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Minecraft Creator Markus 'Notch' Persson Eradicated From Splash Text (arstechnica.com) 342

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Microsoft has removed a trio of references to Markus "Notch" Persson, the creator of Minecraft, from the game's opening menu screen. Random messages known as "splash text" are printed in yellow on this screen, and they used to include "Made by Notch!", "The Work of Notch", and "110813!" (a reference to the day Persson got married), but now all three mentions are gone. Notch is still included in the game's credits, but the change means that Minecraft players will no longer be randomly referenced.

Persson first released the blocky building game in 2009. Five years later, after the game had become a global smash hit, he sold his company Mojang to Microsoft for $2.5 billion, giving Redmond ownership of Minecraft. The references to Notch have remained a feature until their removal in this latest patch. They're reported to have been removed both from the original Java edition played on PCs and the legacy console edition used on PlayStation 4. No official rationale has been offered for the change, but Persson has become something of a polarizing figure on Twitter...

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Minecraft Creator Markus 'Notch' Persson Eradicated From Splash Text

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  • RedPill (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 28, 2019 @10:38PM (#58351932)

    Microsoft doesn't want to continue to weather the based red-pilled notch in a predominantly blue-pilled society any longer.

    • predominantly blue-pilled society

      ... but is that actually so? Talk to people privately, talk to them behind closed doors and see what they really think. You'll be surprised.

      It is not because the media tells us that "blue pill" is the right way, that the average person actually swallows it.

    • Anyone able to translate for people who're not interested enough to understand jargon nor follow the life of some game creator?

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by GrandCow ( 229565 )
        <quote><p>Anyone able to translate for people who're not interested enough to understand jargon nor follow the life of some game creator?</p></quote>

        Notch has some incredibly stupid personal ideas about society, backed up by reading a subforum on reddit that is filled with shitty people and creating an echo chamber of "I deserve to get laid by women" instead of treating women like normal human beings. This shitty thinking extends to white nationalism as well, because SURPRISE: most o
        • by Anonymous Coward
          I don't participate in these forums so cannot comment on that but wiki has an article on him where it says that he was criticized for statements like: 'it is ok to be white' and support for 'heterosexual pride day. All things that show his white privilege. Come to think of it he is probably guilty of many other thought crimes. You should just go on with this nonsense and see where it all gets us. Let us hope the marxists so prevalent in modern academia and media will not cause massive slaughter typical of t
      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Cederic ( 9623 )

        Marcus has such extreme financial security that he no longer needs to worry about whether he upsets people.

        This means that he speaks his mind openly and his views transgress the politically correct viewpoints expected of public figures on social media.

        Notably he calls out what he perceives to be silliness and lies when people attack the industry he's helped shape on the topics such as sexism, racism, professional ethics or daring to actually suggest that certain business practices are damaging to customers.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward

          What he says is bog standard right wing PC & right wing SJW language.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • So ... just the usual internet kindergarden bickering. Gotcha.

        • Red Pill is a term used by the "Manosphere" ("MRAs", Incels, etc) to describe their version of the world, which is a reference to an old, classic, movie from decades ago called The Matrix whereby the hero takes a "red pill" and suddenly finds out that the world is fake.

          The ironic thing is that a big part of it is that the identity forced on you by your surroundings is fake and instead identity comes from within. This is the compete antithesis of what red pillers seem to believe.

          Re watching the matrix 15 ye

      • Notch has deplorable views, MS wants to minimize its association with said views.

        https://www.dailydot.com/irl/m... [dailydot.com]

        HTH

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by elrous0 ( 869638 )

        Anyone able to translate for people who're not interested enough to understand jargon nor follow the life of some game creator?

        Translation: He had the temerity to actually publicly admit that he voted for Donald Trump instead of Her Divine Holiness, which makes him racist-sexist-homophobic-puppie-kicking-worse-than-Hitler.

        • Your guy won the election. Why are you so incredibly sore about it?

        • He had the temerity to actually publicly admit that he voted for Donald Trump

          I hope he didn't. He's not a US citizen.

        • "Punch a commie. The only good commie is the one your fist is connecting with right this second. As soon as you're no longer in contact, they are bad again. Help them be good. " - Notch.

