CHARLES PRITCHARD
Staff Writer
What originally started out as a one-man job and a simple idea has become a property that Microsoft has paid $2.5 billion to acquire.
Minecraft was released in 2009 by Markus Persson, better known by his internet handle, Notch. The open-world sandbox-building game gained a massive following and has become one of the most successful indie games to date.
However, with Microsoft’s recent purchase of Mojang, the company that created Minecraft, fans have had mixed responses.
Derrick Hart has been playing the game since Alpha, the earliest release of Minecraft.
“Imagine how one feels when they first discover what ‘Legos’ are,” Hart said in an interview about the game, “ … and how you can put them together to build things … and then imagine that the Legos go on infinitely with virtually no limit to what you can create.”
While the world of Minecraft does not go on infinitely, there definitely is quite a huge one to work with.
Each block in the game is considered to be one meter in length, width and height. The average Minecraft world is 32 million by 32 million blocks, equalling a total area of 102 billion kilometers squared. To put this into perspective, the area of Neptune is only seven billion kilometers squared. Minecraft essentially gives players a diverse planet 57 times the size of Earth and says, “have fun.”
“My first impressions of Minecraft were that it seemed like a great new game that had a unique style for when it came out and a lot of potential,” Hart said. “I bought it back when it was still Alpha, just a baby of a program, and, honestly, I will never regret the $10 it cost at the time.”
But what keeps Minecraft alive, unique and fresh is its community. Hart went on to say that “…There are even numerous mods out there that add quite a bit more to what you can do, as well.”
“Quite a bit more,” as Hart put it, is an understatement.
Minecraft users keep a healthy modding community alive and constantly put new ideas out there that greatly and fundamentally change the game.
Just a glance at the modding forum on Minecraft’s website shows a list of mods, letting players do everything — from making magical spells, to bringing dinosaurs back to life, and even building a rocket and visiting the moon and stars.
And with Minecraft’s community, the heart and soul of the game, comes the possibility of bumps in the road. “My reaction to Microsoft buying Mojang is one of” — Hart paused to collect his thoughts — “I think a sort of cautiousness. I’d like to believe [Microsoft] can do good things with it, and won’t screw it up in any way, but they don’t have the perfect track record.”
The official discussion amongst Minecraft community members echoes the same kind of thought Hart had, with people trying to stay optimistic, but having a hard time doing so.
Microsoft and Minecraft have released press statements. Both confirmed the same ideal of letting Minecraft evolve and maintain its community, but this has done little to quell the debate over whether the purchase was a good or bad thing.
Only time will tell whether Mojang and Microsoft will keep good to their word, or the community’s fears prove founded.
Hart shed some final words on the subject:
“I’m afraid that they won’t really care about their customers — only the money they have. I can only hope for the best,” he said.