# fat green notches - on leaving for moyang$ 1. some now see notch as even less of an true indie(tm) garme dev that even ey never used to think ey was 2. some make garmes because it's fun and because they love garmes and love to program - with the firm (semi-unconscious) intention of them becoming huge hits. certainly not by trying to change the world for the better 3. for some reason minecraft has became a hit with believers repeatedly telling themselves that "it's changed garmes." it's certainly flattering to get thrust into some kind of public spotlight by repeating what you think everyone else thinks about stuff that doesn't matter 4. some players have decided to step down from helping develop minecraft for free. microsoft was the perfect evil near-future hypercorp to take over leading it as notch wanted to try to do new things. at first ey failed by trying to make something big again but since ir's decided to just stick to small prototypes and interesting challenges ir's had so much fun playing with the concept of work 5. yet everyone around ir wasn't exactly sure how ey fit into mojang / garming culture generally where people who do the hard actual work that makes ir money but since people with psychological investment in cubes said ey was "important for the ©ulture" ey stayed 6. notch was at home with a bad back a while ago after trying to lift large bales of cash when the internet exploded with love/hate against ir over a garme simulation that ey had at least something to do with. notchy got confused again. ey didn't understand how dangerous minecraft is and tweeted this in frustration! 7. later on players watched the this is (/not) phil fish video on youtube and started to realize notch didn't have the connection to ir community they thought ey had. some of them even started to consider minecraft as a symbol of the terrifying waste of mind that 'messing around with digital legos' represents 8. eventually notch tried claiming the adam jensen defence saying that ey didn't want to be a symbol of 'universal life-wasting through playing with blocks'; that is responsible for something huge that ey is in fact fully responsible for that ey was in on from the very outset who did everything to build and sustain for a considerable period - but which ey now somehow doesn't understand - that ey doesn't to want to work on.. yet that keeps coming back to haunt ir (in the form of massive profits / fame) 9. allegedly notch is not a world class regan-era entrepreneur or ceo. neither is ey really a nerdy computer programmer who likes to express opinions on twitter. rather consider ir a fully willing participant / product of the internet video (fame) garme 10. now the dirty deal is finalized notch will leave mojang and go back to doing crappy ludum dares and other small web experiments - you know a 'taking it back to ir humble roots' kinda thing. if ey ever accidentally make something that gains fiscal traction they'll probably abandon it immediately since you know ya gotta keep it humble 11. considering "the public image" is something which is always already skewed notch doesn't expect to get away from critical commentary by leaving - it's just that ey now feels even less of a responsibility to read them (from behind ten foot high walls of dollar bills) 12. yet notch states ir's also remotely aware this goes against a lot of what ir's said in public. ey conveniently has no good response to that. ir's also apparently aware some are seeing ir as a champion in the struggle against greed in the garmes industry. ir's not. ir's a person just like you - and ir's right there struggling with us all - atop a large stack of green paper 13. honestly: notchy loves us - all of us 14. notch thanks you for turning minecraft into what ey has become but there are too many dollars to count now and ey can't be possibly be responsible for something this big. in all senses it all belongs to microsoft. in a much bigger sense minecraft has always belonged to its players (they just never got paid for it.) always remember however > it's not about the money(tm). it's about my (fully paid for) sanity > ~ count von notch // republic of bob