Ouch...

[Blorx]

Since we've got a lot of Minecraft fans here, and a lot of people that have pre-ordered it, I figured I'd post this for those that haven't seen.

Gentlemen, meet "Manic Digger," the biggest direct clone of anything I've ever seen. Someone else posted it on a different forum, and said something about Notch's Twitter posts regarding it. Apparently, the clone-tastic ripoff even connects to Minecraft servers. Needless to say, Notch (Markus, right?) isn't happy.

It's also open-source, which is really killing things for Markus, given that it's the same as stealing Minecraft's source and publicly displaying it...except this is semi-legal.

Site: http://manicdigger.sourceforge.net/news/

[Spinnacre]

Oh dear...

Making a singleplayer Minecraft clone wouldn't be too bad but a multiplayer clone is going way too far.
Looks like it can even connect to Minecraft servers too.

[Blorx]

Yeah, this is horrid. I just hope it doesn't hurt Minecraft sales. Markus already said on his Twitter that he's not sure he can do anything about it.

[Assaultman67]

Im not much of a minecraft person, but if the newer version isnt released, why cant he just add some sort of authentication method for people trying to connect to servers ...

[rudel_ic]

This is good. Minecraft has to stay competitive that way.

And nothing is stopping Minecraft from locking down file formats and protocols. The technology is there for the taking, namely encryption and customized compression, ironically also opensource for the most part.

Notch can also always change licenses if he so chooses. He's the author after all! That is not nice, but a valid strategy to defend against copycats.

Plus, to successfully compete with Minecraft on its grounds, the clone has to get attention first. Minecraft has an incredible headstart.

[nutcracker]

I am not pleased with this, we shoud find the creator, burn his house, abduct his family and kids if he has any, Burn them also, Make his car explode and finally, we make him eat the corpses of his family and then we kill him by making him drink melted metal. O.o

[SamW]

I am not pleased with this, we shoud find the creator, burn his house, abduct his family and kids if he has any, Burn them also, Make his car explode and finally, we make him eat the corpses of his family and then we kill him by making him drink melted metal. O.o

GD open source community, don't have no respect for no one else's bottom line. Always making free variants of for pay software, it is just getting ridiculous now. Sure circumventing the greedy software companies is one thing, but taking the lunch of the poor independent developers. I guess DRM free and being anti-authentication is just for the fools these days.
(That makes Wolfire fools, and yes I am being sarcastic about this post.)
No indie developer should stand for being ripped off or stolen from, the line must be drawn and this kind of behavior must be stopped. What do they think they are doing, spending all that time creating their stupid little project that is going to take away the much needed cash from the poor and starving indie community. And if they seriously just want a free game, then why did they have to waste all their time and effort making this thing. They shouldn't pretend that it is legal and morally OK, they should have just torrented the damn thing on release. Would have saved everyone's time, and it wouldn't be so morally ambiguous. That ambiguity just pisses me off...

...

Do I sound pissed off yet?

Hey... is someone doing a DOS on some of their source forge portal or something? I got the page to load a few times, but it isn't very reliable (database is being hammered). You know... I can't condone hammering down a server with connections just because something on it doesn't please you. Less participating in threats of murder.

[Assaultman67]

I'd say im pissed ... but ... im not really ...

It's competition ... It will spur the creator of minecraft into making a better game, with better security protocols to block people using a free version.

The lines of what is fair and what is not have gotten so damn grey with intellectual property usage that its practically anarchy ... but really that's just the way the internet should be, the great forgery of ideas ...



I've knowingly participated in questionably legal "remix" activities as such ... but hell, if Bob Dylan can get away with it, and the people who copied him, why can't I?