Always with the hat, this Persson guy!
Is there a Voldemort thing going on under there?
Notch donates $8,000 to indie game
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Sportsfriends Kickstarter campaign now successful, thanks in part to contribution from Minecraft creator Markus Persson.
Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson contributed $8,000 to the Sportsfriends Kickstarter campaign. His original pledge was $5,000, but he said "the suspense was killing me," so he decided to increase his giving. The Sportsfriends Kickstarter campaign ends at 4 p.m. EDT today and only just reached its $150,000 target this morning.
Sportsfriends is a four-pack of local multiplayer games for PlayStation 3, PC, and Mac from four independent developers. The games included are Johann Sebastian Joust, BaraBariBall, Super Pole Riders, and Hokra.
Each game is currently playable in prototype form, but the funding will be used to complete and release them. "Publishers aren't interested in local multiplayer-only games, so that's where you come in," reads a line from the Sportsfriends Kickstarter.
At press time, the Sportsfriends Kickstarter fund had gathered $153,551 from 3,701 backers.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
51 comments
Oh come on, as if we couldn't instantly tell whose face that is, plus you shouldn't post a shot like that, you will scare kids.
4 Like For real? 8,000? I could donate that much right now and you would never know about it, and that's the way I would prefer it to be. No matter the amount, why write about it? If Notch is looking for good pub, this is not the way to do it. I give him the benefit of the doubt considering who wrote the article.
4 Like It's understandable. When I have too much pocket change I quite often to give it away too.
6 Like Why exactly are we reading this?
Does Gamespot.com pay you per article? That would make more sense.
5 Like Can we stop with the articles on these non-news developments? Seriously, many of these donations seem to amount to very little, so why bother reporting on them? Why don't you report on the equally minor developments of much larger games?
Mainstream websites shouldn't be hyping these kickstarter projects by covering these donations like they're newsworthy, or like they have any real impact.
9 Like so... is the next news article that we are going to see
"NOTCH TAKES SHIT, WIPES HIS OWN ASS"
????? i mean seriously, who fucking cares what this guy does?
1 Like @b_o_l_h_a @Geminon Don't you realize it's all pointless. The first post and yours. It all means nothing, although I do agree with Geminon.
2 Like @tightwad34 @b_o_l_h_a the idol worship that this guy receives is absolutely fucknig ludicrous. minecraft was not that mindblowing people, and notch is not the jesus of developers... Everyone acts like he is some profound new age revelator or something. the guy is just some geek from sweden that makes absolutely no important contributions to gaming. all that you ever read about him is dumb shit like this: "NOTCH DONATES MONEY FROM ALL THE MILLIONS HE MADE ON MINECRAFT, HIS ONLY SUCCESSFUL GAME" "NOTCH MAKES A COMMENTARY ABOUT HOW GAMES ARENT REVOLUTIONARY ANYMORE" "NOTCH SAYS BIG DEVELOPERS HAVE LOST THEIR WAY" "NOTCH THINKS THINGS NEED TO CHANGE" well no fucking shit notch. i have never developed a single game in my life, and i could have told you those things. why is nobody worshiping me?
2 Like Great more kickstart publicity, i sure hope the big greedy devs houses like EA & Antivision can see a future without them in it anymore as all games should be this way from now on
8 Like Awww isn't he just the best person ever? Move aside Gabe Newell, PC nerds with superiority and persecution complexes have a new overrated, obese god to worship! Seriously though, why THAT game? There are dozens of games on Kickstarter that actually look, you know, good. This is just more causal Wii sports-like crap.
3 Like @CyhortI82 "Casual Wii sports-like crap" might be a little harsh, but it's certainly nothing that I have any interest in playing. I noticed this Kickstarter well before this article and passed it over.
I agree with you that there are better projects to back, and that we should know better by now than to give these guys any limelight. Go watch Indie Game: The Movie if you can still stand hearing about indie developers. They can make some excellent games, and I for one love Minecraft, but the less anybody hears about the people themselves, the better.
1 Like @StinkySkunkGirl @CyhortI82 ...so then, you only want the corporate super powers that be to thrive in the industry and not the guys trying to actually do something with their lives other then working some crap dead-end job? Idk if you've noticed, but there's a lot of room for innovation in the video game world these days, and its not the guys on top that are contributing to that....not to say, they do make some pretty games for sure which I also enjoy. but the little guys need the attention and publicity, that is how they get sales. Also, I for one, and maybe its just cause game development is what I went to college for, thought the movie Indie Game was excellent and showed the level of stress that goes into even the most basic of games. ...you try making a game like that and tell everyone you wouldn't hope to receive a little notoriety for your efforts. ...what do you do for a living?
