Hello,
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Of course such a model can be used by other people. What people are paying for with Minecraft is the survival mode. The create mode is completely free and there was another obstacle course mode (where you had tons of TNT and would run from lots of creepers or something) was another web based free mode. I believe Notch had been developing the game for a year until Survival Mode came out and had a cost.
Minecraft is still a game in alpha. What we see still isn’t the finished product.
What is really helping Minecraft is Notch himself. He is selling himself and does so constantly with his interaction with his customers. He tells what games he is playing at the time. He gives active updates on his development progress. Fans will make suggestions, and he sometimes use those. The fans are happy because they feel they get to participate to help make the game better. And in a way, they are. This is how game companies used to be before a corporate wall arose between them and the consumers.
I remember Blizzard prior back in the day. You called their office, and you got an Orc on the answering machine telling you to leave a message. During Starcraft 1’s development, even back then I could interact with the developers. But once Starcraft 1 came out, it was as if a wall arose between them and the consumers. (But do not fear, reader. I still regularly play with my Blizzard friends with Starcraft 2.)
Lord British would interact with Ultima fans back in the day. On usenet, he would answer questions about Ultima VI. When you finished Ultima, the game told you to mail Lord British to tell him of your accomplishment (so I did! haha). Even as late as Ultima VIII, Lord British would not release a patch so much as a patch with a letter.
The game developer wasn’t some pharoah-like ‘game god’ who sat on a mountain, distant from all gamers. The game developer was just a gamer who had the time and understanding to program the computer to do something to please his gaming friends. When you think of someone like Notch, you see him almost more of a gamer than a “developer”. Gamers see him as one of his own, and it gives him a certain amount of genuineness.
The corporate wall separating gamers and developers is often due to legal reasons. The audience of a TV show can never interact with the show’s writers on any meaningful level because the writers are forbidden to read fan fiction or scripts or idea from fans. Why? Legal reasons. However, they can read jokes and use jokes from fans.
The best salesman for a game is its gamer. The gamer will enjoy the game so much that he or she will suggest it to his or her friends. And they might begrudgingly try out the game, and if they like it they will recommend it to others. This is how games with no marketing budget or really no budget at all such as Minecraft spread. And with a monster budget, this is how games like Wii Sports spread.
Customers are not enough. You need to create passionate customers who become free salesmen.
People think salesmen is some boring guy in a suit selling things door to door. The truth is that anyone can sell and everyone has sold. Kids rapidly learn the art of selling when they try to get their Mom and Dad buy them something for Christmas or to do something out of ordinary. Young men quickly learn the art of selling in trying to get attention from lovely women and women learn the art of selling by trying to get the attention of the hunky guy. Employees learn how to sell to their bosses.
Passionate customers are the secret to success. Here is a good blog talking all about how to make passionate customers.