Grave Gamer News & Views — markus persson

“I’ve become a symbol. I don’t want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don’t understand, that I don’t want to work on, that keeps coming back to me. I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a CEO. I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter.”

– Markus ‘Notch’ Persson on selling his studio Mojang to Microsoft for $2.5 billion. His thoughts on the sale and his departure from Mojang can be found here.

“People who want games to emulate other art forms are missing the point so bad I just want to smack them across the face with a shovel.  Computer games are about empowering the consumer more than any other art form.  Limiting it to linear storytelling is artistic suicide.  That said, I am not an artist, nor do I aspire to be one.  I don’t try to convey any messages, I just want to entertain.”

Famed Minecraft designer Markus Persson (aka “notch”) sounding off on his Twitter account.  I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with pushing a game – or at least a game steeped in narrative – to be more cinematic.  But for a game to mimic a Hollywood action flick beat for beat (like a certain annual franchise) does rob a title of its playability, becoming something akin to an interactive movie instead of a cinematic video game.  What do you think?