Minecraft: “Don’t Knock it till You Try it!”

Minecraft is originally a stand-alone java platform game created by Notch and his team called Mojang. Now, it is in the Android, iOS and Xbox platform. It is essentially a sandbox kind of game. Sandbox games mean that you are the one creating the story, anything goes with the game. Some sandbox games still have a storyline behind it, yet the player still takes control on how they would want their game to flow.

In Minecraft, the main goal of the player is to survive and thrive in the minecraft world that was generated. Today, the game is already at its 1.4.7 version. Sandbox games are typically non-linear in nature. Today, it is so popular, Youtube has so many videos of other people playing it, making tutorials, making custom maps, PvP, etc. A lot of players also play in servers. Some of the most well-known servers in the Minecraft community right now are Mindcrack, founded by Guude Boulderfist, and Hermitcraft, founded by GenerikB.

The famous Minecraft Youtubers are now essentially famous people. Each individual are unique from each other, each with their own unique talent. For example, sethbling, JL2579, DicoTheRedstoner, docm77, GenerikB, are really good with the technical-side of the game. Some videos on Youtube show people “creating” simple computers, calculators and other devices. Creativity is really being invoked and used when playing with Minecraft. The game contains very simple elements or concepts for players to play around with. Other Youtubers are really good builders, like BdoubleO100, Keralis, Arkas, Milbee, are really good with the aesthetics side of the game. Building epic buildings and other projects are the main focus of these kinds of players.

What happens within the World of Minecraft?

Before you create a new world, you would be given choices on how you would want to generate your world. You could specify a seed, which is essentially a random number generated when creating a world. A player could actually recreate the world entirely with the seed. You can choose between 3 modes, survival, hardcore and creative. In survival, the player, as the name suggests, has to survive in the world generated, where hostile mobs, uncontrollable AI, roam around especially during night time. There is a health bar and a hunger bar. The hunger bar shows how much hunger the player has and will deplete when performing tasks like running and jumping. The health bar regenerates if the hunger bar is full, except for peaceful mode where life will regenerate even if the hunger bar is not full. A Minecraft world has 3 types of world, the overworld, the Nether and the End. The overworld is where the player spawns in and this is where most of the “surviving” takes place. The Nether is essentially “hell” for the game. This is where Zombie Pigmen and Wither Skeletons roam. A player can go there by building a 4×5 portal made of obsidian and lighting it with either a flint and steel or a fire charge. The End is where the Ender Dragon lives. It is a huge dragon and, if beaten, will give the player lots of experience points and a Dragon Egg, which can only be harvested when pushed by a piston. Endermen, aside from the Ender Dragon, are the only hostile mobs thriving in this kind of world. The player can go to the End through an End Portal which can be found in strongholds. There are only three strongholds with an End Portal in each world and to find these the player must use the Ender Eye to locate and repair the End portal. Next mode is the Hardcore mode. This mode is like survival, however life does not regenerate even if the hunger bar is full, hostile mobs hit harder and are harder to kill and if the player dies, the map is erased. In creative mode, sky is the limit. You have no health bars, experience points are unlimited and you have access to almost all of the blocks with no limit on how many blocks the player can place. The player can fly and, if cheats are on, can set the time, toggle downfall and other more commands. After picking the mode, players can change the world type. The player can choose from default, superflat and large biomes. Default is essentially the default generation of the world. Superflat can be customized on what blocks would be used but when generated it give the look, as the name suggests, a flat world. Large biomes are default generated worlds but have bigger areas. Biomes are areas in the world that have unique attributes to them (e.g. jungle biomes, dessert biomes). After that is all said and done, the player is now ready to generate the world.

Game start!

At the start players are scarce in resources and therefore very vulnerable when night comes. Players “punch” trees to get tree blocks which can be made into planks which can be created into picks, crafting table and other more. As time goes by, the player would have stored a lot more resources in his arsenal and would be able to survive better than before. Diamonds are the most valuable resource in the game. Diamond picks are the only picks that can successfully harvest obsidian. Diamond tools, weapons and armor are the most durable items in the game. Diamond swords, on its own, can inflict the most damage. There are 5 types of blocks, namely wood, stone, iron, gold and diamond, that can be crafted into tools. Gold has the least durability and diamond has the most. For armor, only leather, iron, gold and diamond can be made into 4 different kinds of armor, helmet, chest plate, leggings and boots. Swords can be made with the same materials as the tools. They all differ in durability and damage. Each tool has their own recipe in order to craft them. The same goes with the other blocks in the game. A player can also set their spawn point, in case they die, by crafting a bed and using it during night time. This also lets the player skip night time, where almost all of the hostile mobs roam about. With a lot of time and practice, you would get better and better. The cool thing about this game that it never ends. The player has the ability to smelt and enchant some items to make it better. A lot of bugs are sometimes being exploited in the game because there are times that these bugs can be beneficial to the gameplay. An example of this is a sand-duplication machine. It is a bug where “ghost” blocks are produced due to the very fast pulsing of pistons. In some versions of the game, they have fixed these bugs and sometimes they make this as a feature of the game. There are still some unfixed bugs that have been in the game for so long.

Let’s Play!

In Youtube, a lot of Youtubers now play Minecraft due to its popularity. Most call it Let’s Play. Not only that, tutorials are recorded to teach other players on how to create certain types of contraptions. A lot Youtubers right now are full-time in creating videos just because a lot of people watch them play Minecraft. Right now, the popularity of the mod-pack Feed the Beast have created so many Let’s Play series. Vanilla Minecraft is the term used for a non-modded, original game. No mods have been added while playing the game.

Conclusion

Truly, Minecraft is a growing game, becoming more popular as each day passes. Almost 8.9 million people have bought the game! This game really needs an open-minded gamer to enjoy this game, “Don’t knock it till you try it!”.