{"product_id":"minecraft-second-edition-isbn-9781609805753","title":"Minecraft, Second Edition","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe incredible tale of a little game that shook the international gaming world--now with new material including a behind-the-scenes look at the sale to Microsoft.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor this second edition, the story has been enriched with more Minecraft than ever--a new section describes Minecraft's sale to Microsoft, Notch's less than heartwarming last day in the office, and Mojang's final days of independence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e His whole life, all Markus Persson wanted to do was create his own games. Create his own games and get rich. Then in 2009 a strange little project of his quickly grew into a worldwide phenomenon and, in just a few short years, turned its maker into an international icon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinecraft: The Unlikely Tale of Markus \"Notch\" Persson and the Game that Changed Everything\u003c\/i\u003e is a Cinderella story for the Internet age—improbable success, fast money, and the power of digital technology to shake up a rock-solid industry. It's a story about being lost and finding your way, of breaking the rules and swimming against the current. It's about how the indie gaming scene rattled the foundations of corporate empires. But, above all, this is the story of how a creative genius chased down a crazy dream: the evolution of a shy amateur programmer into a video game god.Chapter 1 Three, Two, One . . . \u003cbr\u003eChapter 2 For Beginners\u003cbr\u003eChapter 3 “Do You Want Me to Feel Sorry for You or Something?”\u003cbr\u003eChapter 4 Games Worth Billions\u003cbr\u003eChapter 5 “They Just Don’t Get It”\u003cbr\u003eChapter 6 Macho Men With Big Guns\u003cbr\u003eChapter 7 “This Is Way Too Much Fun. I Built a Bridge.” \u003cbr\u003eChapter 8 The Hedonic Hot Spot of the Brain \u003cbr\u003eChapter 9 “Yes, You Should Play This Game.”\u003cbr\u003eChapter 10 The Squid Situation\u003cbr\u003eChapter 11 A Dilemma Concerning House Cats \u003cbr\u003eChapter 12 Too Many for Two Pizzas\u003cbr\u003eChapter 13 More than a Game\u003cbr\u003eChapter 14 Becoming a LEGO \u003cbr\u003eChapter 15 “You Did It, Markus. You Really Did It.”\u003cbr\u003eChapter 16 Back to the Boys’ Room\u003cbr\u003e Sources\u003cbr\u003e Ludography\u003cbr\u003e Thanks\"You may find this book as addictive as Minecraft.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eSlate\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"At the core of the story of Minecraft is the lesson that success is possible, if you have a good idea and the passion and skill to pursue it. Minecraft is indeed an unlikely tale. That’s what makes it so great, and that’s why this little book will make a terrific holiday gift for the gamer in your life.” \u003cb\u003e—Andrew Leonard, \u003ci\u003eSalon\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eMinecraft\u003c\/i\u003e is a beautifully human story...it's well worth a read and offers, at the very least, inspiration, and at the very most, hope.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eTechCrunch\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This book takes his story and gives you a closer look. You learn about the man behind the game. His childhood, his family, the growth of his company and the lives of the people who work there. It doesn’t just give you the big enormous, glamour-filled cut scenes that you read about on the Internet. This book gives you the pixels, the details.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBook Riot\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Suspenseful, grounded, and startlingly relatable. I expected a book about Minecraft; what I got was a compelling story about personal struggle and accomplishment. A perfect gift for Minecraft players, parents of younger players, or anyone interested in indie games.\"\u003cb\u003e —\u003ci\u003eGameSkinny\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Pulls itself along with the narrative compulsion of a tech biography...outlines a cultural phenomenon in ways that even those who've missed out up 'til now can understand.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I have been following Minecraft closely for over three years, and yet this book consistently surprised me with new insights into the game's development.  It focuses on the human story behind all those pixelated blocks. I have a new respect for Notch's accomplishments with Minecraft and for all the hard work that the Mojang'ers have devoted to making the game such a phenomenon. This book offers a fascinating and honest peek into the mind of the man who made Minecraft a reality.\" \u003cb\u003e—Joel Levin, co-creator, MinecraftEdu \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This book explores the man behind the game to a depth that you won't, and that you can't, find anywhere else. In this work, Markus \"Notch\" Persson has revealed everything about the events that led to an international super-phenomenon. The resulting story will fascinate and inspire.\" \u003cb\u003e—Sethbling, Minecraft video maker \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eLINUS LARSSON\u003c\/b\u003e and \u003cb\u003eDANIEL GOLDBERG \u003c\/b\u003eare two of Sweden’s best-known writers on new technology and the internet. They have been published in the \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eAmerican Computer World\u003c\/i\u003e, among other places, and quoted by BBC News, the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, and the \u003ci\u003eSydney Morning Herald\u003c\/i\u003e. Their first book, \u003ci\u003eSwedish Hackers\u003c\/i\u003e, was published in 2011 in Sweden. \u003ci\u003eMinecraft\u003c\/i\u003e, their bestselling English language debut, followed that same year.\u003c\/p\u003eChapter 1\u003cbr\u003e Three, Two, One . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e It’s November 18, 2011. An old man in a faded gray\u003cbr\u003e sweater looks up from his slot machine. A long and\u003cbr\u003e steady stream of children, teens, and grown-ups flows\u003cbr\u003e through the casino. Their outfits are odd, even for this\u003cbr\u003e place. In Las Vegas, you can count on seeing pretty much\u003cbr\u003e anything: Elvis impersonators lined up on the sidewalks,\u003cbr\u003e gigantic fake-gold lions, drunken weekend revelers, and\u003cbr\u003e fountains shooting water hundreds of yards into the air\u003cbr\u003e synchronized to the tune of the national anthem.\u003cbr\u003e The people streaming through the casino at the Hotel\u003cbr\u003eMandalay Bay are wearing cardboard boxes on their\u003cbr\u003e heads. Some are in full cardboard-box bodysuits with\u003cbr\u003e armholes that look uncomfortable and make their elbows\u003cbr\u003e stick straight out, like cubist comic-strip characters with\u003cbr\u003e the posture of bodybuilders. The cardboard suits they’ve\u003cbr\u003e squeezed into are painted in large colorful squares, some\u003cbr\u003e green, some black. Others are light blue, brown, and\u003cbr\u003e pink. The man at the slot machines, clueless, returns to\u003cbr\u003e his game, his cigarette, and his morning cocktail.\u003cbr\u003e The cardboard-box people aren’t there to win money.\u003cbr\u003e They continue toward the convention facilities that are next\u003cbr\u003e to the casino, where in a few minutes they will be cheering\u003cbr\u003e as they watch a thirty-two-year-old Swede pull a lever and\u003cbr\u003e release the finished version of their favorite game.\u003cbr\u003e Minecraft. A computer game as incomprehensible to\u003cbr\u003e the uninitiated as it is wildly adored by tens of millions\u003cbr\u003e of people. Those who’ve traveled here are among the\u003cbr\u003e game’s most devoted fans. Not only have they paid airfare\u003cbr\u003e but also, before embarking for Las Vegas, they cut\u003cbr\u003e and glued their suits, modeled on the game’s primitive\u003cbr\u003e block graphics and shapes.\u003cbr\u003e And there are thousands of them, representing a total of\u003cbr\u003e twenty-three countries. The youngest is four years old and\u003cbr\u003e the oldest is seventy-seven. Of the many parents, some\u003cbr\u003e have made the trip just for their kids and are now observing\u003cbr\u003e in awe a world their offspring adore but that is alien to\u003cbr\u003e them. Others are just as passionate as their children.\u003cbr\u003e “We play together constantly,” says a dad with\u003cbr\u003e green-tinted hair, wearing a suit sprayed green, his face\u003cbr\u003e covered with black bars as he poses for pictures with his\u003cbr\u003e identically decked-out son.\u003cbr\u003e A few minutes later. The convention hall where we’re seated\u003cbr\u003e is the largest at the Mandalay Bay. It’s completely packed\u003cbr\u003e and the lights are off. All eyes turn toward the stage and\u003cbr\u003e Lydia Winters, who—impossible not to recognize with her\u003cbr\u003e short, shocking pink hair—is firing up the audience.\u003cbr\u003e “This weekend is going to be awesome!”\u003cbr\u003e Giant screens are mounted on both sides of the stage\u003cbr\u003e so that those sitting farther back can see what’s happening.\u003cbr\u003e They all show Lydia’s happy, glowing, almost cartoon-\u003cbr\u003e character-like smile.\u003cbr\u003e “So many people’s . . . lives have been changed by this\u003cbr\u003e game!”\u003cbr\u003e Next to the stage, just to the left, the weekend’s big star is\u003cbr\u003e waiting for the signal to step up into the spotlight: Markus\u003cbr\u003e Persson, dressed in jeans, well-worn sneakers, and a black polo\u003cbr\u003e that’s a bit tight around the middle. As always, he’s wearing a\u003cbr\u003e black fedora. Markus doesn’t know what to do with his hands\u003cbr\u003e while he waits. He pulls absentmindedly at the hem of his shirt\u003cbr\u003e before his hands land in his jeans pockets, thumbs out.\u003cbr\u003e There is an ocean of five thousand people seated\u003cbr\u003e before him—if seated is the right word, because many\u003cbr\u003e of them stand up as the first of Markus’s colleagues\u003cbr\u003e arrive onstage. Lydia Winters calls them up and one by\u003cbr\u003e one they trudge onstage, shyly wave a little at the audience,\u003cbr\u003e and line up beside her. Jens Bergensten—the programmer,\u003cbr\u003e tall, lanky, his red ponytail hanging down his\u003cbr\u003e back. Carl Manneh—the CEO, who is perfectly okay with\u003cbr\u003e Lydia keeping the microphone. Jakob Porser—Markus’s\u003cbr\u003e old friend and the cofounder of his company. The graphics\u003cbr\u003e guy, Junkboy—no, his real name is never given in\u003cbr\u003e public—who leaps onstage wearing a cardboard box\u003cbr\u003e on his head and making victory signs for the audience.\u003cbr\u003e They’re all Swedish men, all in their late twenties and\u003cbr\u003e early thirties, and they all work at Mojang, the company\u003cbr\u003e that produces Minecraft. Most days they sit and work at\u003cbr\u003e their computers in a shabby apartment on AÅãsoÅNgatan, in\u003cbr\u003e Stockholm. But this is no ordinary day.\u003cbr\u003e This is the moment when the final version of Minecraft\u003cbr\u003e will be released to the public. Which means that until\u003cbr\u003e today, the five thousand people in the audience—and\u003cbr\u003e several million others around the world—have been\u003cbr\u003e playing an unfinished game. A kind of prototype, which\u003cbr\u003e has earned Markus close to $70 million and created one\u003cbr\u003e of the world’s most admired companies.\u003cbr\u003e This is MineCon, the first convention dedicated entirely\u003cbr\u003e to Minecraft. The event began as a random idea at\u003cbr\u003e the Mojang headquarters on SoÅNdermalm, in southern\u003cbr\u003e Stockholm. Markus Persson asked on his blog if anyone\u003cbr\u003e would pay ninety dollars to go to a Minecraft convention\u003cbr\u003e in Las Vegas. Within a few weeks more than 43,000 people\u003cbr\u003e said they would, and the Mandalay Bay was booked.\u003cbr\u003e The hotel is a forty-four-story monumental monstrosity\u003cbr\u003e built entirely of gold-tinted glass. In its twenty-two\u003cbr\u003e restaurants, smoke-filled poker dens, and meandering\u003cbr\u003e indoor malls, you can easily spend several days without\u003cbr\u003e leaving the hotel—exactly as intended. As a rule, casinos\u003cbr\u003e in Las Vegas have no windows or clocks, so that gamblers\u003cbr\u003e will continue to feed money into the machines throughout\u003cbr\u003e the night. The desert gambling mecca is no place for\u003cbr\u003e people with regular circadian rhythms.\u003cbr\u003e The coming days will be an unparalleled spectacle,\u003cbr\u003e bizarre for those unfamiliar with gaming conventions\u003cbr\u003e in general and especially so for those who don’t know\u003cbr\u003e Minecraft in particular. People will line up for hours to\u003cbr\u003e get Markus’s autograph. A costume contest will nearly\u003cbr\u003e degenerate into a riot. Two British men, known by millions\u003cbr\u003e of fans from their YouTube channel, will be greeted\u003cbr\u003e like celebrities when they play videos on the stage, showing\u003cbr\u003e functioning electronic equipment built entirely within\u003cbr\u003e Minecraft.\u003cbr\u003e It’s not that surprising. Minecraft had grown into\u003cbr\u003e an unprecedented success story well before MineCon.\u003cbr\u003e Sixteen million players had downloaded the game; more\u003cbr\u003ethan four million of them had paid for it. \u003ci\u003eMinecraft \u003c\/i\u003ehad\u003cbr\u003e been praised by pretty much every gaming magazine and\u003cbr\u003e website in the world. And after all, it’s a game so engrossing\u003cbr\u003e that thousands of its most faithful fans have traveled\u003cbr\u003e to Las Vegas to celebrate that it is finally finished.\u003cbr\u003e We have come here to understand why. We want to ask\u003cbr\u003e the costumed men and women what it is about \u003ci\u003eMinecraft\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e that makes them love it more than any other game. And\u003cbr\u003e not least of all, we want to know why Markus’s strange\u003cbr\u003e creation has earned him such enormous sums of money.\u003cbr\u003e For it was, of course, the money that made us take note\u003cbr\u003e of Markus Persson in the first place. In late 2010, the\u003cbr\u003e unassuming programmer began to pop up in interviews,\u003cbr\u003e describing how he’d struck gold with his remarkable\u003cbr\u003e game. He always displayed a modest, almost surprised\u003cbr\u003e demeanor in the face of his success. He didn’t seem to\u003cbr\u003e have any idea what to do with his millions.\u003cbr\u003e It looked like an improbable business success, a story\u003cbr\u003e of a quick breakthrough and of sudden riches, a shining\u003cbr\u003e example of how the Internet can shake the foundations\u003cbr\u003e of an industry and create empires within months. But the\u003cbr\u003e closer we looked, the more difficult it was to fit \u003ci\u003eMinecraft\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e into the usual frameworks. There was no successful marketing\u003cbr\u003e strategy to point to, no business plan that held the\u003cbr\u003e secrets to success. There was just one guy with his own,\u003cbr\u003e slightly odd idea of what the gaming world needed. The\u003cbr\u003e story that emerged had very little to do with polished\u003cbr\u003e businessmen and fast deals. Instead, we found an idea\u003cbr\u003e rooted in Markus’s childhood, one that could only blossom\u003cbr\u003e outside the established framework of the gaming\u003cbr\u003e industry.\u003cbr\u003e Actually, it’s only now, seated a few yards from the\u003cbr\u003e stage, that we fully understand what a star Markus is.\u003cbr\u003e Lydia Winters continues her exuberant introduction as\u003cbr\u003e we scan the crowd. There’s a woman crying in the row\u003cbr\u003e in front of us, which is reserved for special guests. Her\u003cbr\u003e cheeks are pierced and she has henna-colored hair and\u003cbr\u003e red scars in intricate patterns on her arms. There is also\u003cbr\u003e a short girl holding a camera, beaming with pride. Right\u003cbr\u003e beside her, there’s an older Swedish gentleman and a\u003cbr\u003e lady with shoulder-length, pure-white hair.\u003cbr\u003e “This all started because of one person,” says Lydia.\u003cbr\u003e If anyone had entered the hall at that moment without\u003cbr\u003e knowing what was going on, that person would have\u003cbr\u003e guessed she was talking about a prophet. The room\u003cbr\u003e erupts in cheers.\u003cbr\u003e “I think we need to do better than that. I think we need\u003cbr\u003e to \u003ci\u003echant \u003c\/i\u003eto get him up onstage.”\u003cbr\u003e The whole audience responds to Lydia’s suggestion.\u003cbr\u003e The roar is deafening. “Notch! Notch! Notch!” Few people\u003cbr\u003e in the room know him as Markus.\u003cbr\u003e Down beside the stage, thoughts race through Markus’s\u003cbr\u003e head. What should he say? He has always hated speaking\u003cbr\u003e in public. On Twitter, he writes for half a million people,\u003cbr\u003ebut this is different. Onstage, there’s no backing up and\u003cbr\u003e no erasing what he’s said. It’s all live, going out directly,\u003cbr\u003e both to people on-site and to those following the event\u003cbr\u003e online.\u003cbr\u003e Forty minutes earlier, he had asked for a drink to calm\u003cbr\u003e his nerves. Someone put a glass of vodka in his hand.\u003cbr\u003e Now he’s standing there trying to figure out if he’s drunk\u003cbr\u003e or not. Shouldn’t he be more nervous? There was something\u003cbr\u003e about the stairs too—he shouldn’t look out at the\u003cbr\u003e audience when he walks up onstage, someone had said.\u003cbr\u003e He might trip.\u003cbr\u003e Markus carefully climbs onto the stage. He looks\u003cbr\u003e self-conscious, but breaks out in a timid smile when he\u003cbr\u003e holds up his hand to wave to the audience. The spotlights\u003cbr\u003e seem to blind him completely. Lydia, whose neon-colored\u003cbr\u003e hair is accentuated by her all-black clothing, tries to\u003cbr\u003e get a few words out of Markus. He says something about\u003cbr\u003e “grateful” and “cool.”\u003cbr\u003e “I love you, Notch!” someone from the audience cries.\u003cbr\u003e Markus squirms.\u003cbr\u003e The stage decor consists of paper models and figures\u003cbr\u003e resembling those in the game. One life-size human figure\u003cbr\u003e looks exactly like Steve, the \u003ci\u003eMinecraft \u003c\/i\u003eprotagonist.\u003cbr\u003e There’s a green monster, some boxes, and a column of\u003cbr\u003e blocks sporting a lever. The lever’s not actually connected\u003cbr\u003e to anything, but the energy level in the room rises\u003cbr\u003e when Markus approaches it.\u003cbr\u003e “Are you ready for the official release of\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eMinecraaaaaaaaft\u003c\/i\u003e?” Lydia roars.\u003cbr\u003e The audience roars back. A techno beat begins to\u003cbr\u003e pump. But Markus hesitates, grips the lever, lets it go\u003cbr\u003e again. Camera flashes and the noise level in the hall\u003cbr\u003e begin to approach the limits of human tolerance. Finally,\u003cbr\u003e Markus gives the lever a push. Fireworks explode and\u003cbr\u003e confetti shoots out over the sea of faces. The music gets\u003cbr\u003e even louder and the programmers onstage break out\u003cbr\u003e dancing, as \u003ci\u003eMinecraft 1.0 \u003c\/i\u003eis finally released to the world.\u003cbr\u003e Markus, off to the side, just nods his head to the beat. At\u003cbr\u003e that moment, a technician behind the stage tells us, four\u003cbr\u003e thousand people are logging in to play \u003ci\u003eMinecraft\u003c\/i\u003e. Four\u003cbr\u003e thousand per second, that is.\u003cbr\u003e Jakob, the old friend from an earlier time, dances up\u003cbr\u003e to Markus and receives a hug that lifts him off the floor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUse the link below to read an excerpt of Minecraft! \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ehttp:\/\/issuu.com\/sevenstories\/docs\/pages_from_minecraft","brand":"Seven Stories Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303077073125,"sku":"NP9781609805753","price":23.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781609805753.jpg?v=1767732742","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/minecraft-second-edition-isbn-9781609805753","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}