Why does everyone like minecraft?

[Jaime_Wolf]

Minecraft is definitely one of my favourite games I've played.

Obviously, it has no story and, while story is one of the main things I tend to enjoy in games too, it really makes up for it in flexibility. The bigger problem you mention is lack of a goal. It really is just a very poor game for people who like to have a clear, explicit goal given to them by the game. If you're the sort of person who finds it easy to create your own goal in a sandbox situation, then it's absolutely wonderful. (None of this should be taken to mean that one of these types of people is somehow superior or that the other is dull and uncreative.)

One thing worth saying however is that the difference between seeing Minecraft and playing Minecraft is immense. And you might have to give it a bit of time before you really grasp the combinatorial explosion of possible actions and buildings in the game - it's hard to realise the insane potential of things like redstone when you're just starting out and have barely figured out punching trees.

 

[Death God]

Think of it like a palette cleanser. After you've "eaten" through most of the good games and are getting bored of them, you simply take a "bite" out of Minecraft to get you interesting in them again. Basically, you can build a world with nothing but the animals, you and the monsters, and turn it into what ever you want it to be. It is like legos on steroids having a party with lincoln logs do coke lines in the back room.

 

[N_of_the_dead]

*Snip*

That is an awesome way to look at the game and never thought of it that way myself

I would bow to you like Sokka from your avatar but having bones in my arms make it very hard. So instead I say "Good show sir!" and tip my hat.

OT I thought it sounded dumb myself but now I have multiple houses all over and a large floating castle (thirteen floors, considering more) with a large stone wall on one side and the ocean to its back and under it.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

I do not understand minecraft mania at all. Photoshop's better. MUCH better.

THANK YOU

i was waiting for this, but literally any creative media software from photoshop to 3Dmax are far superior.

You make
a) better looking things.
b) in less time
c) with more control
d) with more customisation
e) (my personal Favourite point) something that can be shown to anyone and be recognised (and probably respected), as opposed to minecraft "art" which only holds value within its odd community.

There's no difficulty to overcome in photoshop. You don't have to travel to a dungeon to find materials to craft a block so you can go deeper into a dungeon to find more material to craft the item you want.

That's like saying "Why RP in an RPG when you can write a book?"

Clearly your not an artist if you think "theres no difficulty to overcome" its all about the quest for perfection , ironing out the details.

And no it isnt because rpgs have game elements. whereas minecraft has things blowing up your work.

How is that "quest for perfection" any different for Minecraft? People constantly update their houses, pictures, rides, whatever they create. That statement is just as apt for practically anything if someone dedicates time to that creative output. Regardless, in that statement, if you want to add an orange colour to something in photoshop you simply move a slider along a bar, but in Minecraft you have to go and hunt for the materials for that colour. I'm not in any way saying that photoshop is an easy affair, but there's nothing standing in the way of your expressing yourself outside of the limits of your own imagination, Minecraft has zombies.

Minecraft doesn't have game elements? So, monsters attacking you and reducing a life-bar until you die and reset a small amount of your total progress isn't exactly the same as an RPG?

I'm not saying one is better than the other, but your argument is "photoshop gives you more creativity." I'm sure there are better programmes out there for people to play with to get even better effects than photoshop, so that argument is also void.

Added to that, Minecraft doesn't cost hundreds of pounds.

yeah there are probably more specialised programs then photoshop but they would be for somebody who knows the ins and outs of what they want to produce, and that given the skill could reasonably be produced using photoshop. And the adobe suit is readily available to those in education so the cost arguments a bit null.

and the difference between a photoshop quest for perfection and a minecraft one is.............
the photoshop one can be achieved.

Challenges to getting the work done shouldn't add to the creative process, but in fact take away.

I'll put it another way
you see a painting by an artist with paint
and then a crayon drawing

Is the crayon drawing inherently better because the artist chose to hinder himself, or is he infact rightfully ignored for using inadequate tools.

This is like saying "why would you ever give a child legos when you could give them modeling clay? Anything you can make out of legos you can make out of clay and you don't need to worry about shapes that you don't have pieces for!"

