Minecraft: A "Quantum Leap" {correction: revolution} in Gaming?

[OaKleIgHy]

I was talking to my friend today, and we were discussing Minecraft and its awesomeness. My friend even went as far as to say: "This game man, is so fantastic. I think its seriously a quantum leap in gaming; its the biggest breakthrough in gaming since FPS Doom I think". Now I don't know if I totally agree that it equates to Doom with regard to its contribution to the evolution of video games. Then again, I do believe its an excellent example of innovative gaming design. I also think its popularity puts to question the supposed importance placed on crisp graphics (i.e. gamers will always appreciate a truly good game, regardless of graphics). So, I thought a question like this should be put forward to the Escapist think-tank...

WHAT SAY YOU?

Is Minecraft the new Doom?

EDIT: My apologies for the misuse of the term "quantum leap"

 

[Neonit]

once again i will present this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n5E7feJHw0

i mean dont get me wrong, its a great game but... ehhh.... its not that great. i wouldnt even call this a revolution and you call it a quantum leap.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

Nope, it is just something very popular. A good, fun (not yet complete) game.
It just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Lots of people needed a game like Minecraft, and Notch provided.
I may or may not be playing Minecraft right now, while moderating/etc >.>

 

[Avatar Roku]

I wouldn't go as far as to say it's THAT important, but I do think it will be important in the grand scheme of things, if more for the dev style than anything else. I really like the whole "support the game while it's in beta, get a better finished product" way that it's being developed. People who've been with Minecraft for a while get rewarded for their loyalty with a discount, and the final product is just better from the massive number of people giving feedback. I really hope this catches on.

 

[s0m3th1ng]

It's the ultimate Co-op game. I know I wouldn't play at all If I couldn't build stuff or get blown up by creepers with my friends.

 

[Katana314]

While Minecraft had a good idea, it really has zero game "design" behind it. It's mostly been a toy, like LEGOs. It has no inner "point" or goal. That's not saying it's bad, but it hasn't led to a fully-fledged game yet.

 

[DEAD34345]

It's not anywhere close to a revolution or a major step forward. It began as a gimmick, and... Well, it hasn't gotten much farther than that.

It began as a gimmick stolen from another game, even. Notch himself said Minecraft was an Infiniminer clone on one of his first Minecraft videos. That doesn't make it a bad game, and it was developed in a fairly novel way. It innovates a little, and has some nice ideas, but all of the core elements have been done in other games.

Just because a game copies things from games no-one has heard of, doesn't mean it is innovative.

 

[AyreonMaiden]

Nope. Your friend needs to quit the hyperbole.

At best, we're witnessing the birth of a genre akin to Metroidvanias; an amalgam of concepts made into something unique and easily copied and altered. At worst, this is a fad.

This is nowhere near the quantum leap that DOOM and Wolfenstein were, or that RPGs with good stories were. Not even close.

 

[Armored Prayer]

Its a great game, but nothing revolutionary. Now the problem is its fanbase likes to think it is.

The way I see it its like CoD. An a exceptional game but its popularity and fans are silently killing it.

 

[gibboss28]

God no.

Quick question: Are the fanatics of Minecraft going to be as intolerable as the Valve ones are?

 

[thiosk]

Basically, minecraft does what Spore wanted to do, and does it much more organically and magically.

A much more powerful sandbox. And sandboxes are fun to play in. Its the biggest thing to happen to indie gaming maybe...

 

[Zer_]

I don't know, I entered the mainstream gaming stream in 2008, so I really wouldn't know.
But as for innovative games, Homeworld takes the prize with no competition. A RTS where you don't build buildings, and you're in SPACE. True 3D movement, amazing skyboxes, and a great story! If only Sierra didn't take the rights to it when Relic split from them...

They do have the rights.

