PayPal freezes account of Minecraft developer with over €600,000 in account

[Ingmar]

I've seen that claim before, but never in any documented way, just random eBay sellers complaining that Paypal took their money with not enough details to really know who is at fault. It seems like if that was really happening all the time they'd have seen some legal repercussions by now? Although maybe they have and it just wasn't covered heavily or I wasn't paying attention.

[Strazos]

eBay fucked over SA when they were raising money for Katrina.

[Ingmar]

Yeah, I have read the details of that and I'm not sure I can really blame them - there were a shitload of fake charities set up in the wake of Katrina. They certainly could have done a better job of resolving the situation once it became clear it wasn't a fake charity - they fucked that up completely, down to not refunding fees and such to donators, just the donated value - but the initial fund freeze I find a little hard to fault.

[shiznitz]

I am on Paypal's side on this.  They have exposure.  The benefits are lower processing fees to him.  A 5% holdback for 90 days is not insane. It is better than 3% of each transaction.  The guy can go where he wants but Paypal should not be condemned for implementing a reasonable safeguard against fraud.

The issue is with how autonomous Paypal is when it comes to handling peoples money. There's no one above to slap them when they do something stupid like freeze an account and take the money (which has happened) without explanation. No body that handles as many transactions and idle cash as Paypal should have that power.

And that risk will be judged by the free market. If Paypal wants to grow beyond eBay transactions and be a global business to business payments system, it will have to convince customers that it will act reasonably and predictably.

[NiX]

And that risk will be judged by the free market. If Paypal wants to grow beyond eBay transactions and be a global business to business payments system, it will have to convince customers that it will act reasonably and predictably.

I was under the impression they had grown beyond eBay. I rarely see an online vendor who doesn't use Paypal and in most cases it's their only payment method.

[Trouble]

The real question is: how the fuck is this game making so much money? I mean it's cool and all and could grow to become something really amazing, but it seems like a really niche thing. How is it making millions of dollars with no advertising and being just this side of alpha?

[NiX]

The real question is: how the fuck is this game making so much money? I mean it's cool and all and could grow to become something really amazing, but it seems like a really niche thing. How is it making millions of dollars with no advertising and being just this side of alpha?

Word of mouth is a lot more powerful than advertising. So far Notch has had 4chan, SA, Neogaf and Valve talk about his game with high praise. Valve generated something like 20,000 units (or was it 200,000?) in sales overnight by posting a link on the TF2 blog.

[Malakili]

The real question is: how the fuck is this game making so much money? I mean it's cool and all and could grow to become something really amazing, but it seems like a really niche thing. How is it making millions of dollars with no advertising and being just this side of alpha?

Word of mouth is a lot more powerful than advertising. So far Notch has had 4chan, SA, Neogaf and Valve talk about his game with high praise. Valve generated something like 20,000 units (or was it 200,000?) in sales overnight by posting a link on the TF2 blog.

20,000 I imagine, because I he just recently hit the 100,000 mark.  I know the game is big on reddit as well, which has a lots of users.  Fact of the matter is, even at this early stage its unique enough, charming enough, and fun enough to be well worth what hes charging, and fans of the game are extremely effective advertisers in their own right.

[birdsguts]

I'd place a healthy bet on word of mouth as well. All the right people are talking it up in all the right places.
I see similar things in my day to day life (I work with alot of "entertainment"... setting up live shows, music production, film etc...) and have come to the conclusion that word of mouth wins time and time again. Not even facebook spam and myspace flyer-ing can touch a "personal recommendation". This even extends to blogs and review sites.
Thinking of it another way, Legos and Erector Sets and "build" toys have always been fun for everyone. I think the appeal of a game like this might not be as "niche" as alot of people think. All humans want to create in some form or another.

[Sophismata]

It's also cheap.

[5150]

I've seen that claim before, but never in any documented way, just random eBay sellers complaining that Paypal took their money with not enough details to really know who is at fault. It seems like if that was really happening all the time they'd have seen some legal repercussions by now? Although maybe they have and it just wasn't covered heavily or I wasn't paying attention.

WARNING! :WORDS:

http://ash-ridley.blogspot.com/2006/02/and-now-for-something-completely.html
a small follow up in the first few paragraphs http://ash-ridley.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2007-03-14T14%3A02%3A00Z

The negative balance eventually got sorted out and subsequently a refund over 12 months after the initial sale.

[Hutch]

It's also cheap.

This. Ten euros translated to roughly $12.50 USD last week, and in one week I definitely feel like I got my money's worth.