Why is minecraft so appealing?

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cronos

Diamond Member
Nov 7, 2001
9,380
26
101
For those of you who love playing, how did you start? I mean, I tried several times, I ran the game and I was out there, walking around, I found that I could destroy stuff, stack things around, and that's it, I don't know what else to do anymore.

And I like building stuff, too. I loved playing with legos and still do. When we visited Legoland with my son and his friends, I spent hours building all kinds of things, long after the kids got bored and run off to the playground. But whenever I tried firing up Minecraft, I never seemed to 'get' it. The confusing interface is also not helping, I think.

This game may just not be for me, and I'm okay with that. I am still curious though, as a new player, what did you do in the beginning that make you want to come back and keep playing?
 

Jodell88

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2007
8,762
30
91
For those of you who love playing, how did you start? I mean, I tried several times, I ran the game and I was out there, walking around, I found that I could destroy stuff, stack things around, and that's it, I don't know what else to do anymore.

And I like building stuff, too. I loved playing with legos and still do. When we visited Legoland with my son and his friends, I spent hours building all kinds of things, long after the kids got bored and run off to the playground. But whenever I tried firing up Minecraft, I never seemed to 'get' it. The confusing interface is also not helping, I think.

This game may just not be for me, and I'm okay with that. I am still curious though, as a new player, what did you do in the beginning that make you want to come back and keep playing?
I found mods pretty quickly after I started and never looked back.
 

Possessed Freak

Diamond Member
Nov 4, 1999
6,045
1
0
If I wanted to play with lego, I would bust out lego. I have no reason to play digital lego. This game does not appeal to me, but I understand it does appeal to others.
 

TheVrolok

Lifer
Dec 11, 2000
24,254
4,092
136
Yep. Those were created by simple minded people. So it takes a complex mind to organize blocks? Damn then my mind has far surpassed everyone on this planet.

You obviously have no idea what's actually happening in the video. Minecraft is significantly more complicated than "legos" if one chooses to look deeper.
 

StinkyPinky

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2002
6,977
1,276
126
My 7 year old loves it. At the moment he's playing some pixelmon mod or whatever it is.

I hate it myself.

The guy that made the game....didn't he sell it for billions and then move to LA and buy some gigantic mansion and now just sits on his ass all day goofing off? I'm jealous.
 
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Scooby Doo

Golden Member
Sep 1, 2006
1,034
18
81
Hmmm for those that say it's for the simple-minded, they are the simple minded. It doesn't have a storyline to follow, you make it in your own head.
 

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
14,640
3,009
136
....
walked into lava yesterday. like a moron.

i was playing hardcore IndustrialCraft 2 (experiemental), had a whole bunch of machines, a huge stack of crushed diamonds and carbon plates, was *just about* to make me a nanosuit. maybe 15 hours of work. i just needed 2 more diamonds.

shit.
 

OCNewbie

Diamond Member
Jul 18, 2000
7,596
25
81
Some of the things I enjoy about Minecraft: the music, exploration, discovery, variety, inspiration, creativity, risk, excitement, reward, longevity. All that from the vanilla game. Throw in mods and you have even more variations of all those things.

I've been playing Minecraft, off and on, since sometime in 2011. I'll get bored with it eventually, and transfer my interest to another game, but I always get the urge to play it again. I really enjoy getting lost in a world, and even just the mundane things like digging that first hole down to diamond level, strip mining, etc. It's cathartic I suppose. Minecraft is great fun when you have a vision of something you really want to build, but less fun when you're just gathering materials for no particular reason.
 

OCNewbie

Diamond Member
Jul 18, 2000
7,596
25
81
But sandbox games with no story or objective aren't really my thing.

You create the objective (I guess that's what most sandbox games are). You're not told what to do, you're given a blank slate and the freedom to do whatever you want. If you possessed the knowledge of all the available blocks, and all the available items in the game (and what they do), and understood how they interacted with each other, perhaps the wheels in the ol' noggin would start turning and you'd get an idea of something you'd want to create, from scratch, that was your own. Not a paint-by-numbers kinda thing, but a truly unique creation, all your own.

