> <i>Computer magazines of the day would print strings of code on their back pages, which could be transcribed by the reader to create a playable game, and this code-by-numbers task gave Persson his first experience of what would later become his profession. “My sister would read the lines out to me and I would tap them into the computer,” he says. “After a while, I figured out that if you didn’t type out exactly what they told you then something different would happen, where you finally ran the game. That sense of power was intoxicating.”</i><p>It's kind of weird to think that no-one gets their start like this anymore.
From the article: Since the game’s release, in 2009, Minecraft has sold in excess of twenty million copies, earned armfuls of prestigious awards, and secured merchandising deals with LEGO and other toymakers. Last year, Persson earned over a hundred million dollars from the game and its merchandise. Persson—better known to his global army of teen-age followers by his Internet handle, Notch—has a raggedy, un-marketed charm. He is, by his own admission, only a workmanlike coder, not a ruthless businessman. “I’ve never run a company before and I don’t want to feel like a boss,” he said. “I just want to turn up and do my work.”<p>----<p>He sounds like a modern day Woz, except he was successful despite not wanting to get involved in business. (by that I mean, Woz was successful, but we don't know how he might have turned out if Steve Jobs didn't push him to cofound Apple)
What is the longevity of Minecraft? As a social sandbox game, people can play for a long time. We have a habit of treating games like movies, good for one time through, and perhaps most are. But what if some games are more like Legos, playable for years? Instead of a franchise (King's Quest I, King's Quest II, ...), what if there is some other extendable model, like buying a new Lego kit? I have no idea, but Minecraft is one of a handful of long-lasting games that suggest a different business model entirely. The MMPORGs are like this, too. I'm curious to see what they do with Minecraft Realms.
This struck me as extraordinary:<p><i>“My strongest early memory is of my dad dragging me through very deep snow on a sled,” he said. “I looked up at him and he seemed annoyed at me. Perhaps it was tough work, dragging me, or perhaps I had been crying. And I realized that—hang on—he’s actually a real person, with his own perception of things. It’s not just me looking at things; he is also looking at things.”</i><p>I wonder if it's rare for someone so little to experience empathy so powerfully. Certainly I don't recall realizing anything like that until much later.<p>The whole story about Notch and his father is very moving.
My wife and I have had so much fun playing Minecraft with our two sons and their friends. It really is special.<p>We have a Minecraft server running on an older Mac mini in the house, and my kids’ have friends — some local and some from other states — that log in and play with them. Sometimes they are all on Skype, talking to each other while they play. It is so cool, and fun to watch them all interacting in their Minecraft world together.
<i>> “I have the ability to get code done, but I’m impatient and it’s scrappy as a result. Maybe that helped me with Minecraft, as it came quickly. But, well, at some point, I’d like to actually become a good programmer.”</i><p>It's amazing that he doesn't consider himself to be a good programmer. In what other profession would someone as accomplished as Persson say that?
Another finely written newspaper article about indie game development / mindsets involved, titled "Where Do Dwarf-Eating Carp Come From? / The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress", centering around the two brothers, mainly focusing on Tarn Adams:<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of-dwarf-fortress.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of...</a>
"Last year, Persson earned over a hundred million dollars from the game and its merchandise."<p>If you made that kind of money, why would you even bother to do anything but just retire and enjoy life?