The Guilt Of Video Game Millionaires

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Guilt for becoming a millionaire off of something you created? Did any of you even know there was such a thing?

Markus Persson, who earned more than a hundred million dollars in 2012 from his game Minecraft, told me in 2013 that he also initially felt guilty about his newfound wealth and mostly limited his luxury to the latest computer. (He has now acclimatized somewhat, he says, and travels by private jet and hosts lavish parties for friends and fans.)
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Well he can give me all of his MineCraft money if it will help him feel less guilty.
 
Taking private jets doesn't show that one is becoming acclimated to being rich. It shows that one is a rich douche.
 
He could just, like, donate most of his money to charity if he feels that way. He does give a lot to Humble Bundle I think, though.
 
TheMadHatterXxX said:
Indulging in the fruits of one's labor and success = douche? :confused:

Why so mad...he deserves to enjoy his success.
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Because private planes might be the most egregious waste of money available ("super yachts" being right up there, accounting for the "might"), unless they're being used to go somewhere a regular airline flight isn't already going.

And I'm not mad. I can consider someone a douche and have not even a scrap of anger towards them. I can even consider someone straight-up evil and not feel any anger about it. Being a sociopath has its advantages.
 
Babbster said:
Because private planes might be the most egregious waste of money available ("super yachts" being right up there, accounting for the "might"), unless they're being used to go somewhere a regular airline flight isn't already going.
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That's the funny thing about earning 100 million dollars... it's yours to waste as you please.

Babbster said:
And I'm not mad. I can consider someone a douche and have not even a scrap of anger towards them. I can even consider someone straight-up evil and not feel any anger about it. Being a sociopath has its advantages.
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What about being a douche?
 
Well depending on how often you travel getting a private plane/jet could actually save you money in the long run.
 
mesasone said:
That's the funny thing about earning 100 million dollars... it's yours to waste as you please.
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No shit. That's why I wouldn't support a law against flying via private plane or buying a super yacht.
 
1) I'd like to see his latest computer posted on [H].

2) Falling into a lot of "New" money can be disasterous for a lot of people for various of reasons. It's just like winning the lottery. It's one that I'm sympathetic towards as I've read the stories of lottery winners. Some good. A lot of them horrible. Drugs, lawsuits, Break-ins, Murders, Poison, People from far depths of the past want money, kidnappings, and people will be jealous and hate you for what they don't have.
 
I think that you have to be really young and naive about the world to feel guilty about being rich.

I couldn't find "guilt" among all the lobster, sushi, girls and gaming.

The existential meaningless of one's life - that I could find.
 
Skillz said:
Well depending on how often you travel getting a private plane/jet could actually save you money in the long run.
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I didn't phrase it quite right - "egregious waste of money and resources" would be a more accurate representation of my opinion.
 
RogueTadhg said:
1) I'd like to see his latest computer posted on [H].

2) Falling into a lot of "New" money can be disasterous for a lot of people for various of reasons. It's just like winning the lottery. It's one that I'm sympathetic towards as I've read the stories of lottery winners. Some good. A lot of them horrible. Drugs, lawsuits, Break-ins, Murders, Poison, People from far depths of the past want money, kidnappings, and people will be jealous and hate you for what they don't have.
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I just don't see how winning the lottery turns someone into such a different person. I'd pay off my house, get a reasonable lake house where my parents live, a 911 and some jet skis, and that's about it really. I can't think of anything else I'd really want to be honest, mostly bc I'm single and have been buying all the toys I want over the last 10 years.

And I have a buddy here at work that swears winning the lottery= committing to a life of misery.

While money can't buy you happiness, I worked at a boat dock during the summers during HS......I can't ever recall a person pulling up to gas up on a jet ski with a frown on their face.
 
Babbster said:
And I'm not mad. I can consider someone a douche and have not even a scrap of anger towards them. I can even consider someone straight-up evil and not feel any anger about it. Being a sociopath has its advantages.
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I'm calling pot meet kettle
 
You know what would abate that guilt? I dunno, perhaps sharing that wealth with the people who helped program that game?
 
