I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you • Hacker News Board

Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

#411

Post by somrand0 » Thu, Dec 08, 2022, 12:28 PM UTC

cmeacham98 wrote: post #183

pgsandstrom wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im honestly chocked that people react so negatively to this piece. Yes, the author expresses many negative and self centered emotions. He is very clear about that. It is part of the story. It is a story about being a flawed person. I sympathize with him. I loved this piece. I hope he truly did let go of all the hangups he described. And it does seem that he actually did sell the the rights of use to microsoft, making…

My biggest problem with the post is the massive ego the author seems to have about the impact and importance of their writing. To be frank, the author made little to no meaningful contributions to Minecraft's success. The author is so self-centered they belittle the contributions of other Mojang employees and seem to genuinely believe their contribution is on the same level as people like Jeb and C418. They literally…

well, that person is an artist, artistry is all about SELF expression... people who make it along that path have a strong trait of wanting their EGO (their selves) to be seen and attended to. that's why they are artists.

the end poem is a priceless gift because they made it so: they refused to sell it, they consistently refused to put a price on it.

Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

#412

Post by donkeyd » Thu, Dec 08, 2022, 12:29 PM UTC

bowsamic wrote: post #333

wickedsight wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would you think it's socially acceptable to be a flawed person? It isn't, but it should be, because everyone is a flawed person. The fact that we have all have to act like we don't makes our current society so incredibly toxic. It causes everyone to pretend to be something they're really not, because otherwise they become ostracized from their community. This is incredibly polarizing and causes (in US politics)…

If flaws were fine things to be accepted, then they wouldn't be classified as flaws. What is society if we just accept all problems as part of the person or else society will be toxic? Also has there ever been a society where flaws are just accepted without any kind of judgement? I would suggest that in those societies they simply did not classify them as flaws. > If we all just accept that everyone has flaws and we…

> Also has there ever been a society where flaws are just accepted without any kind of judgement?

We're moving goal posts here. You asked whether it was socially acceptable to be a flawed person and I responded to that specifically. I never wrote that any and every flaw should be accepted. That's very different from accepting that everyone is flawed in some way or another and actually dealing with those flaws in stead of pretending we aren't.

> we don't feel comfortable openly judging people's flaws

That's hilarious in a period where politics is turning into nothing more than pointing out the flaws of others, whether those flaws exist or not. Attack ads have become more common than ads talking about plans and politics. There are entire TV shows only taking about flaws of others. All while pretending that the people judging others are in some way not flawed at all.

Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

#413

Post by somrand0 » Thu, Dec 08, 2022, 12:30 PM UTC

ohbtvz wrote: post #95

whatshisface wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you call asking for nothing entitlement?

Is he asking for nothing? Half of the post is about how Mojang got millions then billions and he got nothing. If he's not asking for what he considers to be his share of the pie, then I don't know what the whole post is about.

did you read it all the way? (I didn't; I skipped the beginning, it gets better)

Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

#414

Post by somrand0 » Thu, Dec 08, 2022, 12:31 PM UTC

disruptiveink wrote: post #385

mcv wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's emblematic for his entire inability to talk about money. He didn't want to talk about money, but he also didn't want his agent to do it for him. He has some highly idealistic beliefs about how money is not important, but he struggles to pay rent. I love his story, I sympathise, and I want Microsoft, or Notch, or Mojang, to just give him a million dollars. But I can also see that his financial struggles are mostl…

This is what does it for me. This was entirely of his own doing. He didn't want to negotiate, didn't want to get his agent involved for either no reason or a reason that he's not explaining, he managed to annoy the CEO of a three person company so much over email that Mojang's Carl lost his patience and told him to either take the deal or go away. You're trying to ship a game. This writer keeps hitting your inbox wit…

> You're trying to ship a game.

