Minecraft =/= CAD (Gaming)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Wednesday, April 06, 2016, 14:49 (3156 days ago) @ Cody Miller

That could be true. It could also be true to say "it's FUN to build with LEGOs, even though things like sculpting clay and CNC milling machines exist", or "it's a challenge to build with LEGOs when things like sculpting clay and CNC milling machines exist".

And even if it is "silly", sometimes silly is fun too!

I can only conclude you don't like silly fun challenges.

I can only speak for myself, but building stuff from something like wood is more fun and more challenging than building something from Legos. Plus you can eat dinner on it.

The big part that I believe you are missing about Minecraft is that you don't spawn into an empty white room and just make stuff out of thin air. The game puts you into a fully-realized 3D world. You can quickly dig and make blocks out of stuff and start building basic things that way, but the real magic comes from a combination of exploration/resource management, survival (there are enemies that spawn at night who are a real threat until you build yourself some kind of shelter), plus the discovery that comes from figuring out the different ways that various materials interact with each other.

There's something very captivating about exploring this huge wilderness, finding a beautiful spot that makes you say "I bet I could build I really cool looking tower on top of that mountain", and then trying to figure out how to farm the resources you need to build it. So you come up with a basic idea based on the materials you have, but then as you're digging under the mountain to farm rock you fall into a giant cave with an underground lake or maybe a lava stream, and the possibilities suddenly explode because you now have access to a whole bunch of new materials you can use to create something bigger and better than what you'd originally planned.

I'm not personally in to minecraft, but you can't understate how significant this game is to kids who are in the 8-15 age bracket these days. To say "minecraft is bigger than mario" is an understatement. EVERYONE at that age plays it, talks about it, shares their creations with their friends, comes to school talking about the new locations they've discovered or creatures they ran into. It's actually become a hurdle that many game publishers are nervous about. Young kids aren't getting into videogames the way previous generations did, because it is impossible to get them to play anything other than minecraft. It is THAT big.