“If buying a game is not a purchase, then pirating them is not theft,” says Minecraft creator

Draugoth

Gold Member
Markus Persson - known as Notch, creator of Minecraft - has spoken out about the controversy. In a comment on social media, the developer said: "If buying a game is not a purchase, then pirating them is not theft."

When asked how companies could afford to maintain active servers indefinitely, even with few players, Notch defended an old model: servers hosted by the community itself.


 
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The piracy leverage is long gone. Everything now is always online by default even the single player stuff. Also, kind of late in the game with that comment its been floating the internet for years.
 
Games really should allow the community to host servers when they shut down official ones. Release Docker images and let people install them and provide an IP connection option in-game. Then games live for as long as the community nurtures them.
 
Games really should allow the community to host servers when they shut down official ones. Release Docker images and let people install them and provide an IP connection option in-game. Then games live for as long as the community nurtures them.
With some exceptions, getting you to play a game that you're not paying into, and they're not supporting is not their goal. They don't care if the customer is happy, they just want your money. Why let people continue to play a game, when they would rather you buy and play their new live service game, instead of one they don't care about.
 
The piracy leverage is long gone. Everything now is always online by default even the single player stuff. Also, kind of late in the game with that comment its been floating the internet for years.
WTH are you talking about. I pirated a bunch of games on PC. Tried them out to see if I wanted to buy them and that's that. The only thing I found that truly stop piracy Denuvo. If a game had that Denuvo I could never find it on any piracy site. Found info that only a couple of people can crack it and they charge an astronomical amount of money to do it so no one does it basically. I guess if a game needs to always be online to work that also can stop it but everything doesn't need to be online like you're claiming. In fact most games don't need to be online.
 
Who is this person? Why people dislike him?
I've seen like one or two shorts on YouTube made by him lol
He's getting a lot of attention now because of Stop Killing Games.

But look up:

Edit:
Someone reviewed his code and hurt his feelings. He responded as you'd expect a narcissist to lol
 
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The sad thing from this nightmare digital future is that pirates are actually helping games preservation.
Never trust companies, they won't care whatever they said and until some laws regulate this.
Just look at Microsoft, previously bragging about preservation (Xbox / Xbox 360), look now, they don't give a single shit.

I would go digital future on consoles if we would have ALWAYS the ability to download an offline full installer like GOG, but I'm afraid that's a forever dream and until then, I prefer to buy the physical 1.0 of a game and OWNING it instead of owning nothing will the consoles digital joke.
 
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With some exceptions, getting you to play a game that you're not paying into, and they're not supporting is not their goal. They don't care if the customer is happy, they just want your money. Why let people continue to play a game, when they would rather you buy and play their new live service game, instead of one they don't care about.
I get why they don't do it. I also don't care what they want.
 
Pirate Software's downfall has been one of the highlights of the year for me. I knew he was phony right down to the fake deep voice microphone tricks and the sus af hacker credentials right from the start.

IMG-2560.jpg
 
I'm stoked that the Stop Killing Games campaign was successful, in spite of that arrogant, condescending, idiot. He's incapable of taking the L with any kind of grace.

It's probably going to suck for everyone that it has come to this point. Having governing bodies meddling with entertainment usually never ends well. But the pure fucking greed, consumer hostility and inability to self-govern on display in this industry is mindblowing. So something, anything, must happen to tip the scales IMO.
 
Who is this person? Why people dislike him?
I've seen like one or two shorts on YouTube made by him lol

Overview of Jason Thor Hall

Jason Thor Hall is the founder and lead developer of Pirate Software, an indie game studio based in Tacoma, Washington. He has a diverse background in the gaming industry, having worked for notable companies like Blizzard Entertainment and Amazon Games Studios before starting his own studio in 2017.

Career Highlights

Previous Experience

  • Blizzard Entertainment: Worked for about seven years, contributing to major titles including World of Warcraft and Overwatch.
  • Amazon Games Studios: Served as an automation engineer, focusing on the Lumberyard game engine.
  • U.S. Department of Energy: Employed as a penetration test hacker, securing power plants.

Indie Game Development

  • Founded Pirate Software: Established the studio to pursue his passion for game development.
  • Notable Games: Developed two games, "Champion of Breakfast" and "Heartbound," the latter being an RPG that emphasizes player choice. "Heartbound" gained significant attention and was successfully funded on Kickstarter.

Community Engagement

Thor actively engages with the gaming community through live streams on Twitch, where he shares the development process of his games. He has built a strong following, winning awards for his contributions to game development streaming.

Personal Interests

Thor is known for his quirky personality and interests, including a love for ferrets and a humorous approach to his online presence. He has also gained recognition for his achievements in the hacking community, holding multiple black badges from DEF CON.

