
Minecraftly: Inspire kids to learn computing via Minecraft - viet_nguyen
https://m.ly
======
shirro
Got two kids and their mum been playing MCPE all day on mobile devices. I can
hear her yelling instructions to her army of builders/warriors as I write. I
put together a VPS instance with PocketMine (followed by ImagicalMine, a fork)
for them but with no mob ai and lots of other problems it didn't hold their
interest compared with playing on the local network.

It is a pity that the mobile version isn't more open so third party servers
can support it. The family might enjoy something like this but I would never
get them lugging a laptop around and driving minecraft with a mouse and
keyboard.

~~~
viet_nguyen
Yes, it's a shame that Minecraft's mobile version isn't aligned with Minecraft
PC version, while Minecraft PC is better and more popular for online gaming.

If you are to setup an online platform for your family, it's best to setup a
PC version. It's just more enjoyable for now.

P/S: I do hope that MCPE is one day aligned and compatible with PC. For sure
it won't be the other way around.

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bottled_poe
The "learning" element seems very loosely connected to the product. Call it
what it is - a scalable minecraft server.

~~~
viet_nguyen
I know. I haven't opened source it for long, it's just been 2 weeks now. For
the past few years, I hired developers to help me make the prototype. As of
right now, I feel that it's better to donate the work to the public, and write
content, create videos showing people why it's designed like that via
Minecraft.

The purpose is via this platform, kids can learn conciously or subconciously,
so that in the future they can remember that a game with this kind of
architecture exists, and build something more scalable, better in the future.

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Zombieball
My nephew was quite into minecraft for a while. I ended up setting up an EC2
based server for him.

To avoid crazy costs I setup a bit of infrastructure: I managed to pipe the
active / logged in user count of the minecraft server to cloudwatch: 30 mins
of server in-activity and I had the server shutdown (to avoid paying for it to
run 24x7). Additionally I setup a webpage that he could login to (only used
basic auth to be honest) and click a "start server" button. This sent the ec2
start instance command to AWS. Granted he didn't have instant play
capabilities (had to wait for server boot up) but the costs were quite low.

I personally installed any mods or plugins he wanted.

I'd highly recommend rolling your own setup like this to anyone interested :)

~~~
lifeisstillgood
My son is just starting down this road - and I have no idea what plugins for
minecraft are. If you could put up a blogpost or pointers on this Inwoukd be
very grateful

~~~
viet_nguyen
Sure, I will do that!

The reason I created this is to:

1\. Tackle my challenge of scalability.

2\. I love Minecraft and have seen it being non-scalable for a long time,
without people doing anything about it.

3\. I want to remove the hassle of you having to setup your own server, with
all the installation, and plugins, etc.. Maybe you and your family can just
hop in and play, and things will be kept for as long as Minecraft is alive.

4\. The already setup version of Minecraftly has a disadvantage that it is
limited in terms of plugins. I only choose cosmetics, fun plugins to install
in this project, so actually you can't choose plugins, unless you use the open
source code and host it by yourself. It's a little like Wordpress.com's add-
ons vs wordpress.org self hosted version

That is how I view it. :)

~~~
lifeisstillgood
Please shout when you have got a draft :-)

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nightcracker
[https://s.m.ly/](https://s.m.ly/)

Garbage p2w microtransactions. Seems like they even sell access to the
nether/end, core parts of the game.

So nothing to see here, move along, another minecraft server host looking to
exploit kids with access to their parents' credit cards.

~~~
viet_nguyen
Minecraftly is open source and going to be transformed to a non-profit
organization soon, but I still have operational costs to run the service.

In fact, I am further from a p2w model, as there are only cosmetic items and
boosters in the store.

It took me years to build the first scalable architecture, after many
mistakes, but at least I got a working version, and want to donate all the
software and ongoing work to the public.

~~~
nightcracker
Either you're misadvertising what you're selling in the store, or you're flat
out lying. Allow me to list some things you're selling (all from
[https://s.m.ly/](https://s.m.ly/)):

\- Access to Nether and The End worlds.

\- Higher jobs xp and income!

\- Buy Lifetime VIP rank and get an extra Treasure Trove, and Dreaded Warrior
crates for free! (Dreaded Warrior gives you 300 crates that drop enchanted
diamond armors, weapons and tools. Gain a chance to win God armors, weapons
and tools with full maximum enchantments.)

\- Get 850 crates that drop enchanted diamond armors, weapons and tools.

\- Get $36,000 in game money.

All seem pay 2 win to me. On top of that you're selling stupidly basic
functionality that shouldn't be for sale:

\- Mute, kick, and ban other players from your server (and many other admin
commands) at (username).m.ly

The fact that you're open source is irrelevant. I don't care how your service
is implemented, I have issue with your business model and target demographic.

Your intentions are also irrelevant, the road to hell is paved with good
intentions. Actions speak louder than words.

~~~
viet_nguyen
There is no winning in Minecraftly.

I have every intention to make the value added service non pay2win, and if
users are not happy about it, I have every intention to change it to fit what
users want, paid or not. So far, people are happy with what I provide.

