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Those are some pretty loaded questions.

They're also poorly written! Dang.

I think Mojang's stance is completely fair but also I never would've played on a pay to win server in the first place because I think they're bullshit. So go Mojang!

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I wasn't even aware that this whole pay-to-play server market thing existed. 

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Of all the games to fight against pay to win... why Minecraft?

I mean, Mojang can do what they want realistically so I wouldn't blame them. I just wouldn't have thought this was a big deal to them but maybe someone who played Minecraft for more than a couple months in the earlier days could explain why it does matter?

 

From what I've gathered, it came up recently because some parents were complaining to Mojang about their kids spending hundreds of dollars in game to gain certain advantages on whatever servers they were on. I guess it's always been in the EULA and this prompted Mojang to decide to step in and start enforcing that aspect of it. People are still allowed to charge for access to their servers and they can still charge for cosmetic items. This only affects people running servers where people can essentially pay money to get an advantage in the game.

 

From my perspective, paying to gain an advantage in this game completely breaks what makes this game so great. I think it makes sense for them to crack down on this if for no other reason than to preserve the core nature of the game. If it were me, I certainly wouldn't want the practices of some of these servers to tarnish the image of my game for those people that might jump right into a server and mistake those practices as a core part of the Minecraft gameplay.

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One thing I dislike about this is something Patrick Klepek hit on

 

https://twitter.com/patrickklepek/status/478960928483184640

 

https://twitter.com/patrickklepek/status/478963096095305728

 

I think Notch is well within his rights to do what he did with Minecraft's EULA but I think it's in bad taste to publicly share the email like that.  He of course had the right to do it, I just don't agree with that decision.

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I think Notch is well within his rights to do what he did with Minecraft's EULA but I think it's in bad taste to publicly share the email like that.  He of course had the right to do it, I just don't agree with that decision.

 

I think Polygon is being very one sided in this issue and I think it is fair of him to point out such a glaring example of that. By the wording of the questions in that email they are being pretty clear about what their stance is and I don't blame Notch for preempting whatever article they were going to put up about it by posting an image showing just how ridiculous and unprofessional those questions were.

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Like I said, he's within his rights to do it, it just rubs me the wrong way.  I'm not defending Polygon but I don't agree with Notch's actions in that specific case.

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I will defend Notch.  As a former journalist, I think Notch doing that is kinda hilarious and awesome.  Klepek is being whiny and disingenuous.   Reading it, I see an on-the-record interview about Notch's business decisions, and it's reasonable to assume that Polygon was going to publish the answers they got.  Notch published first, and it embarrassed them. 

 

Journalists don't like it when people do things like this.  They always act like it's unfair, or unprofessional.  Because they didn't get to publish first.  Because their methodology and words were exposed without them having the benefit of being able to edit the story themselves, which is what they are used to doing.  Shit like this helps keep journalists a bit more honest and thoughtful in how they approach sources and questions. 

 

It is, technically, unprofessional on Notch's part, but I'm not going to let Klepek off the hook for his bullshit tweet. 

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So I no more than typed that up, and checked Klepek's feed to see if he had anything else to say.  His next tweet was this:
 
post-33601-0-80870700-1403050661_thumb.jpg
 
Sooo...he kinda agrees with my take?

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I do agree with SAM. I think that was in poor taste. But also I think the questions were in poor taste. So whatever.

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I would feel a little more sympathetic to "journalists"/Campbell if I didn't see that Campbell shotgunned every visible Mojang representative on Twitter to ask questions about this policy and sent such blatantly pointed questions to Notch specifically. The questions almost seem the gaming equivalent of what paparazzi would shout at a celebrity on the street after some controversy put the celebrity on the front page of some tabloid. The whole "sharing a private email is in bad taste" thing seems like a red herring, because this seems so damn far from private and in no way a personal correspondence in tone or content.

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Klepek does say he'd rather have outspoken devs than ones who say nothing.  He just mostly doesn't like that Notch tweeted it out there the way he did.  He's not saying Notch can't do it or even necessarily that he shouldn't but there's probably a better way than a brusque tweet.

 

I don't want to turn this into another debate that goes nowhere and just leaves everyone mad at each other (we've have too many of those around here lately) so I'll just say I wish Notch expressed himself in some other way and leave it at that.

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Also, claiming any on-the-record interview is "private" is what I meant as being bullshit in my original post.  Private isn't the right word to use to describe communication that exists solely for eventual publication.

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Also, claiming any on-the-record interview is "private" is what I meant as being bullshit in my original post.  Private isn't the right word to use to describe communication that exists solely for eventual publication.

 

This is how I feel; sharing private emails is not on because it erodes the safety of that private communication, and safe conversation is vitally important. This isn't supposed to be safe communication; this is an interview.

