And today in “The Dimmest Silhouette of a Potentially Less Poop Future”, Mumbo Jumbo, the famous Minecraft redstone creator/general famous Minecraft-player on YouTube released this week what was initially meant to be a video of him just goofing around in “Minetest” a Lua-based, open-source Minecraft-like game that was designed to basically be a base game engine where folks could build their own game onto it using the integrated modding system. But by the end of it, he was having legitimate fun playing with the redstone-analogue mod he downloaded, and openly talked about the waves of nostalgia he got exploring the game in general, as it slightly, but notably, varied from OG Minecraft.
Now, I’m actually a touch less cynical about the way MC has been handled by Microsoft in the past few years than some folks (though the recent debacle about them cracking down on suggestive content and gun mods has me a more than a little worried about them legitimately beginning to overreach beyond sense. As though the single most downloaded video game in existence needs help with its image). But I legitimately think stuff like this is an amazing potential starting point for folks, especially YOUNG folks, to get excited about FOSS gaming. And open source software in general.
Minecraft’s greatest asset was its modability, but its growing monetization in Bedrock Edition, and the general corporate vibes coming off of a lot of its high-level decisions since MS bought it has really taken its toll on that prospect. But with stuff like Minetest, and other games like it that seek to give people free, open-source tools to build and share their creations and passions amongst each other, I think there really stands to be a chance for folks who, like myself just a year ago, never really paid much mind to open-source, community-driven software to have a chance to jump into the scene. And maybe find out they feel better for it.
Discussions welcome in the comments! I don’t expect everyone to share my hopefulness. But I do hope you give it a chance. A measured level of scrutiny is key to any movement, but so are good amounts of positive vibes and aspirations for the future. So if nothing else, I’d love to hear what y’all think about the potential for FOSS gaming in general, and/or what you think FOSS gaming and the greater adoption of FOSS alternatives could look like if fate favours it and/or efforts by the community increase in the future.
Hope you’re having/had a good day!
I remember the days when Notch said he would release Minecraft’s source code under creative commons. And then a bunch of genuinely bad stuff happened to him and left him a broken man.
That’s a nice way of saying that he turned his inner asshole inside out.
Loneliness and social-media algorithms are a dangerous combination. I think he could have ended up differently if he had more friends around him that offered a counterbalance to the narrow perspective he has been likely been spoonfed by the likes of Twitter and YouTube. As would many other rich, white men (see: Elon Musk) that unfortunately tend to end up with leeches and yes-men.
Wait, there was a mod crackdown? When did that happen?
I know I’m not the target aydience, but deer god I can’t stand minecraft channels. Absolutely obnoxious camera spanning, 95% of the video is zoomed in a minecraft characters face, obnoxious speech.
That said, I welcome new alternatives.
Have you watched Direwolf20’s videos? They’re not about camera span or zoomed in faces, just close to raw modded Minecraft gameplay.
@dog @AdaghastTheMad If you’re open to watching Minecraft content you can’t really go wrong with any of the people on Hermitcraft. They’re all mostly chill and spend 90% of their videos in first person just playing the game. Grian and Mumbo, being the two biggest creators on Hermitcraft tend to have a bit more of what you dislike but you could try Xisuma, JoeHills, DocM77, ImpulseSV, TangoTek or PearlescentMoon to name a few.
Shout out to my boi goodtimeswithscar
I can’t stand his and other MC channels clickbait garbage. I think Etho is the only one I still watch to this day. No weird titles, no weird thumbnails, no asking for subs, just genuine good content.
Etho is wonderful, his channel is probably the longest subscription I have on youtube, not gimmicky just being himself and having fun with the game.
This was a really interesting video to check out. I expected this game to be much worse judging by it looks but it really reminds me of some Minecraft mods!