---------------
Boils down to a 2nd gen blizzard nepo baby who believes developers can do no wrong and basically sides in all business practices the developers / publishers / studios do. Basically he has not put out any noteworthy games; of which he has put out 1 release and 1 early access game. If you listen to him for any length of time he comes across as faking it till he makes it.

Aside from his ferret refuge being positive efforts, the guy oozes cringe when he circlejerks his own achievements.
 
Markus Persson - known as Notch, creator of Minecraft - has spoken out about the controversy. In a comment on social media, the developer said: "If buying a game is not a purchase, then pirating them is not theft."

When asked how companies could afford to maintain active servers indefinitely, even with few players, Notch defended an old model: servers hosted by the community itself.



Based, young folk have never known dedicated servers. This should be the outcome of the Stop Killing Games movement: if you're building an online game, you should be obligated to release the dedicated server when sunsetting the game.
 
just because someone is selling something in a way you dont like, doesnt mean you get to take it for free.

but screw digital-only, and i support piracy as applicable
 
Who is this person? Why people dislike him?
I've seen like one or two shorts on YouTube made by him lol
Ya know the "my uncle works at Nintendo kid"? Well he's that, except it's his dad works at Blizzard, and it was actually true, and he was a nepo hire thanks to that. I'm not entirely sure why he blew up on the algorithm so to speak, but naturally he was suggested to me, I clicked, and he was constantly speaking as some authority on game development. I think he was recommended to me because I was going down a rabbit-hole of "Did I mention I work at Netflix" ThePrimeagen. Except ThePrimeagen actually seemed to have a real coding job, and... knows what he's talking about most of the time. But I digress.

I think this PirateSoftware aka Thor (*groan*) dude watched Silicon Valley and decided he was going to cosplay as Gilfoyle:


Apparently he had a Kickstarter for some Undertale clone that has underdelivered and hasn't left early access after like 8 years.

People in the general sense seemed to start to dislike him when he roached out on a WoW dungeon on stream with some streamer clan on hardcore characters allegedly resulting in some players needlessly suffering permadeaths... At least that's when I noticed him getting negative press. I don't know that much about WoW specifically, and he had his fair share of defenders... some of the drama was some of the people he roached out on being caught doing much the same thing in later streams. It seemed like something he had more or less weathered.

But then he came out against this game preservation petition thing, and that's when most people seemed to completely turn on him. And now YouTube is flooded with videos examining his LinkedIn, and people dissecting screenshots of his pretty poor looking GameMaker code that only ever briefly manages to pop up on screen during his supposed gamedev focused streaming.
 
The piracy leverage is long gone. Everything now is always online by default even the single player stuff. Also, kind of late in the game with that comment its been floating the internet for years.


Long gone?
Are you aware that all the keys shops (except GOG) are disguised piracy?
 
Ftfy

Im sure he would be saying otherwise if he was still Minecraft's owner
I don't think so.

A person had asked him for a Minecraft key before he pirates the game because he wanted to play Minecraft but didn't have the money to buy the game and he told them to just pirate the game so this isn't a new stance for Notch.

And don't get me wrong the guy did let the Microsoft money get to his head and started saying some dumb things during the pandemic but remember he was just a normal person at one point.

He once made a comment that of your hired to paint a fence once and you just get paid once after painting the fence and that was the end of that but he was a bit weirded out that he continued to get paid for Minecraft after he had already made the game.

Some people are not great at handling and reacting huge amounts of money responsibly.
 
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Markus Persson - known as Notch, creator of Minecraft - has spoken out about the controversy. In a comment on social media, the developer said: "If buying a game is not a purchase, then pirating them is not theft."

When asked how companies could afford to maintain active servers indefinitely, even with few players, Notch defended an old model: servers hosted by the community itself.




He's right!
 

Overview of Jason Thor Hall

Jason Thor Hall is the founder and lead developer of Pirate Software, an indie game studio based in Tacoma, Washington. He has a diverse background in the gaming industry, having worked for notable companies like Blizzard Entertainment and Amazon Games Studios before starting his own studio in 2017.

Career Highlights

Previous Experience

  • Blizzard Entertainment: Worked for about seven years, contributing to major titles including World of Warcraft and Overwatch.
  • Amazon Games Studios: Served as an automation engineer, focusing on the Lumberyard game engine.
  • U.S. Department of Energy: Employed as a penetration test hacker, securing power plants.

Indie Game Development

  • Founded Pirate Software: Established the studio to pursue his passion for game development.
  • Notable Games: Developed two games, "Champion of Breakfast" and "Heartbound," the latter being an RPG that emphasizes player choice. "Heartbound" gained significant attention and was successfully funded on Kickstarter.

