MINECRAFT ! (yes)

[DigDog]

off the top of my head i decided to google Minecraft's "version history" and i see that the latest update is called World Of Color.

i've played MC on and off since it came out, mostly IndustrialCraft and IC2, but the longer the development of vanilla MC went on, the more i saw this amazing game get turned into the "Fisher-Price" version of itself.

Back before beds were introduced (which essentially completely cuts off the biggest part of survival gameplay) and i decided to give a full e10 to Notch, we were promised a drastic change in AI, and a gameplay oriented towards six minutes of daytime to build defenses, and six minutes of nighttime where mobs can break blocks. An ongoing survival game where you need to survive.

I go to the Version History page, and i see that the biggest change is a massive overhaul of the colors of everything, plus a new "mob", the parrot. Really. You can click on a bed and completely skip the survival part of this survival game.
Don't get me wrong, i don't have any prejudice against the mentally-retarded people that want to play MC as a crayon simulator (creative mode), but i don't want to lose the core gameplay of what was essentially the best game of the year. The concept of "no game boundary" through procedural generation meant you were truly inside a world, and there were no walls to remind you that it was just a game ..

Back when you could still talk to Notch (even though he barely spoke english) this are some of the things we were told would .. "take precedence" in future builds. Never any direct promises of this is gonna be in the game, a la' No Mans Sky, but "hey Notch, the community agrees that THIS is what MC needs" and he would be "THATS A GREAT IDEA, WE ARE GOING TO DO THAT".

1. expanding traps
2. block-breaking mobs
3. game time (zombie waves, large scale events)
4. more ingame machinery (not as in IC2, but intended as the rollercoaster, or traps, or other game-behaviour directly derived from the game engine)
5. more world height / depth
6. chunk properties (i.e. iron veins, cave chunks, or anything else that makes not-every-chunk look the same)
7. a harder game

instead we got
1. most physics removed - 3/4 of the previous traps do not work anymore, no more rollercoasters, almost every single fun bug fixed.
2. slightly improved mob pathing, leading to many less suicidal mobs (i.e. zombie falls on your head from a cliff), and slower mob attacks.
3. no game time features, plus extended food supply, night-cycle skip, more food sources, and easier damage model.
4. no change in height, and a far more boring world builder.
5. no chunk properties.
6. flowers, flowerpots, butterflies, bunnies, JESUS THIS WAS A HORROR GAME.

why do people have to ruin everything good for money? it's not like Notch was not a multimillionaire when MC was being sold off his website, let's not even mention the Steam sales.


that's why i simply don't do early access. Starbounder has been out for years, it still has no gameplay mechanic. You can kill ANY mob in the game by bricking it in a wall built of the most basic component of the game(dirt, soil, stone, anything), and the moment i saw the press releases saying "angry koala 1.4.2, hey we got a starship working, we are so cool" i realize that they have run out of coding juice. They are spent. Nothing more will come out of that studio if not some new hats.

Sometimes i think we need a consumer protection agency the same way we have the FCA here at the bank. If you publish "this feature will be in the product by date" and you take a consumer's money, you either deliver or are forced o give refunds.

seriously though im so pissed off, in MC the one feature that popularized the game was rolercoaster, which were based on a bug that happened when you put two rails next to each other with two mine carts; WHY would you remove that!! FFF Notch added a crappy electrical rail piece that does a crappy version of the same effect TWO YEARS LATER.
WHY WOULD YOU REMOVE THE MOB GRINDERS PHYSICS!! THAT WAS THE MOST FUN PART !!
Now it's only gravity traps and the new spawn system doesn't even make them worth building anymore.

The same crap happened with Blacklight. They had the most amazing shooter ever made, raving reviews from everyone, a fanbase ready to die for them, and systematically proceeded to **** every good feature of the game. HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW YOUR OWN PRODUCT !!

omk rant over

 

[Stg-Flame]

When the money started rolling in, Notch noticed Minecraft was being played by younger and younger kids. Parents were commenting about how Minecraft helped their five and six year old kids basic hand-eye coordination and how to work together, so on and so fourth. It became apparent the original horror game he envisioned was far less profitable than the game we have today.

Bottom line is it all boils down to money.

As for Starbound, I backed them on Kickstarter and regret giving them $15. After the first two years, it became apparent they lost their will to try to reach their original goal, but instead spent almost two full years of adding new furniture sets and new color palettes over three or four updates, I didn't have high hopes for the final version. Only two months before the full release, they gutted the entire game, removed almost 75% of the weapons in the game, removed the different movesets for attacking, removed countless quests, removed faction standings, and released it as pixel-art No Man's Sky.

 

[Rifter]

Couldn't agree more, Minecraft was one of the biggest bait and switch games of the last decade. I loved it at first, then about 2/3 of the way through development it completely changed what it was all about.

And i agree there needs to be more oversight of EA games. When it gets to the point you are taking peoples money you need to deliver the game you are promising at the time. No major design pillars should be shifted after you start taking money. If you find you want to make a different game then make that different game do not change the current game into it after taking peoples money,

Also, yes starbound is a great example of EA games coming apart, what a horrible dev team this game had. So much potential ruin by devs who have no idea what they are doing with the game.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Play Rimworld.

