After defeating the Ender Dragon in Minecraft, the game displays a text scroll that runs for approximately nine minutes — a prose poem written by Julian Gough titled simply ‘The End.’ It is written as a conversation between two unnamed entities who are describing the player’s journey from outside the game.
The poem shifts between philosophical and intimate registers: at times describing Minecraft’s world as a teaching tool designed to show a child what love is, at other times addressing the player directly and telling them that the game knew them, was watching them, and that they should be proud. The final line is ‘You can make a lot of it. Go on. Try.’
Julian Gough wrote the poem for free after Notch mentioned in a blog post that he needed end credits. Gough submitted it without payment terms and Notch used it. The poem remained in the game long after Microsoft’s acquisition, through hundreds of updates. It has been read by hundreds of millions of players.
The most discussed passage describes the universe as ‘perhaps created by one. In that case, by this reckoning, it may be conscious.’ The poem positions the player as a child of the universe and the game as a parent watching them learn. For a game with no explicit narrative, it is one of the most emotionally complete endings ever written.
The attention to detail the developers put into this is insane. Most players will never see it but it makes the world feel so much richer.
This is the kind of discovery that keeps communities alive for years. Well documented.