What do you like to do in Minecraft?

[Saelune]

So, I got back into Minecraft recently on Xbox One, and in between exploring everything, I often spend a lot of time building castles and roadways. And as I am laying down a road between said castle and a nearby village, I thought 'Why am I doing this? There is no point...but I like how nice it looks...' and kept going. (I do this in survival, since actually acquiring the resources is also part of the fun for me)

So, for those of you who have played or still do, what do you find most fun in it? (I'd add a poll, but they don't seem to work anymore)

 

[Pseudonym]

I've played an enormous amount of minecraft both by myself and with friends from 2009 to 2015 (very rough estimate of the timeframe) and I've had enough of it I think.

Minecraft makes the fact that all you are doing is pointless and self-imposed very visible. In any case, I used to build towers all over the landscape in minecraft. After I did that, suddenly the height limit was doubled and ladder mechanics were changed forcing me to build hundreds of extra ladders to make my towers climbable again. I also liked to built nethersubways, since those are four times as efficient as railways over the normal overworld. I've also built mobdrops (places that spawn enemies that will be brought by water to a deadly fall) that I liked. I've once built an underwater glass castle that I really liked (you can use sugercane to effeciently clear our water from the inside). Another thing I liked to do was use paint to work out appropriate pixels so I could write my name in blocks. I remember when I wrote my name in lights that I could turn on and off. I could even make those lights flicker on and off. (word of advice, build your redstone on solid rock or endermen will grief it) Otherwise I liked going down to get stuff. There was something satisfying about coming home with all kinds of goodies.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

I do the same.

I Build a skyscraper/pyramid on top of a mineshaft/inverted skyscraper top to bottom (hexahedron or polyhedron depends on what effort I'm willing to put in that time) and build 4 roads leading away east,south,west,north, until I encounter something interesting. The buildings are always an odd number of tiles, so that the rods can start in the middle.

 

[Samos205]

Stopped playing survival a long time ago since it lost its fun, though i still go back every now and again, now i just play creative. I enjoy just building massive buildings and cities without having to gather resources. The new water updates made building stuff underwater even more fun now that there's actual scenery and you can halfslabs and stairs without it leaving random airpockets above them

 

[Bad Jim]

I like making redstone contraptions. I also like stuff like Tekkit. It's nice to start with a beautiful pristine landscape and with ingenuity, skill and hard work, completely ruin it.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

For some reason I enjoy making mines. Deep, twisting mines. The actual building is often secondary to the sense of accomplishment I get after a long mining expedition.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

I don't really play regular minecraft anymore. When I used to, I basically ended up building really nice houses and that was more or less it. It might be the game that made me start enjoying survival/crafting games, but it's by no means my favourite. That honor goes to Subnautica, hands down, with Starbound being a nice second for now.

I'm more a fan of Minecraft challenge maps, personally.

"Corona Trials" is a particularly amazing one. Super well designed, with environments that have their own unique challenges to them, and shortcuts back home from far-off places, and it's wide open to be broken by clever building/mining tactics. Like...I've never made a mob-grinder before, but this map made me learn how to make one, because having a renewable source of arrow was so important.

It's hard to forget how fun it was when I scoured the mushroom themed area for hours looking for the objective before taking a good hard look around and eventually going "no.....It couldn't be THERE could it? ...IT IS! Hah, that's clever of-...What's that noise? ...OH GOD THERE'S A HIDDEN GHAST SPAWNER ON TOP OF IT, RUN RUN RUN RUN"

That reminds, me, I should really get back to it. I'm in the final 1/4 of the map. FINALLY got my claws on Diamond. And avoided most of the patrolling ghasts by tunnelling into the ceiling until I got to my first diamond vein. XD

I used to play a lot of "Super Hostile" maps too, but those just get way too hardcore to be fun. Corona has the decency to start off easy and ramp up over time while giving you a pleasant amount of loot and variety in challenges. Corona also has the sense to not spam creeper spawners until you get your first shield, which actually gives you a very good chance against them.

