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Im honestly chocked that people react so negatively to this piece. Yes, the author expresses many negative and self centered emotions. He is very clear about th

Im honestly chocked that people react so negatively to this piece. Yes, the author expresses many negative and self centered emotions. He is very clear about that. It is part of the story. It is a story about being a flawed person. I sympathize with him. I loved this piece. I hope he truly did let go of all the hangups he described. And it does seem that he actually did sell the the rights of use to microsoft, making this whole text a weird misunderstanding. But that does not mean that the text is bad, or boring, or uninteresting. Rather the opposite.

dheavy 4y ago
My thoughts exactly!
Tossrock 4y ago
I think most of them didn't actually read it and instead skimmed a few paragraphs, saw "$20,000", and rushed back to comment.
- wikfwikf 4y ago
  I read the whole thing. It was somewhat overwritten. Not my favorite ever post-hallucinogen-trip essay. I agree with other commenters that the author is greedy and petty. He accepted €20,000 for his work, a decent amount. Then he decided that he should make way more money because the game was successful. Then he tried to take advantage of the fact that he hadn't signed a contract, even though he had obviously accepted the terms when he accepted the money. He behaved shittily by not honoring an informal contract. He tried to paint it as some huge company legal dept vs little guy thing based on the fact that it's now Microsoft and yes, work for hire contracts drafted by corporate lawyers do look evil. But he had already reneged on his handshake agreement, after spending the 20K, even before big companies or professional lawyers were involved. Now he's trying to parlay his brush with fame into Substack subscriptions. Good luck to him.
  - mcv 4y ago
    I read almost the whole thing but stopped before the End Poem, because I still haven't defeated the Ender Dragon. I admit I'm not really trying, but might still do so at some point.
    - zimpenfish 4y ago
      > I admit I'm not really trying, but might still do so at some point. It's kinda worth it to get access to elytra and shulker boxes but they do tend to make you a bit OP. Then again to make sensible use of elytra you need a gunpowder farm and once you're building farms like that, you're already on the way to domination...
      - yreg 4y ago
        By the time Minecraft 1.0 came out, modded Minecraft was the only Minecraft for me. One of the first objectives was always getting something like an Elytra, since it makes the game more pleasant imo. https://ftb.fandom.com/wiki/Hang_Glider https://ftb.fandom.com/wiki/Hang_Glider Despite clocking hundreds upon hundreds of hours in the game, I too have yet to defeat the dragon.
  - Jarwain 4y ago
    Did he not honor the informal agreement? To me the agreement sounds like they bought the right to use the story as the ending to the game. They didn't agree on signing over the rights to the story, and he said if he knew that would have been part of the deal he wouldn't have agreed. He was caught by surprise when he found that language in the contract. Sure he was negligent in not following up when the contract didn't match his expectations, but so was Mojang for not ensuring the contract was signed before using his work.
  - dwild 4y ago
    > He behaved shittily by not honoring an informal contract. Did he not honor the informal contract? What did he not honor? If anything, Carl didn't honor the informal contract, he was the one saying Minecraft would promote his work, and no a name in a tiny credit is not doing that... but I'm feeling generous as let's be honest that's a bullshit clause that corporation always try to use that line without meaning much so it's to be expected. Julian said he was never giving all its rights away. That was part of the informal contract. That's the thing that made him not sign it.
cmeacham98 4y ago
My biggest problem with the post is the massive ego the author seems to have about the impact and importance of their writing. To be frank, the author made little to no meaningful contributions to Minecraft's success. The author is so self-centered they belittle the contributions of other Mojang employees and seem to genuinely believe their contribution is on the same level as people like Jeb and C418. They literally describe the End Poem as a quote "Priceless Gift".
- robertlagrant 4y ago
  Indeed. The game would've made $0 less had the ending just said "The End".
  - orlp 4y ago
    I've never even looked at the poem and have beaten Minecraft many times. I'm probably not the target audience though, I generally skip quest text in games.
    - pbhjpbhj 4y ago
      You should read it. IMO it transforms Minecraft from being just an ordinary game experience into being art, it makes the context of what you've been doing, in playing Minecraft, into something like folklore. Late at night, having defeated the Ender dragon, having spent months in the game, it turns that moment into an almost spiritual experience.
      - tokai 4y ago
