Why do people hate Mojang?

[C95J]

The only people who hate Mojang are the Bioware fans who feel they should win everything.

That's horribly misguided. Do Minecraft fans really believe that Minecraft cannot be disliked and that their opinions are fact and there must be some ulterior motive for our dislike?

I guess I should have put "A lot of people", but that's just the impression I get when I read the MM forums and see the Bioware fans arguing that they should win. It seems to me like they are the ones who believe their opinion is fact.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Quite the contrary, Mojang hasn't even made one complete game yet. I would call that unfair by the fact they won but hey that's my opinion.

Except March Mayhem is about the developer, not the game. And as it stands, they're a developer who not only made a fantastic game, they also listen to their fans and add in little things like cake and cookies and the ability to throw eggs... plus Notch is active on Twitter and keeps everyone updated.

And I don't buy the whole incomplete game thing. I mean, it's not technically released in the sense that it's constantly being changed. The only difference between that and Team Fortress 2 is the fact that TF2 doesn't have "Beta" written in the corner.

 

[Epictank of Wintown]

My only problem is that they rarely update their fucking game and when they do its something small that probably didn't take 4 weeks.

I'm sorry, but have you ever really tried to code anything? I ask because people that make ignorant statements like this usually haven't. I used to code websites a bit back in the day (Yes, I wrote websites in wordpad), which are FAR simpler than a video game, and let me tell you- it's a *****.

If you change one thing or move another thing, then odds are you've just broken something else. That one thing that broke can lead to another thing breaking, and another thing breaking, and another thing breaking. It is NOT an easy process and nothing at all takes "five minutes" to add in as I hear so many people claim it should.

 

[matt87_50]

we don't we just don't think they should win March Mayhem

 

[Red Charlie]

I don't hate them either. I just don't agree they should have been listed/won March Mayhem when the only game they are currently producing has not been completed yet. Versus developers who have spent years developing fantastic games and highly good quality games.

I'm not saying minecraft is not any of those things but if Notch had not made Mojang would it have been listed at all? Somehow I don't think "Notch the guy who made Minecraft" would've come across as well on the March Mayhem board.

 

[Sodoff]

Mojang made me spend all night on digging a secret evil dungeon underground lair! And by the time it was finished I looked at it and said : "huh thats pretty nice" and I never played the game again.

 

[WaderiAAA]

Hating them? Few or no one. Not thinking they deserved to fin March Mayhem? Many.

I understand the frustration. Considering how many great games there are it is rather strange that the developers' showdown is won by a company who has only made one game - which isn't even released yet.

 

[Lokithrsourcerer]

anonymity breeds hate i suppose.

i enjoyed minecraft for a few days but once i had finished building my fortress and a roller coaster i got bored

surprised they won though good timeing i guess. minecraft is fresh and a lot of people are playing it but i don't think they deserved it.

I suppose DA2 was more damaging to bioware than i realised i haven't played it yet and even if it is shite bioware have made the majority of my top 10 games of all time

 

[The Human Torch]

I doubt anyone hate them but they are really over rated in the March Mayhem. I mean come on, you can't say that it pwns valve, bioware and nintendo just because they got one game that is good IN THE BETA.

Valve, Bioware and Nintendo are just too mainstream. In the Escapist, hipsters rule.

lolz its not even about that. How can people vote for a company because of one game which is in development and not companies with more than 3+ epic games?>>"

Too much "Indie is cool! I wanna be cool! Mojang it is!" attitude.

It's never about the trackrecord of a company, it's about what they did recently that defines how votes go. Bioware releases a lackluster sequal to Dragon Age, so it falls out of favor. Activision-Blizzard introduces more micro-transactions to WoW, it falls out of favor. Things like these all add up.

That and people do like rooting for the underdog. I mean, here you have 1 (one) guy who programs a good game by accident, earns millions and sets up a small indie development team, and probably outsold most of the AAA titles released in 2010. That's a bit of a dream that most people have, and if not, at least they can relate to it.

Heck, I am willing to bet that quite a few voters have never played Minecraft. They are just voting 'cause it feels right.

And of course, seeing as how Valve hasn't released anything at all the past few years, that probably helped.

 

[Continuity]

I don't hate mojang, not in the slightest, i'm ambivalent actually having not played minecraft. However I find it hard to accept that the gaming community thinks mojang is the best developer, a stand out developer certainly, and innovative and surprise success developer jep... but best over all?