Legit the one complaint I have with Corona Trials is the single "Kaizo trap" at the start of the map that you can't see coming. Everything else you can see coming and/or build around.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I never got into Minecraft. It always reminded me of the Starcraft level editor, but without the chance to actually play Starcraft on it.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Hardcore is quite interesting, because it completely changes the dynamic of the game. Early on, you're very aware you could lose the save at any time so rather than building elaborate stuff you're really focused on keeping everything efficient. Once you're settled, it gets a bit gentler, but there's still that lingering anxiety whenever you go on a mining expedition that if you get lost or fall into lava, that's it. It encourages planning and preparation, like leaving signposts everywhere for yourself.

Getting to hell on hardcore feels like a little accomplishment, rather than just "oh, here are more resources to play with".

In survival mode, I like to set myself little building challenges, like building a base under the sea with glass domes and tunnels to look out at all the jellyfish (this was pre-update though, so it wasn't very interesting down there).

 

[Silent Protagonist]

I downloaded a massive modpack for Minecraft way back when and I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to Vanilla Minecraft. Now whenever I get back into Minecraft it's to check out a new Modpack that looks interesting. After my massive enjoyment of modded Minecraft I was extremely disappointed to find out mods for other games were mostly just aesthetic changes/improvements rather than massive additions to the mechanics and content of the game like the so many of the Minecraft ones are. Plus, instead of picking a bunch of individual mods to install and trying to make them work together myself, there are multiple groups that put together modpacks that take care of all of the technical headaches of getting a bunch of mods to work together nicely without constant crashing. The two that I have used recently are the ATLauncher and Feed the Beast, both of which have a multitude of different modpacks to choose from.

I'm currently trying out SevTech Ages on the ATLauncher. I'm not a huge fan so far but it might be good for someone new to modded minecraft. The idea is that you progress from the stone age to the space age, so most of the mods and even some of the Vanilla content are locked off at the start, unlocking more as you advance from one age to the next. This helps you get familiarized with the mods in the pack without immediately getting thrown in the deep end and being overwhelmed trying to sort out all the different mods' content at once. The downside to this is that I found the first two ages dragged on a bit and felt a little too crippling.

The only downside to modded Minecraft is that you are usually playing at least one major update behind the Vanilla Game as the major updates usually break mods for reasons that are beyond me and the modders need time to update their mods to be compatible with the newest version. The additional content absolutely more than makes up for it though.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Fun in Minecraft has changed over the years. Like everyone else it started out as a survival game for me. Then I built a house. Then I built a castle. Then I built an underground railroad connecting both. Then a third, fourth, fifth fortress. Once that got repetitive I went for the closest thing to an "endgame" in Minecraft - build a portal, kill the Enderdragon. Then I started going for trophies. Then I went for the Platinum. Once I got that I sort of ran out of ideas. Just reminiscing makes me want to keep playing though.

 

[Bobular]

Same as you from the sounds of it, castles and roads. I also really like building bridges but that's kinda just fancy roads. Most of the time its usually just a tower with a wall around it and frequent watch towers made of wood at regular distances so that I can see them and follow the path of them back home.

The one thing I built that I was most proud of was a massive underground library, built in survival mode. It was built as a giant hollowed out diamond shape with book cases all along every bit of wall along the edges, there were bridges that connected to a central staircase that could get you up and down between floors (that also had bookcases on it) and the staircase was suspended from the ceiling and looked as if it would fall if you cut out the cables connecting it to the ceiling (although obviously this is Minecraft so it would actually just float their in the centre).

The only way into the library was through a twisty tunnel that came off from my main mine shaft, but you could only access it via a secret door that unless you through the correct sequence of hidden switches just looked like any other part of the wall (to the extent that unless I opened the door myself I often wouldn't be able to find the door).

