So - the appeal of minecraft is?

[ArkanaXII]

So please, try to explain dear reader, what makes minecraft so much more appealing then the tons of tools available that provide the same elements with superior graphics?

Honestly, to be fair, you do have a point here and there is a lot of similarity between the Minecraft and something like the TES devkit. I find one of the main differences with Minecraft is the contrainsts you have to work with. Since you're forced to gather the resources and do all the leg-work, it narrows the scope of your project (whatever it happens to be).

I also find that building in a world in real time offers an interesting and refreshing perspective from which to build. In a toolkit, you're able to build objects in space fairly easily, while in Minecraft if you want to build a tower you have to have some sort of plan in mind. Logistical aspects like scaffolding and fall damage come into play, and building becomes a challenge, that can become rather perilous when you throw zombies into the mix.

I find in Minecraft that what I build is never as important as building it, which may be one of the main distinctions between it and a mod tool or devkit.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Sure, graphics aren't everything, but they are, when the whole point of the game is constructing something that's to your liking - they're the most important part in that case.

Hmm, but that isn't the point of Minecraft really, the point is to do what you want.

But on the subject of building:
Yes I can go on googles 3D warehouse and download pretty much any model (gravity gun, a spoon, Eiffel tower, F-22, Enterprise, ...) and even import that into Crysis to jump around it, but that took no effort and thus gives you no satisfaction.

Making your own model does give you that tingle Minecraft has, but with that it's alot more potent because it takes more effort and is a direct hands on approach every stone/brick/torch you put down does it's job right there so it is a very satisfying feeling.

 

[brunothepig]

Part of it is simply, as Yahtzee said in his review, that it's all the more satisfying to have to collect and hoard materials to eventually build your grand project.
Part of it is the risk that can come with it, whether it's being caught out at night and losing everything, or it's a creeper destroying everything you worked for.
Part of it is that the personal touch of placing every single block, and watching your creation slowly take shape.
And, part of it is that many people actually disagree with your opinion, and think their creations can look cool, and be worth their time. The graphics are like that because it's simple to see what resources are in front of you, simple to build with them etc. And it reminds me of lego, which is awesome. You can download texture packs. Of course, everything is still blocks, but like I said, not everyone cares.
Oh, and who the hell cares about the combat? Combat in Morrowind and Oblivion was pretty pathetic really. Like I said, the monsters are just their to be threats, to add another element to your building and exploration.

 

[Woodsey]

Because it's accessible, rife with possibilities, and it isn't ugly for many people - you can get texture packs anyway - it's just very heavily stylised. It's supposed to look like that, and it can look very pretty in a lot of areas. I formed a huge waterfall that turned into a stream that ran down to the sea, and it looked brilliant.

As for using development kits, BORING. Half the fun of Minecraft is gathering the resources, planning out what you want to make and going through that whole process of mining to create tools, and then using tools to mine more precious substances which you can then change using the stove you've built from the stone you smashed up earlier.

 

[tahrey]

I think one explanation that covers it quite well - if it doesn't upset everybody! - is "nerds love building stuff". Much like with lego or office supplies. It's like an enormous lego kit which then comes alive.

Maybe you've missed out on the whole 8-bit mania / pixel art "thing", but it seems to have been specifically styled after that. Like Dwarf Fortress, it's the sort of game that could have been common and mainstream if PC hardware & software evolution went down a slightly different path and had developed much more intricate mechanics than simply bolting hi-def graphics onto what are often still fairly straightforward games.

There's a reason that the game engine has to load the world in "chunks" and stuff e.g. red-dust circuits don't remain effective beyond a certain distance (and the largest world has to be randomly generated when you go into previously unexplored areas): building an actual fully-modifiable world like this takes VAST amounts of memory and processing power, even with clever code and making everything out of half-metre wide cuboid voxels. It's the 3D positioning and the fact that every point in the 3D matrix is modifiable - and has to be tracked - that does it. A 64x64 playfield in a 2D game would need 4kb, if each element was 1 byte. A 64x64x64 playfield would need 256k... a good half meg if we say it's actually 2 bytes. And of course at least 262144 CPU cycles to do even the simplest operation (e.g. checking for changes) on each; or, 4 fps per mhz even without any graphics generation or other game code. That would barely cover the room needed to build a simplistic mini-castle in MC. Something like a football arena (lets say 150 x 100 x 50 cubes) is already 6~12mb. For MC-level build rez.

Anything on this kind of scale with non-uber-spec current hardware would probably require similar simplifying, either this way or making it look like the output of the old (low-poly, flat shaded) 3D Construction Kit... maybe FF7 at best. If you're going to make something stylistic out of necessity, you may as well go all the way instead of it just looking like quickly hashed together 3D, and appeal to current geek obsession trends at the same time.
(Personally I'm waiting to see if the whole Pixel thing dies out or not... given I can remember when that kind of art - or 3DCK type stuff - was used because thats all the hardware could manage. It went out of fashion once, whilst everyone perved over their 3dfx cards, and it may do again.)

