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[Hayden Scott-Baron]

Minecraft is much more indie than some of the finalists last year. Every game has a good chance, and not everyone is into every game, so it's impossible to know how the judging will pan out.

People need to relax and stop seeing these things as entitlement. It's very unsporting.

[Rob Lach]

I don't see anything wrong with Minecraft entering the IGF, Mojang is straight up indie. I a bigger problem with PixelJunk entering sony backed games or if thatgamecompany entered.

As I said in IRC, if I were notch and had won, I'd split up the prize money among the other winners. It'd be a good PR move and it would help those winners who really need that money to pay the rent.

[Nugsy]

c418 then your millionaire employer should pay you more

Bingo.

minecraft doesn't need 20k, it doesn't need the recognition

Bingo.

[Blademasterbobo]

Two things: one, I find it funny that people who were up in arms over Super Meat Boy/Pixel Junk etc and seem to not care much about Minecraft entering, and two, I wasn't really saying anything about the IGF, I don't think Minecraft should be removed or anything... but I still think it was a bit of a dick move on their part in entering. I don't think it really matters whether or not Minecraft fits anybody's definition of indie, that's sort of beside the point.

[Toeofdoom]

Honestly, I think one point is that including minecraft could actually work out better for other people in the IGF. There are huge numbers of people playing the game - $20000 is equivalent to what, a few thousand sales? I can certainly see why going up against minecraft would be worrying, but I'm not convinced it's actually likely cause harm overall.

[Evan Balster]

I don't see any problem with Notch entering.  Minecraft started as a bedroom programming project, after all.  Let the judges decide its merit as independent from its success and it's a fair competition--and the merit is there.

On a sidenote, what the hell is the Nuovo award?  My original understanding was that it was for "innovative" games, but after some reading it seems more geared at small-scale experimental or art games to the effect of Jason Rohrer's stuff.

I have the faint hope that Infinite Blank qualifies...

[mirosurabu]

Some of you guys are trying hard to impose a moral code onto Notch only because he shared stats with you. It is none of your business to discuss what Notch should do with his money.

[kavs]

I don't care if Minecraft enters. That might be because I don't have a game of my own to submit so I don't have to worry about competition, but come on; it's an Independent Games Festival. He worked hard on Minecraft and if the judges deem it worthy of the Seumas McNally thinger, then great for him.

I don't understand how people feel he doesn't deserve to enter because his game is ridiculously successful (and IMHO, brilliant). If you're worried about the competition, maybe you should make a better game.

Its the Independent Games Festival, not the Unsuccessful Games Festival 

QFT. :D

[Paul Eres]

"I don't understand how people feel he doesn't deserve to enter because his game is ridiculously successful"

nobody is arguing that, that'd be a stupid argument. i feel that you're unfairly representing the other side of the argument by imagining it's something it's not. i was pretty clear in what i said, i thought.

and bobo was very rude but he was pretty clear too: "I don't think it really matters whether or not Minecraft fits anybody's definition of indie, that's sort of beside the point."

[bento_smile]

If it's not his success, or his indie status, then what is the problem with Notch entering?

Edit: I see what people are saying about it not needing the exposure, but that's pretty much the same as saying that it's too successful to enter, isn't it? As the exposure it has is a mark of success.

[allen]

I don't see why you guys arguing in favor of Notch have to be so hostile.

I don't think anyone in here tried to tell Notch what to do. Just merely stating my opinion that I don't agree with his decision to enter the game, that's all.

All this arguing is very much just irrelevant now. The game has already been entered and that's that.

[Paul Eres]

@bento

there is no problem necessarily. i said that i wouldn't feel comfortable entering if it were me, because the purpose of the contest is (in my mind, at least, and in the mind of many of the people involved with the igf) to bring attention to games which wouldn't otherwise get much attention. but yes, i understand that not everyone sees the igf that way, and that's fine. but that is how i see the igf.

e.g. the issue isn't whether it's wrong for minecraft to enter, since clearly it's not; they've the right to enter. the issue is more: what does minecraft have to gain from entering? i don't really know the answer to that.

so we (or at least i) am definitely not saying 'notch isn't indie' or 'it's too successful to enter'. i'm saying 'it's so successful that it doesn't even need to enter, so what's the point'

[John Sandoval]

i'm saying 'it's so successful that it doesn't even need to enter, so what's the point'

You can never have too much fame. Or money, for that matter. At least, this is how most of America operates.

[Paul Eres]

if you're saying he's only entering as a business decision in an attempt to get a tiny bit more fame and money compared to what he already has, there's two issues which then come to mind

considering its fame it seems weird to suggest that even a single person who never heard of minecraft will hear about it because of the igf. and, as i mentioned, minecraft earns about as much or more each day as the grand prize of the igf. so those benefits still feel very very negligible to me. but sure, they're there -- it'd be something like 0.1% additional profit compared to what the game has already made, but even that 0.1% might matter a little bit, yes.

also, just because going after money is good doesn't mean it's always the most important thing. indies in particular aren't known for putting business concerns before everything else. we're making games because we love it, not because we hope to get rich through it. personally i desire many things more than money, a strong and vibrant indie games community for instance.

that's basically the idea behind the indie fund, isn't it? that wasn't set up to make money, but to make the community stronger by funding games which need it. similarly, many of us do volunteer work which gets us no money but gets us other things in return; for instance i write for tigsource (occasionally) because i think it's important to do so, i'm not getting anything material out of it. so in that respect it'd seem like the intangible benefit of highlighting unknown games would be worth more to me (again, emphasis on the to me, since it's such a subjective thing) than 0.1% additional profits. or conversely, the cost of some indie game which would have gone highlighted not getting highlighted is subjectively more of a loss to me than less than a day's sales.

[Rob Lach]

i'm saying 'it's so successful that it doesn't even need to enter, so what's the point'

You can never have too much fame. Or money, for that matter. At least, this is how most of America operates.

Good thing that's not how indie developers operate.