretty gross how they gave a cape to everyone to shut them up. (historically capes were a rare privilege to own)

Re: Mojang to Require a Microsoft Account to Play Minecraft

#23

Post by Shared404 » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 4:48 PM UTC

depaya wrote: post #15

raxxorrax wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest I haven't played it in ages, but there was a time when I enjoyed it with some friends on our self hosted server. It is still successful and it is probably a completely transformed game by now, but ultimately I think they want to lure people into their environment. I also wouldn't want my kids playing it because of the monetization.

The version you like is still available... you can play the game and run a server in any version you want. Java has no monetization.

But is still being pulled into Microsoft accounts.

Enough is enough, I'm done with this.

The only game that I'm willing to play with a Microsoft account is the MCC - and that's because I bought it knowing I would need an account, then made a throwaway email and MS account to play it with.

Re: Mojang to Require a Microsoft Account to Play Minecraft

#24

Post by mjs7231 » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 4:49 PM UTC

Through terrible process and QA on their end, MS essentially stole a copy of the game back from me with this change.

My son got an email saying he needed to migrate our Mojang account to an MS account and he clicked through like the email said. Problem was the Microsoft account he migrated to already had a Minecraft purchase. Now I essentially lost a copy of the game because we technically have two Minecraft accounts with the same email. We can only log into one of them.

I contact MS with the best link I could find but it was not actually linking me up to a MS employee, but cycled me through four different "experts", each of which I had to re-explain the issue, and each said they didn't know how to help me before bouncing me to another expert. It was a terrible experience and still unresolved.

Re: Mojang to Require a Microsoft Account to Play Minecraft

#25

Post by hereforphone » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 4:50 PM UTC

Reports of people being locked out and other troubles. Microsoft soils everything they touch. They have the money to get things right, they just somehow don't. I just don't get it.

Re: Mojang to Require a Microsoft Account to Play Minecraft

#26

Post by josefresco » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 4:50 PM UTC

The whole Mojang/Microsoft account migration thing has been a nightmare. I got two kids, and purchased different versions of Minecraft (don't get me started on that fiasco) over the years. I also work in tech, and have Microsoft accounts. Lastly I've dabbled with Xbox Game Pass etc. Determining which account to use and login with is a nightmare. I don't play Minecraft enough to stay current with all the ins-and-outs which means I ultimately don't play as much.

Edit: Another commenter reminded me that I also "lost" a license when merging accounts. Or at least I have no idea how to get back into an account that had a purchased license. Oh well, they (MS) lose out in the end as it's 3 less Minecraft gamers with disposable income.

Re: Mojang to Require a Microsoft Account to Play Minecraft

#27

Post by jimbob45 » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 4:50 PM UTC

Anyone old enough to remember how many times we've been here? Every five or so years, Microsoft re-invents its own idea to force players to make MS accounts to log in to games. Later, when they inevitably drop the initiative, the players are left wondering if their game will be inaccessible when the account service goes offline.

Re: Mojang to Require a Microsoft Account to Play Minecraft

#28

Post by brimble » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 4:50 PM UTC

watwut wrote: post #18

dpedu wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm. I have like a dozen Minecraft accounts but only one or two phone numbers. I wonder how this is going to play out :/

When I was making accounts for my kids, I used friends phone. Cause my kids did not had own phone. It was ridiculous.

They make it a huge pain to buy the damn game and actually get it working for your kid's account (yes, that's another step or two) if you don't already have accounts. And their account management pages make Teams look well-organized. I was shocked at how hard it was when I did it. I guess they don't want anyone buying the Java version anymore (I assume the other kind is easier to buy?)

Re: Mojang to Require a Microsoft Account to Play Minecraft

#29

Post by chaps » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 4:51 PM UTC

Jeez. Microsoft account management is absolutely trash. They try to do clever things, but they don't really think things through.

As an example: while trying to get excel installed on a Windows VM, running on a Linux host, I found that if your user agent shows you're running Linux, their admin panel will show you a completely different set of already-purchased applications available to install. Took somewhere between 5-10 calls to their support before I figured that out on my own.

Re: Mojang to Require a Microsoft Account to Play Minecraft

#30

Post by vkou » Tue, Mar 01, 2022, 4:51 PM UTC

kbelder wrote: post #12

I went through their account creation process, was no longer able to start Minecraft. It wanted me to buy a new copy. After contacting MS, they recommended I downgrade to the old version of the launcher, and that worked. I assume upgrading will be forced at some point, and I'll probably lose access again. This transition doesn't seem to be well handled, although I was glad that I was able to actually get hold of a hu…

You've described the account management experience of Microsoft's forays into gaming in a nutshell. Still the same shit as it has been for the past 15 years. Fortunately, you can console yourself that in two years, they'll abandon this system, and switch to something else that's broken in a different way.

It's clear that there's an annual OKR to hit some account creation # or other, but there's no OKR for having those accounts provide any value to the users.