A surprisingly poor move from someone who historically has been a game development hero.
Before reading the article and understanding the campaign, I initially thought Notch axed it because this guy wanted to create a film about Notch. It would be reasonable to cancel such an endeavor: leaving your legacy up to filmmakers is not a wise move, as Woz recently discovered. Since that's the only scenario in which this cancellation would be reasonable, I assumed that was the reason.
Actually not. This is purely a creative work which has been completely sunk for no reason other than "You didn't run it by me ahead of time." It was clearly a work of passion. Watch the video: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/878782324/birth-of-man-...
Yes, it's Notch's right to cancel this artist's dream. It's also his right to add in-game purchases to Minecraft, and force people to pay extra for the privilege of using diamond pickaxes. Both of those decisions wouldn't reflect favorably upon him, however.
EDIT: My main problem with this move is that the film didn't involve Notch in any way. It's unrelated to him except insofar as it uses his game as a setting for an artistic work. It seems like the primary motivation for the cancellation was rooted in greed.
Before reading the article and understanding the campaign, I initially thought Notch axed it because this guy wanted to create a film about Notch. It would be reasonable to cancel such an endeavor: leaving your legacy up to filmmakers is not a wise move, as Woz recently discovered. Since that's the only scenario in which this cancellation would be reasonable, I assumed that was the reason.
Actually not. This is purely a creative work which has been completely sunk for no reason other than "You didn't run it by me ahead of time." It was clearly a work of passion. Watch the video: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/878782324/birth-of-man-...
Yes, it's Notch's right to cancel this artist's dream. It's also his right to add in-game purchases to Minecraft, and force people to pay extra for the privilege of using diamond pickaxes. Both of those decisions wouldn't reflect favorably upon him, however.
EDIT: My main problem with this move is that the film didn't involve Notch in any way. It's unrelated to him except insofar as it uses his game as a setting for an artistic work. It seems like the primary motivation for the cancellation was rooted in greed.