Notch Vs. Yogscast: The Minecon Debacle

**6souls** · 2011-11-22 19:33

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6056/6...a1e8c529_b.jpg

Early this afternoon, there was a kerfuffle about on Twitter. Markus Persson, otherwise known as Notch and famous creator of Minecraft, recently tweeted about a pair of community members and their behavior at Minecon, last weekend’s Minecraft celebratory convention.

These community members are better known as The Yogscast, a group on YouTube that create videos based in and around Minecraft and its community. They’ve had unprecedented success in their pursuits over the past two years. Notch has stated that he will no longer be working with the group.

In the aforementioned tweets, Notch mentions that he’s received multiple pairings of hate mail, threats, and harsh words from Yogscast fans, to which he replied, “I’ll stop biting my tongue now.” He went on to state that the members of Yogscast were repeatedly insulting people, talking behind their backs, and acting like “total spoiled divas nonstop” during the entirety of Minecon.

Additionally, Notch infers that the same individuals called him and his team at Mojang “a bunch of nerds who don’t know how to run a company”, and demanded that they be paid. According to Notch, no one else was paid.

He went on to mention that Yogscast members claimed that they’re the reason behind the success of Minecraft, and that they should be thanked more than anyone else. Notch also mentioned that the group “dropped the f-bomb” on a kid who wanted a signature and wrote “fuck you” on the page the kid wanted signed.

To quote Notch directly:

“They’re total dicks.”

Coming straight out of Minecon, this is not exactly good PR for Mojang or The Yogscast. At this point, The Yogscast has yet to fire back with either a public statement, apology, or explanation on their end, except for one lone facebook post. Though, we have no idea if these accusations are entirely truthful.

However, a user has come about on Reddit discussing his experience with The Yogscast members.

Whatever the case may be, it certainly dampens what was otherwise considered a successful launch for Minecraft, and a celebration for its ever growing community.

http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/201...unity-members/
https://www.facebook.com/yogscast/po...50394251026137
https://twitter.com/#!/notch

So, with this shitstorm of Notch vs. Yogscast, I thought I would weigh in my own opinion on it, such that it is.

I'm not sure that an "f-bomb" is the sole reason for Notch wanting to not work with them anymore.

Yogscast was invited as a special guest to MineCon and was even given their own panel. What I assumed, and what I believed that Mojang assumed when they invited them to a panel, was that they would speak for an hour (hour and a half?) about their Youtube videos, podcasts and the like. They would talk about their experiences, making videos, how they got so popular, etc. Instead, what we seemed to get was an hour of them showing videos of popular builds done using Minecraft. A whole team was up on stage and it seemed only Simon/Lewis spoke.

In addition, the entire team acted like a group of self-entitled pricks the entire weekend. I worked as one of the volunteer staff that weekend and they demanded to be let in to the Scrolls/Cobalt play test area before the rest of the crowd was. We allowed them to enter for 5 minutes, as we were trying to keep to a schedule, but they created a big stink when they were asked to leave so the people who paid good money to come to MineCon could play the games too. They acted like they were the Kings of Minecraft simply because they are minor celebrities in the Youtube world.

Adding on to that, they offered to sign things for fans, in the same vein as Mojang did on Friday night. Mojang was highly classy. They talked to fans, signed whatever they wanted, and all of them, despite being exhausted, were always friendly to whatever fan wanted a word with them, even if it was just to send them away. They even signed more for the ones that were cut off in line Friday night on Saturday. Yogscast, on the other hand, passed out tickets to people who wanted an autograph during their own panel! When fans complained that they couldn't get an autograph, their response was along the lines of, "True fans would have skipped the panel to get the autograph."

Finally, on a more personal experience. My friends and I entered the main hall right after the Yogscast panel to get good seats for the closing ceremony. The Styrofoam sign that said "Yogscast" that was slapped over the "Activate Minecraft" sign on the lever on stage during their panel was being removed by the stage manager after their panel, presumably to be thrown away. My friend wanted the sign as a keepsake from MineCon, and the sign was given to her. After the closing ceremony, one of their members hunted us down to get back this sign. She used to be a huge Yogscast fan, but this experience has soured her.

