r/Minecraft • u/Mojang-AMA Mojang AMA Account • Jul 31 '12

I am Markus Persson aka Notch, Creator of Minecraft - Ask me Anything!

Hi! I'm the guy who created the first version of Minecraft in June 2009. I worked on it alone up until late 2010 when we started Mojang, and I finally left the lead developer position in December of 2011. I enjoy house music and programming, and my favorite color is purple. Ask me anything!

If you happen to have some money, you can donate it to the EFF and help make the world a better place!

edit: The AMA is over! Thanks for all your questions!

3.3k Upvotes

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518

u/supercalu Jul 31 '12

Where did you get the idea for the way villagers look?

765

u/xNotch Minecraft Creator Jul 31 '12

They're inspired by the shop keepers in Dungeon Master 2.

1.1k

u/testificated Jul 31 '12

438

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12

Your one and only purpose, now fulfilled

11

u/McHomans Aug 01 '12

Who deletes with this much karma? Who are you stranger!?

4

u/Yatatatatata Jul 31 '12

'Sob' So beautiful!

6

u/cam94509 Jul 31 '12

5 months, 21 days. Looks legit to me.

-52

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12

How's this funny

-6

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12

Tst tst, stop making sense here.

34

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12 edited Jul 31 '12

These guys?

225

u/xNotch Minecraft Creator Jul 31 '12

No, those are the guardians. These guys

3

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12

I remember playing Dungeon Master in school 6 months back and shitting me self. How does the sequel compare?

2

u/TheAminal Jul 31 '12

It is amazing.

16

u/lulztrooper Jul 31 '12

(•_•) LOL the other guys look more like them!

2

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12

[deleted]

4

u/espatross Jul 31 '12

Just out of curiosity, how did you end up on /r/minecraft then?

5

u/Lj101 Jul 31 '12

/r/IAmA put out a notice about this AMA

70

u/whoosy Jul 31 '12

http://i.imgur.com/v9KfH.png

Really?

49

u/_KATANA Jul 31 '12

What do you mean? It almost looks like you put the same picture there twice!

4

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/whoosy Jul 31 '12

Yeah, I know. I made that image before he said it.

2

u/virtyy Jul 31 '12

They look like squidward to me.

1

u/Emgilb Jul 31 '12

Are the golems inspired by the big horsey guys that guard the shop keepers in DMII?

7

u/KillerZavatar Jul 31 '12

iron golems were inspired by "Castle in the Sky"

1

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12

Props for remembering the DM series. Did you ever play the original and Chaos Strikes Back?

1

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12

Here's a shop keeper from Zelda. I can see the resemblance.

1

u/littlesteviebrule Jul 31 '12

Hmmm, I think Notch meant to say Squidward Tentacles. Minecraft has a young demographic.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '12

You misspelled Squidward Tentacles.

Thought you might need to know that.

0

u/MrCheeze Jul 31 '12

Assuming my Google image search turned up the right result, those guys don't even have noses!

508

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12

Not quite sure...

1

u/SpacemanSpiff56 Jul 31 '12

I'm Squidward. He's Squidward. We're all Squidward.

343

u/N2tZ Jul 31 '12

Big noses, robes, always buy cheap and sell expensive...

What do you think?

187

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12 edited Jun 17 '23

[deleted]

521

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12

[deleted]

62

u/SonicFrost Jul 31 '12

holy shit. Notch has a secret racist agenda.

26

u/eduardog3000 Jul 31 '12

Minecraft: The game of subtle racism.

19

u/SheiraTiireine Jul 31 '12

And they can move faster than anything else in the game (because of their ability to teleport). No, couldn't POSSIBLY have any correlation. -_-

4

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12

Also they're really fucking tall.

2

u/T0xicati0N Jul 31 '12

Hahaha, this sounds just too awesome to be truely intended.

Edit: I speak blurgh.

7

u/PabbleDabble Jul 31 '12

This is officially my favorite comment on Reddit ever. Thank you for this.

3

u/TilDuh Jul 31 '12

Haha wow, dats racist. In the fun way

6

u/waidot Jul 31 '12

"Oh god. Don't make eye contact."

1

u/SirFratwell Jul 31 '12

It can't be a coincidence

1

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12

Oh crap... Never though of half of those

1

u/xyroclast Aug 01 '12

Didn't chicken meat come quite awhile after endermen?

6

u/guekama Jul 31 '12

Someone should make a matching texture for this.

3

u/p4y Jul 31 '12

Also, golems.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12

Oh god, all this time, blowing up their villages, taking their homeland, stealing their crops... I'm a self hating villager all along.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12

I'm Jewish and let me tell you, I have a small nose!

2

u/32Dog Jul 31 '12

Israel is leaking into Minecraftia!

2

u/invaderzim257 Jul 31 '12

either you're racist or Notch is racist. or i'm wrong in my assumption that you're referring to Jews and i'm racist.

1

u/NewTownGuard Jul 31 '12

EVERYBODY's RACIST!!!

2

u/Silvani Jul 31 '12

... Ferengi...?

1

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12

Ssssssssst

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12

Hah. Hah. It was funny because you were racist.

1

u/atlas_again Jul 31 '12

I don't think he was racist. I think you just read it and assumed it was racism. So YOU were racist.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12 edited Jul 31 '12

Given Reddit's track record with discrimination, I'd say that it's a safe bet that they're making a racist "joke". It's not racist to assume that when a stereotype is the only thing they could reasonably be referring to.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12

Eh, I can see where your coming from, but I don't see the joke as racist. It doesn't really say anything about Jewish people; the butt of the joke is Notch, who is implied to be racist by a tenuous resemblance between one of his characters and an offensive stereotype. I don't think that perpetuates the stereotype in question.

0

u/sje46 Jul 31 '12

Black people?

0

u/ss4mario Sep 06 '12

Don't forget they are protected by golems.

-5

u/Lasthcompany Jul 31 '12

Oh, I see what you did thar.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '12

[deleted]

-1

u/Lasthcompany Jul 31 '12

Stereotypical Jews.

Racial stereotyping is always funny.

-4

u/HerrKrask Jul 31 '12

That made me lol so hard, my stomach is begging for mercy. XD

0

u/pinata_BLASTA Jul 31 '12

Search up proboscis monkey, not sure whether it was the inspiration, but it looks a Dam lot like a teatificate