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It's been my experience that any time someone is making a decent amount of money in an unethical manner, they will scream at the top of their lungs when that income is taken away. The more unethical their behavior, they louder they will scream. I think Mojang's doing the right thing here to maintain the integrity of the ecosystem around Minecraft. It's not going to kill the Minecraft server hosting business, it's just going to prevent people from turning their Minecraft servers into profit mills. I'm not feeling a lot of sympathy for anyone impacted by this.

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While I think Polygon framing the issue from the perspective of operators of pay-to-win servers presumably targeted at children is a poor editorial choice, I'm completely in favor of a more antagonistic relationship between the video game press and the subjects of their coverage as a general rule. The cozy exchange of access for positive coverage that is the norm across the gaming press (and the press generally) doesn't serve their audience's interests at all.

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While I think Polygon framing the issue from the perspective of operators of pay-to-win servers presumably targeted at children is a poor editorial choice, I'm completely in favor of a more antagonistic relationship between the video game press and the subjects of their coverage as a general rule. The cozy exchange of access for positive coverage that is the norm across the gaming press (and the press generally) doesn't serve their audience's interests at all.

 

I don't know if "antagonistic" is the word for what I want their relationship to be more, but it certainly is too cozy in many cases. I was a little bothered by this recently Polygon article about Ouya, which seems pretty much like free advertisement -

 

http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/14/5808536/ouya-ceo-julie-uhrman-thralled

 

Now, they're certainly welcome to cover Ouya and I do think that a new exclusive game on the platform is news. However, did we really need to hear Julie Uhrman say again that Ouya is doing great and really giving consumers and developers what we want? Frankly, if that was true she wouldn't be announcing one promising exclusive in a quite favorable "interview" and would instead be holding an E3 Presser with developers on stage saying how much they enjoy making games for the platform.

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I honestly find most of Polygon uncomfortable. I lost a lot of respect for them when they gave the new consoles scores. Seriously? What is that? Now I just find them more and more irritating every time (which I have to admit isn't often any more) I visit the site. I don't think they're biased, despite whatever grant they got from microsoft a while ago, I just think they're mostly shitty journalists. Which is a shame, because a lot of them are pretty smart people and have some clever things to say. 

 

They're also a little heavy handed when it comes to the women in games issue. I get it, it's a problem. Most people think it's a problem. Please, I just want to read about games and not have this agenda shoved in my face every time I click on your website. It also feels a little like they're preaching to the choir, but that's another issue entirely. 

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They're also a little heavy handed when it comes to the women in games issue. I get it, it's a problem. Most people think it's a problem. Please, I just want to read about games and not have this agenda shoved in my face every time I click on your website.

 

imagine what it's like for the people who have to live it

 

But yeah, I don't really care for Polygon either. I don't find their stuff particularly enlightening, I think they pretend they're not using the 4-point scale, and I find them a fairly poor source of news. Ben Kuchera's inflammatory opinion pieces don't help either.

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Polygon is a weird one for me.  Individually, it has some of my favorite people in all of gaming news at it (The McElroys, Chris Grant and Danielle), but as an entity, it leaves me wanting more. 

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imagine what it's like for the people who have to live it

 

Ben Kuchera's inflammatory opinion pieces don't help either.

 

I'm sure it's awful, and it's certainly an important thing to talk about. I don't think I'm being an asshole when I say sometimes I just want to read about video games without something making me feel bad for being in a privileged group.

 

Yup, Ben Kuchera is the one I like the least. Didn't like the PA Report, don't like him now.

 

 

Polygon is a weird one for me.  Individually, it has some of my favorite people in all of gaming news at it (The McElroys, Chris Grant and Danielle), but as an entity, it leaves me wanting more. 

 

That's exactly how I feel. A lot of smart people work there, which is why I go back to see if anything good is up, but the place itself is trash. I'm just guessing, but it feels like sometimes they're trying to out-do each other to a point that it's no good for the end consumer. 

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I'm sure it's awful, and it's certainly an important thing to talk about. I don't think I'm being an asshole when I say sometimes I just want to read about video games without something making me feel bad for being in a privileged group.

 

I think that it's definitely good that they constantly call out sexism and racism in games with stuff like this.

 

But I do feel like sometimes the articles feel compelled to make it out that the particular example they're using is especially egregious as if it's big breaking news rather than a continuing feed of "here's today's dumb offensive comment". Of course if they were honest and just had a special feed of sexism/racism then it'd get far less notice and clicks so it'd be less effective all round.

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The whole "more severed heads than women at E3" was the worst example. Talk about sensationalist reporting. 

 

I don't have a problem with them calling it out, but that one tipped me over the edge. I was all excited for cool E3 news and analysis, then that title just brought me down and made me feel bad. I don't like feeling bad during my excitement for new stuff.

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