As a fun aside, unauthorized sharing is the only reason I tried and bought the game back in early beta days before there was a demo (friend A owned, friend B didn't, I tried it from friend B's unauthorized copy of friend A's game and got the copy too, later gave friend A $20 and info to activate my account because I didn't have internet at home).
Same. I played MC in early Alpha when you could play free in a web browser. And then I used a cracked game for another year or so. Once I had adult money I bought it. I've since bought it probably 6+ times over between Java, Bedrock, consoles, mobile and accounts for my kids.
I probably would never have bought it otherwise, or at least not for a long time.
Pirated Minecraft was a staple of my childhood. Basically everyone I know had it pirated too. I thought that, when I am an adult with my own money and my own debit card, I would buy the game since I liked it so much. Well, I guess that isn't happening.
The only times I'd excuse piracy are if the original product is outright unavailable in your region, or if digital rights management leads to a vastly inferior or unusable product for paying users (i.e. strict installation limits, always-online DRM in a single player game.)
I don't condone pirating Minecraft, regardless of Microsoft's anti-consumer bullshit.
in this case, microsoft just decided that they didn't have to bother supporting legacy accounts because they didn't feel like it, so they pulled them without consent or compensation
in the case of ai generated media, companies just decided that they just had the rights to use existing published media, so they harvested it without consent or compensation
both complaints are the same complaint: that businesses are just deciding on contracts unilaterally and then imposing them on people without the need for consent
But the only one that owns Minecraft is Microsoft, since they bought it for over 2 billion dollars. Everyone else just bought a license to use it. Just like in all the other cases of buying music, video, or software. Unless lots of lawyers were involved, you only bought permission to use it, in a certain way at that. Pretending otherwise or not knowing in the first place has never been a legal excuse.
You're getting downvoted, but you're right. And that is the reason that using proprietary software and SaaS is a problem. If I'm only buying the right to use a copy of something as a company sees fit, then I'm not really buying anything. I'm essentially paying a company a tribute to use their software in their way.
Decades ago, it was the same way, but it felt different. We got physical media, and we could do what we wished with the files: modify them, delete them, etc. Hell, the EULAs for some '90s and early '00s software even said you could use the software in perpetuity, and we could use software in anyway we saw fit. The biggest constraint was on selling copies. Back then, and even now, that seems pretty reasonable. (Though, as an aside, it would have been better to also get access to the source code, but I digress.)
Now, we have to use company's software exactly how they want us to use it. Personally, I refuse to go along with this (as much as I can), so I have migrated most of my digital life to FLOSS.
There is buying a licence to use.
And there is buying a copy you can use.
This is very much different. Maybe buying a copy of music with a tag attached saying you cannot distribute it further is ok, but saying they can take this copy you bought at any time and make terms how you can use it is another level.
Some video games are open source; you can modify and redistribute it or even sell it. We need more of those and less fat cats playing a trading card game of copyrights while they erode ownership rights.
Minecraft is a rare bird that lets you download every single public release (that was archived) all the way back to the original test builds. I recently re-downloaded 1.14 to play a unique seed that only loads all the features correctly on that version.
And when you play Minecraft, you download the entire game as a .jar file to your computer and it stays there, even if you upgrade to a later version. There are third-party launchers that let you load those .jars and play without logging into anything.
So, it's up to you whether or not you tow the company line and use a Microsoft account and the official launcher or just download some fan-made software and run the old versions forever.
I recommend anyone who lost their Mojang account to just dig out the latest version downloaded to their computer and run it through a custom launcher, or look up instructions on running the game without a launcher.
(This only applies to the Java version of the game, but that's the best version anyway because of features and custom mods. Playing roms of the console/mobile games requires modding the appropriate system and that's a lot more involved.)
I backed up all of my own files except the jars apparently (because when you download every one they added up, and I didn't do that when the servers were at stake). I even had a launcher still logged in but none of the files will download now. Prism is lame (but understandable, I guess) in that it just says "contact microsoft support if you didn't migrate" or something like that, but you can just copy over accounts.json from polymc to use an offline acct. Though a few mods I've tried don't work (and I feel like mod discoverability might not be the best?).
Also a small bit not directly in reply to you: I'm pretty sure this is actually the second migration too, at least for accounts that were started on the minecraft website (username-->email login+mojang acct). But of course searches only give info on this one.
btw, the game doesn't actually require auth in order to download jar files and launch the game (server's come with online checks enabled by default tho, so you'll only be able to play single player)
This is true and quite nice. Really the only major limitation is that the only supported form of server authentication is via Mojang/Microsoft account. So if you want to run a sever on a public address you are in for a bad time if you disable the authentication. If only there was a password option you could live pretty comfortable without any Microsoft services.
There is a reason they deactivated the accounts, but it doesn't justify removing the ability to migrate at any time. For those interested:
The old mojang accounts were not secure, and there were millions of accounts that could be accessed without email ownership. This created a grey market for cheap Minecraft accounts. These cheap accounts were almost exclusively used to cheat on non-cracked servers, which sucked for a lot of players who did competitive Minecraft games on servers. The migration did fix this problem, by requiring access to the original email or answers to the security questions. Migrating your mojang account also gave access to the windows 10 version of the game. It probably should have been allowed forever, and I have no clue why they didn't.
Minecraft was the reason I started using password gens and managers, as my shit appeared in some list of usernames and passwords for the game that is still easily googled.
