Notch Dumps on EA "Indie Bundle"

[Nargleblarg]

Ugh, I seriously wish this guy would take his Lego-ripoff game and just go live in a pixelated hole for a few years alongside Jonathan Blow and every other full-of-themselves "we are the most awesome thing ever" indie studio.

"Indies are saving gaming,"

...Notch said while donning his best hipster outfit.


For every awesome indie game I play, there are about 15-20 that suck beyond measure.

I'm no fan of EA, but get off your wooden horse and take a stroll in someone else's clogs before dumping on who is and isn't destroying gaming.

YOU are not the arbiter of what the industry needs, Notch.

This right here I hate as well. The Indie Hipster crowd is saving us? Seriously go take a look on the Xbox live Indie section and the quality of most of these games are just bad. Sure there is the occasional diamond in the rough but I would still usually take a AAA game any day over an indie one. Why? Well a game backed by an experienced team of designers, testers, and backed by huge wads of cash tends to have more depth as a game then just being labelled indie. While this is not always true it is way more likely.

Does that mean there shouldn't be indie games? No, everyone needs to start somewhere and this is a good place. But just because its indie doesn't make it immediately free from being crap. And just because it has pretty colors and artsy "hardcore" themes doesn't mean it is any good.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Correction: shareholders and investors are methodically destroying gaming, just like they destroy everything else that doesn't maximize profits. If Valve was publicly traded, it would be just as bad.

 

[Tiamat666]

EA is a company of marketeers, not engineers. Someone high up in EA heard that "indie games" are pretty "hip" right now and decided to cash in on it, obviously without much knowing or caring what that term is all about.

 

[Magikarp]

I'm confused. Why do so many people hate this? They're promoting indie games. IS there something wrong with that, or specifically something wrong with EA doing it?

 

[Steve the Pocket]

So if Notch says indie games are good for the gaming community, and Mojang is no longer indie, does that mean he's saying that his company isn't good for the gaming community?

 

[Innegativeion]

THE NOTCH IS GOOD.
THE EA IS EVIL.

Well, if you want to get all black and white about it. Of course nothing is so simple.

But let's just say if I were a grand ruler and needed to appoint my grand vizier/adviser/second in command/councilor I'd pick Mr. Persson over EA any and every day.

So if Notch says indie games are good for the gaming community, and Mojang is no longer indie, does that mean he's saying that his company isn't good for the gaming community?

Nowhere does he say major labels are inherently bad... He just says that about EA.

 

[Coldster]

Nobody's forcing anyone to buy EA's products, or to pay for their "nickel and dime" DLC, or use Origin, or anything else. EA makes a product and offers that product under certain conditions; consumers then choose whether or not they want to lay out their money for it. And millions upon millions of people say "Yes, please."

If anyone in that equation is "destroying" the industry - which, for the record, is absolute nonsense - it's not EA, it's the purchasing public. It's you.

EA doesn't have a gun to anybody's head, and it's the height of ridiculousness to suggest otherwise.

As for Notch's comments, they're beyond disingenuous. "EA is methodically destroying gaming" is not a statement that needs clarification.

I'm going to agree with you Mr. Chalk. You've basically said what I wanted to say better than I could.

 

[Ashoten]

And thus begins the slow and hysterical process of watching Notch self destruct by being a typical raging nerd. Drunk off of his own questionably earned fame. It will not be as tragic as Shamalans epic crash but t'will be much more entertaining.

 

[LostintheWick]

Huge companies lack creativity because it is too financially risky.

The indie guys don't have enough money to be anything BUT as creative as possible.

Notch is just scared. What will happen if a company like EA tries to get a slice of that small indie pie? They'd eat the whole thing if they could because they don't want friends and they don't want to share.

That is the nature of a publicly traded corporation like EA. Money is the ONLY goal. The same can't always be said for the guys who go out to make games on their own.

That takes a real passion and we don't want to loose that (but I don't think we ever will).

 

[matrix3509]

Nobody's forcing anyone to buy EA's products, or to pay for their "nickel and dime" DLC, or use Origin, or anything else. EA makes a product and offers that product under certain conditions; consumers then choose whether or not they want to lay out their money for it. And millions upon millions of people say "Yes, please."