Honestly, before playing Minecraft for the first time, hearing that description probably wouldn't have interested me much, but that was before I learned about all the various items in the game, and that alone got my hamster wheels spinning. Once you get an idea of something that would be fun and/or challenging to build, that's when the game becomes really enjoyable (for me, at least).

Edit - just read the rest of your post that I quoted above:

When I was a kid, I loved Legos. I liked following the instructions and building the kit to perfection....just like it looked on the box. I was never one to experiment and create something outside of specs.....

I'd like to think that everyone has some sort of creative side to them. I'm no artist, or anything like that, but I've enjoyed the freedom to be creative in Minecraft. Maybe you would to (though perhaps you just would never enjoy it).
 
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Elixer

Lifer
May 7, 2002
10,371
762
126
For what it is worth, I got the mobile version of minecraft, and it just was too...boring.
I then deleted it off the device.

No idea why some people like it so much, nor how it was worth billions to MS to buy it.
 

OCNewbie

Diamond Member
Jul 18, 2000
7,596
25
81
It didn't save jack shit. The game is bad and its for those who are simple minded.

Yeah, for the simple-minded ones who need to be told where to go, when to do something, and how to do it, etc. Minecraft lets you chose... what simple minds we have making our own choices.
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,784
6,343
126
For what it is worth, I got the mobile version of minecraft, and it just was too...boring.
I then deleted it off the device.

No idea why some people like it so much, nor how it was worth billions to MS to buy it.

The PC version has much more in the standard game than the XBox or Mobile versions. Then there are the Mods as well.
 

werepossum

Elite Member
Jul 10, 2006
29,873
463
126
If I fire up the PC I'm going to play something better, but honestly on the iPad it's the only game I've played that doesn't either bore me to tears or frustrate me to rage. I began playing it because my grandson wanted me to play it with him, but I'm fairly fond of it now.
 

BurnItDwn

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
26,353
1,862
126
Do you play Dwarf Fortress? What do you like about Dwarf Fortress?

Imagine Dwarf Fortress with 1% the learning curve, multiple players, you can play with your kids or kid cousins, or whatever..
 

thehotsung8701A

Senior member
May 18, 2015
584
1
0
lol? :thumbsdown:

i would give you my opinion on why i think it is a very relaxing, enjoyable, creative game, but i'm a girl, so ...

I didn't mean to offend any girl. What I was trying to say is that most girls are better at these games then me. Girls are very creative.

I seen guys like myself play each Sims franchise. We never bother with story or bios whereas I have seen girls play these games and they are so creative.
 

Blanky

Platinum Member
Oct 18, 2014
2,457
12
46
One of the best Video Games ever made. It is whatever you want it to be.

It isn't, though. I want it to be a game with great graphics, story, and violence. It's none of that.

I've tried to play it a couple of times and just can't. It does absolutely nothing for me at all. It's probably a good game for kids and I'd rather seem them play games that I like to play (graphics, story, violence).
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
Man there are some self absorbed narrow minded asshats on these forums.

This coming from someone who's never even played Minecraft and even I 'get it'.
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,784
6,343
126
It isn't, though. I want it to be a game with great graphics, story, and violence. It's none of that.

I've tried to play it a couple of times and just can't. It does absolutely nothing for me at all. It's probably a good game for kids and I'd rather seem them play games that I like to play (graphics, story, violence).

ok
 

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
14,640
3,009
136
It isn't, though. I want it to be a game with great graphics, story, and violence. It's none of that.

I've tried to play it a couple of times and just can't. It does absolutely nothing for me at all. It's probably a good game for kids and I'd rather seem them play games that I like to play (graphics, story, violence).

minecraft has changed since the first design; the idea of gameplay was that you needed to survive.

You can still get a sense of what that was like up to 1.7, while with 1.8 they made it too easy.

in the early stages, you HAD to play through one cycle of day (all happy and flowers and shit) and one cycle of night (guaranteed death).

also, mobs were more aggressive. since death meant often losing all your items, you would spend the day cycle trying to make sure you would not die during the night cycle, so, building fortifications and traps and such.

