Minecraft Discussion

By Shamus Posted Monday Feb 13, 2012

Filed under: Notices 140 comments

So, I’ve created an official page for people looking to join the Twentymine server. Comments are closed there, so if you have any feedback on that page (or if my primate thumping on the keyboard has resulted in typographical mishaps) then please leave your feedback below.

I’m also a bit curious as to how many people play the game these days. Minecraft is so popular that it’s accepted that “everyone” plays it, but of course we’re really only talking about a few million sales. So how about you: Did you play the game? Still play? Multiplayer? Single? If you quit, when did you lose interest? Has anyone beaten the game in survival mode?

I’m still a fan of single-player for survival and multi-player for grandiose constructions. I play less than I used to, but the game still has quite a bit of charm.

 


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140 thoughts on “Minecraft Discussion

  1. latexink says:

    Hey all, I’m one of the mods/admins and I thought I would address some things that have been brought up all in one shot. If I miss anything, which I’m pretty sure I will, ask away or hit me up on IRC whenever.

    On the creative server, we set up a guest area that *anyone* can come build in so they have something to do whilst waiting for us to get to know you. If it’s Good , we’ll move it out for you into your own area if you want.

    Mining is also moot on creative as we (Peter200lx) have made a custom plugin so that all you have to do is right-click a block with the stone axe to get a stack of whatever it is. You can also just ‘/more -a’ to expand all your items to a full stack or set up a palette to work from at your project. We have big plans for this plugin and I am studying java in my free time strictly to contribute asap. It is on GitHub if anyone is interested.

    Once becoming an established member that we know and trust, you’ll get a blue name (Evip) and you can ask that a region be set aside for you to own, and you can add members to it that you know without having to have them wait around for build privileges and all that… We figure if you trust them with your build, why shouldn’t they help you in your area?

    If you want to mine your stuff and are more interested in survivaly things, you can apply for whitelisting on the forums and we will most likely let you on if you are civil and can communicate/listen properly and we at least have a good idea of what you are like. There are rules about stealing and pvp and stuff that we ask you follow and just want to make sure everyone has a good time. There are a few plugins on there as well, the biggest being that you get XP for mining and not strictly killing mobs. There are others, but you’ll have to come see for yourself :p

    Also, I plan on adding an adventure world to the survival server soon if I can set it up to meet our needs, probably starting with a Vechs super-hostile map so people can work together as a group towards a common goal and we can rotate maps when they get completed. Me and Vipermagi had great fun starting on one, but alas.. his interest has waned as of late.

    One of the big draws of multiplayer is the other people you get to know… I’ve met some great people on the server and am at least lurking in IRC nearly every waking moment. If you say ‘latex’ and I’m around, I’ll answer any questions you have.

    1. Maxie Zeus says:

      Twentymine is the only server I’ve even been tempted to visit, and this post finally broke down my reserve.

      Alas, apparently I’m too incompetent to join a server. My best effort at following Shamus’s instructions only results in an “Outdated server!” message in Minecraft.

      I’d appreciate any help.

      1. latexink says:

        If you hit options in your launcher and click ‘force update’ and login, you will get the proper version to log into the servers with. We don’t run the weekly dev snapshots because bukkit doesn’t support them, and I’m guessing that’s what you are using.

        1. Maxie Zeus says:

          Shoulda thought of that. Thanks!

  2. *Blah* says:

    I used to play minecraft, but I’ve given up video games. *sob*

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      You mean you used to play minecraft,but then got real life in the knee.

      1. Dragomok says:

        Last time I did similarly run-down video game reference three years, not three months, after the game’s release, as a reply to a non-serious topic with no serious replies, people got mad at me.

        Just saying.

        1. krellen says:

          I didn’t get mad at you. I just pointed out the errancy of the meme.

        2. Yar Kramer says:

          Yeah … like fraudulent pastry, “arrow to the knee” is a joke, to paraphrase Stolen Pixels, whose fifteen minutes of fame ended about 14 minutes after Skyrim came out.

          1. GiantRaven says:

            I never got the whole ‘Arrow to the knee’ joke. It was always way funnier to here the guards say ‘No lollygagging’.

            Heh…lollygagging…

            1. Nick says:

              It ridiculous that every single guard was taken out of adventuring by taking arrows to the knee. Therein lies the humour.

              1. GM says:

                well if the arrow to the knee gets translated it means they got married :)

                is that funnier?

                1. generalghoul says:

                  That would be an arrow to the balls.

  3. UtopiaV1 says:

    I still haven’t bought it yet. Is it really all that good? I’ve seen other people play it, and sure the building seems fun and constructive, but I just cannot get past the poor graphics. Call me a snob, or shallow, but those blocky shapes just don’t do anything for me.