I think the notion of obstacles adding to the experience is perhaps overstated. There are all sorts of things that make it, at least for me, more satisfying than simply painting. First, there's the fact that I'm an awful painter, yet the simplicity of Minecraft allows me to make things that end up looking pretty awesome (this is probably the same reason I prefered legos to modeling clay as a child). Second, there's the idea of being inside the world of your creation. You can't run around, open doors, or fight monsters in a painting. And that's to say nothing of how poor a job a painting does at replicating something like, say, redstone. And yeah, sometimes the obstacles make it more fun - having to figure out how to do something. I've spent days trying to figure out how to get particular redstone mechanisms to work (especially, ugh, elevators). Finally figuring out a creative solution can be an awesome feeling.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

IMO, people who don't like minecraft because of the lack of a default story are just spoiled by big companies who give the everything. A game that forces your imagination is the best game possible. Only few games made thees days force you to use your imagination.

If you want a story, think some up and play based on it. Join the official minecraft forum and read all the challenges. They are really exciting.

The Tree spirit challenge, the 404 challenge, the post-apocalypse challenge, those are just some of the challenges. And those are easier.

There are also some extreme, where you're not allowed to use more than a set number of torches, where you can't make a completely closed, well lit home to be safe, where you're not allowed to stay on one place for more than a minecraft day....

The thing that makes this game so good is that it gives you infinite number of ways, quests, challenges.... to play. You just need to be creative enough to think of them and to be strong willed enough to not break the rules you set.

I for one am playing a island survival challenge. I took a seed with just 2 islands and a huge ocean around you. My home is well lit and just the entrance to a cave system. No permanent torches in the cave. I just can place 1 torch while mining just to see if I missed something. Exploring that cave is great. And every single sound makes you jump around like a madman searching for a creeper.

I've played many horror games, I have jet to watch a horror movie that will scare me even a bit, but Minecraft.... Minecraft is a completely different story. The mobs scare the shit out of me.

You go slowly trough the cave. You look carefully around you, everything fine. No mobs. You keep walking, turning around on every noise you hear, nothing. "Oh, a nice diamond. Hope there are at least 5 of them for my sword and pickaxe". "Ssssssssshame you won't mine them."
Every time I go trough a cave, I think about a cool story that could go with it. Every time I see a mob, I think a nice fitting story about the mob.

There is one story about the Enderman I red on Reddit.

Spoiler

Now just imagine thinking about this story when seeing an Enderman.... The most epic feeling you can get while playing a game.

 

[AngloDoom]

I do not understand minecraft mania at all. Photoshop's better. MUCH better.

THANK YOU

i was waiting for this, but literally any creative media software from photoshop to 3Dmax are far superior.

You make
a) better looking things.
b) in less time
c) with more control
d) with more customisation
e) (my personal Favourite point) something that can be shown to anyone and be recognised (and probably respected), as opposed to minecraft "art" which only holds value within its odd community.

There's no difficulty to overcome in photoshop. You don't have to travel to a dungeon to find materials to craft a block so you can go deeper into a dungeon to find more material to craft the item you want.

That's like saying "Why RP in an RPG when you can write a book?"

Clearly your not an artist if you think "theres no difficulty to overcome" its all about the quest for perfection , ironing out the details.

And no it isnt because rpgs have game elements. whereas minecraft has things blowing up your work.

How is that "quest for perfection" any different for Minecraft? People constantly update their houses, pictures, rides, whatever they create. That statement is just as apt for practically anything if someone dedicates time to that creative output. Regardless, in that statement, if you want to add an orange colour to something in photoshop you simply move a slider along a bar, but in Minecraft you have to go and hunt for the materials for that colour. I'm not in any way saying that photoshop is an easy affair, but there's nothing standing in the way of your expressing yourself outside of the limits of your own imagination, Minecraft has zombies.

Minecraft doesn't have game elements? So, monsters attacking you and reducing a life-bar until you die and reset a small amount of your total progress isn't exactly the same as an RPG?

I'm not saying one is better than the other, but your argument is "photoshop gives you more creativity." I'm sure there are better programmes out there for people to play with to get even better effects than photoshop, so that argument is also void.

Added to that, Minecraft doesn't cost hundreds of pounds.

yeah there are probably more specialised programs then photoshop but they would be for somebody who knows the ins and outs of what they want to produce, and that given the skill could reasonably be produced using photoshop.

But it still won't be the same quality as a better programme. Minecraft can make shapes using pixelart, if you put time into it then you can make something of any shape: Photoshop is just as limited by pixels as Minecraft. Yes, you are more limited in colour in Minecraft, but then again in Photoshop you can't create a working calculator so it's stupidly hard to compare.

And the adobe suit is readily available to those in education so the cost arguments a bit null.

I'm not in the education system, so that argument isn't at all null for me. A lot of people aren't in the education system.

and the difference between a photoshop quest for perfection and a minecraft one is.............
the photoshop one can be achieved.