Approximately a year after the release of Homeworld 2, Relic Studios was purchased by THQ in August 2004 for approximately $10 million USD. As THQ was considered to be a competitor of Sierra Entertainment and Vivendi Universal, the prospect of a Homeworld sequel remained unlikely as Sierra was still the owner of the Homeworld IP until September 2007 when it was announced that THQ was in talks with Vivendi to purchase the license Homeworld franchise. In November 2007, THQ finally confirmed that it had acquired the license for the Homeworld franchise but didn't confirm a sequel maintaining that it had no comments on future games from THQ based on Homeworld. However, Eurogamer reported in November 2008 that Relic was "definitely looking" at creating Homeworld 3. "Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II" lead designer Jonny Ebbert commented that "We're really happy the IP has made its way home, and yeah, we're definitely looking at it. We'll see what happens in the future,". Ebbert also commented that there was always a chance that the sequel could be in development behind closed doors. The strongest evidence indicating that Homeworld 3 is in development came from Relic's General Manager, Tarnie Williams indicating that "three or four" titles were in development while declining to elaborate further.

 

[aashell13]

people do realize that quantum means indescribably tiny, right?

OT: eh, I don't know about revolutionary, but minecraft is very very good.

 

[DanDanikov]

(Edit: Beaten to the punch, but only just) Firstly, I'd like to nip the misuse of 'quantum leap' in the bud there. As a fanciful TV show title which potentially created tiny changes in other people's lives at the right place to change things for the better, it was an apt title, but in general, people misuse that term so badly.

'Quantum' comes from the Latin word 'quantus', meaning 'how much', and was coined to represent a single unit of quantization of things in physics (an alternate was already in use- the Greek word 'atomos', meaning literally 'uncuttable', used by physicists to refer to atoms which they believed, at the time, to be the indivisible units of matter). This means a 'quantum leap' is the smallest change possible (although the idea that it has a potentially a huge effect wouldn't be going too wrong either). I haven't seen the phrase used in the mainstream media for quite some time as I'd like to hope and believe they've all been educated otherwise. 'Revolution' is certainly a far better term.

By all means, educate your friend and feel smarter in the process. I'll resist kicking other Escapist members in the shins until they become a repeat offender despite having been educated otherwise.

Now I'm off my little soap-box... Minecraft! I'm with the others here in saying that I don't think Minecraft is a revolution. The idea just isn't that original (being original is hard these days, but not impossible), drawing from Infiniminer and, either transitively or directly, from Dwarf Fortress. Everything in Minecraft is a spin on something done before, and as I was trying to list as many as possible, I found the amount of games that contain such elements exhaustively long.

Minecraft isn't about originality. It's success stems from a few other things- the style of the game has a certain charm. It's been well promoted and marketed through non-standard channel. It also is fairly solid in execution. Given how many mainstream games are bug-ridden nightmares on release (and some remain so, to this day) making a solid, relatively glitch free and pleasant experience definitely has its value. It's almost another niche in the market- the well-made game.

 

[WayOutThere]

I have, sadly enough, never played minecraft. However, I've read and heard a lot about it and I hence very confidently state the following opinion:

Put Minecraft itself aside if you really must. If it's ideas have been implemented in prior games that just didn't get as popular that is besides the point. What matters is that it has now been brought to the attention of gamers that a new level of fluid and dynamic game worlds has been created. Just as importantly, games with such worlds have been shown to be extremely profitable so the possibilities they allow will be explored more and more. Altogether, the variety and complexities of things that can be accomplished in Minecraft is mindblowing. The credit doesn't neccesarily have to be all placed on Minecraft but if you don't see real potential in what's going on here for the future of gaming you're either small minded or far too jaded.

Edit: For those who say the use of the term "quantum leap" is misplaced, note that the term could reasonably be interpreted as refering to the "leap" from classical to modern physics. This change came down to the dismisal of determinism otherwise known the creation of quantum physics. Provided that it, if anything, is far too grand a term to be applied here for even the most optimistic hopes of the changes Minecraft will bring.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Wouldn't call it Quantum Leap but it sure as hell is important, developers need to remember games can be more then the 5 standard models they got used to, they can be so much more.

 

[Sixcess]

In the present era of games that are ridiculously reliant on scripted events that make me wonder if they are games or just interactive cut scenes, Minecraft is a breath of fresh air, where a randomly generated network of caves that may or may not contain a number of blocky monsters can be an amazing experience to explore. It's the most convincing virtual world I've ever seen, and whilst it may take ideas from elsewhere (and what doesn't?) it's much more than the sum of its parts.

I don't know if it's a revolution, but it's potentially a new genre, and has already earned its place in history and the pantheon of the greatest games ever made.