Once past the hidden door, you came to multiple paths, most of which took you back to the hidden door or to dead ends or to pits of water or lava. One such pit of lava was actually the way forwards as by throwing an item into one of the pools of water in the correct spot would pull said item onto a pressure plate that would raise a bridge over the lava and open another secret door, the bridge raised one part at a time so it looked like a wave going out (the amount of times I set the mechanisms on fire by accident as I was building it was quite a bit higher than it should have been).

Once past the lava bridge there was a short tunnel that was a bit darker than normal, and here there was a pressure plate that I hope was hard to see, if you stepped on that rather than jump over it then the floor beneath you would move away and you'd fall into a pit of lava. I wasn't happy with this section as moving the floor also destroyed the pressure plate and the darkness combined with the depth meant that quite often monsters would spawn in this part of the tunnel, sometimes setting off the trap themselves.

That led into the library though another secret door, though this one just opened with a switch, it was more so that when the door was closed the wall was all bookcases on the inside of the library.

Once in the library there was just one more secret. If you threw all the hidden switches then a small secret door would open in the central staircase that would lead to a cube of obsidian 2 layers thick (except for the entrance as sticky pistons can't move obsidian which always annoyed me.

Inside the cube of obsidian was... just a bed. At that point I couldn't think of what else to put in the small room inside the cube, I did consider putting a gateway to hell in there but because of the dimensions of the cube I couldn't get it to be central and so there was no way I could let that stand and no way I would re-design and re-build the whole library for this.

So that is something I am both immensely proud of and really saddened by as I no longer have that save and that was a good few months of my life when I was unemployed (so near constant working on it). Talking about my library has made me want to go build it again, though this time probably in creative mode as just getting the resources took ages, let alone building and getting the mechanisms working right.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

I dabbled in most of the things one would in minecraft. I don't want to get into too much depth or I'll write an essay, but here are the things I did in point form:

SURVIVAL:
1) redstone contraptions - automated doors, elevators, armor dispensers (iron man style), stables, cannons, traps, harvesters, and more

2) automated mob and trap farms - lever and redstone operated, or just water falls, they made gathering resources much quicker

3) deep networked mines, with automated carting of resources to the surface and back empty. That took me a while to work out, but got it eventually, with triggered track switching and so on.

4) of course a massive base/safehouse, with towers, underground crafting rooms and storage, hidden entrances, the usual fare.

CREATIVE:
1) traditional style homes and buildings, like village longhouses, chinese pagodas, bungalows and chalets

2) replicas of random things, such as my apartment, or school building

3) massive roller coaster rides through everything

Having said all that, sometimes I just like to muck around in survival, with the usual mud house, run around just exploring aimlessly and try not to die. It's been a WHILE though, I think I only played once or twice since Microsoft took over.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

I'm a very organised Minecrafter. My mines aren't random tunnels, they're set out so I can see and reach the blocks through their walls. I have highly defined storage areas where the contents will be precisely laid out. I create cobblestone slabs by the chestload to create arrow-straight roads between areas so if I'm ever lost I can just find one of them and follow it back to an outpost or depot.
As the friend of mine I frequently play with has pointed out, this makes me a highly useful "support class" player to counter his more impulsive playstyle. He'll go charging off across the biomes or through caverns to hunt down interesting things, all the while I'll be building the housing and farms we need to support ourselves. He'll bring back fancy materials for me to use, I provide the resources for him to regroup and recover from his adventures.

 

[Kyrian007]

My Minecraft problem is I have the most fun at the start of the game. Waking up in whatever situation you start in, trying to get that first shelter built before sunset on day 1, then looking for the things you need to start up a self sufficient farm. I have less fun once I have a ranch, fields, and working smithy. That's why I like hardcore mode, I get to play the fun part more than the rest.

I'm a very organised Minecrafter. My mines aren't random tunnels, they're set out so I can see and reach the blocks through their walls. I have highly defined storage areas where the contents will be precisely laid out. I create cobblestone slabs by the chestload to create arrow-straight roads between areas so if I'm ever lost I can just find one of them and follow it back to an outpost or depot.
As the friend of mine I frequently play with has pointed out, this makes me a highly useful "support class" player to counter his more impulsive playstyle. He'll go charging off across the biomes or through caverns to hunt down interesting things, all the while I'll be building the housing and farms we need to support ourselves. He'll bring back fancy materials for me to use, I provide the resources for him to regroup and recover from his adventures.

