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> I guess I think it's a bit of a tragedy that the most successful game since Doom was a copycat. Infiniminer is a class-based team FPS in a closed arena. The

> I guess I think it's a bit of a tragedy that the most successful game since Doom was a copycat. Infiniminer is a class-based team FPS in a closed arena. The only thing Minecraft shares with it is the block mechanic. There's a mental quirk that seems to happen with game mechanics. Do something first, you're a genius; do it for the 100th time, you're iterating on classic gameplay; but do it for the second time, and you're a thief. I don't think it has to be that way. > It's also a shame that really creative game-makers, like ToadyOne or Zach, tend to not do that well - while Notch, who basically copied an entire game, presumably having even read the source code, is now made out of money. Last I heard, Toady was making $100,000+ a year off of Dwarf Fortress donations. Zach Barth has been making games full-time since SpaceChem, cranking out successful titles once every year or two for most of the decade. Notch, meanwhile, appears to be miserable, bitter, and directionless.

pasabagi 9y ago
I think the thing is, you give Zach money, he uses it to make even better games. He's clearly had a good artist helping him out with some of his recent stuff. You give ToadyOne money, he uses it to say 'I'm gonna spend the next ten years developing the magic system'. That's because they're exceptionally creative people. Notch comes across as more of an ordinary guy - smart, sure, capable, also, but fundamentally ordinary. So while if you gave Zach Notch-level money, I'd expect him to make Zachatronics into a game studio, or if you gave ToadyOne - I can't even imagine where that would lead. On the other hand, if you give most ordinary people shitloads of cash, it just makes them directionless, and puts them in a nasty position where they don't work on other people's projects because they don't have to, but they don't enjoy working on their own, because they're fundamentally not too good on new ideas. So that's why it'd be nice when somebody who's come up with a really new idea meet some success - they'd probably have some ideas about what to do with it.
- reificator 9y ago
  See my comment at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16591278 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16591278 for why I think that's maybe not true. It's not due to the people involved or the money. I think it's the community around Minecraft.
reificator 9y ago
> Notch, meanwhile, appears to be miserable, bitter, and directionless. I don't think that's because of either the money or Notch as a persson. It's because of the incredibly toxic community that came up around such a light hearted and simple game. There's a shitload of backlash whenever he makes anything that's not Minecraft. See his space game with a programmable 6502 or his game jam games or... Put Toady or Zachtronics under the same microscope and they'll shut down too. Human beings just aren't made for that.

pasabagi 9y ago

I think the thing is, you give Zach money, he uses it to make even better games. He's clearly had a good artist helping him out with some of his recent stuff. You give ToadyOne money, he uses it to say 'I'm gonna spend the next ten years developing the magic system'. That's because they're exceptionally creative people. Notch comes across as more of an ordinary guy - smart, sure, capable, also, but fundamentally ordinary. So while if you gave Zach Notch-level money, I'd expect him to make Zachatronics into a game studio, or if you gave ToadyOne - I can't even imagine where that would lead. On the other hand, if you give most ordinary people shitloads of cash, it just makes them directionless, and puts them in a nasty position where they don't work on other people's projects because they don't have to, but they don't enjoy working on their own, because they're fundamentally not too good on new ideas. So that's why it'd be nice when somebody who's come up with a really new idea meet some success - they'd probably have some ideas about what to do with it.

reificator 9y ago
See my comment at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16591278 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16591278 for why I think that's maybe not true. It's not due to the people involved or the money. I think it's the community around Minecraft.

reificator 9y ago

> Notch, meanwhile, appears to be miserable, bitter, and directionless. I don't think that's because of either the money or Notch as a persson. It's because of the incredibly toxic community that came up around such a light hearted and simple game. There's a shitload of backlash whenever he makes anything that's not Minecraft. See his space game with a programmable 6502 or his game jam games or... Put Toady or Zachtronics under the same microscope and they'll shut down too. Human beings just aren't made for that.