4 Like @CyhortI82 Ironically, you sound EXACTLY like the "nerd with superiority and persecution complex" that you're complaining about. The games look legitimately fun and are much more different and innovative than Wii sports. Stop being so condescending and maybe try making a game for yourself, and see if Notch himself donates $8,000 to get it published.
1 Like I don't have any sympathies for this Notch dude... You make a donation and publish it, oh really, why he didn't do that without media coverage... I am not that big fan of Minecraft, but I am looking forward for his new game...
2 Like @Iranazi @Landsharkk What percentage of his yearly income is $8,000? I'd wager it's a lot less than the percentage I've put toward more than one of the crowdfunding projects I've backed. Do you know what name I used? Anonymous. I've been featured in a number of Gamespot articles... in the comments section, that is.
Too many bloated egos in the gaming scene these days. I agree with the others who have said that this isn't a donation, it's publicity. For what it's worth, the spirit of charity is dead or dying. Either it's for tax purposes, publicity, or public image. It's not about the charity itself. That just happens to be there as a convenient tool, a sort of stepping stone. It's always a means to an end.
@sgt_F79 @Iranazi @Afrosol @Landsharkk I wish I stopped reading Afrosol's comment at Afrosol.
1 Like @StinkySkunkGirl @Iranazi @Landsharkk Do you have any PROOF that Notch donated that money solely for publicity? Any proof that he's this big bad boogie man that you're so desperate to make him out to be? No, so that's where this "speculation and paranoia" should stop. In fact, I'm not seeing anything on Notch's Twitter saying anything about him making a donation so if I'm missing something please tell me. Why you care so much is beyond me, he didn't ask Gamespot to write this article. They wrote it so they could get page views, and obviously we've all given them lots of those. I think you should stop being so pessimistic, especially when it leads to bagging on a guy for donating money.
1 Like @StinkySkunkGirl @Iranazi @Afrosol @Landsharkk I'm talking about the original comment, the guy complaining about not getting an article despite having backed stuff, that's begging. And to go pick on something as small as "lol" seriously? You take that literally? You're unaware that today, a single small lol has no meaning? It's just there out of habit...and frankly, he could beg all the publicity he wants, Notch, who cares, it doesn't bother me, it's not as if I get stabbed every time someone pays attention to Notch's deeds.
1 Like "Afrosol: You're making quite a few leaps that have no grounds to them besides pure speculation and paranoia".
...what? I don't think speculation and paranoia mean what you think they mean. How does that describe what I said in the slightest, and why did your incoherent comment get so many likes?
"Afrosol: Besides, the Kickstarter didn't require him to donate more than $8,000 so why would he?"
...um, for publicity? Haven't we already gone down this road?
"Why can't we just appreciate a guy DONATING his money without scrounging for ways to make him look bad?"
Because he did it for publicity, and it's blatantly obvious he did. He could have just as easily donated that $8,000 without a soul knowing it was him and paying him any mind. Other people in the comments section have already discussed this at length, and you are doing them a disservice.
"Iranazi: Exactly, those points were irrelevant, I've backed projects on Kickstarter, obviously with small donations, all I'm saying is Notch did something awesome to get this publicity"
What points? And yes, he did something helpful to buy his publicity, and will proceed to milk it for all it's worth, leaving thousands of people in the gaming scene hanging on his every word and believing him to be some sort of saint. You don't donate money and go around making sure thousands of people are aware that you, in your infinite generousity, donated money out of the goodness of your heart. That's poor etiquette.
"Iranazi: I'm not begging for an article just because I've backed stuff before lol"
Who is? And how is the fact that you're not begging for an article funny enough to make you laugh out loud? Notch certainly isn't begging. He could donate $100 and still get publicity, simply because he's Notch. Nobody in this comment section is begging. "Random Gamespot commenter donates $200 to Shadowrun Returns". Not even the person donating would want to read that. I spent some time thinking of how to respond to the both of you, but to be perfectly honest, I can't even begin to understand your thought processes.
