Minecraft and Microsoft What's next for Microsoft And Minecraft?
Minecraft and Microsoft: What now? Mark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News
If you're interested in understanding the reasons behind why Minecraft maker Mojang is being acquired by Microsoft simply play the game.
The single-player game is about a lone individual surviving in a harsh and dangerous world using only their imagination to ensure their safety. Their survival is dependent on their ability to construct a home and take on monsters with just the tools and weapons they build with their hands.
It's easy to think of this as a metaphor about Markus "Notch" who was the game's creator If computer games were subjected the same scrutiny as novels. He's talked in the past about growing as "relatively poor", about making his own entertainment, and about whether he will have to defeat the same "demons" that troubled his father.
Family, friends and the success of the items Notch created by hand have helped him thrive in this tough world But the success has led to other difficulties. They are even more difficult to overcome.
At Minecon 2012, Notch was unable to walk more than a few steps before he was grabbed again by a fan who was eager to shake his hand and take a photo of him, or even sign their foam sword.
People have power
He was never content with the transition from a simple programmer who was responsible for his own code to an entrepreneur of an entire movement. His sincere explanation of the reasons he's leaving Mojang - "it's about my mental health" - underscores that.
He's aware that Minecraft is now about managing the community - far, much more than maintaining and developing an infrastructure for code.
Microsoft may face a challenge in this regard.
With Xbox Live and its other cloud services , there's no doubt that it has solid experience in running a huge computer system that serves millions of paying customers. This will be vital when it starts running the behind-the scenes systems that keep Minecraft running.
But Microsoft will alienate that community if it fails to recognize how personal the game is, not just for Notch, but for many of the people who use it. It's where they make new friends, meet new people, and can be themselves.
I've played it with my kids who play it in a variety of ways. One is a big fan of modified versions that involve arena battles or capture-the-flag-type competitions. The other spends hours creating intricate homes around swooping minecart tracks. Sometimes, he constructs treehouses that span the entire forest. They often go adventuring with friends to find treasure, avoid creepers and fight spiders, zombies and skeletons.
This is possible because Minecraft allows the player to be open and free. Millions of players like them can do it. The flexibility of the game allows them to alter it to suit their mood. This is because it gives people access to the level of control Microsoft has not allowed in its business software. And that is the reason why the millions of gamers who play Minecraft worried. They don't want Microsoft to restrict their freedom to modify and create the game in any way they want. They feel a strong sense of ownership over the games they make.
It's not a doubt that it will be a difficult task for Microsoft to complete given how vital the community is.
It will have to battle two of the biggest challenges facing online gamers the two main enemies of online gamers - downtime (aka delay) and delay. It is possible that any issue with the game's availability in the future will be blamed on Microsoft - whether it is the company's fault or not.
Making more radical changes to the running of the game, such as restricting the way that players can alter it and charging them for items that are currently free or imposing restrictions on how they can inform the world about what they've done, might, if handled poorly, cause a significant portion of that community against Microsoft.
This would be a terrible thingconsidering that a lot of its users are children and will eventually become gamers. No doubt Microsoft hopes to impress them with how it manages Minecraft. If it gets it wrong, it could end up becoming one of the monsters that people would like to battle and defeat.