To use your phrase: "Clearly you aren't an artist."

There's no such thing as perfection.

Challenges to getting the work done shouldn't add to the creative process, but in fact take away.

I'll put it another way
you see a painting by an artist with paint
and then a crayon drawing

Is the crayon drawing inherently better because the artist chose to hinder himself, or is he infact rightfully ignored for using inadequate tools.

Then you turn the monsters off?

Also, challenge does add to the art for a lot of people. A blind man drawing a picture of a certain quality is better than a sighted man doing the same picture. In fact, depending on the subject, one might be considered 'art' while the other won't be.

I really don't see why you're trying to compare the two: you're comparing a game to a creative programme. The book to RPG example is pretty apt, I'd say.

 

[Preacher zer0]

Diamonds.

 

[Sixcess]

I like Minecraft because I love exploring game worlds that feel like worlds, and there's no game does that better than Minecraft.

And it's also the first game since Silent Hill that makes me genuinely aprehensive when it starts to get dark.

 

[lacktheknack]

I suppose the correct answer is "because it entertains me", seeing how any elaboration will cause immense ire from someone or other these days.

 

[Beryl77]

Well first of all, not everyone likes Minecraft. There are a lot of people who don't like it. You just hear the people who like it a lot more, since not every single person who doesn't like it, is goint to say that but the ones who think it's great will of course tell other people that.
Minecraft itself doesn't have an objective. The point is that you create that objective yourself. Be creative, build something, explore do something else, just come up with whatever you want but don't expect the game to do that for you. If you don't like such things then I guess Minecraft is nothing for you.

 

[AlternatePFG]

It's alright, but it grows old after awhile. I'm pretty much completely burnt out on it now, I really don't care what updates they add, I'm probably never going to play it again.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

I'll have to agree with the OP that Minecraft just doesn't do much for me. I see the appeal, but it isn't fun to me at all. Certainly don't hate it though.

 

[AngloDoom]

Im not the one trying to compare this. All the fanboys with their "brilliant art" are. it offends me.

Really? Why? Some people don't consider figurative painting - even hyper-realism - art simply because it's not exploring something deep, it's simply a pretty painting. What is your definition of art that incorporates Photoshop but not Minecraft?

i never said there was perfection, i said it was a quest for it, and it is.

So are people updating their Minecraft homes or dungeons, rides, etc. Creativity only stops when you decide to stop - there's no such thing as 'perfect' in Minecraft either. You can always makes something better, even if it is to make it bigger...but then again the game is unlimited in size...

i apologise for assuming you were part of the 16-25 year old fanbase who play the game and could be reasonably in some sort of education.

No problem, my friend. No need to apologise.

Oh one final point is that the blind man painting requires skill, whereas minecraft just requires time input. So real apt metaphor you have going there.

It takes a creative frame of mind. I wouldn't have ever made a calculator or a tune in Minecraft because I wouldn't have thought of it, no matter how much time you gave me. Painting doesn't necessarily need skill - otherwise hyper-realism would be the ultimate form of art, and it really isn't to many people.

Im not saying the game can't be fun, or isn't a good tool for dicking around. But to go around exclaiming about the fantastic "creations" as a major point for the game is beyond silly.

In your opinion. I don't see why you have to hyphenate 'creative', it is creative. People have made unique creations, therefore it is creative.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

I do not understand minecraft mania at all. Photoshop's better. MUCH better.

THANK YOU

i was waiting for this, but literally any creative media software from photoshop to 3Dmax are far superior.

You make
a) better looking things.
b) in less time
c) with more control
d) with more customisation
e) (my personal Favourite point) something that can be shown to anyone and be recognised (and probably respected), as opposed to minecraft "art" which only holds value within its odd community.

There's no difficulty to overcome in photoshop. You don't have to travel to a dungeon to find materials to craft a block so you can go deeper into a dungeon to find more material to craft the item you want.

That's like saying "Why RP in an RPG when you can write a book?"

Clearly your not an artist if you think "theres no difficulty to overcome" its all about the quest for perfection , ironing out the details.

And no it isnt because rpgs have game elements. whereas minecraft has things blowing up your work.

How is that "quest for perfection" any different for Minecraft? People constantly update their houses, pictures, rides, whatever they create. That statement is just as apt for practically anything if someone dedicates time to that creative output. Regardless, in that statement, if you want to add an orange colour to something in photoshop you simply move a slider along a bar, but in Minecraft you have to go and hunt for the materials for that colour. I'm not in any way saying that photoshop is an easy affair, but there's nothing standing in the way of your expressing yourself outside of the limits of your own imagination, Minecraft has zombies.

