Minecraft Java Edition accounts forcibly being moved to Microsoft

[voxhaul]

Greetings one and all.

A few days ago an announcement was made (Java Edition is Moving House) that basically boils down to this:

• All Minecraft Java Edition players are being forced to migrate their legacy/Mojang accounts to Microsoft...
   

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  Now just to be clear, migrating from Mojang to Microsoft accounts is mandatory. If you don’t make the move, in several months you won’t be able to log in anymore – which means you won’t be able to play either.

The FAQ associated with the move says that players will have to set up a MSA (Microsoft Account).  Since "security" is being touted as the main reason for this forced migration, it would seem likely that two-factor authentication will be forced as well.  A WindowsCentral article about 2FA states:

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If you're using a Microsoft account, you can use three ways to enable two-step verification, including using an alternative email, phone number, and you can even use the Microsoft Authenticator app.

So, in essence, it is looking like — in order to continue playing Minecraft — Java Edition players will not only have to hand over a bunch of personal information, but create and give Microsoft another email address and/or telephone number and/or install Microsoft malware on their phones.

Many players are unlikely to want to do so.  The pathetic compensatory offer of a cape is unlikely to change their minds.

Does this present an opportunity for Vintage Story to expand it's player base?

Other thoughts on the move?

Cheers,

voxhaul

Edited October 24, 2020 by voxhaul

[Streetwind]

This should probably go into Off Topic/Other Games.

Also, Mojang has explicitly clarified that 2FA is going to be recommended but entirely optional.

From the tone of your post, you're probably a bit emotional about this. Take a step back and a deep breath. You're not going to have to give Microsoft anything they don't already have, because Microsoft already owns Mojang and everything that Mojang has. This includes the Mojang authentication services and the Mojang user database with every single Java Edition player account ever created. Additionally, other Mojang games, such as Minecraft Bedrock Edition, already use Microsoft accounts today. And have for a while.

Security isn't the main driver for this migration. It is one potential user-facing benefit they can communicate to the users. The main driver though isn't going to be user-facing - because it's cost. Microsoft has an existing account management infrastructure, and Mojang has an existing account management infrastructure, both from before one bought the other. Now there is duplicate infrastructure that costs upkeep every month. By migrating all the accounts that use Mojang's infrastructure over to Microsoft's infrastructure, they can just switch off Mojang's infrastructure and stop paying hosting fees, power, cooling, support fees, and developer time for it. Since Minecraft Java Edition is a fixed-price title (meaning it generates zero revenue per user beyond the initial purchase), a recurring monthly upkeep cost really hurts the overall revenue of the game. By saving money on account management, they can afford to operate and develop Minecraft Java Edition for longer, even if new account sales decline over time, and even if they do not choose to turn it into a microtransaction-fuelled service game like Bedrock Edition already is. I would wager that turning Minecraft Java Edition into a paid service game would go over far less well with the community than an account migration.

That's really all there is to it.

 

58 minutes ago, voxhaul said:

Does this present an opportunity for Vintage Story to expand it's player base?

Unlikely. Many people play Minecraft Java Edition for one specific purpose: its modpacks. Vintage Story does not have anywhere near the amount and variety of mods to satiate that need, and making new ones will take a while. Years, likely. If you're into Minecraft for the vanilla experience, you might go to Bedrock Edition instead. It delivers pretty much the same content with better graphics and better performance than Java Edition.

Also, Vintage Story is still in alpha. People might want a more complete, more stable experience.

Next, the tone and playstyle of the game is different. As an example, I present my sister, who sometimes plays a little Minecraft. Sometimes, not often, because she doesn't like survival games all that much. For her it's more about the multiplayer experience, and finding something like a research system to grind through. She watched me play Vintage Story for a few hours, and her final verdict was: "Looks like they took the most boring aspects of Minecraft, made them ten times more boring, and took out all the rest". Clearly, Vintage Story is not for her. And there's going to be a good number of people who think the same way. Because, let's face it: 'hardcore' is a niche. One that is alive and well, but a niche nonetheless.

And finally, do keep in mind that Vintage Story costs money. Migrating your Mojang account... doesn't.

Maybe a couple of players will go look for alternatives, sure. Maybe it'll even be a noticeable bump in VS sales figures, since the playerbase is so small compared to the gigantic number of Minecraft players. But I'm pretty sure Minecraft Java Edition will lose very few players over this in the grand scheme of things. If you want to continue playing it, migrating an account is free and easy. If you want to stop playing it over such a small hurdle, the drive to continue playing it was probably already very weak, and you might have stopped soon anyway. Lots of people stop playing Minecraft Java Edition every day. Many of them return later when new updates and new mods pique their interest again. They can still migrate their account then; it'll continue to remain a very small hurdle to overcome.

