Opinions on Microsoft buying Mojang

[Hambeau]

New take on the situation from IGN

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/09/10/how-microsoft-buying-mojang-could-change-minecraft-forever

I particularly thought the best-case scenario had some interesting potential for the Mojang crew...

 

[midi_sec]

Some things to think about, also sorry, I don't know how to embed tweets. I r forum noob.

This tweet was in June, right around the EULA fiasco and backlash.
https://twitter.com/notch/status/478766808841732096

Anyone want to buy my share of Mojang so I can move on with my life? Getting hate for trying to do the right thing is not my gig.

This reddit thread was also around the same time
http://www.reddit.com/r/admincraft/...ittle_upset_with_how_things_are_going/cia7ma1

You have no idea how tempting it is right now. First thing I'd do would be to post something explaining why I'm doing what I'm doing to the people who care. Then I'd disable my twitter and email, and go sit on a beach somewhere with a laptop, firmly locked into my own little world, just poking at code. Just like in the good old days. Except on a beach.

If you believe the internet, right around the time of this Reddit thread was when Notch reached out to Microsoft for a sale deal. The guy in these posts obviously sounds a bit put out. And once you put it all together, it doesn't sound too far fetched, does it?

It's clear that Notch enjoys coding, not running Mojang. All of the signs are there; Half-Life 3 confirmed.

 

[FyberOptic]

New take on the situation from IGN

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/09/10/how-microsoft-buying-mojang-could-change-minecraft-forever

It cracks me up how these gaming sites take a rumor like this and just run with it. It doesn't have to be true for them, the uncertainty alone gives them opportunity for content with what-if stories.

 

[asb3pe]

I've tried to say this subtly but apparently it's not getting through, so let's try again; I'm disappointed and perplexed by everyone suggesting that this means Microsoft will immediately start DLCing the heck out of Minecraft, damaging the game, etc. You're all smarter than that; on so very many different levels that makes no sense for them to do whatsoever, starting with the fact it'd be a massive PR disaster and continuing with the fact a good part of the playerbase will simply jump ship.

Assuming Microsoft acquires Mojang, they have no motive to mistreat the game and every reason to improve it. This isn't directly about money. 2 billion is pocket change to them. This is about driving the Microsoft brand, not lining their pockets.

Microsoft is not EA and this "they'll try to squeeze us dry" paranoia is sad and silly, folks. You're all better than that.

You quite clearly did not play Microsoft Flight (the latest, and last, iteration of the series). I highly advise, since you obviously have no idea what happened, that you read the history of that abortion from Microsoft. It was pretty much a complete and utter fail, they tried to bilk us and overcharge the heck out of DLC (it was HIGHLY overpriced, very similar to Railwork's Railroad Simulator's add-on content), and they also would not allow anyone to make so-called "open source" addons like scenery and planes. In other words... they killed the community that had grown around the product... just. like. Minecraft's. They are a poison, a cancer to gamers.

You don't seem to understand that we live in a Corporatocracy, and the only true God in our world is the Almighty Prophet (sic). They're rumored to pay 2 billion for a product, and we're supposed to be "smarter than that" and "better than that" to think they might try to monetize the heck out of the whole lotta ones and zeros they are possibly buying? What are YOU selling?

One final thing... the "paperclip" JPG is back on reddit. Remember when someone posted that funny image a while back? Out of the blue? I laughed at it at the time, quite funny... but never connected any dots. Hmmmm.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/2g217y/im_done/

I think this was the original post, it's linked in that thread -posted one year ago by "deleted". The actual image post is two years old tho, so prob not connected. Oh well.
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/11mo6h/fuckin_paper_clip_guy/

 

[mcalpha]

cpw's take on the matter of "Microsoft is modding friendly":
http://www.reddit.com/r/feedthebeas...onal_may_be_wrong_theory_on_what_will/ckeunhq

 

[FyberOptic]

You quite clearly did not play Microsoft Flight (the latest, and last, iteration of the series).

While I won't go as far as to say Microsoft is evil incarnate, I can personally attest to how bad Microsoft Flight was.