Anyway, if you're going to dislike and even hate on MC because of its visual style... that's your preference I suppose. We can't make you like something you just don't dig. But I feel you're rather missing the point.

Besides, it doesn't look like something crapped out of 4chan, unless you're looking at the builds of idiots or stuff that's been griefed. Some of it really is quite charming, and even impressive... massive feats of planning and virtual engineering. What of the MC copy of Rapture for a start?
It's a bit like disliking heavily stylistic cartoons because they don't look like real life... when actually, their reality break is one of their main draws and strengths.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

I don't know what the Elder Scrolls something kit is, but if it works like i think it would (something like Garry's mod) where you just click a button and it immediately places a massive "pretty" tower somewhere, and you STILL question why Minecraft is more endearing than THAT..... then here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2680-Minecraft] you obviously need to watch Yantzee's video again.

 

[subject_87]

The graphics aren't really the focal point of the game, and besides, any game that goes for the best possible graphics will not age well. Anyway, in its own blocky way, Minecraft can also provide some beautiful, sweeping vistas of towering mountains, caverns, and more; it's like a pixellated National Geographic special. In fact, I'd be willing to say that it could be on par with Crysis in terms of visuals and scenery.

Oh yes, and on a related note, after playing Minecraft for a while I'm a bit disappointed that in other games (and the real world) I can't completely terraform the landscape and build a giant obsidian doom fortress.

 

[IRaithI]

1.Graphics aren't everything. 2.Building in the TES construction kit is the same as Gmod where you don't have to put any effort into getting your materials. 3.People like Minecraft because they find it fun. If you don't enjoy it then just don't play it.

1) Yes, when the whole game is dedicated towards constructing, graphics are (to me) a mayor part of it.

2) When you speak of having to put no effort in, you blindly quote Yahtzee, and have obviously never layed hands on the Tes editor.

3) I couldn't even play it with those graphics, if it was the second coming of christ, I'm just trying to find out *why* people find it fun.

Apparenly people having an opinion different from yours annoys you and that is why you made this thread. You dont care why you just came here to level up your epeen by pointing out things that the game lacks.

People find the game fun thats is all. Why do you need an explanation? I dont like Oblivion, you do, but I dont need an explanation as to why.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

Also, what kind of pc in use today, can't run morrowind, which is by now eight years old?

My MacBook can't run it, but it can handle Minecraft just fine. Not that I kept Morrowind installed on my desktop for more than a week, though. Seemed potentially interesting, but stuff like the completely unusable quest journal pissed me off enough after a few hours that I decided to go do something fun instead (which is too bad, because I did like some things about it and could see why some people think it's so great).

Minecraft will run on just about anything, which is nice because it's the kind of thing that's fun to just goof around in for a bit when you're bored. I actually enjoy just running around to see what's there and figuring out how things work. Building stuff in it is fun because it's so straightforward; it's like playing with blocks. I don't mind how it looks and in some ways even like it, because it keeps everything easy to tell apart at a glance. Probably doesn't hurt that I grew up playing with Legos, and my first computer was a VIC-20...

 

[Zannah]

I don't know what the Elder Scrolls something kit is, but if it works like i think it would (something like Garry's mod) where you just click a button and it immediately places a massive "pretty" tower somewhere, and you STILL question why Minecraft is more endearing than THAT..... then here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2680-Minecraft] you obviously need to watch Yantzee's video again.

Again, please don't comment on something you have a rather vague grasp on.

Maybe you've missed out on the whole 8-bit mania / pixel art "thing", but it seems to have been specifically styled after that. Like Dwarf Fortress, it's the sort of game that could have been common and mainstream if PC hardware & software evolution went down a slightly different path and had developed much more intricate mechanics than simply bolting hi-def graphics onto what are often still fairly straightforward games.
(snip)
Anyway, if you're going to dislike and even hate on MC because of its visual style... that's your preference I suppose. We can't make you like something you just don't dig. But I feel you're rather missing the point.

Besides, it doesn't look like something crapped out of 4chan, unless you're looking at the builds of idiots or stuff that's been griefed. Some of it really is quite charming, and even impressive... massive feats of planning and virtual engineering. What of the MC copy of Rapture for a start?
It's a bit like disliking heavily stylistic cartoons because they don't look like real life... when actually, their reality break is one of their main draws and strengths.

I'm not hating - the whole 4chan thing as intended as a 'brick' pun. As I said in the op, below a certain level of graphics, I'm simply not capable of looking at it for too long, without suffering physical pain, but that's beside my point.

From what I've gathered, the main point of minecraft is pretty much the production cycles, the (imho) very worst parts of all those "settler" type games. If that's the case, good on the people who like it, I'll wait until the concept transists into proper graphics, and gameplay that manages to be challenging, rather then a chore.

Apparenly people having an opinion different from yours annoys you and that is why you made this thread. You dont care why you just came here to level up your epeen by pointing out things that the game lacks.

People find the game fun thats is all. Why do you need an explanation? I dont like Oblivion, you do, but I dont need an explanation as to why.

