Don't forget the growing number of players using Minecraft Realms. That's locked down to vanilla.
Opinions on Microsoft buying Mojang
- Thread starter buggirlexpres
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Don't forget the growing number of players using Minecraft Realms. That's locked down to vanilla.
That depends on what you view as "like". Minecraft as a voxel-based mining and building (sandbox) game is actually not a new concept and there were several before it. Even on Minecraft's website it mentions being inspired by Infiniminer and others. Minecraft is also not the last.
Even if Microsoft makes writing mods for Minecraft illegal, there are still other voxel games to write mods for. For example, Minetest is a popular Open Source game and officially supports mods. Not only that, it has a very well supported mod API out of the box. I know that there is a lot at risk based on Microsoft's future decisions but there will always be alternatives. People will keep doing what they love (building mods, building, anything). They may just have to find different ways of doing it.
-Leo
I was really referring more to its incredible grass-roots popularity and the community taken as a whole (modding and otherwise) but fair enough.
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I agree with you, but that really is an apple/orange comparison. Garry's mod? Awesome. is it something you add on a la carte such as the mods in minecraft? Nope. It's an entirely different game. Same goes for the other 2. All awesome, all standalone fun on it's own. But yes, all officially supported, etc...
As you said, minecraft is unique. I totally agree with you there. But, take an example along those same lines of games and their mods. Skyrim, Fallout 3, FO3 New Vegas, etc... The mods on nexusmods are plentiful. Each is their own type of mod or take on something (like wangs in skyrim). Does bethesda take an active role policing those mods? No? Why? I point you to those aforementioned wangs. Half of their legal dept would have heart attacks thinking of that. They take the same attitude that Mojang has. See, don't touch, warn when a threshold is reached (pay to win servers), avoid backlash for fear of bad publicity, and try to walk that fine line between condoning it and administering it. If they go too far either way, they are suddenly liable for wangs all around minecraft or people making profit off of other's work, thus incurring more legal paperwork and heartache that they don't want.
A new model needs to exist that allows mod devs to make (and be paid for) mods but at the same time, is either self policing enough to let the company keep a fair distance, and be respectable enough to get that large company to back off and let the market handle it's own.
Mojang might have been that company that could do it. Microsoft. Not in a million years.
That also wouldn't take care of the obvious draw the line conclusion that any market place would end up with a bunch of ripoff mods, etc.. Thus the self policing, but then the entity itself would be a target to be sued by every disgruntled pikachu maker to try to make a buck. I don't see any way this could work out. You'd need the muscle and IP to force the hands of those pikachu mod makers but then hold liability for every wang that pops up (no pun intended).
The apple store is a very good example of "tries real hard", "had good intentions"(debatable), but, "suffers from reality". I could write paragraphs on the failure of it, but google would be your friend most likely.
tldr: wangs destroy everything and pikachu's will always sue, thus inevitability really sucks.
Yet another take on the acquisition...
http://devproconnections.com/visual...ent_issue091814 - Batch&E_ID=7768684&NLL=5308
Minecraft to draw in new developers using MS platforms?
http://devproconnections.com/visual...ent_issue091814 - Batch&E_ID=7768684&NLL=5308
Minecraft to draw in new developers using MS platforms?
Good god it just might...though I'm looking at Teratology and it seems pretty damn good right now
"I've said and written many times before that Satya Nadella, the Microsoft CEO, is “one of us”. He is a developer by trade. Since he’s the CEO, he's clearly leading this Minecraft/Mojang acquisition. I've also said and written many times before that Microsoft has to refocus its business to win back the developer. Over the last many years Microsoft has lost many of its faithful developers to other platforms—mostly the “under-30s" developers that could have been essential. Could this new move be a way to cultivate the next generation of faithful Microsoft platform developers? It’s clear that Minecraft could easily fit in with Microsoft’s vision of an Xbox-integrated and ubiquitous living room experience."
That all sounds great, but he's wrong about his last sentence, as I've already pointed out Xbox Minecraft has a border, and to say the buildable area - the "world" - is "small" is being kind. Mind you, I do not know what the new Xbox will be capable of, but I'm sorry, it's not clear at all to me that Minecraft can easily fit onto the Xbox, period. It's a PC app! Darn it!!
