Why Everyone Loves Minecraft

[Wolf Devastator]

Minecraft is a game you have to play to understand why everyone loves it. I arrived late to the game, originally brushing it off as mining sim that must be attracting all the Farmville-like players. Of course I had no idea what the game was about so I was just being overly-critical and opposing the norm.

Today, Minecraft is my second most played game (World of Warcraft being my first). The only explanation I can give people is that it's similar to playing with Legos (something I used to be known for being addicted to). They both give you a gigantic set of tools to build and play whatever your mind can think of. The amount of freedom Minecraft gives me would have normally turned me off due to time constraints and lack of original imagination, but something about this game made me look at this freedom differently.

It's partly due to the subtle goals and realism of the mechanics, but more and more I'm becoming convinced that it's the constant threat of monsters and other pitfalls destroying the things you put effort into building. Normally trying to play games as flawlessly and thoroughly as possible, but Minecraft tested me over and over again (mainly through Creepers) to not play the game to beat it, but to try to survive in a world that you just cannot win. You only achieve the goals you set for yourself, allowing you to control how much effort you want to put into it.

But that is only one aspect to why I love Minecraft...

The other is the constant dread that lingers with every step I make in a cave. The randomness of the world compliments the constant fear of death. Just when I think I've seen everything Minecraft could throw at me, I find a pit full of jumping Creepers [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGbbM72eKAw#t=2m14s] in a dimly lit cave and then I fall into a hole of spiders [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGbbM72eKAw#t=5m00s].

Though nothing is as cruel as showing up to the place I left my diamond, only to have it disappear a half a second before I could reach it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okGxll6FGWY#t=3m34s].

These type of experiences will stay with me for a long time. Some people will play the game for a week and get bored of it's simple gameplay, but I have yet to find a reason to think that Minecraft doesn't have more memorable experiences to come. Finally moving into beta, I can assume that more features and creatures will be added soon to keep me engrossed in the game for months, maybe even years to come.

This is why I still love a game with 16-bit graphics, simple gameplay, and no story. Because you can create your own story, using your own personal rules and imagination, to make a world that only you can enjoy.


tl;dr Go play Minecraft, it's worth every penny.

 

[Savagezion]

Hmmm, I don't care for it, personally. I like builder games and stuff I just don't like the lack of structure I guess. There is a couple things I will point out though.

Some people will play the game for a week and get bored of it's simple gameplay,

tl;dr Go play Minecraft, it's worth every penny.

Thread should be called "Why I enjoy Minecraft".

Finally, this is always a funny mentality to me:

I arrived late to the game, originally brushing it off as mining sim that must be attracting all the Farmville-like players.

Pshh, Farmville players. Lemmings. *roll eyes*

Today, Minecraft is my second most played game (World of Warcraft being my first).

Hehe.

 

[Wolf Devastator]

I arrived late to the game, originally brushing it off as mining sim that must be attracting all the Farmville-like players.

Pshh, Farmville players. Lemmings. *roll eyes*

I know, I figured it must be similar for how much people were talking about it. I only saw a screenshots of the game and figured it was just another point n click game where all you're doing is gathering minerals just to make yourself look cool... oh wait, never mind

 

[archvile93]

Unfortunately my mind isn't very creative (at least in aesthetic terms), so I probably wouldn't have much fun in the game.

 

[Jelly ^.^]

What happens when you make DF accessible to everyone? This.

It's kinda like cutting heroine with crack cocaine. If you banned Minecraft tomorrow, there would be a hell of lot of people in jail the day after.

 

[Savagezion]

I arrived late to the game, originally brushing it off as mining sim that must be attracting all the Farmville-like players.

Pshh, Farmville players. Lemmings. *roll eyes*

I know, I figured it must be similar for how much people were talking about it. I only saw a screenshots of the game and figured it was just another point n click game where all you're doing is gathering minerals just to make yourself look cool... oh wait, never mind

Indeed, my good man, indeed. ;P

 

[Veylon]

It's a great game. There's a lot of titles out there where you plunk down X coins and get a house or wall or castle. But in this game, if you want those things, you actually have to go and build them. And when you do, you can feel a certain pride that something you designed and worked for actually exists, or at least as much as anything on a screen exists.

 

[Direbetus]

Maybe if I had autism or something I'd be able to enjoy something as monotone and boring as Minecraft, but as it is right now, I can't. It's just doing the same crap over and over again, it gets old immediately.

 

[C95J]

wow, your videos are actually brilliant! How can you have so little views they are quite funny I have already subscribed!

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I don't care for it really. I don't know why. Perhaps it was because I favored my Erector Set over my Lego set as a child?

I mean, I like building things, I just don't like all the tedious prep work required to build. Still, I am regularly impressed by the work people are willing to put into the game.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

I play it intermittently mainly because I don't like night in any game I play... yeah that much can put me off playing for a day or two just because I don't want to spend all that time waiting for day again.

I'll start playing again soon but I'm still reinstalling games back onto my recently reformatted hard drive...

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I find it difficult to believe that minecraft is the 2nd most played game in the world. Anyway, I tried it. I played for free for about an hour before I gave it up. Then I was pushed back in by a friend and gave the game another couple of days. After having succeeded in building a doom-tower, I told myself that I had beaten the game and gave it up. I never paid to play it and every time I read about someone paying to play minecraft I giggle a little to myself. It wasn't terrible it was just not my kind of thing.

 

[SalamanderJoe]

What is Minecraft? I honestly never bothered to find out.

 

[Sephychu]

I find it difficult to believe that minecraft is the 2nd most played game in the world.

He mentioned that it was his second most played game. Just a coincidence that his first is also the first.

Also, paying to play it adds mroe content than the free version, and more mechanics. It isn't the same as the free version, no sir.

 

[Nomanslander]

Because it represents everything that's the opposite of an overly financed, overly rendered, developed by committee, linear as fuck, hyped on ING.com up the ying-yang, game. It's a glorious example for all those gamers out there demanding more substance and originality.


And personally...



I can care less since I tried it and didn't like it.

=)

 

[John the Gamer]

I build this large dirt tower/keep next to my spawnpoint, but now I'm sort of stuck in it... each night about 10 creepers/spiders/skeletons spawn outside. So I started digging into the earth beneath the keep, ending up in a huge underground cave, with lava, water and planty of monsters. then I build a little base down there, saw a skeleton, fell into the lava, respawned and found my base to have been erased from existance... I had to start all over. Keep was still there though. It gets way too creepy down in those caves. I almost never go into caves anymore.