31-472: The End Poem is a poem by Julian Gough that appears in the end credits of the video game Minecraft . It is the only narrative text in the mostly unstructured sandbox game . Markus "Notch" Persson , Minecraft 's creator, invited Gough to create the poem in 2011; it initially appeared in Beta version 1.9. The poem takes the form of a 1,500-word dialogue between two unspecified entities, discussing what
62-551: A Minecraft ending". The Atlantic 's James Parker calls it "a goofy/beautiful metaphysical text". Ted Litchfield in PC Gamer describes it as "warm and humanistic" and compares it to the 2015 video game Undertale and the 2017 multimedia narrative 17776 . Gough himself has called the work an "oddity" and "peculiar". Jason Anthony in gamevironments and Matthew Horrigan in Acta Ludologica both highlight
93-482: A December 2022 post on his Substack blog, The Egg and the Rock , Gough wrote that he had never signed any contract with Persson's Mojang Studios over the poem, rather relying on an informal agreement that Mojang could use it in the existing Windows and OS X versions of the game. He said that he was paid €20,000 (equivalent to €25,749 in 2023) and corresponded with Mojang managing director Carl Manneh about signing
124-453: A formal agreement, but did not reach any prior to Mojang's sale to Microsoft in 2014. The full legal implications of the resulting situation were unclear, and Gough wrote that he did not wish to have any legal dispute with Microsoft. Explaining his psilocybin-induced realization, he then placed the poem (specifically the version he had sent Persson ) into the public domain using a CC0 dedication. Microsoft did not respond to inquiries from
155-399: A written work for the end of the game. Gough had played Minecraft in alpha at a game jam but had not thought much of it, and was unaware of its popularity until Persson reached out to him. Gough played it some more and then wrote the poem. The poem debuted alongside the rest of the end credits and the full endgame mechanics in Beta version 1.9. The poem comes on-screen after players kill
186-448: Is also the author of several short stories and novellas that satirize global economic policies, including 2003's Great Hargeisa Goat Bubble and CRASH! How I Lost a Hundred Billion and Found True Love . In 2015, Gough signed a book deal with Picador . In November 2011, Gough was invited by Markus Persson , creator of Minecraft , to create a story for the ending of the game, in preparation for its release. The resulting work, called
217-604: The End Poem , has been described as both confusing to and revered by the Minecraft community. After a psilocybin trip prompted Gough to consider the poem's line "The Universe loves you because you are love" and the love he had received but not accepted for the poem, he wrote an essay on his Substack in December 2022 explaining that he had never signed a contract with either of Minecraft 's parent companies, releasing
248-746: The Ender Dragon , thus winning the game, and step into the End Portal. It plays alongside the track "Alpha" from C418's soundtrack album Minecraft – Volume Beta . It begins with the words "I see the player you mean" in teal and a reply of the active player's name in green, followed by about 1,500 words of dialogue between the two speakers, whose identities are never established but have been described in The Escapist as "god-like". Small portions are intentionally rendered as glitched text. The poem culminates with twelve consecutive lines starting "and
279-537: The End Poem's comparison of video games to dreams; Anthony also discusses the poem's relevance to the theological implications of Minecraft players' ability to create and destroy worlds. Jacob Creswell in Comic Book Resources also analyses the poem's commentary on dreams and its reference to life as "the long dream" in comparison to "the short dream of a game". Creswell notes the dissimilarity between
310-722: The Mob" (the first chapter of his novel Jude: Level 1 ), which won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2007, and the End Poem that appears at the end of Minecraft . Gough grew up near Heathrow Airport in London, before moving to Nenagh aged seven. He was studying English and philosophy at University College Galway in the late 1980s when he and some friends founded Toasted Heretic. The band recorded four albums and had one top-10 hit, "Galway and Los Angeles", in 1992. Gough's first novel, Juno & Juliet ,
341-487: The affection he had received from fans of the poem, Gough decided to release a version of the poem into the public domain rather than entering a legal dispute with Microsoft. Julian Gough wrote the End Poem for the end credits of Minecraft at the request of Markus "Notch" Persson . According to Gough, Persson contacted him in 2011, after tweeting that he was looking for recommendations for talented writers. Gough says that Persson gave him broad latitude in composing