This is long, so I'll put it in spoiler tag so as to not wipe people's screens. People that know me know I love me some typing. I wish I was paid by the word. I'd be so rich.
Ok. To take the optimistic viewpoint on this, what WOULD be necessary to allow mod makers to be paid, etc...
Company would have to EMBRACE it. First and foremost. They would have to setup a modstore, hosted by themselves. They would have to police it. They would have to actually use or look at each mod individually. They don't necessarily have to rate each mod themselves. The community would be able to handle that. They would take in money for each mod and then pay the mod makers a percentage. (this sounds familiar)
They would be liable for every mod going in/out. They would have full ability to scrutinize and / or disallow using whatever criteria they would wish. No reasoning would be given to mod makers for rejections. Just what it would take to get it into the store. Their rejection could be moral based, litigious based, or any reason they have at the moment. It's their show. (Oh yeah, this does sound like something else).
Most likely, to avoid any complications and / or issues down the road, they would lock down Minecraft to only allow authorized mods bought through their channel. Why? To avoid legal implications. That way, if they are sued, they can show the user had gotten around their apparatus that they imposed to side load a mod or whatever. Thus, releasing themselves from any liability. Also, it funnels ALL the money to them and cuts out any other people making them the only game in town. (wait, this does sound really familiar).
To do that, they'd have to enforce some sort of draconian DRM to lock down the game from being reversed (how they would do this in java is beyond me).
Yes. It's doable. I point you towards the epitome of failed experiments, that is the apple app store as the leading example of exactly what I described.
As soon as you bring money into the picture, so much changes. This is why this craft, when done correctly, is a labor of LOVE and not greed. It's not that they don't want money. who doesn't? Money changes so much tho. It taints it with flux and bad omens and causes so much crap to insinuate into the thing itself and rots it completely.
I'd love to hear someone give an actual example of how this could work. Oh wait, there is one. Patreon, donations. That works! Make a good product. Be paid for your good will. After the fact. It inspires the people that make mods, to make good mods. To fix bugs. To not be asshats to their user base. It is self policing, but also is very very much obligatory which is it's worst trait. I have no clue how people do that make mods, how their patreon base is. how well their donations go. It's not as if they should/will release this information. It's not perfect. We can get chickenbones to hire sally struthers wandering around some creepers saying "Think of the children....." or what not. Guilting people that would never part with cash unless they have to is pretty much a worthless endeavor.
But what else could be done that hasn't been done already? I can't think of one.
Company would have to EMBRACE it. First and foremost. They would have to setup a modstore, hosted by themselves. They would have to police it. They would have to actually use or look at each mod individually. They don't necessarily have to rate each mod themselves. The community would be able to handle that. They would take in money for each mod and then pay the mod makers a percentage. (this sounds familiar)
They would be liable for every mod going in/out. They would have full ability to scrutinize and / or disallow using whatever criteria they would wish. No reasoning would be given to mod makers for rejections. Just what it would take to get it into the store. Their rejection could be moral based, litigious based, or any reason they have at the moment. It's their show. (Oh yeah, this does sound like something else).
Most likely, to avoid any complications and / or issues down the road, they would lock down Minecraft to only allow authorized mods bought through their channel. Why? To avoid legal implications. That way, if they are sued, they can show the user had gotten around their apparatus that they imposed to side load a mod or whatever. Thus, releasing themselves from any liability. Also, it funnels ALL the money to them and cuts out any other people making them the only game in town. (wait, this does sound really familiar).
To do that, they'd have to enforce some sort of draconian DRM to lock down the game from being reversed (how they would do this in java is beyond me).
Yes. It's doable. I point you towards the epitome of failed experiments, that is the apple app store as the leading example of exactly what I described.
As soon as you bring money into the picture, so much changes. This is why this craft, when done correctly, is a labor of LOVE and not greed. It's not that they don't want money. who doesn't? Money changes so much tho. It taints it with flux and bad omens and causes so much crap to insinuate into the thing itself and rots it completely.