 

[Dorque]

Snip

There are two subtle, but important differences there. Three if you include the time gap; M$ has been making some steps toward mending its ways in recent years. Allow me to elaborate.

Firstly; that was a product conceived of, built, and released by Microsoft. Yes ok part of an established series, but the game itself did not exist in the wild for five years before they acquired it. Also worth noting it didn't have 54 million fans to piss off.

Second; Microsoft learned a good lesson there about mucking with the status quo. They don't want to be seen as the bad guys again and they employ some pretty smart people who are at least as able to see the consequences of that action as a bunch of guys and gals on a forum.

Yes, we live in troubling times for consumers, but doing what people are suggesting they're going to do makes no business sense at all. The only logical reason to buy an immensely popular game and promptly paywall all of its content would be if they were deliberately trying to be seen as villains and they're pretty image-conscious these days.

I know everyone is paranoid and gunshy, but deliberately ignoring the logic behind this purchase to bask in that paranoia helps nothing and doesn't further discussion. Big companies evil, obtain pitchforks and torches immediately, we get it.

Sent from my Toaster using Tapatalk

 

[Golrith]

I've got my crystal ball out, and I see Windows 10 and the office suite in a new interactive 3D blocky environment.

 

[mcalpha]

But the modders know otherwise.

That seems to be true. Almost every statement I've seen from "big" modders (cpw, CJ, Pahimar to just name a few) agrees with you.

The users may try to be optimistic, but ultimately they won't take the hit should Microsoft break modding as we know it.

 

[NJM1564]

This thread is about MS buying Minecraft.
Your reply is no more than a personal attack.
Do you have anything of relevance to add to this actual thread, or just want to whine about my alert?

Yours is also technically an attack post. So lets just drop it OK. Everybody is a little upset about this and it's natural to speak harshly at times like this. Just let the moderators handle it.[DOUBLEPOST=1410428676][/DOUBLEPOST]

They have learned from past mistakes regarding this,

I've heard that they have made mistakes in the past. But I have yet to hear any evidence of them learning from them. Please give me an example.

 

[HeilMewTwo]

Yours is also technically an attack post. So lets just drop it OK. Everybody is a little upset about this and it's natural to speak harshly at times like this. Just let the moderators handle it.[DOUBLEPOST=1410428676][/DOUBLEPOST]

I've heard that they have made mistakes in the past. But I have yet to hear any evidence of them learning from them. Please give me an example.

They changed large parts of windows 8.1 so that those that preferred either their classic style or the touch pad style could use either.

 

[Kezza]

This is not even about Minecraft; it's about FTB. This is its own creation; its future is now at risk. Minecraft will continue. But imagine Minecraft without Bukkit; without FTB; without Technic; without Spigot.
You won't have to imagine for long, in fact...
I'm saying, keep the community together. I do not want to be proved right about this; but sadly I'm going to be. I'm saying, when it happens, and modding communities find they are no longer allowed to mod Minecraft, they MUST stay together and make a new game that they allow others to mod, like Minecraft used to be.
That is all I can do.
I hope the talented modders take heed and work on this.[DOUBLEPOST=1410429328][/DOUBLEPOST]

Kezza, I hate to say it, but you're spouting paranoid bullshit at this point. The best move is to batten down the hatches and wait to see what Microsoft and Mojang do. There's still the possibility that the deal won't happen, or that Microsoft will actually make a good job of Minecraft, and Scrolls, and Cobalt (lol who cares about Scrolls and Cobalt). Until then, spreading all this stuff about "fighting back" and "weapons" is just like trying to put out a fire by pouring rocket fuel on it. Sure, you'll make it go out quicker, but you'll cause a lot more damage too.
In conclusion, I quote the immortal words of Douglas Adams:

Spoiler

You have not any awareness of the purchase; it's going through now. Read financial news.

 

[NJM1564]

They changed large parts of windows 8.1 so that those that preferred either their classic style or the touch pad style could use either.

That's not learning from there mistakes that's correcting one of them. And they only did that after receiving what I'm sure is over 10,000 death threats. And it's still not as good for mouse users as Vista.

