Well, and karma apparently works, as notch's life after becoming billionaire doesn't seem to be too positive
I don't see any wrongdoing from Notch in this.
I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you
101–110 of 778 posts
Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you
#102I'm no literary critic and I don't know how many people finish Minecraft and how many get to read the poem but $20K for that seems a pretty good deal (and the exchange of emails and payment sound like some kind of contract).
I'm sure others working on other parts of the game, graphics and gameplay (which have become very well known outside the game) put in far more work for less.
If Microsoft replace the poem, I'm not sure anyone would notice except the author wouldn't have a fun fact for his bio.
Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel you are being a bit too harsh but also had to laugh at the kubla khan and acid references
Yeah I need to stop. The more I brood over what I just read the more unbearably frustrated it makes me . I want my time back. I am sorry if I'm being overly harsh. This one really hit a nerve.
I am going to assume you are one of those reductionist materialists I read about. /s
Just saying that I found the story interesting and well… lovely (in a way) but perhaps that’s different backgrounds at work (I dabble in art) so I wonder what makes this such an unbearable thing to read, perhaps a very practical person? Not necessarily directed at you dcow.
Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you
#104Why would Microsoft want to own this particular ending to Minecraft? It’s just not very good IMO.
Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you
#105Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you
#106This needs another side of the story.
Notch wanted a freelance writer to write a funky written piece for after the player defeats the ender dragon. He finds one and they agree on a price via email. Notch likes the result, integrated the writing into the game and pays the writer the agreed-upon amount.
During due diligence of the MS purchase, the lawyers want the contract formalized. The freelancer erratically responds, writing self-contradictory emails to various people in the company.
Company lawyers don’t want to deal with the nonsense and decide they can win a legal challenge if it ever comes to that, based on the initial agreements between notch and the freelance writer.
The game releases and gets more popular. One day the freelancer writes a substack article. The end.
Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you
#107I feel for the guy, making a living off of art is difficult. However, with an extensive email chain explaining the story was written as the ending of Minecraft, even going into detail about how it was to be displayed in game, an agreed upon offer (if a bit vague), and then an exchange of funds - with no immediate attempt to return said funds. I'm no lawyer, but that sounds a lot like a legally binding agreement. > So…
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Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you
#108There's and ending to Minecraft? There goes my perception (acquired over the years of reading bits and bobs about it) of it being an endless world building game.
There's an "ending" in terms of there is an event that gets the credits to play, but you can continue to play afterwords, and there is a not insignificant amount of content unlocked by triggering the event. You can also easily play forever without achieving this ending.
I've probably played a few hundred hours of minecraft and never tried to reach the ending because I spend all my time building slight variations of the same cool wizards spire, and designing redstone minecart subways.
Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you
#109This needs another side of the story.
I'm gonna guess it's something like: this guy is using a "friendship" narrative because it's his best argument, but it's not the reality. He accepted, via email, a deal for what Mojang thought was a nice sum for writing an ending to their game.
Later he wouldn't sign the contract stating what he accepted in email.
Markus was seemingly very generous to everyone he felt was important to the success of Mojang. I sincerely doubt he didn't consider this guy. Markus is not so selfish that he wouldn't make the guy a millionaire if he felt his contribution was important. Or shout out his stuff.
The guy thought he was cozying up with the big boys, but he was a fiverr hire.