作者：Mike Rose

Mojang首席执行官Carl Manneh说道：“自从创建公司起，我们就获得了来自玩家的各种反馈，所以我们知道玩家想要获得多人游戏体验。”

延续着《我的世界》的成功，该独立开发商已经卖出了1000万份PC和Mac版本的游戏了，而其它所有版本（包括手机和Xbox 360）也取得了超过2000万份的好成绩。

但是Mojang表示还未真正完成这款大受欢迎的游戏。他们继续保持着游戏的定期更新，并且在这个月公布了一个大计划，即名为“Minecraft Realms”的全新订阅服务。

现在《我的世界》的玩家已经能够设置他们自己的服务器，或者付费购买第三方服务器，但是就像Manneh所强调的，那些不精通技术的玩家将在此遇到种种问题，并且有可能找不到最合适的解决方法。

他笑着说道：“我们经常获得来自玩家的各种反馈，而最近许多家长也表示当家里的服务器管理员非常累，所以希望将孩子们的问题交给《我的世界》的服务器。”

他继续说道：“我们一直在思考这一问题，并得出了一些原因：即《我的世界》的发展速度太快了，而我们还需要处理各种其它事物，所以服务器的发展便被延迟了。而现在我们已经花了半年的时间去开发服务器，并且即将能够将其公开于世人面前，这真的是一件很棒的事。”

“Minecraft Realms”可以归结为：比起提供一种不能在其它地方使用的服务，Mojang团队希望将容易使用当成该服务的最大卖点。

Manneh说道：“在《我的世界》客户端上，玩家只需要进行一次点击便能访问服务器，从而让他们无需掌握任何有关服务器设置的技术知识便能邀请好友加入其中。”

Minecraft（from gamasutra）

作为这种易用性规则的一部分，Manneh强调“Minecraft Realms”服务器不会提供太多游戏的现有元素。

Manneh表示：“我们的目标是确保简单性——所以有可能会限制一些功能的使用。所以这一服务器并不具有功能多样性，至少在一开始是这样的，所以我们将瞄准中端市场进行推广，并为那些只是想采取简单方法而邀请朋友的《我的世界》玩家解决问题。”

他补充道，而对于那些想要添加更多模块并改变服务器的玩家来说，“Minecraft Realms便不是他们的最佳选择，他们应该继续使用第三方代理。因为Realms不可能为他们添加更多模块，至少一开始不会。”

“Minecraft Realms”的作用

但是比起我们所看到的，“Minecraft Realms”拥有更多作用。短期计划虽然能够帮助休闲玩家轻松连接在线好友，但是该服务器所包含的基础设施才是奠定Mojang连接未来的主要元素。

Manneh说道：“这一服务器真的为我们的所有游戏带来了更多价值，而其中的基础设施也能够用于我们所创造的其它游戏中。”

他继续说道：“Minecraft Realms的一大理念便是让玩家可以连接不同服务器，也就是基于MMO的原理。所以玩家可以通过《我的世界》中的门户连接到好友的服务器上，然后他们便可以添加更多能够连接彼此的世界了。”

当然了，为了推动该服务的进一步发展并运行于这一潜在的规模，Mojang需要非常多的服务器。而Mojang团队是否做好了面对如此严酷的考验？

Manneh回答道：“我们尝试着进行一些估算，但这真的很难。因为虽然我们知道玩家需要这样的服务，但却不知道这些需求量到底有多大。”

“不过我们必须记住（为了明确业务的规模），如果这真的是一个非常受欢迎的服务，我们就需要提供足够多的服务器。我们需要大量服务器的支持。这也是我们与供应商（游戏邦注：面向PC版本的Multiplay以及面向手机版本的亚马逊）之间的合作。”

当然，“Minecraft Realms”还有另一面，即具有潜在的利益。如果该订阅服务真的受欢迎的话，它不仅能大大提升《我的世界》的销量，同时也有可能成为Mojang的主要收入来源。

Manneh说道：“《我的世界》的业务模式是，玩家只需要付一次钱便可以。但是这一模式却不能持续很长时间，除非《我的世界》是进行永久出售，但是之前的任何一款游戏都未出现过这种情况。”

“所以我们必须思考如何维持业务的向前发展。如果我们能够创造出一种吸引用户花钱的服务，这也许便能成为我们长期的收入来源。”

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

How Mojang is creating a sustainable future for Minecraft

By Mike Rose

“Pretty much from when we started the company, we’ve been getting feedback from players, and players want to connect and play multiplayer,” says Mojang CEO Carl Manneh.

