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

theeggandtherock.substack.com

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

#631

Post by Chris2048 »

DrammBA wrote: post #543

Reading the post and then HN comments makes me realize the average HN user lacks a lot of emotional intelligence. People are criticizing the post based on the cold hard mistakes the author made while completely glossing over the emotional introspection the author went through to acknowledge all their mistakes and finally close this chapter of their lives. Stop treating this post like you are code reviewing a PR.

The author points out their own mistakes, but at the same time it doesn't seem like they believe they got fair compensation - so what was that introspection worth?

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

#632

Post by intrepidhero »

spritefs wrote: post #623
intrepidhero wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are cultures in the world where the babysitter would expect to share in your windfall and everyone would think it a perfectly reasonable thing. Also, neighbors and extended family. This transactional, one and done sort of thinking that makes perfect sense in the capitalistic west, is not a mathematical, universal truth.

> There are cultures in the world where the babysitter would expect to share in your windfall and everyone would think it a perfectly reasonable thing. Which cultures do you have in mind?

I'm thinking of personal experience in sub-Saharan Africa. But really, most cultures are less individualistic then the west and have different ideas about the obligations of individuals to the group.

I'm not saying one way or the other is right or wrong and that's the point. What's right is "obvious" in one culture and may well be outright wrong in another. Our ideas here should be challenged and tested and not merely accepted.

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

#634

Post by dj_mc_merlin »

gomibako wrote: post #571
dj_mc_merlin wrote: post #484

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some artists are good at business (Picasso) I know basically nothing about the life of artists in general, but this interests me. Where can I read about this? Would appreciate a link that deals with the business side more than a general biography. Thanks.

Read "why are artists poor?" By Hans Abbing, who is an artist and an economist himself. It's more focused on the economy of what we call the contemporary art market but it does spend time contrasting it with the economy of """lower""" forms of art (recorded music, commercial illustration etc)

Thanks!

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

#635

Post by ascendantlogic »

shmageggy wrote: post #441
robertlagrant wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. The game would've made $0 less had the ending just said "The End".

You really think that a poem that people have tattooed on themselves, put onto tee shirts and mugs, inspired emotional emails to the author, and so on has inspired exactly zero excess recommendations to friends, zero dinnertime discussions or social media posts that have led to purchases?

Keep in mind you're arguing with engineering types about this. Over the course of my career I've come to find that a not-insignificant % of engineers value art and artistic contributions very little or not at all.

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

#636

Post by wikfwikf »

sbst32 wrote: post #619
yreg wrote: post #503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

E-mail chains, or even verbal discussions are binding legal agreements as well. They are just much less clean and safe than a proper contract.

And? He never agreed to transfer his rights.

How do you know this?

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

#637

Post by robertlagrant »

dsabanin wrote: post #566
sipjca wrote: post #511

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah he is claiming people have it tattooed. Reading the story shows you one such image. A Google search also validates the claim.

To be fair, some people make tattoos with all kinds of silly things, the bar is pretty low. One can argue that whatever the ending text was, someone would make a tattoo with it eventually.

We need a gofundme for the previous comment to be tattooed on someone.

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

#638

Post by sbst32 »

Karawebnetwork wrote: post #550
DrammBA wrote: post #543

Reading the post and then HN comments makes me realize the average HN user lacks a lot of emotional intelligence. People are criticizing the post based on the cold hard mistakes the author made while completely glossing over the emotional introspection the author went through to acknowledge all their mistakes and finally close this chapter of their lives. Stop treating this post like you are code reviewing a PR.

I say this with all the love in the world: it's hard for engineers to think like artists and vice-versa. As an engineer, I understand the importance of logic, precision, and efficiency. But as an artist, I also know the value of creativity, expression, and intuition. These two ways of thinking are often at odds with each other, and it can be challenging for an engineer to understand the artistic mindset and for an ar…

I totally agree with your points but parent is talking about empathy, not about thinking like each other. The author was trying to convey his thinking, his emotions, his struggles and his flaws. To me - he did that quite successfully.

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

#639

Post by robertlagrant »

ineedasername wrote: post #587
snowwrestler wrote: post #573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole point of the post is that there are ways to express value other than dollars. That’s why the author lets go of the dollars and gives the story away for free at the end. Maybe the game would have made the same money. But it’s also true that Markus asked for an ending story, selected this one and put it in, and kept it there.

>The whole point of the post is that there are ways to express value other than dollars That may be the author's point, but their egotism also then seems to believe that a significant portion of the non-monetary value of Minecraft is a result of their own brief work on an unskippable wall of text that has a nice sentiment but is quickly forgotten by, I'd guess, nearly everyone that plays the game.

There'll be a vast number of people who never completed it or only played the non-story mode.

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

#640

Post by gameshot911 »

saalweachter wrote: post #532
neilv wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the agent goes and says "He's an artist who loves your game -- like it's a triumph of human expression -- he can see the heart of it, and he done something pretty special that's worthy to be a capstone for the player's experience. You understand true art is about more than money. What do you think about these couple changes I've marked up, to show he's valued in a way that's meaningful to him? In addition to the s…

I mean, half the point of agents is to insert middle-men who won't get emotional about the deal while wringing as much value for their party out of it as possible. If you're talking directly to someone about buying their house and you go, "your house is a piece of shit, everything is broken, knock $XX,000 off or I walk", they're going to tell you to go fuck yourself. Once you filter it through two agents they hear "w…

The emotional aspect of negotiating is a very interesting factor. You'd think it'd just come down to numbers, and that's probably where many logically-oriented folks get confused.
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