
What I know about Minecraft - jodok
https://medium.com/@nikolaj/what-i-know-about-minecraft-cd62aab4be92
======
RandallBrown
A coworker of mine was telling me a story about how his son was supposed to be
doing some homework with his friends. He walked in and saw him playing
minecraft on the xbox. My coworker was obviously mad that his son was playing
a video game instead of doing homework… until his son showed him that he was
doing homework. They were all logged in to minecraft using the blocks to solve
math problems.

That same coworker describes minecraft as an 11 year old boy's Facebook. I
think he has a great point. Minecraft is more than a game now.

~~~
davidgerard
The 7yo was ridiculously delighted to find servers you can play on, including
roleplaying on, and talk to other people!

(yes, her computer's in the lounge and we keep an eye on what she's doing)

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prawn
"I worked on a couple things for Mojang, including the relationship with LEGO,
which originally was meant to be much more encompassing had it not been for
the poor attitude of LEGO’s IP lawyers who were so counter to the culture of
Minecraft and LEGO that it ultimately killed the deal."

Wonder if Lego will come to regret that or if they're strong enough to see off
a threat in this space?

If your kids play Minecraft, have they also played Lego?

~~~
noonespecial
Just another friendly reminder that when your lawyers do whats safest for your
company from a _legal_ perspective, that's not automatically whats best for
your company from a _business_ perspective. This goes triple when it comes to
"IP".

~~~
kjs3
Just another friendly reminder that your lawyers give advice, they do not
(usually) decide. It's easy to say "kill all the lawyers" and all that, but
the reality is that for every finger wagging pack of lawyers, there's a
management team that doesn't have the stones to say "we understand the risk
and it's worth it to proceed anyway".

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MilnerRoute
I enjoyed the article, but this was the most provocative line.

"Microsoft bought Minecraft to keep its desktop Windows franchise alive."

Is this really still about desktop operating systems?

~~~
imanaccount247
I don't understand the line of thinking that went into that. How on earth is
minecraft going to save windows? It is available on windows so everyone will
suddenly throw common sense out the window and buy windows PCs for no reason?

~~~
CmonDev
Well, Minecraft involves producing content not just consuming it. So people
with enough common sense to be able to produce something will get PCs... Or
Macs. The rest will be playing Minecraft and Candy Crush Saga on their
tablets.

~~~
imanaccount247
Sure they will get PCs. They likely already have one. With an apple on it. The
notion that people will flock back to minecraft is MS makes it windows only
just doesn't seem realistic. They will be more likely to just move to a
minecraft clone that isn't windows only.

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erikb
Isn't the price tag quite sad for a product that influenced the world that
much? I think even my parents have heard about Minecraft by now.

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drivingmenuts
> Simply put, Microsoft bought Minecraft to keep its desktop Windows franchise
> alive.

If he's right, then Minecraft's support lifespan on non-Microsoft platforms
can be measured in months, not years.

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fuzzythinker
His "Games Redefine Entertainment" video is a good watch (short, 11 mins):
[http://vimeo.com/97757759](http://vimeo.com/97757759)

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CmonDev
"...did anyone ever care about how much money the founder of LEGO, Mr. Kirk,
ever made..." \- er, yes. Especially here on HN I believe.

"...I don’t even think my 12- and 8-year old sons know what Word is..." \- it
means something, right? I mean it's so common for 12- and 8- years old to be
using some sort of powerful text editor. I forgot the last time I used iOS,
it's getting obsolete and dying, right?

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sleepychu
"he consistent manner with which Markus, Jakob and Carl steered Mojang out of
the principle of doing the community right, is outright admirable."

That sentence made my brain hurt.

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Grue3
If Minecraft is worth 2.5 billion, how much is Dwarf Fortress (an all around
superior game) worth?

~~~
notacoward
Next to nothing.

First, it's not obviously superior. The learning curve, both for playing and
creating, is _much_ higher. Proponents with slight (or more than slight)
elitist tendencies might see that as a positive, but everyone else sees it as
a negative. Also, the mechanics of DF don't lend themselves as well to free-
form experimentation as Minecraft's. As a GAME with a goal etc. perhaps DF is
better, but as an ACTIVITY and particularly as a learning experience it's far
behind.

More importantly, the value of Minecraft goes well beyond the game itself.
It's also about the community, the business relationships, the approval of
educators. There's a maker place that my daughter goes to, where they offer
several very popular courses in Minecraft building and modding. There are
probably thousands of such places, and millions of individual kids talking
about Minecraft after school. Critical mass matters, and DF will never have
that.

So you enjoy DF more? Bully for you. Your enjoyment DOES NOT MATTER in terms
of valuation. "Worth" is determined directly by the purchaser, indirectly by
the market as a whole, not at all by the opinion of one person who wasn't
involved.