wrong. by that point they are trying to close a business deal for a lot of money

Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

#415

Post by BlueTemplar » Thu, Dec 08, 2022, 12:31 PM UTC

ketzu wrote: post #377

hnbad wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about Swedish law but in German law works created outside of an employment contract do not automatically assign an exclusive copyright to the buyer, so at best Mojang had a non-exclusive, non-transferrable, limited usage right for the poem for the use in Minecraft and nothing else. As I understand it, this makes his claim that Microsoft may not have the right to use it questionable but it confirms his ma…

> do not automatically assign an exclusive copyright to the buyer Of course, because in germany you can not transfer your copyright at all, unless you die. ;) Without being nitpicky you are still right in the way you meant it: There is no automatic usage right afaik. (And also google results agree: eg https://likvi.de/blog/urheberrecht )

I think that in civil law countries you can sometimes give / sell away your copy rights, but never your moral rights ?

(Though copy rights themselves might also be treated as actual rights, rather than a temporary monopoly, an exception to the normal state of everything being in the public domain that prevails in the common law countries ?)

Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

#416

Post by somrand0 » Thu, Dec 08, 2022, 12:32 PM UTC

colonwqbang wrote: post #93

whatshisface wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you call asking for nothing entitlement?

Isn't the whole point that the author thinks he deserves more compensation than he got? He's quoting the compensation for various Mojang employees and comparing it to what he got. He seems quite jelaous and/or entitled. 20000€ would in most European countries be a pretty good compensation for about 3 months of work, after taxes. It doesn't seem unreasonable on the face of it.

wrong. that's not the point.

the point is the gift economy

Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

#417

Post by anonymous344 » Thu, Dec 08, 2022, 12:34 PM UTC

always the same cry; here is this work of my, you welcome.

...oh you put it part in the n and made money, buaah buaaah i want money also! buaaahh

Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

#418

Post by krageon » Thu, Dec 08, 2022, 12:40 PM UTC

FamosoRandom wrote: post #195

operator-name wrote: post #170

This has also been posted to the Minecraft subreddit, where is has received a lot of positive attention from the community: https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/zf8ye0/i_wrote_t...

This is really interesting to compare both general opinion on HN and on this subreddit. On HN, a place probably filled with technical guys, people are generaly putting themselves in dev shoes. They are accusing the author of feeling entitled to more money because he felt like he was part of the team and that he think his work is equaly important as the work of everyone else. Devs being devs generaly know that coding…

I think it is pretty clear what kind of world most people would want to live in, and it is not the one where the faceless giant has more power. HN has things going for it, but corporate pandering is unquestionably not one of them.

Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

#419

Post by somrand0 » Thu, Dec 08, 2022, 12:40 PM UTC

erklik wrote: post #313

operator-name wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a bit sad because I think many here are missing the lesson to be learnt - artists want to be treated as artists (with emotion rather than rationality). When you treat them as cold hearted rational contractors, this kind of mess occurs. I'm reminded of a similar event with the Doom soundtrack https://medium.com/@mickgordon/my-full-statement-regarding-d...

> artists want to be treated as artists (with emotion rather than rationality). That doesn't make any sense. When you treat people with "emotions" ... this is the issue. Emotions are unclear, confusing and are different for everyone. Treating people based on emotions and feelings just results in inequality and confusion for everyone. This the perfect example where if treated it as a rational and business transaction,…

> If he treated the issue rationally and sent it to this agent, he would be far happier today.

this reasoning carries an implicit assumption (or axiom[1]): "money can buy happiness"

in fact, the argues in the story, that they would probably not have as good as a relationship with their first child if they'd had gotten a lot of money back when all this went down...

[1] what is an axiom? I haven't quite figured it out, but an axiom should never be implicit. so maybe not a good simile[2].

[2] the fuck's a simile? analogy? metaphor? ugh.

Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

#420

Post by donatj » Thu, Dec 08, 2022, 12:40 PM UTC

I feel like the author falls deeply into the trap of confusing someone being friendly with someone being your friend.

Notch was friendly with this author but I doubt he ever considered him a friend, just someone he was paying for a job. This has very strong Jim Carrey in “Cable Guy” vibes to me.