Apparently I don't own minecraft anymore.
this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2024
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We never did ☹️
Copies from before the Microsoft Launcher should still be yours just fine I assume.
Did they change how launching the game worked?
I started playing Minecraft with Alpha 1.1 so I might actually have some archived antique versions somewhere. It has been years since you could just DL the game and play it though, so even the latest of those would be terribly out of date and missing many features. Better off at this point moving to Minetest-Mineclone 2 and avoid all the hassle.
If buying isnr owning piracy isn't stealing
Minecraft being the best sold game while also extremely easy to pirate, lacking any real form of DRM apart from the official launcher simply not launching it into a non-"demo mode" session if you don't have a login is a testament to how piracy isn't always a danger.
Sure, Minecraft is really enhanced with multiplayer which is harder to do on a pirated copy, but there's nothing really unethical about that.
Play Minetest.
Is there a Minetest community?
Yeah, I meant Lemmy. I kind of wish we had a more specific name for it than "community". (Instances are the servers, so like @lemmy.world)
maybe "sublemmies" ? hah (idk)
Yeah... I already play minetest too. :)
Can a service really be "bought" buy a consumer? It can be paid for, sure, but bought? Only another company can buy it and own it since it's a service.
However, if they sell you the server software to host it and they leave out some essentials like an authentication server that they own, then yeah, there's a point there. But in this world of subscription-only, you're only buying access that can be revoked at any time.
It still means something, just not what we want to mean. If you want to own stuff, don't buy access. Or better yet, use opensource and donate what you would've paid to the developers/maintainers. They probably will do a better job a trying to keep it runnable and for longer than most corps.
Is a game even a service to begin with? The servers which provide online services to a game may be one, but why would the same apply to standalone instances of a software that you have purchased? At most I could see why this could mean they aren't obligated to continue offering updates, but not that it ought to allow them to take back the software they sold.
All of this is only happening because the law does not give a damn about customer rights anymore. It's entirely dishonest to visibly sell something and then turn around and say "we only sold 'access'". That's not what a sale means. Companies were simply allowed to redefine what purchases and ownership means, and they are trying to do the same even with devices you physically carry with you.
Is a game even a service to begin with?
Depends which game. An MMO? I'd argue for that to be the case. A single player game? Most likely not. I haven't played minecraft, but from what I understand there's a client and a server, and the server hosts the game with which the client itself would be utterly useless. Maybe that's a misunderstanding on my part.
I agree with the rest of what you said though.Moving things into the digital realm has required the law to keep up, however it's written by rusty, old dudes paid to look the other way. And the majority of the population doesn't understand until affected, so their voting behavior doesn't change.
Minecraft has both a single player mode and multiplayer which can be either hosted by the player themselves or by Microsoft. I wouldn't deny that Minecraft Realms, Microsoft's server subscription, is a service. But Minecraft, the game, has no reason to be considered a service.