There is nothing like god mode, PVP boost, etc.. in here.

If you are truly unhappy with a certain part, I will take it into
consideration. If you are really just here to hate, I can't help, because
companies like Miniclips provide games with the same store system for almost 2
decades.

~~~
nightcracker
> There is no winning in Minecraftly.

Let's not try to define away issues. You are selling items for in-game
advantages that aren't just cosmetic (e.g. you take less damage and die less
often with diamond armour, which is something you sell and is rare otherwise).
That is called pay2win.

> I have every intention to make the value added service non pay2win, and if
> users are not happy about it, I have every intention to change it to fit
> what users want, paid or not. So far, people are happy with what I provide.

I mentioned in my last post that I consider intentions are irrelevant.

> There is nothing like god mode, PVP boost, etc.. in here.

That is not necessary to be classified pay2win, at least in my book.

> If you are really just here to hate, I can't help, because companies like
> Miniclips provide games with the same store system for almost 2 decades.

And I also take issue with them. And I'm not just here to hate, I'm just
voicing my criticism on what I believe to be a morally bankrupt business model
targeting vulnerable children.

~~~
viet_nguyen
I understand now. Your definition of pay2win is different from the nature of
Minecraft.

It's okay. I'm new here and I won't argue with you.

But you can't disregard my intention, because of it I constantly improve what
I do.

If it is action you want. My actions were that I built something that I
thought was cool for myself, donated it to the public, and continued to
contribute with the vision that the right people will benefit from it. Simple
as that.

While I hustle everyday to share the vision with people, provide children with
a gaming platform, and parents with something they don't need to setup for
their kids, get feedback and improve upon it, YOU are using children to attack
me and the value of what I created passionately for people. That's a disgrace.

I heard your opinion but that's it. You can continue to protest all you like.
I will continue doing what I think is best for the Minecraft community.

~~~
imtringued
>Your definition of pay2win is different from the nature of Minecraft.

This is a weak argument because there is no winning condition in pretty much
every pay2win MMORPG. Pay2Win is not about winning. It's about getting an
advantage versus nonpaying players.

You're selling ingame currencies and crates with a random chance of getting
items in exchange for real money.

By the way what pay2win actually means is a redherring. The point is that this
is an unethical business model that I don't want to support.

~~~
wtbob
> The point is that this is an unethical business model that I don't want to
> support.

How the heck is it unethical to sell in-game items to make real-world profit?
It's simply _not_.

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lewisflude
Haven't Mojang added restrictions on people being able to charge real money
for in-game items? Would be interesting to know how Minecraftly gets around
it.

~~~
viet_nguyen
I don't get around it, I respect Mojang and abide by their terms, the
subscription is only for cosmetic items.

Think of Minecraftly open source as wordpress.org, and Minecraftly demo server
as wordpress.com, so at least there is donor engagement from people who are
interested.

The only thing I don't like about Mojang is how they design Minecraft Realms
architecture. It's proprietary and too complicated. I want to build something
simplier, more scalable, with better player's freedom in cross-server
interaction, and is supported for years to come.

~~~
Pungea
How is "a chance to win God armors, weapons and tools with full maximum
enchantments" only cosmetic? That's found at
[https://s.m.ly/category/305898](https://s.m.ly/category/305898) along with
other stuff that seems to be pay2win.

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brudgers
This might make a good "Show HN" (guidelines:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html))

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bmon
That domain must be worth a fortune.

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wtbob
What a fascinating idea. Looks pretty cool — if I ever get back into vanilla
Minecraft I'll give it a shot (I've been 100% modpacks for a few years now).
Any plans to support some of the more popular modpacks? I can imagine that the
server costs for that could get brutal though.

These days I'm thinking of getting into minetest
([http://www.minetest.net/](http://www.minetest.net/)), but the mod scene is
pretty primitive there.

~~~
asiekierka
The Minetest API is itself a bit more primitive, as it's server-side-only Lua
scripting as opposed to essentially hacking the whole game engine inside out
with zero security involved.

As for modpacks, they add a lot of RAM usage especially to the whole thing.
Minecraft 1.9 also made it possible (theoretically, that is it's possible in
the code and probably used by Realms) to run multiple servers in the same
Minecraft server instance, saving a lot of overhead on the block definitions,
classes, JVMs, etc.

~~~
Pungea
Where did you learn that Minecraft 1.9 allows for multiple servers in one
instance?

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cheez
Who is paying for this???

~~~
ryandvm
I wondered the same thing since TANSTAAFL. Looks like there's a "store"
selling various in-game perks: [https://s.m.ly/](https://s.m.ly/)

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bossx
Great idea, would be nice to explain how pricing and teleportation between
servers works on the landing page.

~~~
viet_nguyen
Sure. I will draw that and explain on the landing page this week.

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biot
Odd feature matrix. The free version has all the benefits; the paid version
has all the limitations.

edit: Oops, that's the second time I've glossed over a site and mistaken a
company's competitive analysis for a multi-tier pricing plan.

~~~
NegativeLatency
I think the "paid version" you saw is actually a competitor.

