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Notch is no longer lead developer on Minecraft
- shmeeps 15y agoGave this an upvote, since it's from the official Notch blog instead of what could have been possible conjecture from reddit.
- TylerE 15y agoPlease don't let this bit of reddit-stupidity transfer here. "LOl upvotd" posts don't add anything and just clutter the discussion.
- jpeterson 15y agoToo late. HN has basically become reddit.com/r/programming in the last year or so. The glory days are over. You have to admire how long the quality remained high, though.
- freehunter 15y agoEven though I had to highlight the text of your comment to read it, you do echo a point that has kind of irritated me somewhat. On a website called "hacker news", 90% (hyperbole) of the links are related to designing flashy GUIs and selling social web startups and whatever the flavor-of-the-week web design trend is. There's very little "do it yourself, do it quickly, do what no one has done before" spirit, it's mostly "do what everyone has done before, but flashier and in a newer language". Not that it's a bad thing in any way, but the title of "hacker news" is a bit disingenuous when "developer news" might be a little more accurate. I wish I could filter out the programming and startup stuff.
- pessimizer 15y agoWhat's disingenuous about programming on a site called "Hacker News," and what would be left other than political posts if you took out the startup and programming stuff?
- cynest 15y agoThere are a number of good science posts that make the frontpage. This is originally what kept me on this site.
- freehunter 15y agoIt's not just the programming stuff I wish I could filter, it's the worship of Ruby, node.js, CSS, etc. Web languages that really aren't useful in the hacker sense of the word, but rather in the business sense of the word. My opinion wasn't so much about what would replace those posts, but what not having those posts would attract.
- ceol 15y agoThis is anecdotal, but I've seen more Python articles in the past couple of weeks than Ruby. node.js is a pretty useful tool for random hackery, and most of the CSS articles have been "hacks" for creating cool UIs. I like to think of the "Hacker" in Hacker News as someone who employs neat tricks to get the job done. Are you looking for news related to network security?
- freehunter 15y agoNetwork security would be one aspect of hacking (actually the aspect I am employed in). Breaking out of the confines of an API would be another, or just doing something because you want to see if it can be done, not because you're following a tutorial on GitHub. Actually, someone on reddit put it best related to their plans for a Darknet project: "don't expect help from Hacker News, if it doesn't have a business plan they won't be interested." Hackers don't care about business plans. The site used to be called "Startup News", in the days when the original redditors were pining for the days of the original reddit base. Based on the content still present, Startup News is still quite fitting. In short, simply re-creating something in a new-wave language is what I'm kind of complaining about. That's not "hacking", that's just good programming.
- rayiner 15y agoHacker means people who hack on code. Why aren't languages like Ruby relevant.
- bct 15y agoHacker News was originally called Startup News; that would still be a more accurate title.
- resnamen 15y agoI wish I could filter out the gadget-fanboyism. I guess I couldn't read it, but it's exasperating to see how much animosity is inflamed by such a petty subject.
- SquareWheel 15y agoI came over from Reddit this last month, the number of memes just become too much for me.
- TylerE 15y agoMay I make the suggestion of installing Reddit Enhancement Suite. Unsubscribe from all the default sub/r's (wtf, offbeat,askreddit, etc), and block all posts from imgur and quickmeme, and things look a lot better.
- TillE 15y agoDoesn't really help. The Reddit "culture" infects everything, not just the main subs. I suppose for example /r/gamedev isn't awful, but really, GameDev.net is much bigger and better. There's little reason to bother with Reddit.
- SquareWheel 15y agoI did all this actually. I blocked imgur, so the majority of the posts were from Tinypic. The whole community has changed.
- shmeeps 15y agoThough I don't disagree with you about adding to the discussion, I was applauding the author for actually verifying the accuracy of the story with an official source instead of just posting a link to a reddit thread that had nothing but a user-drawn image associated with it and assuming the "story" was true, which was what the previous story posting had done.
- p0ppe 15y agoThe title of the blog post "Och med dom orden så passar jag micken" is Swedish for "With those words, I hand over the microphone". Just in case anyone is wondering.
- larrik 15y agoUpvoted, but really should permalink: http://notch.tumblr.com/post/13633493969/och-med-dom-orden-sa-passar-jag-micken http://notch.tumblr.com/post/13633493969/och-med-dom-orden-s...