 

Edited October 24, 2020 by Streetwind

[Jena_Thornwyrd]

My 2 cents:

I was interested in Vintage Story, because I really enjoy minecraft modpack made around Primal Core or Terrafirmacraft, and VS look so much better, and with so many interesting mechanics. Slowly but surely my interest grown.

And Mojang announced the forced migration to Microsoft accounts.

I know that all these peoples already have a bunch of information on me, to be able to target me even more with ads, sure okay, but just, having another account, on another service, it's just too much.

I mean, it's totally understandable that they move their infrastructures to Microsoft, that allow to reduce operating costs, it's logical when you are a company that is "for profit" by nature, the only other two options would have been the death of Mojang on the long run with maybe the source code of Minecraft released, or, second solution: another way for Mojang to get a sturdy constant income, i.e.: by selling dlc or micro-transactions or ads, whatever work.

So, I'm not in the "pitchforks and torches" kind of mood, nor in the wannabe paranoiac/whistle-blower mind, but effectively, this decision of Microsoft to take care of the Mojang infrastructure, just because I'm bored to have another account on a site I will never use for anything else, is enough to make me ghost minecraft, and to migrate to an alternative that is way more interesting on a vast amount of ways. And now I tend also to perceive the evolution of minecraft as something noisy with a bunch of hiccups and a direction I don't really like, because I really enjoy how Vintage Story is, a bit more gritty, more challenging, more rewarding.

[Hal13]

As I don't like and don't want a Microsoft Account (which needs me to create a Xbox life account too), I prepare for forcing a refund (if necessary via lawsuit) when they force me to migrate (but i won't have big chances if they only force me to migrate after december 2021). After all, i paid for a lifetime Mojang Account and the ToS for these are highly different from Microsoft Accounts (and here they have to make sure i'm able to access the items I bought for at least 2 years). I couldn't care less for the argument "Bedrock and other Mojang games use them too", neither do i have any of these, nor have i any motivation to get them (and you won't get them for free just for migrating either), in fact i'm annoyed by the amount of advertisments for them in the normal launcher (which is why i don't use that one too).

 

It sure does present an opportunity to expand VS player base, but i don't think VS can actually profit from that forced migration too much at its state today.

There are too big differences between MC and VS atm, and i'm not sure if any modder will even think about a conversion. Too less content for technical players (without mods), too slow and too much grind for most casual players, too little mods for modded players, too little interesting combat for the pvp and pve players that like fighting stuff a lot, too little servers for multiplayer, maybe builders might be interested.

If somehow channels like the one Ashantin has got a big influx of people seeing VS, that might change, but seeing most of the content seems to be german or russian, i doubt people will stumble upon them too easily.

Edited December 7, 2020 by Hal13

[Asilyad]

I found Minecraft when it was developing, I stumbled over Vintage story at it's earliest release stage, then lost my computer to age and upgrades. I'm not a gamer as much as a virtual farmer and explorer, and fantasy architect. If security for one game was important to me, I would live in a Microsoft world. I like this one. Keep growing!

[DrEngine]

The move to MS account is understandable of course. I don't have any problem to move. I do use Win10 and I have got MS account yet.

However I see another problem. MS is very "famous" concerning its unsolvable problems here and there, that aren't solvable whether with MS feedback and sources or another one (community, that is far better than MS feedback itself).

One such a problem is well known problem of "Microsoft account problem notification". read more here:
https://windowsreport.com/you-need-to-fix-your-microsoft-account/
https://www.trickyways.com/2019/06/fix-microsoft-account-problem-we-need-you-to-fix-your-microsoft-account/

You can easily see "typical MS problem", when even Microsoft itself doesn't know how to solve its own problem if recommending so much various steps including the last one: "If all this don't help reinstall Windows"... Hahahahaha....

I tried my best to solve this problem on my notebook without success (and I'm IT staff). It was necessary to switch notebook login to classic name/password scheme without MS account.

If it'll be the same problem with Minecraft logins, god save all MC players....

[Hal13]

On 12/26/2020 at 6:17 AM, DrEngine said:

If it'll be the same problem with Minecraft logins, god save all MC players....

Don't forget the global bans over all MS games, which regularly happen to the wrong person (proven innocent players) and that can't be undone (though you'd be able to play on a cracked server or singleplayer still).

[l33tmaan]

Wait, what? You get banned from one MS game and you can't play any of the games you paid for anymore?
I'm misinterpreting this, right? Things aren't really this bad, right?

[CaffinatedCoder]

No, they are.

The only thing we'll have left soon is cracked minecraft launchers and community-created authentication servers.

Thankfully, yggdrasil and Minecraft authentication is well-known, and well-documented, as well as the client-server protocol as well. I won't mention where because I fear Microsoft might take it down, but it is documented somewhere, and a copy of it as well as a functional 1.12 implementation has already been archived as well.

