Gaming A Letter to Minecraft

Building things is fun whether it be virtual or in RL. You achieve a sense of accomplishment when you look at the finished product. I haven't played minecraft, but in recent years I have revived my childhood love of Legos. Building something from a set of instructions can be fun, but building something spontaneously using only your creativity and imagination can be so much more fullfilling, regardless of your age. From that perspective, I can appreciate why people enjoy minecraft.

 

I can understand why people may like minecraft... I just get bored

 

I really like it but once it has carts and other active parts to create machines it will really have mass appeal.

Reminds me of Garrys Mod for Half Life 2.

Alex.

 

It already has, to some degree.

 

Its hard to 'get' what the fuss is about the game, and even harder for someone to explain to you what it is that holds you in the game, from screenshots and videos my first thoughts were exactly the same...what is this? why are the graphics so blocky?
But i read alot of hype about it, saw some awesome things built, played a bit on creative mode, and was ultimately impressed that it was a one man show, built in java with randomly generated worlds (yes that was the biggest lure to the game for me)

Best 10euros i've ever spent tbh. and yet its still so difficult to explain why.

In perspective this is not a game that would appeal to me, i'm primarily an FPS kinda guy...i'm not big on RPG's MMO's, don't play too much RTS's, but this game has drawn me in far too much, and yes its too easy to sit back and think, well that was pointless building that, but its hell of a lot of fun to plan and build on a busy server, (we have an official bit-tech one now btw) the community is great and it takes away plenty of hours, both in game and out.

And not all things are built to stand still and do nothing, there is redstone, a sort of binary logic gates, whereby people are creating automatic machines even CPU's within the game, there are minecarts in which people are building elaborate train stations, and slowly the community is coming up with games inside the game.

For example spleef; a game whereby 2 or more players play on a limited size field and try to remove the floor beneath the opponent to make them fall into a pit, last one standing wins!
I could talk forever on this subject, but yes thats because the game has got me, ( i haven't got it however..) and i enjoy the time i 'waste' on it, one of my better purchases of 2010.

 

It's pretty easy to understand. It's basically just a 3d version of MS Paint, and every little kid I've ever known is happy to be plonked down in front of paint and they can lose a few hours drawing stuff. Space ships, flowers, boobs, whatever.

This is basically just a slightly more evolved version of that. So instead of a few hours, it's 20+ hours, and instead of 2d stick figures, it's 3d stick figures.

You have to understand that probably 90% of the people playing minecraft, are people who just got sucked in by the immense hype, and bought it because it's so cheap. That is no reflection of how good the game is, it's a reflection of how over hyped the game is. Then, the majority of these people are very young and don't know a whole lot of other games. They have never experienced the simple joy of games like Mario and Sonic and they have never experienced the creative freedom of something like the Neverwinter toolset or SimCity or The Incredible Machine etc... So to them, this is their Mario. (only easier, and simpler, and dumber, and not as good.)

It has great potential to be an actual game at some point, and a really good one, but I don't know if it will ever get to that point. For now, it's just a kind of 3d Lego simulator for easily amused people.

 

Very good analogy! Although, when I bought it, it was for the sake of community, when I realised the multiplayer could actually work. As a matter of fact, when I first played, it was through browser during REALLY early stages, and I hated it, I told the guy that introduced me it was a pile of <insert profanity here> and he should never speak of it again.

However, I've now chucked a good 60+ hours away on it. The construction is great fun but when you can have a chat with people in real time about their own ideas and collaborate it's 10x better. So in essence, I got what I paid for, messing around with blocks, with other people messing around with blocks.

 

Sausages, thanks for taking the time to explain why minecraft players play the game, especially since your explanation is basically that it's because we're stupid.

Frankly, i think your post is based too heavily on assumptions to be taken seriously(or in more simple terms you're talking out of your arse for no reason). I for one have played Mario aswell as Sim City and i discovered minecraft on my own. I saw some gameplay, i liked it and concluded that yep, i want to buy that.

It might be overhyped, it quite possibly is, but what do you think is the reason for that? Couldn't it possibly be because a lot of people enjoy it?

 

I think the reason people who don't like the game get so angry about it is because it seems to have gotten a lot of coverage for no reason. I mean all you are doing is playing with lego and while this is fun I don't see anything particularly new about it.