 

[Red Storm]

It's a video game, we don't need oversight, we just need people to stop giving money to early access projects. Vote with your wallet, wait for crap to actually be finished before giving them your money. It really is that simple. You've got no one to blame but yourself for feeling burned from an early access game.

 

[bbhaag]

When the money started rolling in, Notch noticed Minecraft was being played by younger and younger kids. Parents were commenting about how Minecraft helped their five and six year old kids basic hand-eye coordination and how to work together, so on and so fourth. It became apparent the original horror game he envisioned was far less profitable than the game we have today.

Bottom line is it all boils down to money.

As for Starbound, I backed them on Kickstarter and regret giving them $15. After the first two years, it became apparent they lost their will to try to reach their original goal, but instead spent almost two full years of adding new furniture sets and new color palettes over three or four updates, I didn't have high hopes for the final version. Only two months before the full release, they gutted the entire game, removed almost 75% of the weapons in the game, removed the different movesets for attacking, removed countless quests, removed faction standings, and released it as pixel-art No Man's Sky.

Agreed. The demographic for Minecraft changed and with it the overall philosophy of what the game should be did too. No one could have predicted that every 5 to 12yo in North America and Europe would fall head over heals for Minecraft and for so long. The game has had an amazing shelf life for a demographic that is notoriously moving on to the "next thing".

 

[JujuFish]

why do people have to ruin everything good for money? it's not like Notch was not a multimillionaire when MC was being sold off his website, let's not even mention the Steam sales.

Do you think you'd turn down 2.5 billion USD?

 

[DigDog]

2 billion dollars is a pretty good argument.

but, you need to consider that the choices were made well before the game exploded in popularity. MC was still the realm of nerds when it made the first bucket of money, people building 8-bit computers and recreating Rivendell, and mob grinders at 10k item drops per hour. That sort of thing. Think 2012.

I don't think Notch had the insight that changing the game to be kid-friendly would make him more money. He doesn't seem to be a money-hungry person, anyway. But, the development changed from inspired to tired around that time. It's like something in his head made him forget the great things he wanted to build, and made him focus on crappy stuff like dogs and flowers and new textures for doors.
I don't know this for a fact, but i'm under the impression that kids picked up minecraft *because* it changed the way it did, rather than the game changing to suit a younger audience.

 

[Chaotic42]

When the money started rolling in, Notch noticed Minecraft was being played by younger and younger kids. Parents were commenting about how Minecraft helped their five and six year old kids basic hand-eye coordination and how to work together, so on and so fourth. It became apparent the original horror game he envisioned was far less profitable than the game we have today.

Bottom line is it all boils down to money.

As for Starbound, I backed them on Kickstarter and regret giving them $15. After the first two years, it became apparent they lost their will to try to reach their original goal, but instead spent almost two full years of adding new furniture sets and new color palettes over three or four updates, I didn't have high hopes for the final version. Only two months before the full release, they gutted the entire game, removed almost 75% of the weapons in the game, removed the different movesets for attacking, removed countless quests, removed faction standings, and released it as pixel-art No Man's Sky.

Starbound was such a disappointment. It could still be salvaged, but it's just remarkably unfun as is.

 

[5to1baby1in5]

It's a video game, we don't need oversight, we just need people to stop giving money to early access projects. Vote with your wallet, wait for crap to actually be finished before giving them your money. It really is that simple. You've got no one to blame but yourself for feeling burned from an early access game.

Same could be said for book series.
No book 6 of A Song of Ice and Fire until the HBO series is complete and cashed in on.

 

[blankname]

I bought Minecraft back when Infdev was the main mode, I guess that was spring 2010 or so. I played maybe 10 hours and then got bored, haven't given it a serious go since then. I didn't read a lot of Notch's blog to see where he wanted things to go, but it was pretty clear to me that the game's main value was that it was virtual Legos. In my opinion the survival gameplay was way undercooked, although I will never forget jumping at a "HSSSS" and getting creeped out by the zombie moans. Maybe that was all before prime time but I don't think adding new blocks and enemies would have changed much for me - the main combat / gameplay was just too simplistic.

I think it caught on precisely because of the creative mode and being able to build all kinds of cool stuff, I wouldn't fault the devs for focusing on that. Building things is the core of the experience.

Anecdotal, but I had a coworker in 2012-2013ish whose kids (5-10 age range) were hooked on Minecraft. Not sure where that fits in the timeline of "casualizing" the game though. Also there seems to be plenty of younger fans at this convention from 2011:

http://octodadgame.com/the-post-minecon-post-octodad-2-in-the-wild/

 

[Roger Wilco]

I never thought I would buy Minecraft again, but now I am seriously considering it so I can enjoy all those traced rays on my 2060 super. I'm hoping to get ~60 fps at 1080p with DLSS on. My card is overclocked and reaches similar performance to a 2070 super at stock settings. I will play survival mode primarily, which will be far less demanding than the custom maps created by Nvidia.