        I thought it is way too much, and not at all in line with the feeling of mc. Cringe is the word the youngsters use AFAIR.
        mrguyorama 4y ago
        I was 14 and it brought the silly little block building game where I farmed trees and made dirt houses and turned it into a meaningful story, something that made me think, something that moved me.
bowsamic 4y ago
Why would you think it's socially acceptable to be a flawed person? Flaws aren't something we excuse just because people express them. Expressing them doesn't absolve you of them. They are still there, as flaws, and therefore people react to them as flaws.
- Karellen 4y ago
  Do you have no flaws?
  - bowsamic 4y ago
    Of course I do, but I don't expect people to excuse me of them or ignore them, just because I say them. The OP isn't expecting that, but other people in this thread are expecting it on his behalf. I don't even think the OP wants people to excuse his flaws, like people in this thread seem to want to insist on doing.
    - croo 4y ago
      This is called "empathy".
      - bowsamic 4y ago
        TheCapn 4y ago
        I think that mindset is incredibly flawed and toxic to a healthy society? Who is to say who is right here?
        bowsamic 4y ago
        Me. I’m right, because I’m at the centre of the Totality of Reality
        4y ago
disruptiveink 4y ago
He had multiple opportunities to get his agent (and he had one the whole time, which he mentioned early in the story) do the grown up talk for him, and he passed it up every single time. Every time, it's excuse after excuse about why he either sent nonsensical emails when trying to talk to people about compensation or just stayed silent while resenting Mojang for not actively coming after him and shower him with millions out of nowhere. Honestly very little sympathy from me. I would be beyond pissed if I was trying to close a deal with someone who kept sending me novels over email instead.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Karawebnetwork 4y ago
> Im honestly chocked that people react so negatively to this piece. I say this with all the love in the world: it's hard for engineers to think like artists and vice-versa.
- ngc248 4y ago
  Things are not so black and white. It's not that engineers can't appreciate art. The people commenting are saying that the payment was according to what was agreed and the artist's seller remorse is unwarranted. Thats all they are saying. It has nothing to do with art appreciation etc.
  - Karawebnetwork 4y ago
    To avoid repeating the same comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33909117 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33909117 I went more in depth here about my perception.
jrochkind1 4y ago
Agreed. This whole comment thread is making me feel more negative about HN than I have before.
- TheCapn 4y ago
  I'm actually kind of shocked at the majority reaction here. I can relate in many ways to the author and can feel his struggle through the story. I empathize even though I can see where the mistakes were made. I figure we just have a lot of Carls in here. There's always been a very business-oriented culture here: people are looking for success in their careers and monetary success is a big part of it. Contracts and IP are big parts of the business brain and I think people just struggle to see things from a different perspective. All I can say is I'm very appreciative for the author to share the perspective. He says it clearly, there aren't any bad guys there and I think so many people in this forum want there to be one.
  - jrochkind1 4y ago
    It's actually pretty hilarious when you put it like that. Oh, you are insisting there are no bad guys and you refuse to make a bad guy? OK, then YOU are the bad guy! For... having feelings. Bad feelings you should feel ashamed for having. Or at least keep them to yourself for god's sake! Teach you to have feelings but still decide there are no bad guys! There's ALWAYS a bad guy if there are Feelings! But yeah I'm shocked too, not what I would have expected from an HN comment thread. Maybe if he had been a coder instead of an author? I mean, HN threads reliably are on the side of coders who release their code open source but then have that code used by someone else to make billions, thinking they have the right to be mad and deserve a cut despite literally putting an open source license on it saying otherwise! (which this guy didn't do... until now) I really don't know what's going on. Are people actually not mad that this guy was (at points in his life) upset he didn't get a cut, but actually mad that he released his thing CC0 in the end instead of trying to get a cut? Because he didn't do a good enough job of getting a cut, and has only himself to blame for that, and should be blamed for it? But I don't want to assume people mean something different than what they say, when they say they are actually mad at him for having the temerity to have feelings about not getting a cut. I'm just bewildered.
mistermann 4y ago
I think there's something beautiful about the combination of the content of the post and the content of this comment section. It seems almost too perfect.
jacobsenscott 4y ago

dheavy 4y ago

My thoughts exactly!