- ugh 15y agoHere is an interview with Notch and Jeb about the change: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/38917/Persson_Hands_Minecraft_Lead_To_Jens_Bergensten_Confident_About_Move.php http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/38917/Persson_Hands_Minec...
- extension 15y agoI'm very glad to see that the mod API is now top priority. They've made similar claims in the past, but this sounds more serious. The future of this game is definitely all about mods, custom maps, and new game formats. There is tremendous potential, some of which has already been realized, but only through elaborate unofficial hacks.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- v21 15y agoI'm glad this is the case. A common trap for indie developers is to make one game, have it be at least partially successful, and then to continue to make that game - making DLC, expansions, porting it to other platforms, making a multiplayer version etc. It makes me sad as a player, because it's done instead of developing something new. It's far better to pass on these porting efforts to other developers and to get to work creating new IP, as Notch is doing. I'm more familiar with games than with startup culture - does the same thing apply there?
- kiba 15y agoDon't really care, as there are too many video games in the world that I never played before. Polish existing ones, instead.
- windsurfer 15y agoToo many food; make existing ones better Too many websites; make existing ones better Too many songs; make existing ones better
- bct 15y agoThere's a place for both approaches. I agree with kiba that with video games (and websites, and lots of other software for that matter), novelty is weighted much too heavily.
- sukuriant 15y agoCompanies don't tend to polish them, though. Sure we have a few polished/polishing games for their genres: Half Life, Team Fortress, League of Legends, WoW; but, many companies just rehash sequels to make more and more of the same game.
- Klinky 15y agoIt makes me sad as a player, because it's done instead of developing something new. I think this is a problem of attitude. If you are so desperate for something new, why not create it yourself? The indie has every right to do what they feel like with their content, time, energy & money. They're not your monkey to dance & sing whenever you please. If you disagree with how they're spending their time, then spend your time making something you'd rather see.
- heyrhett 15y agoGood for him. Notch has earned a well-deserved break. Some people are better at starting new things, and some people are better at maintaining and expanding on existing things. I'm happy to hear that Notch has some new ideas that he's itching to get started on.
- Toady 15y agoGood for him. Notch has earned a well-deserved break. If you've followed Minecraft development for any period of time, you'd know he takes breaks quite often, much to the amusing frustration of fans. His disinterest in the game in the last year has been a little obvious. Jeb's takeover is the best Minecraft news in a long time. He has already fixed outstanding bugs, like sheep wool not regrowing. 1.0 is rife with major issues, and Notch's inability to finish a feature has damaged the game's appeal since its shift to an RPG-lite in the various Adventure Updates. Jeb is the best person to grab the steering wheel and put things back on course.
- patrickod 15y agoGiven all that has happened in the last year I think Notch is very much deserving of a break. His work ethic is something to admire and his success well earned. I look forward to seeing what projects he creates with his time in the future.
- Toady 15y agoHis work ethic is something to admire That's a pretty amusing statement because Notch is infamous for taking vacations often and quickly losing interest in a feature before moving onto the next one, leaving things incomplete. Fans have been cheering Jeb's takeover because he is considered more technically competent and devoted to fixing bugs. Minecraft's code is generally considered a big mess.
- potch 15y agoMuch respect for making it to the 1.0, that shows great dedication on his part. He earned the break, and I look forward to seeing what's next!
- AndyKelley 15y agoI expect to see the code base quality increase and number of obscene bugs that make it to production decrease significantly.
- Karunamon 15y agoI'm really conflicted on Notch, Minecraft in general, and therefore this announcement. Let's get the good out of the way first, Minecraft is an awesome game, and Notch (and his team) deserves every bit of kudos they've gotten for it. I bought the game back in alpha, and I've gotten more than my money's worth. The bad? Lingering (big) problems that aren't being dealt with. SMP is still a mess when it comes to performance. There are a ton of bugs in what is supposed to be a final 1.0 release (Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXO6tYkjYMc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXO6tYkjYMc) I don't have to be a full time developer or a company owner to make a judgement call on whether that is a bad thing or not. Minecraft seems to be suffering from the same kind of featuritis that plagued Second Life for so long. Mojang. Please. Fix old, no new.