          "How anyone is still on the left now that they're advocating infanticide and claim walls don't work is a mystery to me." - Notch

          • by elrous0 ( 869638 )

            I'm pretty sure the punch a commie remark was a parody of the Left's infamous "punch a Nazi" meme [theguardian.com].

            But I'm going to throw out a radical idea here and advocate that it's not okay to go around punching either one.

  • He got paid (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 28, 2019 @10:59PM (#58351988)

    So it's ok if they do whatever they want with the game. They own it. He's still in the credits and they're not trying to say he didn't make it so... This isn't much of a story. For $2.5 billion you can take my name off my birth certificate, I wouldn't care.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You could say they used a notch filter.

    • For $2.5 billion you can take my name off my birth certificate, I wouldn't care.

      Are you sure? Mr. "The Artist Previously Known as 'Anonymous Coward'"

  • This is my favorite tweet:

    https://mobile.twitter.com/not... [twitter.com]

    I wonder if Microsoft is in CYA mode or full totalitarian true believer mode?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      Presumably they've just decided that referencing Notch any more than they are legally-obligated to will bring them more problems than benefits.

      So, yeah, CYA mode.

      There are going to be a lot of people saying that Microsoft are "pandering to snowflakes" (or whatever the current jargon is) but any time a company "takes a step for more inclusivity" or the like it's only ever been about optics.
      They've never really cared about anyone's cause—save their own.

      • by Kohath ( 38547 )

        If it was google, there would be no question. Everyone knows they are true believers.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Seems unremarkable to me. What secifically are you referring to?

      • Seriously why the heck is this modded troll? I presume because I'm not blindly agreeing with the parent, but I've still literally no idea what I even should be agreeing to.

        Maybe it's because its referencing some meme I'm not familiar with or perhaps there's some context I am missing due to Twitter's aggressively poor user interface.

  • The worst Splash Text I've seen there is one that proudly declared, "Open Source!" Considering the history behind it, I nearly reached through the screen and stabbed Microsoft.
  • Seriously, does anyone here actually care? If so, why do you care? Do you feel his compensation insufficient for the game?

  • by UnknownSoldier ( 67820 ) on Thursday March 28, 2019 @11:56PM (#58352078)

    I love Minecraft but Why is this even news??

    Founders leave their companies all the time. Is the company under some "moral obligation" to keep a reference to the founder for all perpetuity??

    He's still listed in the credits, so who gives a fuck if his name has been removed from the Splash page?

    Is Bill Gates listed in the credits for Windows, Excel, Word, etc?

    --
    The Lie of Judaism: God commanded his children to kill one another.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      "Is the company under some "moral obligation" to keep a reference to the founder for all perpetuity??"
      Yes, ask Sid Meier.

    • by fenrif ( 991024 ) on Friday March 29, 2019 @01:51AM (#58352274)

      I love Minecraft but Why is this even news??

      Because it's part of a wider and very worrying trend of tech companies deciding to expunge people from the record for wrongthink.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        Notch is a bit beyond just having unpopular opinions.
        He needs some serious psychiatric help and it is probably too late now. He could have used it years ago.
        From what I have heard he was a bit "off" even before he started Minecraft but it has really started to show the last few years.

        That guy is a nutcase.

      • by slack_justyb ( 862874 ) on Friday March 29, 2019 @03:27AM (#58352396)

        Because it's part of a wider and very worrying trend of tech companies deciding to expunge people from the record

        Oh buddy do I have news for you. None of this is new. Like not even this century new. Companies just vanishing you from all code is pretty par at least since I've been programming (~ late 70s).

        wrongthink

        Have you read some of his tweets? I mean it's not really important, but have you read some of his tweets? I could maybe understand if he's apologetic about some of them, but nah, he seems totally fine with some choice racial slurs. That being said, he's totally free to say what he wants but Microsoft is free to do whatever they want with the code they bought from him for ~$1B. Do remember he sold his company lock, stock, and barrel to Microsoft so, I think that kind of entitles them to vanish his ass if they so wish it. I think they were leaving it in just to be nice, but ya know, push come to shove. Either way, dude got his money and ran. Now he's on Twitter whining about "injustice". Maybe he's making a pitch to be noticed again? Maybe not. I won't pretend to know what his motives are or if he's truly lost his ever loving mind from all the money (because he does bring up the fact that he's a billionaire quite often on Twitter). It's Microsoft's code, Notch can kick rocks and go say whatever he wants to say. Microsoft still gets to do whatever they want with their code. That's what it means when you completely sell out.