So rumbles on the success of Minecraft, the sandbox open-world indie behemoth that has nearly sold 10 million copies of its PC and Mac version alone, and more than 20 million copies across all its versions, including on mobile and Xbox 360.

But Mojang is far from finished with the popular title. It continues to put out regular updates for the game, and as revealed this month, has big plans for a new subscription service called Minecraft Realms on the way.

It’s currently possible for Minecraft players to set up their own servers, or pay for a third-party service to host a server for them, but as Manneh notes, those less tech-savvy players will no doubt hit plenty of bumps and issues along the way, and may not be able to find the solution online.

“We’ve consistently gotten a lot of feedback from players, and now lately a lot of parents that have kids, and they basically say that they’re tired of being server admins at home, and sorting our their children’s issues with Minecraft servers,” he laughs.

He continues, “We’ve been thinking about this for quite some time for several reasons: Because Minecraft grew so quickly, we had to handle a lot of other things, so the the servers have been delayed. Now we’ve been developing it for probably half a year, and we’re getting close to releasing it, so that’s exciting.”

This is what Minecraft Realms boils down to: rather than offering a service that isn’t already available elsewhere, the Mojang team is aiming for ease-of-use as its main sell point.

“This will be a one-click option in the Minecraft client that offers access to the server,” Manneh adds, “and allows you to invite friends without any technical knowledge around setting up the server.”

As part of this accessibility charter, Manneh notes that Minecraft Realms servers will not provide many of the current elements of the game.

“The goal is to keep it very simple – so that will also limit a lot of features,” he says. “It won’t be very feature-rich, at least from the beginning, so we’re really targeting the middle of the market to try and solve the problem for the normal Minecraft player who just wants an easy way to connect with friends.”

He adds that, for those players who want to add lots of mods and make tweaks to their server, “Minecraft Realms will not be your option, and you should continue with your third-party host. It will not be possible with Realms to add tons of mods, at least from the get-go.”

MM GO?

But there’s more to Minecraft Realms than meets the eye. While the short-term plans provide more casual players with a method for easily playing online with friends, the infrastructure and the work involved is setting Mojang up for a connected future.

“It’s definitely something that will add value to all our games, and the infrastructure that we’re building will hopefully be able to be used by other games that we’re making too,” Manneh notes.

“One idea that we have with Minecraft Realms is that you connect servers to servers, so that basically makes it an MMO in theory,” he adds. “So you can connect your servers through a portal in Minecraft to your friends’ servers, and then you have the possibility to add an endless amount of worlds connected to each other.”

Of course, to get something up and running on this potential scale, Mojang is going to need a hell of a lot of servers. Is the team ready for such a large scale ordeal?

“We’ve obviously tried to make some calculations, but it’s extremely hard,” Manneh answers, “because we know there is a demand for this kind of service, but we don’t know how big the demand is.”

“But we do have to keep that in mind in order to scale the business, and provide enough servers for if this is a very popular service. We could need tons and tons of servers. That’s something that we’re working with our providers – Multiplay for the PC version, and Amazon for the mobile version.”

There’s another side to Minecraft Realms too — the potential profits. If the subscription service does indeed prove popular, it’s not difficult to imagine that it will not only bring in more money that Minecraft sales alone, but will in fact become Mojang’s main source of income.

“Obviously with the business model behind Minecraft, you pay for it once, and then never again,” says Manneh. “That isn’t sustainable for a very long period of time unless, you know, Minecraft will sell forever, which has never happened before with any other game.”

“So we definitely have to think about how to sustain our business going forward, and this is one way. If we build an attractive service that people are willing to pay for, that’s definitely a big source of income for us potentially for a very long period of time.”(source:gamasutra)