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Microsoft doesn't have anything to do with Mojang's new textures.

But yeah, why are we being given textures that no one asked for? Glass STILL doesn't tile properly.

At least supposedly ghost blocks should be fixed in 1.13...

> Minecraft (win 10)

*facepalm*

You are doing it wrong.

Play the Java version which is free of all that bullshit.

and as soon as you factor in the higher cost for games it melts away anyway.

What higher cost? did you just time travel in from 1995? While there WAS a price differential at one time, there isn't one NOW. Things change.

Project Cars 2 $59.99 on both PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Factotum 90 $5.99 on both PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Rocket League $19.99 on both PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

The Bard's Tale (resnarked version) $9.99 on both PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Rebel Galaxy, $19.99 on both PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Final Fantasy IX remaster $20.99 on both PSN and Steam

https://store.playstation.com/...

http://store.steampowered.com/...

Minecraft PS4: $19.95
https://store.playstation.com/...

Minecraft PC (Java edition) $26.95
https://minecraft.net/en-us/

is it?

https://minecraft.net/download

Minecraft for Windows
Download and run Minecraft.msi. This will install Minecraft and create a shortcut in your start menu. If you'd like a version without an installer, you may use Minecraft.exe instead. You do not need Java installed to run either of these.

I don't know where you got your Minecraft, but my copy cost 19.95€.

Apparently, you've never heard of this little game called Mincraft.

Yes, but how much more would it make if all those private servers were monetized?

No doubt Microsoft won't be able to resist the urge to find out.

They already know - Minecraft offers paid servers - Minecraft Realms. If you don't want the time/hassle of doing your own maintenance, throw them a few bucks a month and they set up a server for you.

how is mojang worth 2 billion? they are a one trick pony.

3 trick

minecraft
scrolls
and cobalt

Yes, actually.

Here's how it works. Anyone can download Minecraft and play single player. Also, anyone can download and set up a server. If you change a single option, your server will allow anyone (not just people who bought the game) to connect. If you leave it as-is, your server will only allow people who have purchased to connect. What Mojang provides is a centralized authentication service, and if you (the player) want to use their service, you need to pay a 1 time fee of about $20. There are other authentication services out there, but they aren't as easy to set up and use.

Mechanically, there is nothing to prevent you from downloading the Minecraft server right now, setting "online-mode" to false, and allowing anyone to connect without needing to purchase Minecraft. Mojang also allows you to invite other people into a single player world. To me, that's DRM free.

Now, most server owners opt to support Mojang (and make life easier for themselves) by leaving "online-mode" the way it is. And, if Mojang has an issue with their authentication servers, then any server that authenticates with them can't authenticate. This happens from time to time, but unlike EA, Mojang has done a really good job of scaling their system up as the load increases. The downtimes in the past year have been brief (less than an hour in most cases), and I can switch off authentication for those periods of time. It's been solid for a long time now, I honestly can't remember when the last downtime was. And, for having over 9,725,000 users, that's pretty good in my book.

Sure, you can't just plug and chug with everything disconnected and non-authenticated, but it's literally as easy as changing a value in the main server config file from "true" to "false". Or hitting the "Open to LAN" button if you just want to play on LAN with some buddies.

Source: 3+ years of being a Minecraft server admin.

If lots of people who are not you bought them, it wouldn't be an "indie" studio, would it?

Minecraft is a good example of indie game. It has no editor, the game is not sold on the physical retail market. It only sold 9,531,112 copies.

There are many applications and utilities written in Java that are quite far from useless, and which are not web-based applications. The website Java.net alone has an enormous number of open source ones. I've personally played around with Klooge Werks, a virtual gaming table for RPG's, which is written entirely in Java. Minecraft was originally developed in Java. A large percentage of IBM's Watson is written in Java.. And of course, Eclipse is mostly written in Java, which is the most widely used development environment for Android

Mindcraft has the old time Lego feel with a new toys and you never run out of blocks! Fir more info take a look at this Wiki

Pssst don't tell any one we do not want to lose the privilege, but down load the game, and when it asks for a login, unplug your rj45 and It will let you try the game. If you like it PLEASE pay the one time fee for unlimited play. Since unplugging the net ( wait I am being shot at, a sec... ) everytime you want to play is a bother.

Was it for punching foes, or was it for punching the ground?

Neither! It was for punching trees!

Yes - I know I could google these but seriously WTF - TFA reads like some circle jerk post in 4 chan that you need years of inside knowledge just to understand.

I don't think you read either the summary or the fucking article. The very first thing I wrote in the summary establishes who Notch is. The article talks about all the above -- no reason to Google, just click on the links I embedded in the summary.

Everybody on Earth is sick and tired of the spam, spam, spam, spam, spam and constant vaporware hype about "we're gonna bring Steam to Linux aaaaaaany second now! Aren't you excited?" No. No, I'm not. In fact I wouldn't play a Valve game at gunpoint now.