    I’m glad it’s doing so well, but just not my cup of tea. Unless there is a pretty major graphical-improvment mod out there, that maybe utilises DX11 and 3.0 shaders? Then I might consider getting it, just because everyone else I know has it!

    1. Vegedus says:

      There are high resolution texture packs. While the game is still blocky (that’s a pretty fundamental part of the game after all), it’s no longer “pixely”, which was my biggest gripe with the graphics. I personally think the textures in the game are butt ugly, while the blockyness is simply an aesthetic and practical choice.

      Regardless, I’ve heard others say the same thing as you, that still ended up playing and enjoying the game immensely, the graphics included. You have to get a bit into it to understand why it looks like , and the subtle beauty of it. Minecraft doesn’t look like it does because the developer couldn’t be bothered to make proper graphics, which I think is what most people assume.

      1. Dragomok says:

        Not to mention that there is at least one water reflections mod and at least one advanced shadows mod at Minecraft Forum that make the game look even better.

      2. SlowShootinPete says:

        “Minecraft doesn't look like it does because the developer couldn't be bothered to make proper graphics, which I think is what most people assume.”

        I’ve read that for the longest time people complained that the cobblestone texture was hideously ugly, and Notch didn’t do anything about it for ages.

    2. Paul Spooner says:

      (Note: The following is one man’s experience. Subsequent qualifiers omitted for brevity and clarity.)
      The blocky graphics actually deepen immersion. Your brain analyzes things based on their appearance, and the blocks tell your brain “Don’t take this too seriously”. However, this means that it’s incredibly difficult to break the immersion. Your brain accepts certain (simplified) rules for how the world behaves, and then you are able to enjoy it on that level. The creatures are blocky. The world is blocky. The weapons are blocky. The interface is blocky. It all works together to set the tone.

      Let’s imagine for a moment that Minecraft looked like Skyrim. That would actually be SO MUCH WORSE! The world would LOOK a lot like the real world, but it wouldn’t BEHAVE like the real world. When anything non-real happened, your brain would go “huh, that’s odd” and immersion would be ruined. As it is, you can totally trust the world of Minecraft to be exactly what it looks like; It is a simple sandbox full of player agency.

    3. Neko says:

      DirectX11 is not going to help the game, primarily because the 11th revision is just an API and doesn’t actually have magical game-enhancing sauce (contrary to popular opinion) but also because Minecraft uses OpenGL.

      There are mods that enable high resolution texture packs and OpenGL shader mods that can do various things to beautify the game – there’s a translucent water mod, for example. Personally, the graphics don’t bother me that much, it’s part of the retro charm – it could stand to have better animations though.

  4. Tobias says:

    I started playing in Fall 2010.
    Was a bit addicted for around half a year. But I played only Singleplayer.
    Then I set up a server for my friends, we played for a few months. Then we became bored.
    I don’t think, I have even started the game since before it got to 1.0.

  5. Primogenitor says:

    DX11 & 3.0 shaded cubes? I don’t think that will fit your taste if your main criticism of the style is “too blocky”.

    (that is a valid criticism BTW, just pointing out that improved tech wont solve a stylistic design choice)

    {blah, this was supposed to be a reply to a comment above}

    1. UtopiaV1 says:

      Who says I was talking about the cuboid shapes? No, I meant the 8-bit texturing on them, and the complete lack of any detailed volumetric lighting or shadowing system.

      And also the cuboid shapes, but that’s a style choice, and like you said, would undermine the whole game if someone managed to change them. I don’t know why, I just want this game to tax my gpu. And be fun! (so it’s half way there really)

      1. Vegedus says:

        Oh, hey, guess who just posted on your original comment about high-res textures!

      2. Dys says:

        Most of that can indeed be modded. The mod community for minecraft is absurdly extensive.

  6. Andrew B says:

    I’d like to be the sort of person that plays Minecraft. I can understand the appeal – creating your own worlds from random starting points, massive creative constructions and sweeping vistas – but I also know that it’s exactly the sort of thing I’m TERRIBLE at. I know that I’d spend two days creating something that, in my head, looks like the love child of Gieger and a medieval castle, but which turns out to be a poorly proportioned grey blob. So there’s no point. Which is a pity, because I know I’d love it if I could do it, but that I would hate it because I suck badly when it comes to visual creativity. Ahh well. Maybe the next big indie hit will be Wordcraft.

    1. Bubble181 says:

      All this.

