I’m a bit late to the game. Just like a year or so, but two weeks ago, in my unending quest to play around with new games I took some time to play with Minecraft.

Or in more graphic terms, I took my World of Warcraft Alts out back behind the barn and shot them.

People have been talking about Minecraft for a year or so. And not just about the game, but also about the developer and his interesting way of releasing the Alpha of the game, for sale.

Notch, the founder of Majong, and creator of Minecraft did some very intelligent things when deciding to release Minecraft in an unfinished state. First this allowed him to start earning revenue on his game. Money allows him to purchase support, expand servers, and pay bills while continuing development. Second, they require “checking” in to the server, so each person playing Minecraft has paid to play. Third, he gave a price point and stuck to it. Buying the game in 2010 meant you got the game forever. Content would continue to update, things would be added, but you would never have to pay for updates. It’s the MMO model, on a non-mmo game.

This also allows them to do short quick updates. It helps keep the game fresh for old players and draws in new ones.

Creation, Destruction, Exploration

Minecraft is a “sandbox” game. Meaning there are minor goals, but those are unimportant. The true goal of the game is whatever the player wants it to be. Some might even go so far as to say that this isn’t a “game” per se, since it doesn’t have goals, objectives or rewards, but rather a toy.

That doesn’t make it any less awesome.

Initially any player’s goal is to create a workbench, then create tools. Tools that are then used to get better tools, and explore better.

Minecraft is perfect design in it’s simplicity. The progression is very clear in what the player is using as their main weapon material. Wood or stone? What a nooby. Diamond and Iron? They are truly a Minecraft player.

There are various types of gamers, who all come to games for different reasons. The killer, the explorer, the socializer, the achiever… they can be broken down further, but that’s the basic ones. The killer plays Minecraft on hard, slaughtering Creepers, Zombies, Skeletons, and even cows at their leisure. They use the game to improve their killing skills. The explorer stocks up on torches and goes off into caves. The socializer finds a good multiplayer server and starts having fun. The achiever plans grand structures and huge projects.

The game appeals to creation, through building, destruction, through acquiring resources, and exploration through finding resources. As the game world is infinite and randomly generated, no two worlds are the same. And all worlds can be equally interesting.

Day One – The Beginner.

I started playing and relatively quickly picked up the concept of storing up mats, digging down, and fortifying my base. One of the big issues with the game is the presence of enemies, who will spawn, find you, and eat you (or blow up and take you with them). So I dug myself into a cave and got to working on getting all settled in. I was afraid to venture outside, for fear of creepers, so I decided to build a mine in the basement of my base.

*tink tink tink*

What was that?!? I sprint back up to the doorway leading to my base, frantically looking around. That was something. Something big. Something scary. Something that very much sounded like it would eat me and use my bones to pick it’s teeth. But I didn’t see anything. My heart racing, I slowly walked back down the steps into my mine, sword at the ready.

I told my husband about it. He said it was zombies, I should look for a cavern.

*shudder* Zombies…

6 hours later…

I now have a fairly awesome hollowed out cavern for my main base, three chests worth of dirt, sand, and cobblestone, and a very nifty pool of water. My mine is about 15 blocks deep, 30 blocks across, and 60 blocks long, and well lit. There is a nifty door leading down to my mine.

But I have very very little iron. This is a problem. I certainly haven’t seen any diamond, gold, or redstone. Digging with stone takes forever. I want to dig with Iron. I still haven’t seen a zombie or a creeper.

I pop back down into my mine and decide to cut some “test” halls. I find an underground pond, but not much else. I keep hearing the creepy sounds, but I can’t find their source. I dug in the wall toward them, but never found a cave. I shudder every time I hear it though. And slap a few more torches on the walls, desperately hoping the light will keep the evil at bay. I felt lonely, and confined.

I talked to my husband some more about it, and mentioned the creepy chime like sounds I kept hearing. He was confused. That didn’t sound like zombies. I went onto YouTube and found this. As I sent him the link I noticed off to the side a link to another video. Tutorial to find Diamonds. Now that’s what I am talking about. This of course links me to three or four other videos…

2 hours later…

I have a plan. And I have now seen the face of awesome. I have also realized I was playing on Peaceful and there were no zombies or creepers. /facepalm.

I started digging out a quarry, as the underground mining was getting to me, being so lonely. 15 x 20, all the way down to the bedrock. Of course, I ran into lava along the way, discovered a huge cave system, a ton of obsidian, and lots of other materials.

I ventured into the Nether soon after for mere moments. The soul sand, the bleeding fleshy looking netherrock, the deeply creepy music. Not only did I bail, but I also walled off the portal. I might go back later. Might.

Day 30 – *tink tink tink*

My quarry is now 30 wide, 50 long, and all the way to the bedrock I am currently extending it on the one side to be 50×50. I have over 700 obsidian. A full stack of diamonds. A rail system leading to two warehouses for all the ore. A two floor palace all made of obsidian, with art, beds, bookshelves, and even jack o lanterns. My palace has a moat, with glass bridges.

I have two glass encased wheat farms. I have two sugar cane farms. I have a cactus farm. I have a smithy, for quick smelting.

But most of all, I have a monster trap. 30 wide, 2 tall, 70 long, with water forcing all the nasties into a wicked lava blade. I just stand in a spot while at work and let the loot roll in.

And I haven’t even begun to explore my world or really begin to build. I haven’t played Multiplayer. There is a ton I haven’t done. The game is as big as your imagination.

Now, some might comment on the low fidelity. Minecraft definitely rocks the pixel art. But in reality, the low fidelity is part of what allows the game to be as interesting and as creative as it is. It didn’t take me long to get used to it, even to the point that when I fell in lava and died, not only did I shed a tear for my diamond armor, but also felt fear and shock. When I edge along great heights, I can *feel* my heart beat faster and my stomach clench for fear of falling. It doesn’t matter that I play in peaceful, the sounds of a dark cave sends chills down my spine and makes me check the area around me. The dark still scares me.

Minecraft is a wonderful game. Not only because it proves that indie games can become blockbusters, but also because it’s just a great game at heart. I look forward to where they go from here and the release launch in November.