Linux gamers, heard of minecraft yet? Notch knows how to do Linux gaming right. Released a Beta for Linux before even opening his mouth about it. Lets genuine fans do the hype for him. Never spams. Updates several times per year with new features and goodies. Now up to 1.3.1. Notch is the Santa Claus of Linux gaming, as opposed to Valve, which is the Krampus.

Commodities like food and transportation has already reached its base point - they are sold at just barely above material cost - sometimes below when subsidized by outside sources such as the government. The profit margin is miniscule, which is part of why food costs the same and farmers are making such piss-poor money compared to 10 years ago, and why auto makers are constantly getting bailed out.

If the video game industry charged just over cost of programmer time, API licensing, and distribution costs, we'd be left with a $10 game, online distro only. Hm, it's almost like it has been done before.

In an open source community where you don't usually pay the devs and digital distribution is free, you can theoretically create full commercial products for free. Look at OpenOffice. Do you think they're making money like Microsoft? Of course not.

The amazing thing is that people still write new desktop apps in Java...

You mean like these guys?

It's not exactly robotics, but for about $20, my kid is learning a lot about electronics Minecraft through building redstone circuits:
http://www.minecraft.net/
http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Redstone_Circuits
"Redstone circuitry is a feature introduced in Alpha which allows for intricate Redstone wire based mechanisms to be created by players. Redstone circuitry is similar to digital electronics (based on boolean algebra) in real life. t's also possible to use pistons in redstone circuits. "

You can even build stuff like elevators and music players.

Warning: Minecraft can be pretty addictive-seeming. Be sure to get your vitamin D, maybe get a treadmill workstation, and take regular breaks...
http://www.changemakers.com/discussions/discussion-493#comment-38823

"See! My laptop that I play Minecraft on runs Windows, not Java!"

Why? Minecraft is great, reasonably priced,cross-platform, and will eventually be open sourced. Check this out:

http://www.minecraft.net/game

The future

I plan on developing Minecraft until it's a finished complete game, with a downloadable client (with fullscreen mode), custom key re mappings and possibly modding support.

For as long as people enjoy and purchase the game, I will develop extensions after the game is done.

Once sales start dying and a minimum time has passed, I will release the game source code as some kind of open source. I'm not very happy with the draconian nature of (L)GPL, nor do I believe the other licenses have much merit other than to boost the egos of the original authors, so I might just possibly release it all as public domain.

Whether or not Notch follows through with releasing it under an open source license remains to be seen, but even if he doesn't the game is a good buy. :)

Of the Infiniminer clones, Minetest fills a niches Minecraft currently does not:
1) A learning project for the developer (not much Minecraft can do about this).
2) Open Source (Minetest is open source now. Even though Minecraft will supposedly be open sourced it is likely several years down the line)
3) Substantially better System Requirements compared to Minecraft (Minecraft has to use fog to prevent rendering too many cubes whereas Minetest can render all cubes in line of site above 30fps when taking a birds eye view of the map http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=40468. Also it can run on ancient P4 era hardware whereas Minecraft is completely unplayable).

Why? Minecraft is great, reasonably priced,cross-platform, and will eventually be open sourced. Check this out:

http://www.minecraft.net/game

The future

I plan on developing Minecraft until it's a finished complete game, with a downloadable client (with fullscreen mode), custom key re mappings and possibly modding support.

For as long as people enjoy and purchase the game, I will develop extensions after the game is done.

Once sales start dying and a minimum time has passed, I will release the game source code as some kind of open source. I'm not very happy with the draconian nature of (L)GPL, nor do I believe the other licenses have much merit other than to boost the egos of the original authors, so I might just possibly release it all as public domain.

Whether or not Notch follows through with releasing it under an open source license remains to be seen, but even if he doesn't the game is a good buy. :)

Why stop there? 14.6 million users is also nothing to sneeze at.

"There are no games which are not violent."

http://familypastimes.com/
"Family Pastimes games are the inventions of Jim Deacove. Jim started making co-operative games for his own family, and was encouraged by friends to make more. The Deacove family was and is no different from others. Sharing toys, helping mom and dad and being kind to others are values taught in all homes. To find games which help reinforce such sharing attitudes, however, is very difficult. Thus, Jim and Ruth felt the need to create some."

Also:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1713701812/co-opoly-the-game-of-cooperatives/posts/105473

And:
http://www.share-international.org/archives/cooperation/i_cooperation.htm
http://www.share-international.org/archives/cooperation/co_nocontest.htm
"Kohn argues that the 'sacred cow' of competition stands on four mythological legs."

But yes, alternatives to competitive games in the USA can be much harder to find.

My wife and I invested over six-person years trying to create non-violent video game alternatives in the 1990s when everyone was saying how important that was, and mostly all we got for that ourselves was having to spend many years working for others to pay off debt.
http://www.gardenwithinsight.com/
http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/nsfprop.htm

Still, Minecraft is a new popular mostly cooperative game that I can recommend if you want one (although get your vitamin D from supplements if you spend a lot of time indoors playing it):
http://www.minecraft.net/

I would have been very proud to have made something that good and also that popular which created a huge cooperating user community. I have immense respect for Mojang AB in that sense.