If Microsoft decides to do an Oculus Facebook with Minecraft and add a restrictive ToS and other things, we'll just spin up servers in Russia or Poland and host our own version of Java. The community does not exclusively need Microsoft to exist, and modders have shown great capability with expanding the game and adding new features (aether, IC2, all of those mods).

Furthermore, the entire client/launcher process could easily be documented as well as you can just decompile the old Java launchers or look at a mirrored copy of Minecraft with all the JSON included.

If they decide to ban us from the Clearnet, we could move to TOR, I2P, or any of the other alternatives popping up, and if they kill the Clearnet entirely we can still create many private LANS and bridge them commonly together. That is what the internet basically started out as, after all, a private LAN between universities.

[l33tmaan]

We can only hope Microsoft eventually gets what's coming to them.

[CaffinatedCoder]

5 hours ago, l33tmaan said:

We can only hope Microsoft eventually gets what's coming to them.

That will only happen if the user, not the lawyer, business, or corporation, does it to them.

They have the legal system, bought, and paid for, just like any other successful corporation.

The only way left is to cut them out of the picture.

Edited December 28, 2020 by CaffinatedCoder

[Temm]

On 10/24/2020 at 9:52 AM, Streetwind said:

Unlikely. Many people play Minecraft Java Edition for one specific purpose: its modpacks.

This was actually the reason me and my group got Vintagestory -  Looking at a trailer, I didn't even realize that this was *not* a modpack at first. Forwarded it to my friends asking "Hey, wanna play this pack next?" and they absolutely fell for it.
This is however coming from a group which played packs such as RLCraft before.

[Domkrats]

On 10/24/2020 at 10:52 AM, Streetwind said:

Next, the tone and playstyle of the game is different. As an example, I present my sister, who sometimes plays a little Minecraft. Sometimes, not often, because she doesn't like survival games all that much. For her it's more about the multiplayer experience, and finding something like a research system to grind through. She watched me play Vintage Story for a few hours, and her final verdict was: "Looks like they took the most boring aspects of Minecraft, made them ten times more boring, and took out all the rest". Clearly, Vintage Story is not for her. And there's going to be a good number of people who think the same way. Because, let's face it: 'hardcore' is a niche. One that is alive and well, but a niche nonetheless.

 

As much i love this game, i am a bit worried about the point you make too. My kids love minecraft and i bought them this game too. They are only ready to play this game in Creative or at least with full equipment already gifted to them. But even then they lost intrest too quickly. I won't even speak about falling in caves which is like magnet for them.   Game is too harsh on new players and doesn't give any relief later unless you are ready to grind much for good armor, which slows you down and makes healing worse.

As i said i love this game at it's current state myself and wish only best for it's Devs. But at the same moment i am worried this this game will really stay niche product atm because of it being not forgiving to new player mistakes. If devs are ok with sales and game being such, i don't have any problems with that myself too. But as i see this game more suitable for multiplayer servers and cooperation to be more fun, i'd like to see more players being attracted to it than it is right now. Time will show..  

About the topic - I have Minecraft Win10  version. Haven't played Java version, but i miss mods for it as i see Vanilla version too easy and boring for me.  But it is way relaxing to play at the same moment, compared to VS. Thus i don't think poeple will run to other games just because of Microsoft account. But if idea of alternative game came to their mind, they could buy and try Vintage story, which is would still be fine for this game to grow.

Edited February 27, 2021 by Domkrats

[l33tmaan]

I sincerely hope this game never becomes half as easy as Minecraft. Make it too forgiving and there's no reason to play VS anymore if you don't love building stuff. 
VS should cater to people who actually enjoy survival mechanics and not people who want to... run around and just make stuff with no consequence or reason for doing so? Half the problem with Minecraft is there's no point to doing anything or advancing. This game has similar issues but at least I feel a concrete sense of progression going from knapping rocks to smelting steel.

[RepoMeister]

On 12/27/2020 at 11:50 PM, l33tmaan said:

We can only hope Microsoft eventually gets what's coming to them.

As long as they create products and services the consumer base wants then the consumers will keep buying. I am not trying to spit in your face and call you a pathetic hypocrite and joke, but surely you don't own any Microsoft products, right? I mean that would be hilarious!

[l33tmaan]

I don't.

[RepoMeister]

31 minutes ago, l33tmaan said:

I don't.

Respect! I am annoyed as hell by a lot of what MS does but because I make the decision as an adult to use their products I don't whine about them. 

[Maradonner]

I see there are a lot of minkraft lovers here.)

Then here's a site with mods on minkafrt:

https://99minecraft.com/

I think you will find that you need)

do not thank)