In Short: The Yogscast team didn't appreciate the gesture that was given to them to be invited as a special panel to MineCon and they treated it with almost indifference. They acted like it was Mojang that should be appreciative of them gracing MineCon with their presence.

Notch may have blamed the fallout between Mojang and Yogscast on an "f-bomb" in front of kids, but I think it was more than just that. I think that Yogscast wasn't what they were hoping they would be. Mojang should probably have reviewed what Yogscast was going to be like more than they did, but MineCon had many issues like that. It wasn't perfect, and it was a bit sloppy, but I don't think Mojang should suffer all the blame for issues with Yogscast.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/co...am_at_minecon/

**Zetanio** · 2011-11-22 19:43

I saw this one Notch's twitter.

Who cares?

**miokomioko** · 2011-11-22 19:45

I don't blame Notch or Mojang for much "unproffessionalism" or sloppyness regarding the convention. They are entirely new at this and don't have a huge layer of PR, CS between the customers and their developers/owners. Transparency comes at a cost and it doesn't surprise me at all that these self-entitled Yogscast assholes completely blew it.

**Kiarax** · 2011-11-22 19:51

Shit's fucking stupid but hilarious at the same time. Notch and his fanbase have both shown they're completely retarded. A ton of it has spilled over to Totalbiscuit's twitter too which has been hilarious, because he seriously doesn't give a damn and has just been telling people to fuck off. Too pro.

**Correction** · 2011-11-22 20:09

TWITTER NERD FIGHT

**Metah** · 2011-11-22 21:05

Just another reason for me to dislike Notch.

Bueno

**Arvin** · 2011-11-22 22:08

yogscast has always been the best, fuck the haters. all the how to: wow guides and their champions online videos are hilarious

**Galkaeater** · 2011-11-22 23:17

Finally, on a more personal experience. My friends and I entered the main hall right after the Yogscast panel to get good seats for the closing ceremony. The Styrofoam sign that said "Yogscast" that was slapped over the "Activate Minecraft" sign on the lever on stage during their panel was being removed by the stage manager after their panel, presumably to be thrown away. My friend wanted the sign as a keepsake from MineCon, and the sign was given to her. After the closing ceremony, one of their members hunted us down to get back this sign. She used to be a huge Yogscast fan, but this experience has soured her.

mad she can't steal shit

**miokomioko** · 2011-11-23 00:12

...being removed by the stage manager... the sign was given to her

In case you didn't read what you quoted.

**Karbuncle** · 2011-11-23 00:14

Am i missing something in this story where the Yogcast guys weren't being giant dongbags.

Or does everyone here just really hate Notch?

**Charismatic** · 2011-11-23 00:26

Originally Posted by Karbuncle

Am i missing something in this story where the Yogcast guys weren't being giant dongbags.

Or does everyone here just really hate Notch?

I don't really care one way or the other but I wouldn't pass judgement either way if I were you, you're only hearing one side of the story now.

**Deadgye** · 2011-11-23 00:27

http://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/co...gscast/c31pix8

Spoiler: show

I've had the pleasure and displeasure of working with both the Yogscast and with Lydia (pink haired chick) on some stuff with MineCon. The Yogscast were incredibly pleasant about everything, very easy to get along with and were more than understanding on any issue I ran into along the way. The opposite was the case with Mojang and Lydia. They were combative from the start of everything, unresponsive and just downright rude on every single thing I asked them. They acted like everyone should just be pleased to be able to talk to them and any email was treated like I punched someone's mother.

I have read Notch's twitter as well as the Yogscast's quick response/no response and none of us know exactly what the real issue is here so commenting on that is silly as of right now until we hear more from the Yogscast. From my personal dealings with everyone involved in this fight, it seems like Minecon was horribly managed, and was run by some prissy girl that thought because she was handed the keys to the conference she could be a jerk to everyone. I do know that the Yogscast were given absolutely no time to prepare and things were yanked around at the last second because of Lydia's inability to do her job properly.