I'd love to hear someone give an actual example of how this could work. Oh wait, there is one.
Patreon, donations. That works! Make a good product. Be paid for your good will. After the fact. It inspires the people that make mods, to make good mods. To fix bugs. To not be asshats to their user base. It is self policing, but also is very very much obligatory which is it's worst trait. I have no clue how people do that make mods, how their patreon base is. how well their donations go. It's not as if they should/will release this information. It's not perfect. We can get chickenbones to hire sally struthers wandering around some creepers saying "Think of the children....." or what not. Guilting people that would never part with cash unless they have to is pretty much a worthless endeavor. But what else could be done that hasn't been done already? I can't think of one.
It's funny. Every voxel based game has it's own performance problems, be it in Java, C++, or Lua. Makes one wonder if Minecraft is really that badly coded.
And yes, I know the code is a mess.
And yes, I know the code is a mess.
Yeah, it sure does - it sounds exactly like Xbox. Let's just hope you're wrong!
I get so frustrated, I bought a whole bunch of games (like Zen Pinball with all the great tables) on Xbox, then I sold it. On PC, I see the same exact games on Steam, but noooooo, I didn't buy them on Steam, I bought them on Xbox, so I lose. Pay again. No thanks. sigh
or piling the same lump of crap into a new lump of crap, stamping the year on it and releasing it, making everyone buy the same game with different graphics all over again. I know, that mostly happens to sports games a la EA. But, it's a determining factor on features for developers. Do we release a patch that has all this cool stuff or wait till Minecraft 2015, the creeper's revenge to put it all in? Some game makers get it. They release as updates. They're awesome. Others? Not so much. And that is genre non specific. Torchlight / Torchlight 2? Same game! They could have done a DLC pretty much (I know, there were some differences, but still). It's a balancing act to ensure people get paid, but then with all the middle men taking their cut along the way, it's what you get. Look at the sad state of the music industry. Artists not getting paid anything till they actually make it huge, then they owe their labels a huge chunk of change cause everyone's taken a cut by then, some on lay away.
I feel we are in a state of flux in that tho. There are a lot of things that are truly innovational that are showing up here and there. Fathered by the open source revolution and the internet. People's voices are being heard. Just not enough of them. I would truly hope that the community that fosters minecraft's growth is that voice that is heard and people take notice. I'm a hopeful pessimist, whatever that makes me. We are but a simple machine chassis in an Induction Smelter awaiting the cinnibar.
Here's something fun about being bought by Microsoft...
Pink slips rain down on Microsoft | Another 2,100 employees were let go on Thursday
It seems new members of the Microsoft family are the most expendable...
Pink slips rain down on Microsoft | Another 2,100 employees were let go on Thursday
It seems new members of the Microsoft family are the most expendable...
An acquisition as large as Nokia was a virtual guarantee for massive downsizing. But they've also taken the more unusual step of cutting across all divisions. Among the new cuts they shuttered their entire San Francisco-based research group working on distributed computing for the last 12 years.
In a company as large and diverse as Microsoft, different divisions and subsidiaries might as well be different countries.
We all know Ballmer had a thing for taking Apple's share of the mobile market, and that this was a.... er, unrealistic goal at best.
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I think it's a living nightmare, I have no faith in Microsoft to manage this game and not attempt to profit off everything they can. That being said, they have a very dangerous path to tread as they must be aware of the consequences should they anger the teeming legions of Minecraft players.
This speaks VOLUMES of how important open source is. An open source version of Minecraft, with some improvements from the modders, is a project that should immediately be started. I would be happy to help kickstart such a project.
This speaks VOLUMES of how important open source is. An open source version of Minecraft, with some improvements from the modders, is a project that should immediately be started. I would be happy to help kickstart such a project.
Open source alternatives already available: Minetest (only one I tried so far), Terasology, Mine Droid, Goblin Camp. I don't know about the others, but Minetest already has quite a few mods. Most game logic and mods are in Lua, but the engine is in C++. Not quite as portable as Minecraft, but officially supports mods. I think that has the best chance so far.
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