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I'm Leaving Mojang

notch.net

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Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#161

Post by gglitch »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #88
jacquesm wrote: post #17

> I don’t see myself as a real game developer. I make games because it’s fun, and because I love games and I love to program, but I don’t make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don’t try to change the world. I think that's the essence of being a real game developer. It's sad that Notch feels this way, I think the majority of old school games guys and girls were just like that. Since it's beco…

> I think that's the essence of being a real game developer. I think that's the eseence of being a real X, X = insert whatever you claim to be in. In my mind I divide companies (and professionals) by whether their occupation is an instrumental or terminal goal. As an example, advancing rocketry and electrifying transport to advance humanity is a terminal goal for Elon Musk. I.e he cares about that and works on Tesla…

I'm reminded of the _Nicomachean Ethics_, which, if I recall accurately, begins with an analysis of what you're calling instrumental activities vs terminal, in order to show that the end goal of any activity is happiness, which is not instrumental for any other purpose.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#162

Post by dredmorbius »

raldi wrote: post #115
melvinmt wrote: post #111

There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village. As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish. The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?” The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.” “Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The…

And then the fisherman got a horrible toothache and there was nothing he could do about it. A few years later, overfishing led to near-depletion of the local supply, and new restrictions were implemented on fishing licenses. The fisherman was unable to afford one, and yet he had no other means of supporting his family. By the end of the decade his wife and children were begging on the street. Meanwhile, the businessm…

Until the ski resort closed due to lack of snow from global warming, his business failed as increasing amounts of financial capital were required for ever falling returns on new energy exploration, globalization collapsed due to increased fuel and energy costs making shipping child-labor textiles and fatuous electronics 12,000 miles uneconomic.

If your model of the world suggests that fishing isn't a sustainable activity, I suspect you'll find that the rest of the economic system is going to fail not too long after that.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#163

Post by wildpeaks »

jedmeyers wrote: post #135
TeMPOraL wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point being, we who are like the businessman are the slaves of our economy. We get great perks from that Moloch, like healthcare, million types of foods, computers, cinemas, all the awesome technology - but in exchange, we need to slave away our lives. It's a trade-off. We're entering the times when we can build machines to relieve us from our chains, but (apart from needing to restructure the capitalist economy)…

Since the beginning of humanity people have been slaves to the necessity of survival.

Notch selling is pretty much him going in Creative Mode in real life :)

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#164

Post by jrochkind1 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #125
gbog wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there are many here that dream of having their idea be a huge success but aren't really interested in becoming the next Bill Gates or Zuckerberg. I think it's more than you think. I think Notch expressed clearly that he did not expect nor want his project to become a big hit. He may have been flattered for a while but he now sees it clearly: success is shit, big success is a shitstorm. The exact opposite of the ent…

I think what pg might have overlooked, looking back at his old essays, is that hackers of old, driven by their love for their work turned into paper-toiler entrepreneurs today. There is nothing precluding a hacker from leveraging the economy to scale up his favourite hack (which I believe pg's early essays were about) or, as Notch did, just to secure himself a peaceful and secure environment to continue his hacking w…

yes. just right.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#165

Post by shurcooL »

willvarfar wrote: post #102

For the interested, Notch didn't enter the current Ludum Dare but thousands of mortal coders did, and they'd love you to go play their games! http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/

If only there was an OnLive-like roulette-like way going from one game to another without download and install times, that'd be neat.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#166

Post by cheez »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #109
petercooper wrote: post #22

I think there are some interesting parallels with J K Rowling. If he releases anything now, it's big news (even Cliffhorse ). He might have to start "writing" under a pseudonym just to get any sense of doing something fresh without intense public scrutiny.

Nah, he's been releasing little side-projects every so often, none of which were seen as the next big thing. Although that space game of his did get a lot of hype, he decided to pull the plug on that one a while ago because it just wasn't going to work (also due to all the pressure from the fans).

0x10c (that space game) would have been incredible if he had completed it. It would be the next step up from Minecraft for kids who liked Minecraft. Can you imagine?

Maybe that's really why he stopped the development.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#167

Post by qopp »

melvinmt wrote: post #111

There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village. As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish. The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?” The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.” “Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The…

This isn't a perfect analogy for this situation because Notch is already wealthy enough to retire. He's worked hard, and made something people love.

It would be like the fisherman worked 2 years can captured a solid gold fish. It's really the CEO that wants something out of the fisherman in this case.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#168

Post by Tepix »

gamesurgeon wrote: post #18

"I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a CEO. I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter...If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately." I have the utmost respect for notch after reading that.

I think it's sad to write something like that (abandoning something as soon as it seems to gain traction). Isn't that what games are about? Writing great games that a lot of people love to play and talk about? And in the case of Minecraft, hack and mod in unimaginable ways?

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#169

Post by jrochkind1 »

cperciva wrote: post #144
aeturnum wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's like Bruce Wayne deciding to spend the rest of his life playing with legos. I like this image. Bruce Wayne's character in batman is always thinking big. He tries to push things in the direction he thinks is right. The idea that someone would have all the power and decide to play with toys makes me worry about the rest of us. I would like to see people like Notch (creative, thoughtful people) having a say in wha…

Bruce Wayne's character in batman is always thinking big. He tries to push things in the direction he thinks is right. No, Bruce Wayne is incredibly myopic. If you have billions of dollars and you want to fight crime, the last thing you should be doing is developing fancy equipment so that you can personally go after criminals one by one. If Bruce Wayne truly wanted to use his money to reduce crime, he would be donat…

Getting off-topic of course, but the key insight here is that Bruce Wayne does NOT really want to 'reduce crime'.

Instead, he wants to take revenge on criminals, like the criminals who killed his parents. 'reduce crime' isn't the same as 'fight crime', he requires the FIGHT part, and the revenge part.

Yeah, that makes him somewhat less sympathetic, but isn't that what everyone likes about batman these days, the darkness?

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#170

Post by chasing »

melvinmt wrote: post #111

There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village. As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish. The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?” The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.” “Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The…

Ugh. Parables can be used to demonstrate just about anything.

There once was a fisherman, much like the one you describe in the parent comment.

One day a businessman approached him with a proposal that would require more work, but would, in the end, result in much more financial freedom and stability.

The fisherman declined the advice and went about his life, happily fishing for the days food and spending the rest of the day playing with his kids and drinking with his buddies.

Then the kids grew up and his buddies started finding other things to do with their time, so the fisherman got restless. But he had no money saved up and no other skills, so he was stuck. Then there were a couple years during which the fishing turned bad and the fisherman and his poor wife nearly starved. Rather than spending all day fishing in frustration, it sure would've been nice to actually retire somewhere. But the fisherman was well past that point. It was either fish or go hungry. Or possibly both.

And then his kids were all hit by meteorites and his town was invaded by aliens and the entire ocean dried up and everyone had to move to Mars.

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