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.
The Minecraft brand and IP are constantly being misappropriated by others for commercial gain, the Minecraft IP is owned by Notch and he has every moral and legal right to protect it. There are numerous deals that are in place that allow third parties to make use of the Minecraft IP for commercial gain, Jinx, Think Geek, Lego, Danilo, 57Digital, 2PP, Sony, Microsoft, deal after deal after deal... Notch has set a clear precedent: If you want to make a commercial venture with the Minecraft IP, work with his company and if they can make it work, they will. This is not a "creative work", it's a commercial work. The creator of this project has previously made creative works involving the Minecraft IP and posted them on Youtube with no opposition from Notch, here's one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPFD2PVtKQE
The problem with "documentaries" is that they tend to be really simplistic these days with a lot of bad music (emotions!) and manipulative editing. As you stated yourself things often go so wrong that it's probably not worth the hassle of auditing.
I would very much prefer to see Notch have all his time & energy invested in himself because with that we might see 0x10c one day.
Edit: This article puts things into perspective, we should probably all be less opinionated. How many of us know about the creative struggle after success?
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.