Since I am not a parent, my opinion doesn’t count for much—but when I imagine myself one, I wish me and my kids could have an open-source sandbox game that is fully owned by us and is playable on our own infrastructure without any further involvement of game publisher.
No marketplace with coins, no microtransactions, no mining my child’s PII before you allow to play a game I bought, no online login screen, no platform or “community” of any kind (not even if it’s “for kids”, Roblox is an example of what kind of people it becomes a magnet for), no unknown corporate moderators for my family server, nothing but a fun game.
(And because dedicated developers who actually listen to player feedback must be paid appropriately, definitely take my money for every new major update.)
Minecraft used to be a great example of such a game, until it got bought by Microsoft.
It fails on some points. There is a login screen (you must periodically connect to Microsoft’s servers), and accounts are reportedly locked until players provide Microsoft their phone number. The chat reporting feature being discussed here is a further example of restrictions on what you can do with the game you bought.
If the free-to-play microtransaction-supported model is more financially appealing than allowing customers own a product, then anything that allows to enjoy and extend the game without Microsoft overseeing it and getting a cut (like open-source Java versions of the client and the server) is a liability. Chat reporting is to me clear evidence of Microsoft trying to justify further lock-up and ongoing subscription model. Next they will say because OSS allows bypassing or cheating the reporting they must close the source and limit mod API.
I would be fine if Microsoft continued to release the game as a separate, adult-rated but unlocked product for gamers who care (and charged for major updates, they will absolutely pay), while separately providing a locked platform stuffed with coins, marketplaces, walled garden for mods, corporate moderators, safety guarantees and whatever else for those who want an easy solution safe for children without adult oversight.
> Next they will say because OSS allows bypassing or cheating the reporting they must close the source and limit mod API.
Not exactly on topic but what you say is funny. Minecraft Java has never been open source. Mods are done by decompiling the official jar, applying patches and recompiling back. I'm sure it's not explicitly allowed by whatever legalese surrounds MC.
This all goes for the one true Minecraft version, Java. Bedrock... they can keep it.
This decompiling stuff is new. Back in the 1.7 days I helped my daughter understand how to unpack jars, add stuff by hand from the mod authors and pack them back. Now it's automatic.
There are even mods that provide some sort of API and plugin system for other mods to use :)
No marketplace with coins, no microtransactions, no mining my child’s PII before you allow to play a game I bought, no online login screen, no platform or “community” of any kind (not even if it’s “for kids”, Roblox is an example of what kind of people it becomes a magnet for), no unknown corporate moderators for my family server, nothing but a fun game.
(And because dedicated developers who actually listen to player feedback must be paid appropriately, definitely take my money for every new major update.)
Minecraft used to be a great example of such a game, until it got bought by Microsoft.