 

[Grickit]

I love the prevalent logic that "Minecraft is winning because of all its fanboys" and therefore its victory is undeserved. Is there a place where such convoluted deductive reasoning is taught?

1. So we've got this internet poll where developers are voted on.
2. The more fans a developer has the more votes they get.
3. At the end, the developer with the most votes wins.
4. Minecraft has lots of fans - "fanboys" if you're really angry and want to insult them, but can't think of anything better to say.
5. Minecraft gets lots of votes.
6. Minecraft doesn't deserve to win because they have too many fans.

lulwot?


The people who hate Mojang are - as shown by the very March Mayhem threads wherein their spew their anger - just a vocal minority. Ignore them.

It's never about the trackrecord of a company, it's about what they did recently that defines how votes go. Bioware releases a lackluster sequal to Dragon Age, so it falls out of favor. Activision-Blizzard introduces more micro-transactions to WoW, it falls out of favor. Things like these all add up.

That and people do like rooting for the underdog. I mean, here you have 1 (one) guy who programs a good game by accident, earns millions and sets up a small indie development team, and probably outsold most of the AAA titles released in 2010. That's a bit of a dream that most people have, and if not, at least they can relate to it.

Heck, I am willing to bet that quite a few voters have never played Minecraft. They are just voting 'cause it feels right.

And of course, seeing as how Valve hasn't released anything at all the past few years, that probably helped.

[see also: Movie Bob's rant about how the Oscars voting works]

 

[ryai458]

They made one beta while over developers are releasing games of much higher caliber.

 

[Lokithrsourcerer]

My only problem is that they rarely update their fucking game and when they do its something small that probably didn't take 4 weeks.

I'm sorry, but have you ever really tried to code anything? I ask because people that make ignorant statements like this usually haven't. I used to code websites a bit back in the day (Yes, I wrote websites in wordpad), which are FAR simpler than a video game, and let me tell you- it's a *****.

If you change one thing or move another thing, then odds are you've just broken something else. That one thing that broke can lead to another thing breaking, and another thing breaking, and another thing breaking. It is NOT an easy process and nothing at all takes "five minutes" to add in as I hear so many people claim it should.

no offence but it sounds like you arent that good a coder i used to write html webpages for a living about 12 years ago and i could knock out a good 5-10 page site in a day easy.

my current creative partner (i'm not a coder any more) has written a physics engine from scratch in 3 months (we'll be posting a demo soon as the copywrite is sorted)so adding new items to a game inventory should not take long especially in a game like mincraft where it is little more than cut, paste, edit, save its not like they need to create new 12million polygon wire models or anything.

 

[The Human Torch]

People are just mad because an indie dev with a java game that's still in beta beat [insert AAA developer X that they like] in March Mayhem.

They'll get over it or they'll ragequit. *shrugs*

It just goes to show how tired people are of copy paste sequels, RealIsBrown, and everything else Yahtzee rants about on a weekly basis.

I myself have only bought one AAA game this year (LBP2), and while it is pretty much a copy paste sequel, the little big planet series itself is as far from the rest of the tired tropes of the industry as one can get.

On the other hand I've been absolutely thrilled with all my purchases from smaller companies this year. Castle Crashers, Plants versus Zombies, Minecraft, most of the Humble Bundle(s).

Apparently I'm in a minority here and the rest of the Escapist is stunned silly (sadly not stunned speechless) that indie games are becoming more popular.

Keep in mind that Blizzard was Indie as well at the beginning (when they called themselves Synapse and Silicone) and the same can be said for EA, Nintendo and Bioware. All these companies have one thing in common, they started out small, released one commercially successful title and from there on started to expand.

Indie games are not becoming more popular, anyone who has ever purchased a Blizzard/Bioware/Nintendo/EA title has (in a way), supported an Indie developer.

Will Mojang go the same way? Who knows.

 

[Grickit]

People are just mad because an indie dev with a java game that's still in beta beat [insert AAA developer X that they like] in March Mayhem.

They'll get over it or they'll ragequit. *shrugs*

It just goes to show how tired people are of copy paste sequels, RealIsBrown, and everything else Yahtzee rants about on a weekly basis.

I myself have only bought one AAA game this year (LBP2), and while it is pretty much a copy paste sequel, the little big planet series itself is as far from the rest of the tired tropes of the industry as one can get.