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#1732775682440372-612: The artists' work in each round. The contestants to move on to subsequent rounds are selected by fans who vote in a weekly poll. In 2008, the University at Buffalo 's research library described CBR as "the premiere comics-related site on the Web." In April 2013, comics writer Mark Millar said he read the site every morning after reading the Financial Times . In 2014, an article by guest author Janelle Asselin criticized
403-573: The competition. Since 2016, he has been the author of the Rabbit and Bear series of children's books, illustrated by Jim Field. Comic Book Resources CBR , formerly Comic Book Resources , is a news website primarily covering comic book news, comic book reviews, and comic book–related topics involving movies, television, anime, and video games. It is owned by Valnet , parent of publications including Screenrant , Collider , MovieWeb and XDA Developers . Comic Book Resources ( CBR )
434-498: The cover of DC Comics 's Teen Titans , leading to harassment of and personal threats against Asselin in the website's community forums. Weiland issued a statement apologizing for the incident, condemning the way some community members had reacted, and rebooted the forums in order to establish new ground rules. Heidi MacDonald, for The Beat in June 2023, commented that after CBR was purchased by Valnet in 2016 it "gradually became
465-493: The lengthy poem and the minimalist game, but concludes that they fit well together, writing that "[t]he poem disagrees with the idea that the player is nothing compared to the grand scale of the universe" and that "[t]he game's code creates a world that players invest time and care into, much like their real lives". Similarly, in MIT Technology Review , Simon Parkin observes that most players will never encounter
496-412: The original version of the poem into the public domain . Gough writes columns and opinion pieces for various newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian , Prospect Magazine and A Public Space . His novel Jude in London came third in the 2011 Guardian Not The Booker prize after the author threatened to share pictures of him "wearing only the [Not The Booker trophy] mug" should he win
527-710: The pay-per-view rates. The situation was described to me by one person as 'working writers to the bone', saying "The situation is so dire that in addition to the three editors, I'm told two HR people were laid off, who also objected to the demands that management was making on writers, who, as a reminder, are contractors, not employees". Graeme McMillan, for Popverse , commented that Valnet's culture does not permit "its contributors and employees to question corporate decree" which has led to layoffs of people who have spoken out "about potential issues over Valnet's management and business practices" at CBR and other Valnet-owned sites. In June 2023, McMillan of Popverse reported that there
558-417: The player has done in the game, which it compares to a dream. Critical reception of the poem has been mostly neutral to positive, often emphasising its oddness; it has been positively received among Minecraft fans. In 2022, Gough wrote that he had never signed a contract with Persson's Mojang Studios nor with Microsoft , which bought Mojang in 2014. Motivated by the poem's own words that "you are love" and
589-404: The poem in-game, but finds that the two share a sentiment of creation through dream, which Parkin views as revealing the game's "somewhat evangelical" nature. The Irish Independent describes the End Poem as revered by the Minecraft community. A number of fans have tattoos of excerpts, particularly from the "and the universe said" portion, which Gough has described as "beyond moving". Gough
620-400: The press about Gough's blog post, which Gough alleges led an unnamed global news organisation to "los[e] their nerve" about running a piece that would have confirmed his narrative. Jez Corden of Windows Central expressed scepticism that a lack of comment would have exerted any pressure on such an organisation. Sean Hollister of The Verge speculated that the obstacle for news organisations
651-481: The screen over the course of about nine minutes; speeding it up by manually scrolling is made intentionally difficult, however, it can be exited with the escape key. It is the only narrative text in the game, and the only text of significant length oriented toward the player. As of December 2022, it has not been significantly modified from Gough's original version. An early impression by Eric Limer in The Mary Sue
