I got into Minecraft when it very first came out. It was entertaining for a few months to explore and do shit with the monsters turned off (survival mode was just frustrating to me, personally). I think that, over the years, mojang has progressively made the game worse by adding in too much bullshit.
What confuses me is the Minecraft community, which I personally regard as easily one of the worst gaming communities on Earth. At this point, there's at least two very solid Minecraft clones that I would argue are actually better than Minecraft (Total Miner on the Xbox is probably the best one), but to even speak of those games is utter and complete heresy of the highest degree to these tards who, for whatever bizarre reason, have leashed their entire identity to this game. At this point, I think it's gone beyond being an entertaining game and it's turned into this dumb, pop culture lifestyle thing that has utterly killed the good stuff under it.

Why in the fuck do people watch other people play this game?

It's the only form of communal experience that internet nerds can conceive of, complete with inexplicable hero worship of a nerd slightly better than them all.

I also got this in the early stages, and the game's development has been almost entirely tended towards the dopey high-end shit you could get in bulk if you strip mined for 5 hours (wheee) rather than things that might make survival mode more interesting than a "exploring the dullest caves in the world" simulator.

Pretentious bronies are really missing the point of the show they claim to love.

I had the worst nightmare the other night where I was browsing Netflix and I found My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and ADDED it to my instant queue. I woke up shivering.

Some day, that dream will come true!

And the release version being really cements Notch as a guy trying to make as much money off a project he really didn't give much of a shit about, to be honest.

Update several days later: Minecraft Defense Force has assembled, and boy are they mad.

I'll tell you why he rushed.

Because he knew he's a one-off, as most indie developers who hit it big tend to be.

He's turned his attention to other "revenue generating" projects as quickly as possible in an effort to fight the odds and find another moneymaker amid the shovelware (which his next title definitely looks to be.

I'm not hugely into minecraft, but it has had its moments, especially playing over a network with people I knew who purchased the game as well.

He's greedy, and he realizes that the vast majority of his "fan base" are 12 year olds who will verbally assault you if you criticize his business ethics.

I wouldn't say Notch was greedy, he's just garnered more money as an indie developer than it should be possible too quick. It shows that he's trying to hold a professional, corporate image right now but since he is dumb as bricks as a PR person (honestly? filling your blog with mentions how you got flied all over the world on a private jet?) it all falls flat.

Most indie studios hardly make a profit and it shows in their company profile. Mojang, however, is still that same tiny indie company but way more money than they deserve*.

* Minecraft is definitely a sandbox lego autism simulator and a very good one at that. All the loose ends AS mentioned are detrimental to the _game_ in Minecraft but Minecraft is hardly a game in itself.