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[Lollipopz]

It would pretty much destroy the pirating of Minecraft.
No online play for crackers. Since Minecraft gets rather boring after a long time of SP, people with a cracked copy usually start playing with their friends with Online-mode to false.

Whether this choice would be moral, is a different story though.

[The_Fool76]

Wouldn't do anything.  It would be trivial to mod it back in.

[Creativityy]

How are people going to play if they don't have access to internet? Would be devastating for me, because in lots of cases I don't have internet.

[StalePhish]

Don't you need a cracked copy of the client to even connect to an online-mode=false server? Removing it wouldn't stop piracy. Nothing will stop piracy.

[Creativityy]

I believe being able to pirate minecraft is helping mojang. It's like an introduction to the game. They get to play SOME servers, but not the best. They can't get skins, either.

After the person plays the game for awhile they realize it's great and they want the full version so they can get skins and play the rest of the online servers.

[Regular]

Cracking down on piracy would hurt Mojang more than leaving it alone. This is one of those issues where the reaction to the problem is worse than the problem itself.

[colorfusion]

Do you mean on the launcher or on servers?
On the server I would agree, having an "offline server" doesn't really seem to be used for anything except cracked clients. On the launcher however the login servers aren't stable enough to disallow people to play when they're down, and many people play minecraft without an internet connection.

Creativityy, on 08 January 2013 - 07:05 PM, said:

I believe being able to pirate minecraft is helping mojang. It's like an introduction to the game. They get to play SOME servers, but not the best. They can't get skins, either.

After the person plays the game for awhile they realize it's great and they want the full version so they can get skins and play the rest of the online servers.

Notch (Who no longer even works on minecraft) said that he doesn't mind piracy too much, but it seems to be pretty much accepted by everyone at mojang that piracy is overall harmful for business even if it may happen to introduce a couple of new players who decide to pay later on.

[Reichiru]

Notch has said several times he has no issue with people pirating the game. A lot of people that pirate it end up buying a legit copy to get access to full features once they decide they like it, or they serve as free promotion of the game to their friends.

[IronMagus]

colorfusion, on 08 January 2013 - 07:11 PM, said:

Notch (Who no longer even works on minecraft) said that he doesn't mind piracy too much,

Reichiru, on 08 January 2013 - 07:12 PM, said:

Notch has said several times he has no issue with people pirating the game.

He never said he "doesn't mind" or "has no issue" with it.  What he said was that, since there's nothing he can do to prevent it, he might as well not lose any sleep over it.

[colorfusion]

IronMagus, on 08 January 2013 - 07:57 PM, said:

He never said he "doesn't mind" or "has no issue" with it.  What he said was that, since there's nothing he can do to prevent it, he might as well not lose any sleep over it.

I agree with you, the first part of my post (before the "but" you cut out) was mainly reiterating opposing arguments. I would still say, compared to other game developers, he doesn't mind too much but I didn't say he didn't mind it at all or had no issue with it.

This is what notch has said on the subject:
"Please don’t interpret this text as me being fine with people pirating Minecraft. I’d MUCH rather have people pay for it so I can reinvest in hiring people and developing more cool games in the future. It’s also quite possible that if I get into a business deal with a larger company, there might be a larger push towards fighting piracy mostly because they’d require it, and I understand why they’d want that."

[Lollipopz]

Creativityy, on 08 January 2013 - 06:16 PM, said:

How are people going to play if they don't have access to internet? Would be devastating for me, because in lots of cases I don't have internet.

So you always play on a server when alone?

StalePhish, on 08 January 2013 - 06:20 PM, said:

Don't you need a cracked copy of the client to even connect to an online-mode=false server? Removing it wouldn't stop piracy. Nothing will stop piracy.

I've played on cracked servers with a premium account.

Creativityy, on 08 January 2013 - 07:05 PM, said:

I believe being able to pirate minecraft is helping mojang. It's like an introduction to the game. They get to play SOME servers, but not the best. They can't get skins, either.

After the person plays the game for awhile they realize it's great and they want the full version so they can get skins and play the rest of the online servers.

And if they can't play on any servers, they are forced to buy it. I know a friend who used a cracked version of Minecraft for more than a year.

colorfusion, on 08 January 2013 - 07:11 PM, said:

Do you mean on the launcher or on servers?
On the server I would agree, having an "offline server" doesn't really seem to be used for anything except cracked clients. On the launcher however the login servers aren't stable enough to disallow people to play when they're down, and many people play minecraft without an internet connection.



Notch (Who no longer even works on minecraft) said that he doesn't mind piracy too much, but it seems to be pretty much accepted by everyone at mojang that piracy is overall harmful for business even if it may happen to introduce a couple of new players who decide to pay later on.

I meant servers. Cracked clients use online-mode=false to play MP without a premium account. Removing it would make the progress of "Cracked version ----> Annoyed because no skins and public servers ----> Premium account" alot faster.

[Randomness3333]

This would do nothing to limit pirating of the game as cracked versions don't need Mojang's account verification servers to play.

[Avascar]

As long as the money system we have exists, along with the copyrights, the economy, and the piracy, nothing will stop pirating.

Well, unless we change the economy system, copyrights, piracy, and some others completely. But that's another topic.

[Lollipopz]

Randomness3333, on 09 January 2013 - 12:42 AM, said:

This would do nothing to limit pirating of the game as cracked versions don't need Mojang's account verification servers to play.

Most pirates will get annoyed quickly due to the lack of public servers and skins. That does not stop them from playing with friends on Online-Mode=False though.

[Lollipopz]

Avascar, on 09 January 2013 - 12:48 AM, said:

As long as the money system we have exists, along with the copyrights, the economy, and the piracy, nothing will stop pirating.

Well, unless we change the economy system, copyrights, piracy, and some others completely. But that's another topic.

SP Minecraft gets boring quickly, pirates then play on cracked servers with Online-Mode=False.
Some people also download it just to play with their friends, they're not even in it for the SP at all.
No Online-Mode toggle = No multiplayer for the pirates.

Stopping piracy for other games is almost impossible though.
Unless you do what Blizzard did with Diablo 3.
(Sorry for the double post, forgot I could edit my message for a second)

[Mute]

Lollipopz, on 09 January 2013 - 07:43 PM, said:

No Online-Mode toggle = No multiplayer for the pirates.

Until someone mods it back in or makes a plugin to get around it.

[CorruptedHelix]

It sounds good to end-users, not server administrators who want to get on and manage their own server when Mojang's verification or login servers are down.

[Lemmypemmy]

Lollipopz, on 09 January 2013 - 07:43 PM, said:

SP Minecraft gets boring quickly, pirates then play on cracked servers with Online-Mode=False.
Some people also download it just to play with their friends, they're not even in it for the SP at all.
No Online-Mode toggle = No multiplayer for the pirates.

Stopping piracy for other games is almost impossible though.
Unless you do what Blizzard did with Diablo 3.
(Sorry for the double post, forgot I could edit my message for a second)

What did Blizzard do with Diablo?