2 Like @Afrosol @StinkySkunkGirl @Landsharkk Exactly, those points were irrelevant, I've backed projects on Kickstarter, obviously with small donations, all I'm saying is Notch did something awesome to get this publicity, whether he did it for the sake of publicity, doesn't matter. I'm not begging for an article just because I've backed stuff before lol
4 Like @StinkySkunkGirl @Iranazi @Landsharkk You're making quite a few leaps that have no grounds to them besides pure speculation and paranoia. Besides, the Kickstarter didn't require him to donate more than $8,000 so why would he? Why can't we just appreciate a guy DONATING his money without scrounging for ways to make him look bad?
1 Like Thats cool of him, I hope that the game will be good... I have not heard of it til today
1 Like Couldn't he afford to give more than 8,000, and it seems to me that nobody wanted these games to begin with
4 Like @mrsniper83 $8,000 got him a full article on GS. Seems like a good deal to me. Oh, and he comes off as being generous and caring to boot so +1 to public image as well. Now if he'd just kiss a baby and talk to poor women working horrible jobs he could run for president.
6 Like @mrsniper83 $8k is pocket change for that dude, but his point was to make the Kickstarter reach it's goal so that they'd get the funding - which you don't get if you're so much as a dollar short of the stated goal.
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1 Like @jeffbordonaro That's only true when people aren't doing something good to help people out, but are doing something just to get compliments and kudos from other people (i.e. not an act of altruism, but one of selfishness.)
8 Like It's not a donation unless it's anonymous. Any other giving with a name attached is publicity. Considering he has a quote about and an article on GS that's a cheap advertisement for only $8,000.
2 Like @Sefrix A donation is an act of giving something as a gift, grant, or contribution. At no point did people think donations had to be made anonymously. Sure, the spirit of it is damaged if he only wanted to get his name out there again, but it's still a donation.
3 Like @OmegaGear This is semantics, but if the true meaning behind giving is for publicity then it's not a donation to the person giving, but publicity. Yes it is giving money, just like advertisers give money to GS for ad space. The moment you let everyone know that you gave, and make a deal of it especially, it's not a donation, but an investment. Considering he donated, attached his name, spoke about it, and now has articles written on it, I'd say he made a good investment, but not a donation.
3 Like @ggregd @OmegaGear You don't have to put your actual name down in Kickstarter, also he's quoted talking about it, so it got out because he wants it to get out. He also did receive something for it and that's publicity and an improved public image which he fully expects to get in return. As an owner of a company that's more valuable than a measly $8,000. The only way to donate and guarantee you do not get anything out of it is to do it anonymously.
1 Like @Sefrix @OmegaGear It's a donation because he can't expect anything in return, as opposed to investing in the game for a share of the profit. I agree that publicizing your 'generosity' can be a little douchey (it depends how word got out) but it's still a donation.
2 Like @NotMagoo @OmegaGear lol no need to ever apologize GS comment formatting.
I am familiar with your example though I find it a bit of a stretch from an universal assertion, and the meaning of a word. What I'm essentially saying is it's a matter of semantics and that the word used "donation" loses it's meaning and therefore it's place in the story because that's not what is truly going on. The definition is "Give (money or goods) for a good cause, for example to a charity." but was he truly giving *for* a good cause, or *for* something else? That's where my issue lies.
I can see your point of view though. It's just a matter of what we bring to the table when we both see the word donate, and in my case, what I see as his reasoning.
1 Like @Sefrix @OmegaGear Good lord, that post looks ugly. I apologize: my spacing did not carry over.
3 Like @Sefrix @OmegaGear You're guilty of the 'no true Scotsman' fallacy, sir. The basic example goes like this:Alice: All Scotsmen enjoy haggis.
Bob: My uncle is a Scotsman, and he doesn't like haggis!
Alice: Well, all -true- Scotsmen like haggis.What you are saying can be simplified to:You: All donations are anonymous and selfless.OmegaGear: But there are plenty of donations that aren't anonymous and selfless.You: All -true- donations are anonymous and selfless.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_ScotsmanA donation is a donation, regardless of the benefits gained by donating or the reason the donation was made in the first place. Some donations can be more 'pure of heart' than others, but all donations are still donations.
4 Like @OmegaGear I wish I could edit posts still. Anyway, this is no different than Donations like the Humble Bundle, where the top contributors will post a dollar more than the person under them, and have a website or company name attached. That is advertising, and cheap advertising at that. Pay $1,001 and get your company name pasted on a website that hundreds of thousands view? Good deal. Any true donation is made anonymous and is made without consideration of what others have given.
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