Tossrock 4y ago

I think most of them didn't actually read it and instead skimmed a few paragraphs, saw "$20,000", and rushed back to comment.

wikfwikf 4y ago
I read the whole thing. It was somewhat overwritten. Not my favorite ever post-hallucinogen-trip essay. I agree with other commenters that the author is greedy and petty. He accepted €20,000 for his work, a decent amount. Then he decided that he should make way more money because the game was successful. Then he tried to take advantage of the fact that he hadn't signed a contract, even though he had obviously accepted the terms when he accepted the money. He behaved shittily by not honoring an informal contract. He tried to paint it as some huge company legal dept vs little guy thing based on the fact that it's now Microsoft and yes, work for hire contracts drafted by corporate lawyers do look evil. But he had already reneged on his handshake agreement, after spending the 20K, even before big companies or professional lawyers were involved. Now he's trying to parlay his brush with fame into Substack subscriptions. Good luck to him.
- mcv 4y ago
  I read almost the whole thing but stopped before the End Poem, because I still haven't defeated the Ender Dragon. I admit I'm not really trying, but might still do so at some point.
  - zimpenfish 4y ago
    > I admit I'm not really trying, but might still do so at some point. It's kinda worth it to get access to elytra and shulker boxes but they do tend to make you a bit OP. Then again to make sensible use of elytra you need a gunpowder farm and once you're building farms like that, you're already on the way to domination...
    - yreg 4y ago
      By the time Minecraft 1.0 came out, modded Minecraft was the only Minecraft for me. One of the first objectives was always getting something like an Elytra, since it makes the game more pleasant imo. https://ftb.fandom.com/wiki/Hang_Glider https://ftb.fandom.com/wiki/Hang_Glider Despite clocking hundreds upon hundreds of hours in the game, I too have yet to defeat the dragon.
- Jarwain 4y ago
  Did he not honor the informal agreement? To me the agreement sounds like they bought the right to use the story as the ending to the game. They didn't agree on signing over the rights to the story, and he said if he knew that would have been part of the deal he wouldn't have agreed. He was caught by surprise when he found that language in the contract. Sure he was negligent in not following up when the contract didn't match his expectations, but so was Mojang for not ensuring the contract was signed before using his work.
- dwild 4y ago
  > He behaved shittily by not honoring an informal contract. Did he not honor the informal contract? What did he not honor? If anything, Carl didn't honor the informal contract, he was the one saying Minecraft would promote his work, and no a name in a tiny credit is not doing that... but I'm feeling generous as let's be honest that's a bullshit clause that corporation always try to use that line without meaning much so it's to be expected. Julian said he was never giving all its rights away. That was part of the informal contract. That's the thing that made him not sign it.

cmeacham98 4y ago

My biggest problem with the post is the massive ego the author seems to have about the impact and importance of their writing. To be frank, the author made little to no meaningful contributions to Minecraft's success. The author is so self-centered they belittle the contributions of other Mojang employees and seem to genuinely believe their contribution is on the same level as people like Jeb and C418. They literally describe the End Poem as a quote "Priceless Gift".

robertlagrant 4y ago
Indeed. The game would've made $0 less had the ending just said "The End".
- orlp 4y ago
  I've never even looked at the poem and have beaten Minecraft many times. I'm probably not the target audience though, I generally skip quest text in games.
  - pbhjpbhj 4y ago
    You should read it. IMO it transforms Minecraft from being just an ordinary game experience into being art, it makes the context of what you've been doing, in playing Minecraft, into something like folklore. Late at night, having defeated the Ender dragon, having spent months in the game, it turns that moment into an almost spiritual experience.
    - tokai 4y ago
      I thought it is way too much, and not at all in line with the feeling of mc. Cringe is the word the youngsters use AFAIR.
      - mrguyorama 4y ago
        I was 14 and it brought the silly little block building game where I farmed trees and made dirt houses and turned it into a meaningful story, something that made me think, something that moved me.

bowsamic 4y ago

Why would you think it's socially acceptable to be a flawed person? Flaws aren't something we excuse just because people express them. Expressing them doesn't absolve you of them. They are still there, as flaws, and therefore people react to them as flaws.

