Just curious .. how does the MICROSOFT buyout of Mojang affect this server community or any other community for that matter .. ?? Will we still have this place to call home or will you be forced into endless subscriptions or whatnot .. ??
I think it's far to early to say anything specific now. True, regarding the amount of 2.5 Billion Microsoft spent for Mojang, they'll expect to get that money back... But I don't think minecraft itself will change a lot. Microsoft will definetely not issue a complete rewrite in .NET or crap like that, as that would simply be too expansive. So everything around modding will stay the same for a longer time. And for that time this community will continue to exist. If modding doesn't work in a new version for some reason, then we'll just stay with the old version.
I also think it is much to early to say what is going to happen, but to be honest, I think they will try keeping it the same way it has been so far, besides, they have said that they will keep the old Mojang team, so I dont think they will make any drastic changes to things like subscriptions etc.
I'd have to agree with Xfel, it's way too early to make any assumptions upon Microsoft buying Notch's half. but, I'm really looking forward to what's to come, I really hope that updates are faster and more smoother than Minecrafts, because lets be honest.. the game needs a lot more content to keep it satisfying.
I am hoping that Microsoft is seeing Minecraft as more than game, Possibly a game engine or possibily even a 3D UI. I would not be too suprised to see a .Net re-write called Minecraft 2.0 (Microsoft has many lame sequels, that are technically better, but loss most of the spirit of the game). I tried, Minetest, a surprisingly good clone of Minecraft written in C++, and has a LUA base modding engine. Also completely opensource. It however no where near the critical number of players to launch it mainstream, and still needs lots of polish in graphics and sound. There are many mods for Minetest, but none the caliber of a buildcraft or forestry.