When they start producing things with out something something up in honorably huge ways then we will relax. But as someone mentioned above we only have like a 1 in 2 chance of that happening.
And we also know that they are absolutely in it for the money. Something Mojang never cared about.
So we are do a hole but load of concern.

 

[HeilMewTwo]

That's not learning from there mistakes that's correcting one of them. And they only did that after receiving what I'm sure is over 10,000 death threats. And it's still not as good for mouse users as Vista.

When they start producing things with out something something up in honorably huge ways then we will relax. But as someone mentioned above we only have like a 1 in 2 chance of that happening.
And we also know that they are absolutely in it for the money. Something Mojang never cared about.
So we are do a hole but load of concern.

If you correct a mistake, that means that you have learnt about it enough to understand what was wrong.

 

[Kezza]

First of all with out Technic? LOL Ok.
Second it's about even more than that. You do know that they also get the rights to the code of every mod that has ever bin made. It's like getting a thousand games for one price. There no telling what they could use them for. They could charge for the use of each one like they were aps.

Possibly so. What the real situation is there, I came on here to ask, in fact. And if they do claim these mods, yes they will make a fortune from them.
But I'm aware of copyright law, and from what I can see, they do not own them; only Minecraft's initial coding, not the rest. Not the ideas. Only if Mojang had paid the developers a wage, had hired them to develop the mods, then they would own the ideas. Same as a scientist working for a company; if they are paid, the company owns the discoveries. But if not, then they do not. Mod developers need to realise they have rights here.

 

[NJM1564]

If you correct a mistake, that means that you have learnt about it enough to understand what was wrong.

Yes it means that enough people have bludgeoned you over the head with what you did wrong that you finally manged to kinda sora fix it.
Not that they will not make the same mistake the next time.

And they didn't even fix it well.
There are a number of add ons to Win8 that gives the start menu back. It makes it perfectly usable to the mouse crowd. They were made within days of win8's release. It would have bin easy for them to fix it. But they didn't.

 

[McJty]

I would propose to really start worrying once we:

a) know for sure the deal goes through. As far as I know that still hasn't been officially confirmed.
b) know for sure that the plans MS has with Minecraft are bad for us and the modding community. This is also far from certain. We simply don't know what MS plans to do. So it is useless to speculate about it.

 

[NJM1564]

Possibly so. What the real situation is there, I came on here to ask, in fact. And if they do claim these mods, yes they will make a fortune from them.
But I'm aware of copyright law, and from what I can see, they do not own them; only Minecraft's initial coding, not the rest. Not the ideas. Only if Mojang had paid the developers a wage, had hired them to develop the mods, then they would own the ideas. Same as a scientist working for a company; if they are paid, the company owns the discoveries. But if not, then they do not. Mod developers need to realise they have rights here.

Nope. It was discussed when pistons were introduced. Mojand did ask for permissions to include them in the base game but clearly mentioned that they did not have to.
And the terms of services clearly state that they own any derivative code. I.E. mods. So they get the code and by extension the names of the mods. They only thing mod devs can keep there own is there art assets.

 

[HeilMewTwo]

Yes it means that enough people have bludgeoned you over the head with what you did wrong that you finally manged to kinda sora fix it.
Not that they will not make the same mistake the next time.

And they didn't even fix it well.
There are a number of add ons to Win8 that gives the start menu back. It makes it perfectly usable to the mouse crowd. They were made within days of win8's release. It would have bin easy for them to fix it. But they didn't.

That was part of what they fixed with 8.1. You can use the old start menu, also you aren't making too much sense here. Microsoft is smart, despite what some people say, it makes good business decisions and that is why it is one of the leaders of the computer industry. They know far better than you what will bring in the sales.

 

[ratchet freak]

I would propose to really start worrying once we:

a) know for sure the deal goes through. As far as I know that still hasn't been officially confirmed.
b) know for sure that the plans MS has with Minecraft are bad for us and the modding community. This is also far from certain. We simply don't know what MS plans to do. So it is useless to speculate about it.

exactly for all we know MS will create a proper modding API like Mojang has been promising for years