I think notch summed up what we're all focusing on here:
>If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately.
He doesn't want you (or anyone) excited about what he's doing. He doesn't want people to like what he creates - he wants people to like the process of creation. The product is much less interesting to him.
Many people here are working towards the sort of success Notch achieved. Strangers everywhere enthusiastically adopted his creation. His considered reaction is to cut all ties to what he made. He's been to the top of the mountain and he thinks the mountain sucks.
Now, that's fine. It's his thing, he can do whatever he wants with it. I'm not of the school that thinks he "owes" anything to anyone. But I think we should all worry a little about this as a 'case study.' Notch did a good job keeping minecraft on track. Some people might quibble over its direction over the years, but ultimately it's continued to be updated be extremely popular. But, even with massive financial success, near universal acclaim, abundant funding and total creative freedom - he decided he would rather build toy games on his own. Maybe that's just how Notch is, and it doesn't say anything about how we've organized the industry most of us are a part of, but I think it probably says /a little/ about the industry.
Notch had (nearly) every advantage a creator could have if they wanted to take a small project and scale it up into something else. He decided to walk away - I just think we should examine the forces that led him to sell Mojang. We may find we're focusing on the wrong things in our own attempts to make ourselves happy.
> He doesn't want you (or anyone) excited about what he's doing. He doesn't want people to like what he creates
I don't think that's what he's saying at all. He's simply saying the spotlight makes it difficult for him to stay sane (see first and last paragraph) and he doesn't want to be pushed into roles he's not (e.g. CEO, entrepreneur). He wants to be himself without all the issues that come with fame (see the video he linked).
> he wants people to like the process of creation. The product is much less interesting to him.
He likes the process of creation, but he doesn't necessarily want others to like it too.
> Many people here are working towards the sort of success Notch achieved.
That's the big difference. They are working towards this sort of success, Notch was not -- it just sort of happened (see first paragraph).
> Notch did a good job keeping minecraft on track
Yes, ultimately he's responsible for that, but there are others that deserve at least as much credit as Notch for keeping it on track.
> But, even with massive financial success, near universal acclaim, abundant funding and total creative freedom - he decided he would rather build toy games on his own
This isn't surprising. Many of us would only be able to do what we really wanted with the freedom that comes from (financial) success.
> Notch had (nearly) every advantage a creator could have if they wanted to take a small project and scale it up into something else.
And he still has those advantages should he wish to do that.
He's taking the exploration path, instead of iterating on something which has already proved successful.
I can't wait to see what Notch does next.