[Causality1]

I wonder how many if those alpha worlds are preserved. I started when the alpha was free and the beta was pay, and the scope of those alpha worlds was just incredible. There wasn't much in the way of nature in the alpha so all those worlds were more art project than construction.

[trotFunky]

Minecraft is one of the biggest games of my teenage years, starting in Alpha, and I always was a bit paranoid, making backups and copies of things. As the sibling comment points out, you can go back in versions from the game launcher itself and I recently did a nostalgia trip loading up those worlds again, seeing how the game has evolved, how my playing style evolved... By loading them into a few intermediate versions, you can even get them to load in the latest one ! I really appreciate to be able to do that. (Even if I still have a couple of copies of the older versions I could play with !)

[ykl]

With the current launcher, you can actually pick which version/update to play, including old versions. For Java Edition, it lists versions all the way back to alpha as options.

[rightbyte]

This is so user-unhostile I wanna cry. Most companies just want the power to force antifeutures on the users nowadays.

[RugnirViking]

The Microsoft acquisition of Minecraft is inexplicably one of the few big tech acquisitions that hasn't completely destroyed the product. It's impressive

[fnord123]

Eh, aside from making java and bedrock incompatible, requiring Xbox live accounts to play, deleting customer accounts in the transition to Xbox live, making realms which are different somehow from java and bedrock (many parents had a devil if a time figuring out how to setup a server for kids playing on all the platforms during lockdown)... Aside from this they didn't ruin it.

[wolrah]

> Eh, aside from making java and bedrock incompatible

The "Minecraft Pocket Edition" (MCPE) code that became Bedrock predates Microsoft's involvement by over three years. Bedrock is actually Microsoft's effort to unify versions, eliminating the separate legacy console editions and providing cross-play with PC, mobile, and other console users.

Java remains separate because the consoles will never run Java and the modding community that exists around the Java version just can't be replicated on the Bedrock codebase. If it weren't for mods I guarantee Java edition would be dead.

[xcjs]

Not to mention, there's no official way to self-host Minecraft servers for Bedrock. I think that's another factor to consider when it comes to the Java edition's survival.

[aceazzameen]

Yeah, I'm a parent that was new to Minecraft during lockdown. It didn't take me long to figure out Bedrock and Java are incompatible, but I did have to explain it to other parents with kids that wanted to play with my kids (my kids play on Bedrock to be most compatible).

My biggest issue is the amount of friction when creating a new Microsoft account for a child. I have to walk through other parents in creating a MS account for themselves (if they don't have one), then how to make a child account with a username, then finding and ticking a bunch of checkboxes to allow online play, then launching Minecraft and signing in with the new child account. It's way too many steps with email verifications. It's >30 minutes. In just my circle there's several parents who gave up and sadly their kid can't play with their group of friends. People outside of tech don't have patience for that crap. This is all outside the fact that each console has their own form of friction in allowing kids to play online.

C'mon Microsoft, you can improve the new user process. Just make an optional in-game wizard asking parents a bunch of questions so kids can play ASAP. And if the issue is that it wouldn't fit in with the one-size-fits-all MS accounts used for everything else, then flag the "wizard-built" accounts as incomplete so parents can go through making a 360 account another day. Damn metrics.

[elzbardico]

Frankly, this is the kind of friction that I would like to see more in all things involving minors in the internet. If people can’t be bothered to jump through the hopes required to create a somewhat safe online identity for their kids, one that they should be supervising, maybe it is best their kids stay offline for their own safety, because their parents can’t be bothered to make sure they are safe.

[goblin89]

IMO the worst among the things Microsoft is doing to Minecraft is introducing an in-game currency (to an already paid game!).

They target Bedrock for this, and I strongly suspect once it starts bringing in extra money they will essentially kill further Java edition development.

[eropple]

IMO, the Java edition doesn't really need additional development, though. It's absolutely nice to have, but the reason (for me) to play the Java version is the community.

[mimimi31]

Also mass locking Microsoft accounts that were created without providing a phone number[1].

For some reason they locked my completely unused Microsoft account, that was created for the sole purpose of migrating my Minecraft account to, due to "unusual behavior" (or "activity that violates our Microsoft Services Agreement" if you go by the error message instead of the corresponding knowledge base article).

The reasonable thing to do in such a case if of course to require users to "[verify] [they] are the account owner" by receiving an SMS verification code on an arbitrary phone number (they explicitly mention the possibility of "asking a trusted friend or family member" for this).

[1] https://github.com/MultiMC/Launcher/issues/4093

[CrazyStat]

Java and Bedrock were already incompatible before Microsoft for involved, that wasn't their doing.

Realms are obviously different because the two versions are incompatible.

[CursedUrn]

Also they added microtransactions on many platforms. I did expect them to ruin it more by now though.

[rightbyte]

Ye well MS can't wish the old offline installers out of existence I guess.

[Wowfunhappy]

...is there an offline installer for Java Minecraft? I think it always downloads most of the real game at first run.

[null4bl3]

They soon plan to only allow logging in with Microsoft accounts no?