With the way the wealthy are demonized these days, it's no wonder the brainwashed who suddenly find themselves flush with riches would feel guilt. It's a disease infecting our modern culture.
 
RogueTadhg said:
2) Falling into a lot of "New" money can be disasterous for a lot of people for various of reasons. It's just like winning the lottery. It's one that I'm sympathetic towards as I've read the stories of lottery winners. Some good. A lot of them horrible. Drugs, lawsuits, Break-ins, Murders, Poison, People from far depths of the past want money, kidnappings, and people will be jealous and hate you for what they don't have.
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The problem with most lottery winners is that they generally poor due to making poor money choices - such as playing the lottery.

The few that actually win a good amount, continue to make these poor choices, and most end up broke again in a short time.
 
Babbster said:
I didn't phrase it quite right - "egregious waste of money and resources" would be a more accurate representation of my opinion.
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Some people would consider spending thousands of dollars, and kilowatts of electricity on an overclocked, water cooled gaming computer an "egregious waste of money and resources"

As long as he is spending his own, honestly earned money (not my money or other taxpayers money), then I don't care what he wastes his money on.
 
jflail2 said:
I just don't see how winning the lottery turns someone into such a different person. I'd pay off my house, get a reasonable lake house where my parents live, a 911 and some jet skis, and that's about it really. I can't think of anything else I'd really want to be honest, mostly bc I'm single and have been buying all the toys I want over the last 10 years.

And I have a buddy here at work that swears winning the lottery= committing to a life of misery.

While money can't buy you happiness, I worked at a boat dock during the summers during HS......I can't ever recall a person pulling up to gas up on a jet ski with a frown on their face.
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Money doesn't turn someone into a different person. Instead, it gives them the freedom to fully become the person that they want to become. If you had unlimited resources and unlimited time you'd be able to put said resources and time into whatever you wanted - Painting, Playing Games, Gardening, Weight Lifting, Sports, Partying, Acting.

When it comes to having 'new' money you're not around people that already have money. Instead, you're surrounded with people without and with a lot of bills and wants. Each person wants to indulge in their hopes and dreams, like the person can. A lot of us are naturally kind and want to help so you'd spend some money on your friends and family. Predators know this and they will stop at nothing to get it, or to stop you from having it.


Your personality will matter. The way you handle the money (and whom you give it to and to what degree) and yourself matters.
 
TheMadHatterXxX said:
Indulging in the fruits of one's labor and success = douche? :confused:

Why so mad...he deserves to enjoy his success.
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He really doesn't, but that's a whole other topic. As a contributing member of society, he has contributed a lot and should receive far more compensation than the average Joe.

$100,000,000 in one year though? Nope. I don't see that as fair compensation for anyone. Not to say that I believe in a purely communist system either, where contribution and compensation and pretty much divorced either. To put it in perspective though, think about how challenging it is and how much effort is invested into becoming a brain surgeon, and how many actual LIVES a brain surgeon saves every year. They are well compensated, don't get me wrong, but no $100,000,000 a year salaries either.
 
RogueTadhg said:
Money doesn't turn someone into a different person.
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Sure it does. Money changes how people act towards you, and more importantly money is power. A little money and power doesn't change people (well some it does), but craptons of power?

Think of how douchey I am now. Now imagine that I could buy and sell you a hundred times over, and get everyone you know to do what I want by danging that green carrot in front of them. Mega-douche! :D
 
Babbster said:
I didn't phrase it quite right - "egregious waste of money and resources" would be a more accurate representation of my opinion.
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He earned money, and he bought the resources. Don't see the issue here.
 
My dream is to eventually become rich from something I've done. Winning the lotto would be nice, but I'd rather earn my money and get it because of something I made.

I need to learn mobile programming. If a silly game like flappy bird or candy crush can make thousands I'm sure I can come up with something too.
 