      • by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29, 2019 @04:03AM (#58352442)

        You use the word "wrongthink" like you've read Orwell but, if you have, you've clearly got no fucking idea what he was on about.

        1984 is scary because the party is controlling everything you do and changing society so that you can't think any other way.

        This is a company ditching an association with someone they don't think fits their brand.

        No-one is controlling what Notch is doing. He *literally* sold his right to control what happens to Minecraft.

        It's kind of the opposite of what you're suggesting. Everyone involved in this story is exercising their freedom. Notch is still free to say whatever it is he says on Twitter (I don't follow him so I've no idea what it is). MS is still free to say (or not to say) whatever it wants on its software.

        • 1984 is scary because the party is controlling everything

          Right and since the book was written by a New Age prophet (see what I did here, he did not live in the time of New Age), everything must be and only be in the way he wrote.

          Corporations are not very different from totalitarian states and at some point become indistinguishable.

          That's why they need to be regulated, that's why if you love free speech you must love the government that does not allow this sort of thing. Remember another Marx saying that go

      • by JeffSh ( 71237 ) <jeffslashdot@NOSPAM.m0m0.org> on Friday March 29, 2019 @09:15AM (#58353158)

        i dont think its about expunging.

        Minecraft was sold in 2014, so that is 5 years ago. The continued references to Notch as "The Creator" is more and more offensive to the TEAM behind Minecraft today. Notch was responsible for the early days of Minecraft, but we are approaching the break-even point between Notch's cumulative time and the Mojang team's cumulative time.

        It's an appropriate point to begin to define Notch's contributions appropriately in context of the total time of Minecrafts existence.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Kohath ( 38547 )

        Wrongthink is exactly the right term.

        We should ask ourselves:

        Is there any evidence Notch mistreated anyone based on their membership in a 'protected status' group? Any evidence at all? Who was mistreated? What was the date and time? What action did Notch take against this person? What indicates his motive in this incident?

        Do any of the people complaining about Notch answer any of these questions?

        Should someone who didn’t do anything to hurt anyone be considered guilty?

        Notch brought joy to like hal

        • Notch brought joy to like half a billion people

          Why is that relevant. Do we give passes on behavior just because of other behavior that's good? What's next, "person X saved 20 children from drowning, so here's a gift certificate for 2 free murders?"

          • by Kohath ( 38547 ) on Friday March 29, 2019 @04:36PM (#58355176)

            Why is that relevant. Do we give passes on behavior ...

            What behavior, specifically, are you talking about? What was the date and time of this behavior? How many people were injured?

            Details please. Because if this is just general totalitarian bitching about someone taking offense instead of being cool, then you're damn right Notch should "get a pass" for someone's (opportunistically) hurt feelings for all the millions of people's lives he made a little bit better.

            • I honestly don't know what the fuck Notch did. I know that people are upset with him. I also know that you aren't really weighing whether Notch should "get a pass", it's that you don't feel what he's been accused of is important. Which, depending on what he did, may be a defensible position, but has nothing to do with his experience as a game designer.

      • Because it's part of a wider and very worrying trend of tech companies deciding to expunge people from the record for wrongthink.

        Or maybe they paid $2.5bn for not having to give credit to some dude they no longer care about. .... nah must be some wrongthink conspiracy.

      • For 2.5 billion, Microsoft can expunge me all they want.

        (That is some fetish thing, right?)

    • For $2.5 billion, I'll gladly let Microsoft remove my name from the splash screen.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • If Microsoft gave me even 1 billion, they could use me as the fall guy for all their shitty security and should be illegal business practices. Hell I'll even volunteer to go to prison for a year or so!

    • Founders leave their companies all the time. Is the company under some "moral obligation" to keep a reference to the founder for all perpetuity??

      It's just a reminder that Notch is a liar. He promised that he would open source Minecraft when he was done with it. Instead, he sold it to Microsoft. I, for one, bought Minecraft while that promise was still on its webpages.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Microsoft paid 2 billion dollars for this game, they can do that.

    • Notch got over 2 billion dollars on the deal, he can say what the eff he wants on the twitter since outrage mobs cannot touch him.
  • ... or why they would want to extinguish [wikipedia.org] all references to Persson.

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