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#1732775682440682-762: The site refocused on shorter news pieces and reactions to news stories". Valnet Inc. is a subsidiary of Valsef Group , which is also headquartered in Montreal. Adam Swiderski, CBR 's editor-in-chief since July 2022, along with "senior news editor Stephen Gerding after 18 years with CBR and senior features editor Christopher Baggett after eight years" were laid off by Valnet in May 2023. Heidi MacDonald , for The Beat , reported that Swiderski, Gerding and Baggett were removed for "standing up for writers" and "pushing back against" changes Valnet instituted. MacDonald wrote that "writers were being asked to do more work while shrinking
713-403: The universe said", ending with: [green] and the universe said I love you because you are love. [teal] And the game was over and the player woke up from the dream. And the player began a new dream. And the player dreamed again, dreamed better. And the player was the universe. And the player was love. [teal] You are the player. [green] Wake up. The poem scrolls across
744-408: Was a continuing "editorial exodus" at CBR. In August 2023, Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool commented that there appears to be "serious internal tensions" at CBR and highlighted that former CBR Comics News Editor Sean Gribbin stated between May and August ten News Editors have either left CBR or been laid off. Johnston reported that CBR Managing Editor Jon Arvden pushed back on speculation that CBR
775-458: Was eliminating its news section. Comic Book Idol , also known as CBI , is an amateur comic-book art competition created and hosted by comics writer J. Torres , and sponsored by CBR and its participating advertisers. Inspired by the singing contest American Idol , CBI is a five-week and five-round competition in which each contestant is given one week to draw a script provided by guest judges. These invited comic-book professionals comment on
806-527: Was founded by Jonah Weiland in 1995 as a development of the Kingdom Come Message Board, a message forum that Weiland created to discuss DC Comics ' then-new mini-series of the same name . CBR has featured columns by industry professionals such as Robert Kirkman , Gail Simone , and Mark Millar . Other columns were published by comic book historians and critics such as George Khoury and Timothy Callahan. By April 4, 2016, CBR
837-493: Was published in 2001 by Flamingo , almost a decade after Toasted Heretic split up. His second novel, Jude: Level 1 , was published in 2007 at Old Street Publishing, shortly after he won the 2007 National Short Story Award for the book's first chapter, titled "The Orphan and the Mob". In 2010, Salmon Poetry released Gough's first poetry collection, Free Sex Chocolate , which juxtaposes Gough's more recent forays into poetry with his earlier lyrics written for Toasted Heretic. He
868-406: Was reluctant to include the line "The Universe said I love you because you are love" because he did not believe it at the time; however, after two psychedelic experiences with psilocybin near Apeldoorn , he stated that he realized that he had been hiding from the love that fans had expressed for the poem and that he had to "complete the circuit" and "accept, and act on" that line of the poem. In
899-605: Was sharply critical, calling the End Poem "nothing but a bunch of text that scrolls down the screen excruciatingly slowly for an excruciatingly long time", which "reads like a stereotypical JRPG ending mashed up with some stuff written by a highschooler who just discovered post-modernist literature." Subsequent commentary leans more favourable: Kevin Thielenhaus in The Escapist calls the poem "mysterious, and kind of weird, and probably not what most of us were expecting from
930-409: Was sold to Valnet Inc. , a Montreal, Canada –based company that owns other media properties including Screen Rant . The site was relaunched as CBR.com on August 23, 2016, with the blogs integrated into the site. Popverse reported that following the acquisition by Valnet "comics were increasingly sidelined for coverage [...], as were both reviews and columns as focuses for publishing; instead,
961-590: Was the difficulty of verifying that Gough had never signed a contract. Julian Gough Julian Gough (born June 1966) is an Irish musician , novelist , and poet . Initially known as the singer and lyricist for the Galway band Toasted Heretic , he has since established a career as a satirist, novelist, commentator and writer of children's books. Musically, he is best known for his songs "Galway and Los Angeles", "You can Always go Home" and "LSD (isn't what it used to be)"; his fictional works include "The Orphan and