Pfff, private jets ...., you keep that up for a while and you'll learn that the 20 mil you made isn't that much money at all.

Minecraft used to be good before they put all the crap it in.
 
Ducman69 said:
He really doesn't, but that's a whole other topic. As a contributing member of society, he has contributed a lot and should receive far more compensation than the average Joe.

$100,000,000 in one year though? Nope. I don't see that as fair compensation for anyone. Not to say that I believe in a purely communist system either, where contribution and compensation and pretty much divorced either. To put it in perspective though, think about how challenging it is and how much effort is invested into becoming a brain surgeon, and how many actual LIVES a brain surgeon saves every year. They are well compensated, don't get me wrong, but no $100,000,000 a year salaries either.
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Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean he doesn't deserve it. Comparing game development to brain surgery is a rather stupid comparison. To a degree he got lucky, and while he was working for it, it was the working equivalent to winning the lottery. Sometimes business ideas lose money, sometimes they make money and sometimes they make one person stupid rich. Luck of the draw on what is going to be that one thing that just goes crazy. That doesn't take away the fact that he put in the work and effort. I mean if we want to compare absurd things, I think professional Athletes are grossly overpaid compared to other much harder jobs. That however is my personal opinion and no matter what I think, They got out there and worked for it and as such deserve every Penny someone is willing to pay them.
 
Armchair capitalists can praise him all they want for flying a private jet, but ultimately, it IS douchey. Polluting the shit out of the air just to avoid waiting in line at an airport? There are much more meaningful ways of spending that sort of money.
 
Volume said:
Armchair capitalists can praise him all they want for flying a private jet, but ultimately, it IS douchey. Polluting the shit out of the air just to avoid waiting in line at an airport? There are much more meaningful ways of spending that sort of money.
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To be fair, I don't think anyone's really praised him for it. They've simply decided to argue that he can spend his money however he wants, as if someone said he couldn't. Some people don't understand the difference between "could" and "should."
 
I didn't realize Minecraft was so lucrative. Good for him.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean he doesn't deserve it.I mean if we want to compare absurd things, I think professional Athletes are grossly overpaid compared to other much harder jobs. That however is my personal opinion and no matter what I think, They got out there and worked for it and as such deserve every Penny someone is willing to pay them.
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Its not absurd at all, and professional athletes are paid far too much. And when talking about something as subjective as "deserving", it can by definition only be a matter of opinion.

It demonstrates the inequities created by a capitalist system, that demonstrates it is only the best economic system we have been able to come up with, but absolutely isn't perfect and is broken in many ways.

Do CEOs "deserve" healthy compensation for their efforts? Sure. What is healthy... $100K a year? $200K a year? $1,000,000 a year? $100,000,000 a year? $1,000,000,000 a year? When you're talking about distributing limited resources in society, the more you give one person the more you are taking from someone else (well on a global level at least).

And again, I'm not a commie and believe that random redistribution of wealth is evil... but HELL no this guy doesn't deserve $100,000,000 a year for coming up with a stupid video game. And if you don't understand where I'm coming from, what if he made $1,000,000,000,000,000,000.00 from that video game? At what point will you put your ideology aside and admit that something is broken if one random douche has more resources than he knows what to do with, while some farm girl in Thailand is forced to sell her body on the street to send money back home to feed her family?

In any case, private jets are douchey, and he should own up to being a douche and if he really feels guilty then open up a hospital in Cambodia.
 
Now if he could just find a way to use some of those millions to figure out how to change your Minecraft screen name then maybe he could assuage some of that guilt.

Apparently screen names are tied to billing and..... well, he ain't feeling all THAT guilty.
 
Let him buy whatever he wants, fly in whatever style he wants, as long as it's his personal money that's doing it. If he's got his company tied up as a LLC and that company is what allows him to fly everywhere via private jet and then he's turning around and writing that off as a business expense, well then fuck him.