On the other hand I've been absolutely thrilled with all my purchases from smaller companies this year. Castle Crashers, Plants versus Zombies, Minecraft, most of the Humble Bundle(s).

Apparently I'm in a minority here and the rest of the Escapist is stunned silly (sadly not stunned speechless) that indie games are becoming more popular.

Keep in mind that Blizzard was Indie as well at the beginning (when they called themselves Synapse and Silicone) and the same can be said for EA, Nintendo and Bioware. All these companies have one thing in common, they started out small, released one commercially successful title and from there on started to expand.

Indie games are not becoming more popular, anyone who has ever purchased a Blizzard/Bioware/Nintendo/EA title has (in a way), supported an Indie developer.

Will Mojang go the same way? Who knows.

Hmmm. Good point. Today's innovative indie devs are tomorrow's boring trend-setters/followers.

Also, as a FOSS developer, I'm slightly biased towards Mojang from the get-go. Even when you strip away the amazing sandbox gameplay, Minecraft is left with a lot of attributes I look for in software. No DRM, fully cross-platform, easy to mod, and they even promised to open-source it some day.

 

[Octorok]

I don't get it. I think its a nice story of the little persons triumph over all the big people that run the industry.
People are getting upset that Mojang is beating the other companys, but why? They made a SINGLE good game (too my knowledge), do people think this victory will last forever? Of course it won't, nintendo isn't going to stop makeing games, nor will Valve or any other competition.

Please keep it a bit civil by the way, thanks.
Below i get a bit ranty and might be a bit "Uncivil" upon reflection , feel free to skip it, can't say i didn't give you an option ;D

Frankly im getting board of all this copy paste crap the gameing industry is shoveing down our througts and i am finding more and more games made by tiny companys that i enjoy way more than anything nintendo, valve, capcom or nintendo realeased in the past 5 years.

I'll just speak for myself, as someone who has voted against Mojang in March Mayhem.

It's not hate. I honestly bear no grudge against them, and I love Minecraft to bits. Serious Minecrafter, who didn't vote Mojang? Teh whut????

Despite what idiots are will to shout at each other about, it's not about Minecraft being a "game" or "looking bad" or "not being fun". I vote against Mojang because - what have they done? Notch made one great indie game. Mojang is a company made from his profits, and has literally released nothing. However, let's be generous and equate Mojang to Minecraft.

Minecraft isn't finished. It's one game, in beta. Sure, it might be great fun, and it's nice to hear of talent being rewarded and not EVERYTHING is owned by the big dogs, but nonetheless. March Mayhem is about developers. Not games. As in - you can judge a game without judging its developer, but you cannot judge a developer without judging its games.

If it was just about games, it would be a purely subjective popularity contest. But you must also consider things like - consistent quality and quantity of work, the effort and time put in, efficiency, how good they are to the consumer, how they handle PR etc. There's a lot to game developers that can't be summed up by their games.

Therefore, by taking Mojang by its merits, and not Minecraft, and measuring it against companies like Valve and Bioware, I have to consider - which of these two companies has provided me with the best possible experience?

I think of Bioware, with its consistently great focus on character, and its landmark titles. I think of Valve with its great community service, and how it shaped gaming history. I think of Steam, and free TF2 updates, of mod tools and character builders.

It's not that Mojang haven't made a great game, or that they won't go on to greater heights. It's not that I have some personal hatred of them or their game. But let's face facts.

They are not the single greatest developer of all time. It's just not true to say that Minecraft alone, and its plans and updates, can possibly measure up to the many years of quality and customer-orientated service brought to the table by companies that the Escapist voted as "worse" than Mojang.

 

[Zeraki]

Considering Mojang crushed all their competition in March Madness, I don't really see much hate. I didn't realize just how popular Minecraft was until that.

 

[Grickit]

*snip*

But that's just your perspective. I've never played their supposedly fun games. I've never contacted their supposedly good technical support. I've never witnessed their supposedly excellent PR.

I'm inclined to agree with everything you said. They're excellent aspects of a company. But my personal experience, and probably the experience of most of the Mojang voters don't include contact with those aspects of Nintendo, Bioware, or Valve.

Actually I've had pretty crappy experience with Nintendo all around.

 

[Cenequus]

Didn't knew people hated Minecraft. I mean I don't like this kind of sandbox games but I don't see nothing wrong with it.