That's kind of how it works with me. When I'm playing with friends I take care of survival and allow my friends (who are more creative types) to build whatever. I once set out on a quest after my self sufficient-farm was producing enough to keep my friend in food without having to stop whatever it was he was building. I was gone for a couple of in-game weeks. Mapping out the landscape, finding the nearest settlement, collecting exotic plants and seeds to diversify the farm and plotting a return route to gather every different animal type on the way back, building holding pens every so often that I could use for overnight halts. It took a while but I was coming back loaded down with everything I'd need to eventually craft everything the game had to offer. And when I got back as far as that first little town near our original outpost... my friend had built a tower I could see from there. Stone up until 2 stories from the limit of the atmosphere, then excessively lit glass for the final 2 stories. A massive beacon lighting my way home. Midway up the tower he had built a skybridge leading directly to the little town. And it was a massive highway with wide on and off ramps so I could drive entire herds of animals to and from the town. And it went over a defensive wall around our first outpost, the several new buildings on that outpost, new field areas for my new crops, and a massive stadium/cow palace for all of our new livestock. It turns out we work fairly well together in Minecraft. My buildings and farms are all utilitarian squares built for maximum efficiency. He designed an entire city... and it was beautiful. He was basically playing creative mode while I was playing survival for the both of us.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Fun in Minecraft has changed over the years. Like everyone else it started out as a survival game for me. Then I built a house. Then I built a castle. Then I built an underground railroad connecting both. Then a third, fourth, fifth fortress. Once that got repetitive I went for the closest thing to an "endgame" in Minecraft - build a portal, kill the Enderdragon. Then I started going for trophies. Then I went for the Platinum. Once I got that I sort of ran out of ideas. Just reminiscing makes me want to keep playing though.

Though I haven't played it since it went big, when I did, instead of making an underground railroad I made a skyrail connecting everything. When I used to play I played with others on creative servers building amusement parks, huge kingdoms and civilizations.

Built all sorts of amusement park rides and museums some of my favorites were a robot chicken roller coaster, jungle lava maze with all sorts of traps, and a crazy Spongebob themed water slide inside a shopping mall.

In survival, I focused on building in and on water and in the air for the most part.

 

[Squilookle]

When I got it back in Alpha, my first world was a landscape with a giant half-doughnut archway mountain being gently blanketed by permanent snowing. I instantly decided I would build a huge doom-fortress in/under that half doughnut for the player to get into and avoid various 'traps' in order to get to the bottom and arrest some bad guy, but when you get there you find a sign saying it's all an elaborate trap, and a wooden 'fuse' is lit that will cause a chain reaction to blow up the whole fortress, so you have to get out as fast as you can.

While planning it out, an update arrived. Suddenly my world wasn't snowing anymore.

And that killed it, sadly. For some reason, without this world getting that constant gentle snow drifting down, I just didn't care for the project anymore and abandoned it. I tried a few houses and the usual stuff in other worlds, but not long afterwards I stopped playing it altogether, preferring just to see what others had done with it.

 

[CaitSeith]

In survival I like to attempt to defeat the bosses, but I always get distracted in making my shelter look good (and installing some automatic lighting). I also like to create my own village by curing zombie villagers, making houses for them and breeding them.

I used to follow the instructions of a video series from Minecraft Zephirr to do compact automatic farms (specially chickens, eggs and feathers), but I don't know if they still work with the newest updates.

 

[the December King]

It's the damndest thing... I usually play survival or hardcore, and my buildings are almost always barely serviceable and non-imaginative as all heck- never very big, and boring.

I always thought I'd be the one making grand and amazing buildings in that game, among my friends, but nope. No imagination whatsoever.

I just enjoy digging, upgrading, exploring, and fighting tons of monsters.