I know I probably shouldn't feed you, but anyway - when a game transists from being just another game, to being an nigh-omnipresent pop-culture phenomenon, and you're at a complete loss on to why people find it appealing, the sensible thing to do is to describe your own bafflement, and ask people to state why they like it. "Don't play if you don't like" isn't a very helpful answer, especially, since you had no obligation to post in this thread either.

 

[Baby Tea]

So, everyone, especially around this forum, seems to love minecraft. But why?
Sure, I get that building stuff is fun. I even get Yahtzees argument, of working for set fun. But how does that set minecraft apart from say the tes-construction kit?

The TES construction kit is a face-less tool set.
There is no charm, no danger, nothing but a tool-set designed to make levels.
You don't 'play' the TEST editor, you 'use' it to make something to play with.

Minecraft isn't about the finished product.
Minecraft is about the journey to get there. The digging, the fighting, the waiting at night, the foraging during the day, the discovery of recipes and crafting blueprints, and the conquering of the land around you.

TES is just building with no journey. It's work, not a game. Once you've built the castle, that's it. It's not rewarding, it's just there. You didn't mine the stone, you didn't meticulously place each block. You used a bunch of prefab shapes and textures to make it. It required less imagination, and was infinitely less dangerous.

Is Minecraft's aesthetic not visually as appealing as graphical prowess of the TES? Well that's subjective.
I think the tower that I made, that I built, that I had to fight off zombies and creepers in order to complete, is far more visually appealing then the Imperial city in it's entirety. Why? Because I'm invested in my tower. The Imperial city is unmoving, and it's soulless. My tower is awesome because it's mine.

That's the appeal of Minecraft.
And if you reduce it to graphical quality, or calling it a 'game about building stuff', then you've completely missed the point.
It's a game about your journey. Where everything you do, everything you build, is something you're invested in. It's your world, unique to you, and it's shaped entirely by your hand through the adversity of combat and hard work.

 

[DustyDrB]

Ah, the continuing series on "Why [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.259033-Why-is-MGS-so-popular] Do [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.257362-What-is-the-appeal-of-modern-Shooters?page=1] People [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.253506-Poll-Who-the-hell-does-Super-Meat-Boy-appeal-to?page=1] Like [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.259339-Can-someone-please-tell-me-why-Half-Life-2-has-such-appeal?page=1] Things [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.258422-Demons-Souls-Why-did-it-get-good-reviews?page=1] I [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.204052-What-is-the-appeal-to-pokemon-games?page=1] Don't [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.259044-Bulletstorm-WHY?page=1]?"

The answer, as always: individual differences.

 

[MaxwellEdison]

Your main issue with it is that it looks bad?

You do realize there are texture packs to mod the game that you can download and select from the game loading page?

 

[Magnalian]

My advice would be to just play it and see for yourself. I've been talking about Minecraft to my friends for quite some time, but only when they played it for themselves did they believe it wasn't shit. Play it and you'll see the appeal.

 

[Mad1Cow]

At the end of the day, it is because it's a simple concept, with endless outcomes. As a game designer after all, I have the option to code a game, any sort of game, make any graphics for it and go nelly till my arms drop off. I don't though because this bull is complex...well at least until I need to get paid etc. Minecraft is simple to do and runs off of one concept, go build stuff. There's a little twist to that which is you need to get your own materials, but it's a much loved twist and then there's the little sprinkle of cinammon which is zombies that blow up. Honestly, I know it's always overwhelming at first but everyone I met finds something to do with it within a week of playing it. It's really not that hard to find your own objectives in Minecraft, that's all...

 

[noble cookie]

If you really think it looks that bad, dont play it, because the game was designed to look like that. Besides people have made texture packs that improve(?) the graphics.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

I don't know what the Elder Scrolls something kit is, but if it works like i think it would (something like Garry's mod) where you just click a button and it immediately places a massive "pretty" tower somewhere, and you STILL question why Minecraft is more endearing than THAT..... then here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2680-Minecraft] you obviously need to watch Yantzee's video again.

Again, please don't comment on something you have a rather vague grasp on.

Ok fine i looked it up.... and if it was in any way at all different from what i guessed it to be i ANY way whatsoever, then i would apologize for being presumptuous. As it stands.... your not getting nothin.

Ok you build things in the Oblivion world, and that's awesome. As a person who's doled out dozens and dozens of hours creating content in 3D studio max, Blender and Sketchup I know how fun it can be.

But Minecraft isn't about that! I personally don't even play it to build stuff. I just spawn, build a little house in a nice nearby place to pass the night......and then in 3 days time, once i have enough backup resources, i just head out. Out into the world, a world which will never EVER end, seeing the awesome things it will render for me, climbing to the tops of the highest peaks, and sailing the biggest oceans. I know i will never hit an arbitrary invisible wall *cough*like*cough*Oblivion*AHEM*.
and i embrace that fact. But that's just me.

Thing is, Minecraft gives you freedom. More freedom than fucking 3D studio max, and that's the software people use to build the most incredible fantasy films ever! If you don't like that, don't play it, simple as that.