If anyone in that equation is "destroying" the industry - which, for the record, is absolute nonsense - it's not EA, it's the purchasing public. It's you.

EA doesn't have a gun to anybody's head, and it's the height of ridiculousness to suggest otherwise.

As for Notch's comments, they're beyond disingenuous. "EA is methodically destroying gaming" is not a statement that needs clarification.

How many developer studios are EA directly responsible for closing? Yeah, thats right.

 

[Varya]

Notch you cant really say to much about indie games considering you have made 1 game, which you yourself have said is no longer "indie". I mean I know its a popular game but still its only one game.
These games were made by independent groups but published by EA.

He didn't make a public statement, he tweeted. He used social media to express his oppinion, like you are. If he'd made a press conference, starting with the wods "As the worlds must foremost expert on indie, I proclaim..." you might have a point but he simply spoke his mind on twitter. It was the Escapist that lifted up his quotes as news, you can't blame Nocth for that

Edit: accidenatly posted only half my reply

 

[Varya]

Ugh, I seriously wish this guy would take his Lego-ripoff game and just go live in a pixelated hole for a few years alongside Jonathan Blow and every other full-of-themselves "we are the most awesome thing ever" indie studio.

"Indies are saving gaming,"

...Notch said while donning his best hipster outfit.


For every awesome indie game I play, there are about 15-20 that suck beyond measure.

I'm no fan of EA, but get off your wooden horse and take a stroll in someone else's clogs before dumping on who is and isn't destroying gaming.

YOU are not the arbiter of what the industry needs, Notch.

When did he claim he was an arbiter? He just tweeted. Everyone and his grandma has talked about the EA indie-bundle today and called them out for it. The Escapist did it earlier today. Why does him tweeting bother you. Notch didn't make a statement, he didn't write a blogpost or article, he gave his opinion in a tweet. How is that different from you giving your opinion in a comment? He don't put his tweets on the front page of the Escapist, the Escapist did that. I just don't get why this guys opinion always gets blown out of proportion.

 

[Farther than stars]

I'm not sure if I agree. These games are indeed indie, but EA isn't, so it's a rather grey area. And don't big publishers also use their funds to branch out into indie stuff - making this brand entirely valid?
Besides, if they hadn't used this marketing, this article wouldn't have existed and I wouldn't have heard about the bundle until after May the 9th and these games would have been sitting on my backburner for ever. Now I'm going to get at least two of them. So in a way there is merrit in that.

 

[Inkidu]

Oh joy, Notch was an indie guy and now that the big publisher's are getting in on it (and rightly should be) it's evil. Ooh, the big publisher is beating up on the little guy.

The truth is indie developers need to get with big publishers. Big publishers need to open up independent sub-studios and devote some modest funding to let them work. But no, it's the big bad scary publisher beating up on everyone.

 

[Twilight_guy]

and once again we see Notch, coming from a background devoid of politics and fame and having it thrust upon him, screwed up by not making a rash statement. Notch is no longer one of us lowly gamers who can make all kind of ignorant gut statements on forums and get away with it. People care and he need to remember that people are watching him like a hawk.

Also EA is not destroying gaming. They make games and they sure as hell aren't going to destroy their own business. They may be unintentionally destroying gaming but its not the empire launching a methodical plan to destroy the industry and thus themselves.

Also, 'indie' means that you don't have a publisher. Minecraft is no longer indie because his company became a publisher.

 

[eNTi]

everything is wrong with ea. why can't they just go into the woods and never come back out?

 

[geizr]

Okay, people are bitching about this and throwing fecal substance in random directions over it, but I seem to recall this kind of thing being exactly what everyone was asking for the big publishers to do, some time ago, that is, to lend more support to the independent game developers. Did anyone really think, at that time, that the big publishers were just going to throw money at independents without some kind of ROI expectation, name/brand recognition, at the very least? Or is the real issue simply that it's EA doing this rather than some less hated publisher?

Have we changed our expectations in light of digital distribution providing more avenue for independents to be able to market and sell their games without big publisher intervention or assistance?