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Author Topic: Minecraft - It has blocks.  (Read 2456847 times)

Dutchling

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Re: Minecraft - It has blocks.
« Reply #11055 on: August 16, 2011, 12:31:49 pm »

It's not like they need to her to actually do productive stuff. They already have millions of dollars. :3
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Thexor

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Re: Minecraft - It has blocks.
« Reply #11056 on: August 16, 2011, 01:59:36 pm »

Actually, somebody just figuring out the controls is exactly what you need at a game company, at least as a part-time tester. "New user experience" is essential to a successful game. This goes doubly when your game is open (like Minecraft), meaning you don't have the benefits of some exhaustive tutorial before gameplay begins. This goes triply when you're making an enormous content update just a few short months before the game officially goes gold. This goes quadruply when your game is somewhat infamous for having a horrible beginning if you haven't already committed the wiki to memory; how the heck are you supposed to know that punching down trees works better than punching down stone, let alone why you have to build a house with a light source before night falls?

Now, I doubt she'd be useful as a programmer, obviously. But, from what I understand, Notch basically does the core of the programming himself; his other 'programmers' basically add tiny side-features while desperately trying to figure out how the heck Minecraft works. (Note how long it took to implement pistons, which were pretty much fully-functional in mod form before integration even began!)

To give you a POV: Listen to some of the Valve developer commentaries; in particular, the L4D1 commentary details the development team bringing in family and friends that had almost zero gaming experience. Like Minecraft, L4D is a game with no structured introduction or tutorial, and so making sure new users didn't get confused was essential. Odds are, this is exactly what Lydia is expected to do.
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Saint

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Re: Minecraft - It has blocks.
« Reply #11057 on: August 16, 2011, 02:19:54 pm »

Plus 2 years from toady isn't that bad.
Toady does update us on his progress AND we didn't pay for DF, we paid for minecraft.
I don't even play minecraft anymore because it's pretty boring, nothing changes enough to make it worth bothering with and I get bored and I'm easily amused most of the time.
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Andir

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Re: Minecraft - It has blocks.
« Reply #11058 on: August 16, 2011, 04:05:08 pm »

It's not like they need to her to actually do productive stuff. They already have millions of dollars. :3
I don't think you know how quickly millions can be spent...  :P  Well, here in the US it can go pretty quick.  I don't know what he's paying his employees over there though.
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Re: Minecraft - It has blocks.
« Reply #11059 on: August 16, 2011, 04:37:18 pm »

 I know there is merit to customer feedback and playtesting and designing things for new players, I suppose the vague statement on why she was hired left me confused. While playtesters are a valid part of such companies I suspected that for a small team like Mojang such a position would be a very part-time or internship-style of a role.
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Mephansteras

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Re: Minecraft - It has blocks.
« Reply #11060 on: August 16, 2011, 04:42:09 pm »

It's possible she was also hired for some office role of some sort (HR? Accounting? Reception? Sales?) but enjoys games so they decided to use her to do a bunch of playtesting as well. If she's only ever done console games the WASD control scheme would probably be horribly confusing.
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Re: Minecraft - It has blocks.
« Reply #11061 on: August 16, 2011, 04:51:00 pm »

 She did manage a pretty popular Youtube series and its following, I could see her hired to help manage the fanbase.

 God help her for trying that mammoth task.
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forsaken1111

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Re: Minecraft - It has blocks.
« Reply #11062 on: August 16, 2011, 05:10:05 pm »

The terrible truth: The whole thing was a marketing stunt. She was actually hired before making that video series, and it was a viral marketing ploy! OH GODS THEY'RE EVERYWHERE

/paranoia
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SirAaronIII

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Re: Minecraft - It has blocks.
« Reply #11063 on: August 16, 2011, 05:16:37 pm »

I really do hope she can survive the toothed maws of the seething masses that is the Minecraft "community".

In all seriousness, the Minecraft forum is vicious. I think I'm going to go see what they have to say about her.
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Rex_Nex

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Re: Minecraft - It has blocks.
« Reply #11064 on: August 16, 2011, 06:23:26 pm »

Inb4: "she look like my mommy" all over the forums. Does anyone over the age of 16 even exist on those forums? 18?
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Osmosis Jones

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Re: Minecraft - It has blocks.
« Reply #11065 on: August 16, 2011, 07:43:30 pm »

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/ gets info almost daily. Show me the equivalent from Notch and don't point me to Twitter. Toady gives us more than 140 characters. Notch's blog hasn't had any fundamental Minecraft changes since the bugfix a month ago and that's self proclaimed "95% Minecraft development."

I'm sorry to go back a bit, but that is a horrible example. Toady is currently updating that page regularly, yes, but two years ago, it was not unusual to go a couple of weeks with nothing at all. Notch's Tumblr (not twitter) actually frequently contains long posts on minecraft related stuff.
Indeed, to address "since the bugfix a month ago"; there has been two loong posts on the possibility of infinite vert space and the psychology of a new mob, an announcement of a minecraft convention, announcement of a minecraft crossover in a popular game, announcement of a upcoming sale, and a huge discourse on a legal challenge to the company. Tallying it up, that is significantly more than Toady has written in the intervening time. (I should mention here, I don't have a complaint with how Toady acts either, it's all good :) )

I'm going to stop writing now.
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Re: Minecraft - It has blocks.
« Reply #11066 on: August 16, 2011, 07:53:13 pm »

Inb4: "she look like my mommy" all over the forums. Does anyone over the age of 16 even exist on those forums? 18?
Raises hand, I do see what you mean, though, I only really post in my own topic.

I think most people feel entitled because they got used to weekly updates. I got used to them and mourn the loss of them somewhat. Given the terms agreed on buying the game it's not a valid reason to complain but people like to vent. I get the impression his focus has slipped somewhat from before.
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Niveras

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Re: Minecraft - It has blocks.
« Reply #11067 on: August 16, 2011, 08:36:23 pm »

To be fair, I'm sure a lot of Notch's time is taken up having to be CEO/CFO/all around executive to Mojang, no matter how large or small his company may still be. Hell, you need only look at Osmosis' post to see that: 2/3s of updates were Minecraft-related, 1/3rd about Minecraft itself. And I'm sure it does rub people the wrong way when he expounds about the various perks of being an independent developer with millions in funds and not much in the way of needed expenses (that is, rent and paychecks, as opposed to travel and lodging to attend some business meeting halfway around the world), certainly not on the order of even small development studios.

Of course, that doesn't excuse the acerbic behavior of the Minecraft community, only attempts to explain Notch's. There may or may not be merit to that explanation, but no one can look so far into the future to see whether it'll all work out and Notch'll become the next Gabe Newell, or whether he's wasting his resources and that despite his critical success he may not have the business acumen to succeed.
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PsyberianHusky

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Re: Minecraft - It has blocks.
« Reply #11068 on: August 16, 2011, 10:30:39 pm »

I know there is merit to customer feedback and playtesting and designing things for new players, I suppose the vague statement on why she was hired left me confused. While playtesters are a valid part of such companies I suspected that for a small team like Mojang such a position would be a very part-time or internship-style of a role.

This person?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRBHhHwj84w
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Saint

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Re: Minecraft - It has blocks.
« Reply #11069 on: August 17, 2011, 08:49:31 am »

The best playtesting is the community who already BOUGHT your game. There's way more of them and they pay you.
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