Karellen 4y ago
Do you have no flaws?
- bowsamic 4y ago
  Of course I do, but I don't expect people to excuse me of them or ignore them, just because I say them. The OP isn't expecting that, but other people in this thread are expecting it on his behalf. I don't even think the OP wants people to excuse his flaws, like people in this thread seem to want to insist on doing.
  - croo 4y ago
    This is called "empathy".
    - bowsamic 4y ago
      - TheCapn 4y ago
        I think that mindset is incredibly flawed and toxic to a healthy society? Who is to say who is right here?
        bowsamic 4y ago
        Me. I’m right, because I’m at the centre of the Totality of Reality
      - 4y ago

disruptiveink 4y ago

He had multiple opportunities to get his agent (and he had one the whole time, which he mentioned early in the story) do the grown up talk for him, and he passed it up every single time. Every time, it's excuse after excuse about why he either sent nonsensical emails when trying to talk to people about compensation or just stayed silent while resenting Mojang for not actively coming after him and shower him with millions out of nowhere. Honestly very little sympathy from me. I would be beyond pissed if I was trying to close a deal with someone who kept sending me novels over email instead.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Karawebnetwork 4y ago

> Im honestly chocked that people react so negatively to this piece. I say this with all the love in the world: it's hard for engineers to think like artists and vice-versa.

ngc248 4y ago
Things are not so black and white. It's not that engineers can't appreciate art. The people commenting are saying that the payment was according to what was agreed and the artist's seller remorse is unwarranted. Thats all they are saying. It has nothing to do with art appreciation etc.
- Karawebnetwork 4y ago
  To avoid repeating the same comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33909117 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33909117 I went more in depth here about my perception.

jrochkind1 4y ago

Agreed. This whole comment thread is making me feel more negative about HN than I have before.

TheCapn 4y ago
I'm actually kind of shocked at the majority reaction here. I can relate in many ways to the author and can feel his struggle through the story. I empathize even though I can see where the mistakes were made. I figure we just have a lot of Carls in here. There's always been a very business-oriented culture here: people are looking for success in their careers and monetary success is a big part of it. Contracts and IP are big parts of the business brain and I think people just struggle to see things from a different perspective. All I can say is I'm very appreciative for the author to share the perspective. He says it clearly, there aren't any bad guys there and I think so many people in this forum want there to be one.
- jrochkind1 4y ago
  It's actually pretty hilarious when you put it like that. Oh, you are insisting there are no bad guys and you refuse to make a bad guy? OK, then YOU are the bad guy! For... having feelings. Bad feelings you should feel ashamed for having. Or at least keep them to yourself for god's sake! Teach you to have feelings but still decide there are no bad guys! There's ALWAYS a bad guy if there are Feelings! But yeah I'm shocked too, not what I would have expected from an HN comment thread. Maybe if he had been a coder instead of an author? I mean, HN threads reliably are on the side of coders who release their code open source but then have that code used by someone else to make billions, thinking they have the right to be mad and deserve a cut despite literally putting an open source license on it saying otherwise! (which this guy didn't do... until now) I really don't know what's going on. Are people actually not mad that this guy was (at points in his life) upset he didn't get a cut, but actually mad that he released his thing CC0 in the end instead of trying to get a cut? Because he didn't do a good enough job of getting a cut, and has only himself to blame for that, and should be blamed for it? But I don't want to assume people mean something different than what they say, when they say they are actually mad at him for having the temerity to have feelings about not getting a cut. I'm just bewildered.

mistermann 4y ago

I think there's something beautiful about the combination of the content of the post and the content of this comment section. It seems almost too perfect.

jacobsenscott 4y ago