Dude's a hack:

 
Legally speaking, that is completely wrong.
But I understand the sentiment and empathize.
No it's not theft is depriving one self of there item by taking it. Copy right infringment isn't the same as your not depriving them of item as there infinite amount. The only thing that could say a pirate is depriving them of is money however then you can argue you might never of bought the item in the first place no matter what then in reality the company liturally lost nothing.

Copy right infringment and theft are clearly two different things morally and legally
 
This is retarded.

By this logic, stealing a rental car isn't theft either.

This is one of those monikers that cheap broke ass redditors will adopt to justify their behavior.
Semantically, I agree with the guy above you. I don't think it's theft cause. Nothing is being taken that the actual owner is losing. Copyright infringement - I'd have to assume it meets some sort of behavior fitting into this label. Heck, possibly trespassing to some extent although that seems a stretch too. And for sure a society could make unauthorized copying a crime itself. Probably already has in some form or fashion.
 
This is retarded.

By this logic, stealing a rental car isn't theft either.

This is one of those monikers that cheap broke ass redditors will adopt to justify their behavior.


Read my above statement and you'll see it's not retarded at all you seriously need look up defetfition of theft. Then compare the act co right infringment and you clearly see they aren't one same thing. That's justifying it by the way just because there two different things
 
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It's a shit situation for consumers. When you buy a physical item you know it's yours for as long as you want it. With digital that's not the case at all. Platform holders can revoke access at any time. I had a lot of digital games on the PS3, but I can't access those games any more because I no longer have the PS3 and the games aren't' on the PS store.

It's the same with any digital purchase.

If I buy a film from Amazon Prime, I can watch it whenever I want, but if the movie is removed due to licensing issues, rights expirations, or a platform decision, I can lose access, even if I've paid. That's shit and it puts me off buying digitally.
 
This is retarded.

By this logic, stealing a rental car isn't theft either.

This is one of those monikers that cheap broke ass redditors will adopt to justify their behavior.

I think it's more like, imagine buying a car outright. Then, 5 years later the can manufacturer comes to your house, explains they're not servicing this model any more and then legally drives off with your car.
 
He's right. Maybe it's some sort of breach of a license agreement or something but calling it stealing is crying wolf. It's not like "piracy" sounds especially flattering. Just say that.
 
I think it's more like, imagine buying a car outright. Then, 5 years later the can manufacturer comes to your house, explains they're not servicing this model any more and then legally drives off with your car.
Isn't that basically how a car lease works?
 
Isn't that basically how a car lease works?

I'm not talking about a lease.

I'm talking about walking into a Mercedes dealership and dropping £50K on a new C-Class, then driving out thinking you now own the car. However, a few years later Mercedes knock on your door and tell you they're taking the car away because they no longer service this model.
 
No it's not theft is depriving one self of there item by taking it. Copy right infringment isn't the same as your not depriving them of item as there infinite amount. The only thing that could say a pirate is depriving them of is money however then you can argue you might never of bought the item in the first place no matter what then in reality the company liturally lost nothing.

Copy right infringment and theft are clearly two different things morally and legally
I'll take my argument to the jury, you can take yours.
 
WTH are you talking about. I pirated a bunch of games on PC. Tried them out to see if I wanted to buy them and that's that. The only thing I found that truly stop piracy Denuvo. If a game had that Denuvo I could never find it on any piracy site. Found info that only a couple of people can crack it and they charge an astronomical amount of money to do it so no one does it basically. I guess if a game needs to always be online to work that also can stop it but everything doesn't need to be online like you're claiming. In fact most games don't need to be online.
Jennifer Lawrence Reaction GIF
 
This is an ages old saying from 4chan. Usually followed up by that image that shows how making a copy of something doesn't remove the original, so no theft has happened.
 
Okay I'll rephrase what I said,

Maybe it's not technically theft, because it doesn't fit the definition, but the victim is losing out on a sale they would have otherwise potentially made. It is not a victimless crime. Call it what you want, but it is morally wrong.

Ask SEGA's hardware division how much impact piracy had on the Dreamcast. Oh wait they don't exist anymore? Huh, weird.
 
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I'm not talking about a lease.

I'm talking about walking into a Mercedes dealership and dropping £50K on a new C-Class, then driving out thinking you now own the car. However, a few years later Mercedes knock on your door and tell you they're taking the car away because they no longer service this model.
They don't even have to knock on the door because in your signed contract there was a section that you have to bring your Mercedes to the dump once warranty expires! 😉
 
...but the victim is losing out on a sale they would have otherwise potentially made.

Who said that the pirate would had bought the game if it wasn't for free?
Too many unknown variables.

IMHO is more common for someone to buy a game AFTER they pirate it than otherwise.
 
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