I got all excited seeing the title, thinking this was going to be something about space exploration and Redstone rockets or something of this nature. Turns out, it's about a freakin cellphone game.... what a gyp

Actually, it's a PC game. There isn't a cellphone client, yet.

Maybe a little research before making an idiot of yourself would be worthwhile.

Heck, maybe you should play the game and see what the fuss is about. It's free to play classic, and I'll bet you your lunch money that you can waste an entire lunch break just playing around with it.

To see some of the incredible things some people have done, just hit youtube and search for minecraft. There's everything from single-digit calculators to full 8-bit computer implementations.

You are too easily dismissive of things that do not fit your mold.

Disclaimer: I don't play MineCraft, mostly because paying 20 euros for a beta does not fit my budgeting needs.

I run an SMP server on Debian and I've never had the issues you discuss... i did modify a script to download the latest version, diff the jars and update if needed. That's it though. It's just me and a friend that play, but I'm going on two weeks now without a hiccup. The only reason I've shut it down was to update the command line options to play with different values for performance.

There's nothing spectacular in the command line options I use...
java -Xmx3072M -Xms3072M -XX:+AggressiveOpts -XX:ParallelGCThreads=2 -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui

And Notch really has no incentive to finish the game anymore.

I wonder about this. According to the Minecraft stats, there have been 2,507,617 purchases made for the game. Even assuming a 10 euro average price (I'm not sure how the price has increased over time), that's over 25 million euros he's already made -- and it's probably a bit more than that. The guy is rolling in money, and unless developing Minecraft is something he really enjoys, I don't see any real motivation for him to continue much longer.

No. Minecraft is a completely different game. See http://www.minecraft.net/

-- hendrik

He is a terrible programmer.

He doesn't use Java NIO; instead, he uses threads. Wanna guess how many threads he spawns on startup? How about how many threads he spawns per connected player? (Answer: 12 and 4.)

His wire protocol and disk format are horrible. No delimiters, no seekability, no fixed packet sizes. He invented his own little standards and they are horrible. http://www.minecraft.net/docs/NBT.txt is the disk format; before that, he just serialized the Java classes directly to disk. (And to wire; one of the Alpha wire packets was just a chunk of the disk format!)

His grasp of GL is embarrassingly awful. He pridefully boasts GL 1.1 compatibility, but the fact is that he uses no features or extensions from GL 1.2 or later, including shaders, dynamic lighting, or vertex buffer objects. All of the drawing is done in slow display lists, and the lighting is done through a statically stored light map. (This might not set off alarm bells if you haven't done GL before. Trust me when I say that this is horribly slow.)

I wouldn't mind if it weren't for the fact that he has charged for alpha-quality software, as part of an open alpha test.

VM: OpenJDK Server VM

http://www.minecraft.net/download.jsp -->

Also, please make sure you're running the Sun JVM...

I know it's not clearly explained but the Sun version is required.

Minecraft

My gaming days go back to the Atari console, but for years now I've spent more time reading about games than actually playing them. Minecraft grabbed my attention recently, however, and I've played it more than any other game in the last decade. The appeal lies in its open-ended nature (it's the first game to bring back the feeling I had whilst playing Elite as a teenager) and in the beauty of the landscapes it can create. It also scratches the same itch that Lego does, by giving you a few basic blocks with which to build whatever your imagination can conjure up (castles in the air quite often). It's only in alpha now, but multiplayer support is beginning to take real shape and every update brings new goodies.

Dwarf Fortress. http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/

Allow me to introduce the bastard offspring, Minecraft. It's highly addicting, and (in single-player) quite challenging. The game's still in Alpha, but boy is it exciting. Adding a 3D environment and positional sound makes for a game that keeps you on edge. With the updates on the way, it'll be even more dangerous without being tedious.

You sound stressed. You should try playing this game I found. It's very relaxing.

Minecraft seems to be doing "fine", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qss4uy6C_g0

Try again. The 60k is from 600k euros, the money Notch generated since he last emptied the PayPal account (once a week every week according to Twitter). Therefore, it really is 60k in two weeks. http://minecraft.net/stats.jsp Statistics 1924 players online, in 785 servers. 599984 registered users, of which 133295 (22.21%) have bought the game. In the last 24 hours, 11833 people registered, and 4485 people bought the game.

http://www.minecraft.net/

74290 purchases.

Huurrrrr.

Unfortunately this does seem to be the case in the market the AAA companies are going for. It's getting a little less true overall, though. An "MMO" with hilariously ancient voxel graphics made by one guy has racked up about $1m in sales, because the super-simple, low-overhead, and low-programmer-hassle graphics free him up to do interesting things with the gameplay.

These do seem to be "alternative" games, though--- I can't imagine the mainstream game-review mags giving such a game a glowing review.