The dangers of success
Friday, September 24, 2010 at 08:57PM Notch, creator of Minecraft, really shouldn't post on his blog. Every time he talks about something that isn't releasing new code, or fixed bugs, he gets inundated by negative feedback by shit players that want updates every hour. I would say that trolls outnumber positive or neutral feedback 2:1. Especially his latest post about not doing a Friday update because Civilization 5 was just released and he wants to play it.
It's extremely sad, these trolls aren't the majority of his users. Nor does he 'work' for them. Many games take half-a-decade or more to develop and this one is only about 12 months old and only has a single developer.
He really should stop posting about his personal life (and his new community manager should do a MUCH better job at managing the feedback). It is lame that he how now become a tall poppy (because he shows his sales stats in realtime on his website) and must be cut down by a few trolls who are jealous of his success.
Why am I defending him like this? I don't know. Empathy? Sympathy? I am envious of his success and I wish I had half his talent. I respect what he has done and, after the stress of doing start-ups *forever* I think I feel just as affronted by his trolls as I would if I was him. Sure, he's made > €400k in the last few days and he only had a couple of staff (who he probably pays almost nothing because they are extremely young and don't seem right for the company, IMHO) and he has almost no overheads that aren't personal, but I think he should be able to take a breath and celebrate that success, rather than needing to get back to the grindstone because, now he's got all this money, he is obligated to provide more content.
If I was him I would stop posting private blogs or tweets and I would remove the live updates on the sales stats. Both of them are just targets and don't serve any positive purpose anymore, professionally (making the company seem like a little single guy who's against the world and needs your support) or personally (now he's successful with over €2mil in revenues, but he's just one developer, he doesn't deserve *that* much money, that's just obscene, he should give it all back, hire dozens of people, or work 100 hour weeks).
Is it sad that he should stop? Of course it is. But people suck. Jealousy is human nature and people get angry when people have what they do not and often, don't believe deep down that they could ever have.
It's time for Notch to enjoy his success. I say, well done! Take a break. Enjoy life. You've earned it.