Besides odds are he's "renting" private jets, even at $100million that doesn't put you in the category to buy one usually, at least newer nicer ones, Leer jets are EXPENSIVE.
 
He has nothing to feel guilty about, he earned his money (same as Bill Gates and many others did) ... if he is feeling THAT guilty he could always start a game studio and employ other programmers so that they can become millionaires also ... nothing wrong with a private jet either since he probably needs to make trips on short notice with quick turn arounds that might make commercial travel more difficult (especially since famous people generally need to fly in the First Class cabin rather than just standard coach ... both for security and convenience) ... a private jet might actually make far more sense for anyone that travels a lot
 
Ducman69 said:
Its not absurd at all, and professional athletes are paid far too much. And when talking about something as subjective as "deserving", it can by definition only be a matter of opinion.

It demonstrates the inequities created by a capitalist system, that demonstrates it is only the best economic system we have been able to come up with, but absolutely isn't perfect and is broken in many ways.

Do CEOs "deserve" healthy compensation for their efforts? Sure. What is healthy... $100K a year? $200K a year? $1,000,000 a year? $100,000,000 a year? $1,000,000,000 a year? When you're talking about distributing limited resources in society, the more you give one person the more you are taking from someone else (well on a global level at least).

And again, I'm not a commie and believe that random redistribution of wealth is evil... but HELL no this guy doesn't deserve $100,000,000 a year for coming up with a stupid video game. And if you don't understand where I'm coming from, what if he made $1,000,000,000,000,000,000.00 from that video game? At what point will you put your ideology aside and admit that something is broken if one random douche has more resources than he knows what to do with, while some farm girl in Thailand is forced to sell her body on the street to send money back home to feed her family?

In any case, private jets are douchey, and he should own up to being a douche and if he really feels guilty then open up a hospital in Cambodia.
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My understanding is his wealth didn't come from salary but from the profits of his game sales and marketing ... most game related wealth comes from the sales of your game, the sale of your property or franchise, or the sale of your company ... in that situation there should be no limit on how much wealth you acquire since it all comes from the market

You also can't link first world wealth with developing world problems (except where they are caused by developed nations taking advantage of the developing nation) ... the sex industry in Thailand is the fault of the USA war in Vietnam ... it developed to service our soldiers during the conflict and was converted to a tourist oriented business after the war ended (catering mainly to Europeans and the Japanese or wealthy Asians) ... but ultimately it is the fault of Thailand for continuing to build a large part of their economy around that industry rather than turning it towards industrialization (like China) ... wealth redistribution never fixes problems whether it is within a single nation or from nation to nation (the USA is a perfect example of that) ;)
 
TheMadHatterXxX said:
Indulging in the fruits of one's labor and success = douche? :confused:

Why so mad...he deserves to enjoy his success.
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Haven't you heard? The rich are evil. That nasty 1% just wants the rest to suffer.

So many people scoff when we talk about culture war, but here's an example of the impact. There's utterly no rational reason for someone to feel guilt at success and fortune as the result of creating something, especially something that brings people joy. However, we live in an age of heightened class warfare rhetoric. It always comes around every half a century or so. But, after all, rich people don't have feelings, so who cares? They're rich. They don't deserve any mercy or pity or sympathy or anything because obviously money solves all problems.
 
Ducman69 said:
Do CEOs "deserve" healthy compensation for their efforts? Sure. What is healthy... $100K a year? $200K a year? $1,000,000 a year? $100,000,000 a year? $1,000,000,000 a year? When you're talking about distributing limited resources in society, the more you give one person the more you are taking from someone else (well on a global level at least).
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Here we go again with the zero-sum bullshit. Notch didn't "take" anything from people. He gave the goddamned game away free at first, offering people an option to pay a small amount to get the game when it left Beta status. He took his time and effort and resources, produced a game that millions enjoy, and whom willingly bartered their currency for said game. Who lost on that? I'd really like to hear this.
 
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