Minecraft doesn't have game elements? So, monsters attacking you and reducing a life-bar until you die and reset a small amount of your total progress isn't exactly the same as an RPG?

I'm not saying one is better than the other, but your argument is "photoshop gives you more creativity." I'm sure there are better programmes out there for people to play with to get even better effects than photoshop, so that argument is also void.

Added to that, Minecraft doesn't cost hundreds of pounds.

yeah there are probably more specialised programs then photoshop but they would be for somebody who knows the ins and outs of what they want to produce, and that given the skill could reasonably be produced using photoshop. And the adobe suit is readily available to those in education so the cost arguments a bit null.

and the difference between a photoshop quest for perfection and a minecraft one is.............
the photoshop one can be achieved.

Challenges to getting the work done shouldn't add to the creative process, but in fact take away.

I'll put it another way
you see a painting by an artist with paint
and then a crayon drawing

Is the crayon drawing inherently better because the artist chose to hinder himself, or is he infact rightfully ignored for using inadequate tools.

This is like saying "why would you ever give a child legos when you could give them modeling clay? Anything you can make out of legos you can make out of clay and you don't need to worry about shapes that you don't have pieces for!"

I think the notion of obstacles adding to the experience is perhaps overstated. There are all sorts of things that make it, at least for me, more satisfying than simply painting. First, there's the fact that I'm an awful painter, yet the simplicity of Minecraft allows me to make things that end up looking pretty awesome (this is probably the same reason I prefered legos to modeling clay as a child). Second, there's the idea of being inside the world of your creation. You can't run around, open doors, or fight monsters in a painting. And that's to say nothing of how poor a job a painting does at replicating something like, say, redstone. And yeah, sometimes the obstacles make it more fun - having to figure out how to do something. I've spent days trying to figure out how to get particular redstone mechanisms to work (especially, ugh, elevators). Finally figuring out a creative solution can be an awesome feeling.

no because for a child he is using the experience of fun to teach him the basics of something he could go on to use in later life. His end results are irrelevant since he is learning something about the world. whereas minecraft players proudly show off the 80 hours they poured in to build a castle which looks like ass.

All well and good have fun in it, but this absurd notion of value due to time spent is absurd, and it goes in contrary to every bad game ever made, because surely the would be worthwhile if somebody spent 100's of hours on them. Art should be judged on its merits alone. And by using a bad tool it holds you back.

It may be a fine game for dicking around and being a time sink. But to imply that it has value beyond this is just a flat out lie.

You have a remarkably narrow notion of value. And of art. The effort that goes into a piece of art can be part of the art, it can be a merit. There are many very well-regarded pieces of art that are essentially entirely about the effort involved.

Obviously the quality of any arbitrary piece of art isn't defined by the effort involved, but the quality of a piece of art isn't universally defined in such a way by essentially anything.

Minecraft allows people to create interesting things, limits can be very useful for people in terms of creativity by giving them a small enough space of possibilities that they can actually manage to decide upon and create something. And beyond this, there's additional value in the game aside from artistic value. Even taking a remarkably puritanical tack that enjoyment and fulfillment are somehow lesser goals, countless people have learned real-life skills from Minecraft: things like logic gates and memory cells for instance. And then there's the spatial reasoning, planning, execution of plans...

It's more or less never a good idea to assume that something is simply a useless waste of time. For the most part, if something is a waste of time, people just don't do it. More often than not, you're just missing the thing that makes the activity worthwhile.

 

[F4LL3N]

I asked myself the same question before I became addicted to it. But in all honesty, the first night and the first ~10 or so hours of gameplay were some of my favorite gameplay ever.

It's extremely fun to start off with nothing, dig a hole in the side of a cave for your first night. Then just expand. You go from nothing, to an awesome cave system, or castle, or just simply a house or town.

It's not a horror, but I've been more terrified in Minecraft than I have in most games. Ask any Minecraft player. The sound of 'tssssssssssss' or a spider dropping from nowhere is poo-insiring.

Unfortunitely, without an object the game eventually becomes very stale (I played through about 4 worlds and ~60 hours before it happened). Now no update really refreshes it like it used to be.

 

[Dr. Crawver]

4 words, and I wonder who'll get the reference

buildin' a filth bridge