[sneak]

You are missing the point.

I was well aware of it. I don’t want a Microsoft account. I don’t do business with Microsoft.

Microsoft demanded that I agree to a new contract, the Microsoft Terms of Service, to which I do not and will not agree, to continue to use the game I already paid for.

This is called a bait-and-switch. I paid money, got the product, used the product, then they altered the deal, Vader style. Sign this new contract or you lose your game.

It’s bullshit any which way you slice it.

Arguably it’s Mojang’s fault for selling to such a shitty acquirer and betraying their customers, not that we need any more reasons to understand what a total piece of trash Notch is.

[immibis]

You actually don't have to. You can just install the game and play it. Java Minecraft has no effective anti-piracy checks, which also means it has no effective legal-copy-but-not-using-a-microsoft-account checks. And the auto update URLs have no authorization checks at all. You can go to the root index URL (I don't remember it) and follow a few HATEOAS links to get any version-specific .jar that's available in the official launcher. This is an open secret and they leave it that way on purpose. Most third-party launchers (e.g. PrismLauncher) won't force you to log in before installing the game.

Of course, you should only install the game if you own a license to it. Otherwise that's piracy and it's illegal.

[sneak]

PrismLauncher does do an account check now, I learned after this comment. But there’s an easy bypass by putting some json into accounts.json and then it works fine.

[mcv]

It's Java. Wouldn't it be possible to decompile it and just remove the account checking? Maybe mod it out? There are mods that change the game dramatically, so why not this?

[sneak]

Yes, it’s more than possible to crack the game. All of the normal servers however will refuse to talk to you without you presenting valid login tokens from Microsoft, so you’re limited to local singleplayer.

[immibis]

And LAN play in "offline mode". There are some Internet servers in offline mode with aftermarket authentication systems bolted on, but mostly only 13yo pirates play them.

Did you think Microsoft was obligated to maintain your access to servers though? Even "stop killing games" doesn't ask that much.

[mcv]

But at least you can play the game. And maybe play with people with a similarly cracked version. That sounds entirely reasonable to me, if you don't want to have anything to do with Microsoft.