Confermato, l’acquisizione si farà: Microsoft si porterà a casa Mojang, lo sviluppatore di Minecraft, per 2,5 miliardi di dollari. Ma del pacchetto non farà parte Markus ‘Notch’ Persson, fondatore della casa e creatore del gioco, che ha annunciato la sua decisione di lasciare tutto e allontanarsi dalle luci a ribalta, dopo che l’operazione sarà conclusa. Persson ha spiegato le sue ragioni in una lunga lettera aperta che puoi leggere di seguito, rivelando il suo disagio per una situazione che è andata ben al di là delle sue intenzioni iniziali: “Sono diventato un simbolo. Non voglio essere un simbolo, responsabile di qualcosa di enorme che non capisco, sul quale non ho desiderio di lavorare, e che continua a ricadermi addosso. Non sono un imprenditore. Non sono un ceo. Sono un programmatore nerd a cui piace avere opinioni su Twitter“.
Già da tempo Persson aveva delegato agli altri membri dello studio la lavorazione di Minecraft per dedicarsi a progetti creativi di piccolo cabotaggio, ed è questo che continuerà a fare, lontano dalla pressione, dalle aspettative, dalle frustrazioni di subire attacchi ad opera di una parte della comunità dei giocatori.
“I’m leaving Mojang
I don’t see myself as a real game developer. I make games because it’s fun, and because I love games and I love to program, but I don’t make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don’t try to change the world. Minecraft certainly became a huge hit, and people are telling me it’s changed games. I never meant for it to do either. It’s certainly flattering, and to gradually get thrust into some kind of public spotlight is interesting.
A relatively long time ago, I decided to step down from Minecraft development. Jens was the perfect person to take over leading it, and I wanted to try to do new things. At first, I failed by trying to make something big again, but since I decided to just stick to small prototypes and interesting challenges, I’ve had so much fun with work. I wasn’t exactly sure how I fit into Mojang where people did actual work, but since people said I was important for the culture, I stayed.
I was at home with a bad cold a couple of weeks ago when the internet exploded with hate against me over some kind of EULA situation that I had nothing to do with. I was confused. I didn’t understand. I tweeted this in frustration. Later on, I watched the This is Phil Fish video on YouTube and started to realize I didn’t have the connection to my fans I thought I had. I’ve become a symbol. I don’t want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don’t understand, that I don’t want to work on, that keeps coming back to me. I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a CEO. I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter.
As soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately.
Considering the public image of me already is a bit skewed, I don’t expect to get away from negative comments by doing this, but at least now I won’t feel a responsibility to read them.
I’m aware this goes against a lot of what I’ve said in public. I have no good response to that. I’m also aware a lot of you were using me as a symbol of some perceived struggle. I’m not. I’m a person, and I’m right there struggling with you.
I love you. All of you. Thank you for turning Minecraft into what it has become, but there are too many of you, and I can’t be responsible for something this big. In one sense, it belongs to Microsoft now. In a much bigger sense, it’s belonged to all of you for a long time, and that will never change.
It’s not about the money. It’s about my sanity.”
via: ilnerd.com