#33: Minecraft

Man, this entry and the last one have created an extremely dangerous block of games for me.  The mere mention of Minecraft (or Borderlands) gives me delusions of grandeur.  Unfortunately, I always fail to realize how long those delusions would take to complete.  Then, true story, I decide that I'm going to build a theater.  30ish hours of gameplay later, I'm done and wondering "when did it become Thursday?".


Minecraft has quickly become one of the most addicting video games on the planet.  Since Minecraft still isn't universally known, I'll give a brief overview.  Minecraft is a downloadable PC game, where a completely random and unique world is created before you.  Then, you do whatever the heck you want to do in that world.  There are enemies and you will die, but in the end, the game is about creating.

You'll punch a tree and create a pickaxe.  Take that pickaxe and create some stones.  Take those stones and create a fortress.  Take that fortress and surround it with a town.  All the while, you're investigating this incredibly deep world that's been created for you.

You'll dig through a cave wall and it'll open up into an underground oasis, or a legion of enemies, or a lava river.  It'll become nighttime and you'll have to battle zombies, spiders, and skeletons.  You'll take the resources you've gathered and create a roller coaster, or clothing, or weapons, or buildings, or skyways, or anything you can freaking imagine.

Greg, Leah, David, & I had a Minecraft server that ran for around 2 weeks.  In that 2 weeks, we build a lot.

• I built a water park, a tower that stretched from the bottom of the map to the top, a tree house, a golden fountain, and a theater with its very own Atlas statue on top.
• Greg created a dazzling maze of a tower that somehow connected to mine through the recesses of the earth.
• Leah created an amazing color coded house with a library, a water slide, and a dance floor.
• David made a system of rooms suspended over the town's lake that seemed disjointed from inside, but looked amazing from the top of his sand spire.

The view from above our town was terrifying.  It looked like a bunch of 2nd graders each made a diorama of where they'd like to live and then placed it together.  But it was our world, and we were proud.

The game is beautiful.  The game inspires art. (This video wasn't our town, I just wanted to show a large scale server)

Now I'll say this... there's no way to beat the game.  You play Minecraft to create things for your own enjoyment.  That's it.  There's no storyline, back story, or quests.  You're in the world of Minecraft, so you might as well create.  If you try it out, you'll probably create a lot.  I apologize in advance for all the time you'll waste on this game.

The scariest thought of all is that this game is still only in beta testing.  Imagine how great it will be when it's finished (if they ever hit that point).