Here is what I know for a fact about their dealings with each other: •The Yogscast were given absolutely no direction from Mojang on what was going on. They were only informed that they would have a panel (without having to pay the ridiculous fees involved ($1000+ for the most basic table)) about a month ago •Mojang changed everything on the Yogscast at the last possible second. They were never informed of some things until about a week before the conference and were straight up lied to about other important things •The Yogscast weren't informed of their panel time, autograph time or any scheduling until about 2-3 days before they had to fly out •The Yogscast were not allowed to livestream anything because those rights were sold to IGN

The entire conference was poorly managed. So if it was just a few curse words at the panel, then Notch has only himself to blame as the Yogscast weren't properly informed or given the time to edit anything from their video. I could see a member of the Yogscast jokingly saying that they should cross out Notch's name during the autograph session after an annoying 3 days, but even that would be a bit of a stretch. It all seems like Notch has second hand information and is using previous arguments with them along with Lydia as the truth when it might be distorted or just straight out lies. It all truly seems to be 1 girl trying to save her job by starting a little something when she couldnt manage anything around her and shouldn't have been in charge in the first place.

I also want to say that while Mojang and Notch created the conference as a way to show the fans some appreciation, you also have to keep in mind that they absolutely made money during this. Tickets were $100 per person, with approximately 5000 people showing up. They sold booths starting out at $1000 and those booths were only given 2 tickets to the conference (extra tickets at normal pricing). They sold the streaming rights to IGN and they wouldn't allow any other retailer to sell apparel at the conference (Jinx was there in force though). For anyone looking to advertise at the conference, prices were grossly inflated over any other conference I've ever seen or been to. I'd honestly estimate that they had a minimum of $1million come in from that and probably only spent $500k to actually do the event. If the Yogscast had to pay for their own flights (roughly 8 of them came in) and hotels, they spent around $15k to come to an event that made money and was a bigger draw because of them.

I know that Notch seems like a nice guy, but he is a businessman and he wants to make money, and he needs to act like a true businessman. Making any snide comments on Twitter only makes everyone look bad. He could have hurt the Yogscast's image or even his own based on second hand information when better management of the event would have fixed all the issues. Lets wait until we see the Yogscast's response before we bash either side for the issues Notch presented, but we should be raising questions of a very rich man making a ton of money off his fans for a game conference without providing a quality conference for both the fans and the presenters.

**Galkaeater** · 2011-11-23 00:53

Originally Posted by miokomioko

In case you didn't read what you quoted.

obvoiusly a misunderstanding they thought she was helping out and she thought they were giving it to her to keep or some shit its all hearsay and it was still their sign

**Karbuncle** · 2011-11-23 01:57

Originally Posted by Kuroikage

I don't really care one way or the other but I wouldn't pass judgement either way if I were you, you're only hearing one side of the story now.

I'm just going to go with .. I don't trust either of them.

And join you in the not caring department.

**Celeras** · 2011-11-23 02:03

"A kid wanted them to sign something I had signed, and they said they'd cross it out and put "fuck you" there instead."

Yeah ok, fuck Yogscast. I'M WITH NOTCH.

**Correction** · 2011-11-23 02:06

QUICK EVERYONE PICK YOUR FAVORITE SIDE AS RIGHT BEFORE THE ENTIRE STORY GETS OUT.

**miokomioko** · 2011-11-23 02:07

Team Notch because this matters so much.

**Hitoshura** · 2011-11-23 02:28

Minecraft is garbage.

**Deadgye** · 2011-11-23 02:30

Pre-Team Yogscast, because I don't believe a thing Notch said yet. I'll make decisions that actually matter after I know both sides of the story though.

**Karbuncle** · 2011-11-23 02:44

Both sides are going to lie to us.

Choosing now or choosing later is a mater of which lie you prefer to believe.

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