There's speedrunning for Minecraft. It gets pretty crazy, and there's already been cheating scandals. Including ones where key people who uncovered previous cheaters were also involved in cheating.
I do wish I could say it will pass, but the ability to sell someone something they already purchased is the holy grail of sales. This isn't going to go away, and the EULAs you agree to ensure that it is entirely legal.
The only way to fight back is to vote with your wallet - sadly in monopolies that isn't really an option.
I got locked out of my now 8+ year old account because I had set it up with an old ISP provided email which has since been deactivated. I can't migrate because I have to verify with the email and I can't change the email without setting up security questions, which also requires the email. Support can do nothing.
i used a Gmail account mostly for some videogames services but Google locked me out of that account after several years because i didn't provide a phone number for it after a few years and i refused to.... So a lot of my old game accounts can't be accessed anymore...
That's also why i'm considering wheather it is better to use an email provider or maybe use your own domain for that purpouse... Maybe the combination of both could be the best bet (by that i mean using an email provider like proton mail and using it with your own domain so you can control the domain if anything goes wrong).
I'll tell ya more, if you read hardware license agreements then you know that even with hardware you don't "own" anything, you just bought license to temporarily use it, i was shocked back in the day when i read license agreement on my iPad 4 in 2013, there was point about it, that i don't own but only bought temporary rights to use it
I see people going "this is what you get for buying digital", and that's what they are not seeing. This is not about digital being more unreliable than physical. This is an attack at the concept of customer ownership itself.
Preach brother, always has been, as they trying to push "you won't own anything and be happy" we thought it was a joke, but surprise, these corporations literary want to build their cities, own all the property and have wage/rent slavery and neofeudalism
I do not have any of GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft) accounts and this is nice "achievement" to have in life for me.
Maybe if I would need them for something important like becoming a video creator, having to publish an Android app for a company or promote my buissness on social media I would create one. But for just one game it's a pass for me. The most important game in my life, but I have grown up and do not play it anymore.
With most of my things I use being standardized or common formats, I find deGoogled Android builds to more than enough.
Currently LineageOS on my OnePlus. I have a phone with Linux mobile for testing, it's close but missing things like camera is too much.
I never even received an email. I haven't touched Minecraft in years, probably never would have again, but my daughter is getting into it and I thought it would be fun to play with her. I found out about the migration when trying to troubleshoot why I couldn't log in.
I tried to contact support and they told me that they had "widely communicated the migration through email and social media" and that because I had missed the migration window, I would simply have to buy a new copy. I double and triple checked. No emails regarding the migration and I'm not on social media.
It shouldn't be, but fighting Microsoft in court would be hellish, and not even a guaranteed win given how much undue influence corporations have over the justice system and politicians.
The "purchase" agreement probably says that they can terminate the license for any reason at any time. If you bought the game years ago I suspect they are actually fine to revoke access. See for example EA and other shit game companies that have taken down games when they take the online DRM servers offline.
Yeah fun fact I actually looked this up a few days ago in the wayback machine because I own a beta account. Back then it was just Notch selling the game and the "agreement" if you can call it that on the site basically just said "you own the game forever, no drm".
I'm not a lawyer or anything but I suspect that unless they somehow tricked users of old mojang account to agree to Microsoft TOS after the purchase of Mojang what Microsoft did may be very legally questionable. But the main issue is who is gonna sue them over 20 bucks. They know they can get away with it
Microsoft buys Minecraft; forces users to migrate to Microsoft accounts; after ~3 years all non-migrated accounts are deleted. In contrast, if you have a pre-Google youtube account, you can still migrate that 17 year old account.
Mojang Minecraft accounts were paid for, but Microsoft deleted them if they didn't migrate after those three years. Many people who had "bought" the game weren't able to access multiplayer any more after serving in the military, getting out of prison, etc.
He argues that buying a videogame doesn't mean you actually own; however, in my view since you can still play offline, you can.
Are there like hobby Minecraft servers not related to Microsoft? I'm thinking like the Library map and such.
*I feel I must add that I've never played Minecraft.
Most if not all Minecraft servers aren't related to Microsoft. There are lots of smaller servers with 5-20 regular players and of course there are few with hundreds or thousands of players, of which some might be affiliated with M$ but I don't know.
Are there like hobby Minecraft servers not related to Microsoft? I’m thinking like the Library map and such.
Maps aren't servers. They're just maps as in any other videogame. You can play maps offline and with local multiplayer.
Most servers aren't related to Microsoft, but they also use the default server software which requires proper authentication. Now that Mojang account servers are down you can't log in with them anymore. One'd have to use patched server software that completely turns authentication off or uses an alternative authentication server to allow people without Microsoft accounts to join.
I've been playing on and off for a bit. So my account got converted. I tried to do the same to her account but got an error, but since she wasn't really playing I decided I'd try again later. Well, guess who simply forgot and tried logging in recently? Something I bought and still is being sold is suddenly just gone. Great.
It was a minecraft account, then mojang and now you'd need a Microsoft account..
If you want to play on a server with friends, you need to disable account verification on that in order to allow non-logged in players to access it. So, possible. But not always practical.
I'm guessing from the thumbnail and title that Microsoft said that Minecraft users need to merge their Minecraft account (100% in Microsoft hands) with a Microsoft account. The user said no because reasons and then now they can't play