Notch Requiring Licenses for Minecraft Mod Developers
- Thread starter Tom Goldman
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"I tip my hat to the new constitution, take a bow for the new revolution..."
seriously though, another indie "hero" just turns out to be just like the hated AAA developers of old once he realizes he's making money
seriously though, another indie "hero" just turns out to be just like the hated AAA developers of old once he realizes he's making money
This move is disgusting. Forcing modders to preemptively sign away their copyrights? No thanks.
Also what work of yours do modders make money off of Notch? They make money off of their own code/work. Ridiculous.
edit: OTOH, having a mod license is totally worth it for any regular players who are smart enough to use SVN and a JDK. Finally! Nightly builds! ^_^
Also what work of yours do modders make money off of Notch? They make money off of their own code/work. Ridiculous.
edit: OTOH, having a mod license is totally worth it for any regular players who are smart enough to use SVN and a JDK. Finally! Nightly builds! ^_^
What copyrights would a modder have? The code they use is Notch's code. The game they mod is Notch's game. They have no ownership over any of the moddin work they do.Grickit said:
The mods should certainly get paid if what they've developed is used by Mojang, but if there are any profits to be had from sales afterwards then it should be split to some degree between the creative mind(s) behind the mod itself...and the creative minds who's creation allowed the possibility of that mod at all.
No one's saying "selling mods" except the people who are objecting to "selling mods" D=
If anything, this is designed to stop people selling mods.
Fact is, the way minecraft's set up, makes it very easy for someone to add a few "special features" to mods, which can range from stealing passwords or other information from your machine, or just straight up viruses.
The current system is pretty much just trusting people not to stick a bunch of crap on your machine.
If anything, this is designed to stop people selling mods.
Fact is, the way minecraft's set up, makes it very easy for someone to add a few "special features" to mods, which can range from stealing passwords or other information from your machine, or just straight up viruses.
The current system is pretty much just trusting people not to stick a bunch of crap on your machine.
...How is this grim? Sounds pretty great to me. He wanted to make sure that he was dealing with serious modders, so he thought about charging a small fee. He scrapped it the moment it got a negative response. And now, it looks like it is that much easier for Mod makers to support Minecraft (mods breaking with an update is currently a constant problem in need of fixing), and even, should the choice be beneficial, allow modders to maybe make some money from particularly good mod should the community demand it, without completely leaving Mojang in the cold. Not only that, but if a modder, say, wanted to get into the game development industry, and Notch puts their mod in the game, talk about a shining point on a resume! And lastly, there is that much more effort being put into Minecraft, and an excellent community can now effectively increase the effort an man hours being put into making Minecraft better exponentially. Sure, there could be some upsetting fine print that turns this bad, but from the sound of it...its a pretty promising model that other games should take a look at.
I don't think anyone here gets what he's trying to do. He's trying to protect his source code and help modders able to keep up with the changes with minecraft and potentially make money off them.
I'm very amused that everyone here thinks everything should be free despite mods, games and updates taking time and resources. If you were in his seat, you'd do the same thing, because you realize at the end of the day it costs you time and money to make the game, so a little back helps pay the bills.
I'm very amused that everyone here thinks everything should be free despite mods, games and updates taking time and resources. If you were in his seat, you'd do the same thing, because you realize at the end of the day it costs you time and money to make the game, so a little back helps pay the bills.
A free license to mod the game!
Notch must be Eeeeevvviiiiillllll!!!!
Really guys, outrage over having to agree to license to mod the game? That's what the problem is? Not really seeing the issue here.
Notch must be Eeeeevvviiiiillllll!!!!
Really guys, outrage over having to agree to license to mod the game? That's what the problem is? Not really seeing the issue here.
A lot of companies do that, however they recreate the mod using a new engine with huge and fantastic gameplay elements. Take, for example, the classic mod Killing Floor. TWI transformed it into a UT2.5 stand alone game with new everything. Trying to compare what other companies do with fun mods to what Notch will do with popular mods isn't a fair comparison.jawakiller said:
Were it any... ANY... other game, I may have closed an eye to this. But come on, notch himself made his game from a previous open-source project called Infiniminer. You may as well go to say Minecraft itself is a major mod of that game. Considering what he has to work with, he hasn't done a very good job either.
On the other hand modders are very numerous in the community; some of whose projects are practically staples of multiplayer servers to even revolutionary (i.e. Pistons). Having the utility to have mods stay synchronised with the game version would be very beneficial not just for mods but for servers relying on such tools as well.