Also, it was fun in itself to design these defenses.

After this, they made the mobs more cautious, made them deal less damage, made food / healing easier, added beds that skip the night cycle (wtf ..), and in general veered more towards the creative aspect of MC.

Creative in itself is like a mod, it just allows you to build 3d models of whatever you want, with oversized blocks and pretty colors. Not my thing, but apparently people love it.


Lets talk mods.

Mods are an integral part of the game, just like modules were an integral part of NWN - not just "something really good, but outside of the game", but rather "the reason why you own the game".

If you think about it, MC is "a very simple 3d engine, where the aim is to be able to interact with EVERYTHING". There are no backdrops in MC, no invisible walls.
Now add mods, which make the engine do whatever you want it to.

For example, there is Better Than Wolves and TerrafirmaCraft, two stone age mods which really stress the survival aspect - you wake up naked on a beach, good luck.

You will need to build up a way to survive and thrive starting from nothing, and it can be arduous. The interaction with the environment is much more realistic - instead of punching trees, you need to knapp flint, there's cave-ins, exposure, malnutrition; it's far deadlier and a completely different experience than vanilla.

Or you can try IndustrialCraft, which is closer to vanilla, with more natural resources (more metals, resin trees, oil, and so forth), more complex recipes, and machines. Building machines is totally not easy, they take a shitload of resources, time, and tons of other components.

while vanilla MC might just require a small hut, a bed and a tiny patch of wheat farming, IC2 requires rubber farms, windmills, stripmines, water pumps, oil pumps, cables, generators, lava harvesting ..
in the end you are paid with jetpacks, nanosuits, mining lasers, nuclear bombs and reactors, and more.
 

werepossum

Elite Member
Jul 10, 2006
29,873
463
126
minecraft has changed since the first design; the idea of gameplay was that you needed to survive.

You can still get a sense of what that was like up to 1.7, while with 1.8 they made it too easy.

in the early stages, you HAD to play through one cycle of day (all happy and flowers and shit) and one cycle of night (guaranteed death).

also, mobs were more aggressive. since death meant often losing all your items, you would spend the day cycle trying to make sure you would not die during the night cycle, so, building fortifications and traps and such.

Also, it was fun in itself to design these defenses.

After this, they made the mobs more cautious, made them deal less damage, made food / healing easier, added beds that skip the night cycle (wtf ..), and in general veered more towards the creative aspect of MC.

Creative in itself is like a mod, it just allows you to build 3d models of whatever you want, with oversized blocks and pretty colors. Not my thing, but apparently people love it.


Lets talk mods.

Mods are an integral part of the game, just like modules were an integral part of NWN - not just "something really good, but outside of the game", but rather "the reason why you own the game".

If you think about it, MC is "a very simple 3d engine, where the aim is to be able to interact with EVERYTHING". There are no backdrops in MC, no invisible walls.
Now add mods, which make the engine do whatever you want it to.

For example, there is Better Than Wolves and TerrafirmaCraft, two stone age mods which really stress the survival aspect - you wake up naked on a beach, good luck.

You will need to build up a way to survive and thrive starting from nothing, and it can be arduous. The interaction with the environment is much more realistic - instead of punching trees, you need to knapp flint, there's cave-ins, exposure, malnutrition; it's far deadlier and a completely different experience than vanilla.

Or you can try IndustrialCraft, which is closer to vanilla, with more natural resources (more metals, resin trees, oil, and so forth), more complex recipes, and machines. Building machines is totally not easy, they take a shitload of resources, time, and tons of other components.

while vanilla MC might just require a small hut, a bed and a tiny patch of wheat farming, IC2 requires rubber farms, windmills, stripmines, water pumps, oil pumps, cables, generators, lava harvesting ..
in the end you are paid with jetpacks, nanosuits, mining lasers, nuclear bombs and reactors, and more.
If I wake up naked on a beach then I'm spending the day waving my virtual weiner at passersby. That's like a sign from G-d.

In most environs it isn't that hard to survive the first night. Either wall yourself in, or run all night. Both are boring, mining in the dark almost as much as running, but running sometimes lands me in lava. Ouch.