 

Can somebody please show me this hype? I have been playing since the early stages and read/heard nothing of it apart from minecraft.net (odd place to hear about it, don't you think?) and right here at bit-tech..

 

Reddit mostly

 

Yeah... Just because you have a point

So, if minecraft "floats your boat", as I'm sure a gratuitous number of other people have said, then fine, go tell people it's great as it's an opinion - just like many people would do with most games.

P.S. I only replied due to having been very recently asked to play minecraft and so was ever so slightly annoyed. Slightly. A little bit. A smidge.

 

I haven't played it yet but as an avid Garry's Mod player at a time, it looks like something I would really enjoy.

As for all the "hype"? Meh, just something for people to get excited about for a while. I have more important things to do with my time than argue about whether or not a home-made game is revolutionary or not.

 

People playing the game who are "trying to explain to me why they play the game and what it is all about and why I should play" is just like Jehovah's witnesses at my door trying to make me believe in a book about some sort of god.

 

as dHUN already mentioned, memories of the old server.
also: chicks digg games. they just don't like the violence. they dig artists too. even bad ones. so they like a game that allows me to show how arty i am, and meanwhile show off how arty my friends on the server are.

but ultimately, i don't minecraft for the chicks. i minecraft because i can't be bothered to clean up my lego afterwards.

 

In my eyes this article is hypocritical. How many of the things we are doing every day are of lasting value (or at least serve the purpose of sustaining ourselves so that we're capable to pursuit such things)?

Playing "cool" (as opposed to Minecraft) computer games? Watching TV shows? Tuning our cars, or all the other nice time fillers we're keeping ourselves occupied with?

If your ambition and ethics is to create something lasting, become a saint and bless mankind, or at least invent something really useful.

Ok, that's quite a radical approach. Leaving that aside, the article still is a gross oversight of what Minecraft is: A huge virtual playground for creativity. Not everything people do needs to have an immediate value.

So, dear letter author, you can have your opinion on Minecraft and deem building Lego spaceships more fruit- and purposeful than playing Minecraft, but don't push your short sighted and ill conclusions on us.

Thank you.

PS: I think Minecraft is ugly, and it doesn't attract me at all. But I (think I) do understand why it attracts people.

 

Tbh I couldn't care about minecraft, I just don't have the time to "play" it. While I understand its appeal I do follow discussions on it since they're far more interesting than the cod fonboi dribble. What mine craft represents to me is what I like most about pc gaming and that's the modding community. Without such a playground that will help develop their skills and idea we would be left with cod 5, 6, 7 + 20 dlcs for each title which to me represents the corporate rip off machine that gaming has become. I would rather support mine craft than any activision based game simply because of what I've outlined above. What I don't get is why don't all mine craft players down load TES or a source development kit and create even more content for fallout new vegas or even the next team fortress or portal that way everyones happy? Just think, minecraft meets half life

 

put 100+ hours into minecraft , COD or WoW

all have the same end result (nothing really gained)

its enjoying the process along the way that matters

 

@karx11erx: I agree with you. Computer gaming is becoming increasingly entrenched in consumerism and has been for decades. Titles that have creative toolsets built-in do so to increase their perceived value by engendered feelings of pride in our creations, no matter how little creative merit they have or how limited and conformist the audience.

True art can have no purpose but itself. Minecraft itself cannot be art, but that doesn't mean things created in it can't. Of course, given just how limited Minecraft actually is, creating a true work of art within it is likely to be an almost impossible challenge.

What I find truely disturbing is the standard of what is considered "art" in Minecraft. Imported textures? Sprites from computer games? Geometric arrangements? Blocky landscapes? Images from film posters? The word "Minecraft"?

Culture-starvation among avid gamers leads to reduction in artistic recognition and appreciation. Now that's an article worth writing.

 

Good luck selling that one, particularly to the artists themselves. Painters, scultors, authors, architects, you name it. Most create their works with a purpose.

Take authors in particular. Classical literature is often looked to as being sophisticated and refined, worthy of being called true art. But was a single noteworthy piece written simply for the sake of being art? No. They all serve the purpose of conveying a meaning. The "art" is just a vessel.

The difference today is the lack of meaning. Paint splattered on a canvas to "mean" some vague, imperceptible emotion. Pixel art in Minecraft simply to prove one's capabilities. Daytime dramas designed to pass the time and immediately be forgotten.