On the other hand modders are very numerous in the community; some of whose projects are practically staples of multiplayer servers to even revolutionary (i.e. Pistons). Having the utility to have mods stay synchronised with the game version would be very beneficial not just for mods but for servers relying on such tools as well.
The "official licensed plugins" are fine, even for pay.
But if he tries or threatens to take legal action against "unofficial" modders then he has gone too far.
But if he tries or threatens to take legal action against "unofficial" modders then he has gone too far.
Holy crap, vitriol and a half... for a game dev who, after all, owns the rights to the thing and can do whatever the hell he likes with it, and has been fairly generous in the pricing of his (wildly popular, innovative and very "replayable") product.
There are already people ripping it off on the iPhone etc, and the source has remained closed to prevent the inevitable tide of spoofing, griefing and exploiting that would result. It's not quite like Quake where iD opened the code a couple years after they were done with it commercially, and there were no big things really riding on said openness (maybe the killcounts in a single deathmatch, but that's about it). Here we're dealing with masses of emotionally-bound user-generated content, as well as making it easier to crack and pirate the thing. You don't want that, do you?
(And the "free" "mods" for Doom that people seem fond of here? An officially sanctioned map and texture/sound pack editor. Woo, hold me back. You can make SO many fundamental changes to the gameplay mechanism with that. About as many as you could with the official level & sound pack editor bundled with Worms Reinforcements, in fact)
But, instead of keeping it completely closed source, you can - if you're a legit mod creator who's serious about it - sign up to be a registered modder. A bit like the App store (but for almost entirely different reasons), your stuff will have to be assessed to not break or hack the game in a detrimental or fraudulent fashion before release, and if you get a bad rep for sneaking that sort of thing in, your license will be revoked along with your access to the code and ability to (officially, at least) publish your mods.
Now, he may well go Full Jobs on us and become an utter content nazi, but let's not judge the guy until / unless that happens, eh?
There are already people ripping it off on the iPhone etc, and the source has remained closed to prevent the inevitable tide of spoofing, griefing and exploiting that would result. It's not quite like Quake where iD opened the code a couple years after they were done with it commercially, and there were no big things really riding on said openness (maybe the killcounts in a single deathmatch, but that's about it). Here we're dealing with masses of emotionally-bound user-generated content, as well as making it easier to crack and pirate the thing. You don't want that, do you?
(And the "free" "mods" for Doom that people seem fond of here? An officially sanctioned map and texture/sound pack editor. Woo, hold me back. You can make SO many fundamental changes to the gameplay mechanism with that. About as many as you could with the official level & sound pack editor bundled with Worms Reinforcements, in fact)
But, instead of keeping it completely closed source, you can - if you're a legit mod creator who's serious about it - sign up to be a registered modder. A bit like the App store (but for almost entirely different reasons), your stuff will have to be assessed to not break or hack the game in a detrimental or fraudulent fashion before release, and if you get a bad rep for sneaking that sort of thing in, your license will be revoked along with your access to the code and ability to (officially, at least) publish your mods.
Now, he may well go Full Jobs on us and become an utter content nazi, but let's not judge the guy until / unless that happens, eh?
And thats a whole other issue right there. He is nothing more than a modder modding a open source game and sold it. Minecraft without mods pretty much sucks.Mordwyl said:
That sounds right. Having some kind of clearinghouse for mods will help prevent (or if prevention has failed correct) corrupted mods. It should make the environment safer an if they have a clean and easy to use interface it should give mods a higher profile and greater access to the casual player base.WanderingFool said:
I don't know if that means indy mods would necessarily go away but I haven't used any at this point so the immediate impact on me would be minimal. Will this licensing program have a cooling effect for new developers? It might, but this may also mean better experience from the mods that are made. And if that means the mods are street ready with the release of a new patch, so much the better.
As for charging, if Mojang buys the mods and then choses to charge for them or roll them into the current game for free, why not? It may cost them more in the long run, but it is no reason to get bent out of shape.
By the same token, if they had a licence process and a mod marketplace to offer Minecraft mods they are essentially advertising and promoting the licensed mods.
The mod makers who are bent out of shape because of this and flaming Mojang come off like privateers who might be interested pirating my account and installing mal-ware with their mods.
Yes because thats what all mods do! The biggest problem is for the past 5 months the modders are making more progress and innovation on his game, hell the user made patches are far superior to what he has been producing.walsfeo said: