End Poem
The End Poem is a poem by
In 2022, Gough wrote that he had never signed a contract with Persson's Mojang Studios nor with Microsoft, which bought Mojang in 2014. Motivated by the poem's own words that "you are love" and the love he had received from fans of the poem, Gough decided to release a version of the poem into the public domain rather than entering a legal dispute with Microsoft.
Creation and use in Minecraft
The poem comes on-screen after players kill the
[teal] and the universe said I love you because you are love.
[green] And the game was over and the player woke up from the dream. And the player began a new dream. And the player dreamed again, dreamed better. And the player was the universe. And the player was love.
[teal] You are the player.
[green] Wake up.
The poem scrolls across the screen over the course of about nine minutes; speeding it up by manually scrolling is made intentionally difficult.[3] It is the only narrative text in the game,[8] and the only text of significant length oriented toward the player.[9]: 10 As of December 2022[update], it has not been significantly modified from Gough's original version.[7]
Reception
An early impression by Eric Limer in
Jason Anthony in gamevironments and Matthew Horrigan in Acta Ludologica both highlight the End Poem's comparison of video games to dreams;[9]: 10–12 [12]: 17 Anthony also discusses the poem's relevance to the theological implications of Minecraft players' ability to create and destroy worlds.[9]: 10–12 Jacob Creswell in Comic Book Resources also analyses the poem's commentary on dreams and its reference to life as "the long dream" in comparison to "the short dream of a game".[7] Creswell notes the dissimilarity between the lengthy poem and the minimalist game, but concludes that they fit well together, writing that "[t]he poem disagrees with the idea that the player is nothing compared to the grand scale of the universe" and that "[t]he game's code creates a world that players invest time and care into, much like their real lives".[7] Similarly, in MIT Technology Review, Simon Parkin observes that most players will never encounter the poem in-game, but finds that the two share a sentiment of creation through dream, which Parkin views as revealing the game's "somewhat evangelical" nature.[13]
The Irish Independent describes the End Poem as revered by the Minecraft community.[8] A number of fans have tattoos of excerpts, particularly from the "and the universe said" portion,[8] which Gough has described as "beyond moving".[3]
Copyright status
Gough was reluctant to include the line "The Universe said I love you because you are love"[b] because he did not believe it at the time; however, after two psilocybin trips near Apeldoorn, Netherlands, he stated that he realized that he had been hiding from the love that fans had expressed for the poem and that he had to "complete the circuit" and "accept, and act on" that line of the poem.[3][14]
In a December 2022 post on his
Microsoft did not respond to press inquiries about Gough's blog post, which Gough alleges led an unnamed global news organisation to "los[e] their nerve" about running a piece that would have confirmed his narrative. Jez Corden of
Notes
References
- ^ a b c Parker, James (22 May 2014). "Minecraft: The Most Creative Game Ever Made". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 2 May 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
- ^ Chatfield, Tom (9 January 2012). "Ending an endless game: an interview with Julian Gough, author of Minecraft's epic finale". Boing Boing. Archived from the original on 12 January 2012. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Gough, Julian (7 December 2022). "I wrote a story for a friend". The Egg and the Rock. Archived from the original on 8 May 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023 – via Substack.
- ^ The Mary Sue. Archivedfrom the original on 2 May 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
- ^ Rosenfeld, Daniel. "Minecraft Volume Beta". C418. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
- ^ a b Thielenhaus, Kevin (30 August 2017). "8 Weirdest Endings That Left Us Saying 'Huh?'". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 2 May 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
- ^ a b c d Creswell, Jacob (26 December 2022). "Does Minecraft's Ending Actually Mean Anything?". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on 2 May 2023. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
- ^ a b c d Moloney, Eoghan (8 December 2022). "Irishman who wrote Minecraft's revered 'End Poem' gives words away for free after declining to sign over rights to Microsoft". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 2 May 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
- ^ a b c Anthony, Jason (2015). "Current Key Perspectives in Video Gaming and Religion" (PDF). Gamevironments (3). University of Bremen: 7–15. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 May 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
- ^ a b c d Litchfield, Ted (12 December 2022). "The writer of Minecraft's ending poem wants to 'liberate it from the corporate economy'". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 11 February 2023. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
- ^ Gough, Julian (20 May 2021). "Another Day, Another Riot, another world: Julian Gough on Toasted Heretic 30 years on". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 2 May 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
- ^ Horrigan, Matthew (2022). "Nulltopia: Of Disjunct Space" (PDF). Acta Ludologica. 5 (2). University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius: 58–70. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 May 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
- from the original on 4 May 2023. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
- ^ Gault, Matthew (8 December 2022). "Guy Who Wrote Minecraft's Ending Poem Makes It Public Domain After Taking Shrooms". Motherboard. Vice News. Archived from the original on 2 May 2023. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
- Windows Central. Future plc. Archived from the original on 11 February 2023. Retrieved 12 May 2023. Citing: Gough, Julian [@juliangough] (5 January 2023). "Hmmm. I just had a bizarre experience, involving a global news organisation and a trillion dollar corporation" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Hollister, Sean (6 January 2023). "Microsoft doesn't own the rights to Minecraft's ending—no one does, its author claims". The Verge. Archived from the original on 30 March 2023. Retrieved 20 June 2023.