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Marcus “Notch” Persson has become a kind of folklorish hero among Internet gamers. His importance to the industry was fueled by the development and continued support of Minecraft, but his personal importance has been fueled by a never-ending interaction with fans via Twitter and his blog. Well, yesterday, Notch asked something of his followers that only a mythical being could get away with; permission to anonymously track their gaming habits. According to his blog, Notch is looking to understand how players interact with Minecraft on a day-to-day basis: “This would work by having the game connect to minecraft.net and send some anonymous and non-private data about the game,” he said. The data would mostly consist of items like game mode (single player, multiplayer), OS, and playing time. 
After his post, Mr. Persson put the request to a vote, and, so far, about 86 percent of his readers are willing to participate. I doubt many of Notch’s 78,000 respondents would be as agreeable if Microsoft took the same poll. There are definitely benefits to being an Internet hero. By Josh Engen |