    2. Nick says:

      Yeah, pretty much this. I’m very appreciative of those people who put up cool pictures though. Plus my limited time for games really can’t take open-ended stuff, which is why I tend to shy away from open-world games in general

  7. MadTinkerer says:

    Does my brother playing on my Minecraft account count? Because in that case “I” play online every day. Meanwhile I actually have a few single-player worlds I can’t bear to choose between. Problem is, I know I’m going to abandon them eventually when the NPC AI gets good enough, but it’s like walking through a low-res version of a landscape painting. Each world is pure beauty in all directions…

    Except the surprisingly addicting Survival Skyblock. Who knew a “canvas” of 99.9% pure empty space in which you essentially build everything by using duplication exploits (which, granted, are a deliberate part of the game) could be so addicting? The only downside is being cut off from iron and redstone, but there’s still a ton you can do with just cobble, wood, an infinite water supply, one bucket, and 31 blocks of dirt.

    And screw online multiplayer because then other people will mess up my beautiful landscapes and massive construction projects. Eventually, I’ll get my private server back up for my pals, though.

    1. Dys says:

      Nobody will mess up your stuff on Twentymine. Even if they did, the mods would be able to revert it. You don’t get to own the whole world though, so…

  8. Master Jedi says:

    I still play it. Even though Ive been playing since the alpha version it’s still fun for me. Its relaxing to just build thing for a while on peaceful difficulty after work.

    1. Mari says:

      Yep, that’s me. I’m addicted to unwinding on peaceful (not creative). I like having to work and mine for what I use but I get annoyed when I’m confronted with monsters while doing that. So peaceful is perfect for me.

      Mostly I enjoy the exploration and material gathering portions of the game. I build but nothing impressive enough to share on the TwentyMine server. Basically I have worlds that are dotted with strings of “bases” and “compounds.” I start at spawn, build up a really nice settlement and when I finish that one I explore and start again at the first picturesque spot I find. My builds mostly attempt to take advantage of the beauty of the area I’m in and employ great variety. I’ve got a “home” near the shoreline that has an underwater glass room, complete with airlock, for watching the squids swim. I’ve got another that’s nestled in an “alcove” of a mountain range that I built up with plants and water features to make it virtually invisible. I’ve got homes built into cave systems and tree houses in the middle of forests. None of them are “amazing” like the stuff on TwentyMine but I’ve had fun making them.

  9. I keep using an incompatible version and never getting a chance to sign on, but I quite enjoy the server.

    Personally I tend to play single player creative and build entire villages and replicas of Homestuck architecture when I get bored.

  10. GM says:

    Can´t play ,forgot my password heh and my saves are beyond me currently.

  11. Airsoft says:

    Only on Twentymine, And then, only when my friends are also playing.

  12. 4th Dimension says:

    I used to play Minecraft, but at one point I kind of got bored. But than I installed Industrial Craft mod and it rekindled my Minecraft desire, but I realized I’m addicted to it, and stopped.

    Also I got anoyed by stupidity of those unerground mines game randomly generates.

  13. Sydney says:

    I’ve never touched it. Maybe I’m making assumptions and depriving myself – I skipped Fallout 3 for years because I thought I was “no good at shooters” – but I’ve never enjoyed games without concrete victory conditions. I spent a few weeks on Dwarf Fortress before I realized that “playing not to lose yet” has less appeal to me than “playing to win, and here’s how you win”.

    I suspect the powergamer in me would just dig herself a little one-tile cave and sit in it every night, impervious, and then…well, I guess stay sitting in it during the daytime too for lack of anything else to do.

    1. MrPyro says:

      Yeah, I think I’m like this as well. I’m just not very good at setting myself targets, so I’d like the game to define my objectives for me: otherwise it’s just too open-ended.

      Also, I’m a sucker for story in a game; that’s what tends to keep me coming back to a game. Anything more free-form than a 4X game (where there’s enough framework to hang my own mental story off) and I just get bored and stop.

  14. Vegedus says:

    I play on and off and has pretty much since I bought it a year ago. When I make a new world, I get excited and often end up playing for days straight. Then my interest rapidly wane and my big building projects end up half-finished. Then a new patch or a new mod comes along and I start all over again.

    I think my thing is that only really survival interests me that much. And only the actual survival aspect. Once I actually have plenty of hard earned resources and is pretty much completely safe from monsters, I lose interest. I am a creative person and have creative urges, but still, I can’t seem to fixate on building for the sake of building. I’ve still yet to complete a project that would take longer than two days to make. It’s still the “gamey” aspects of Minecraft that I fixate on the most.

    The intervals between these resurgences in interest in the game has become longer, and if interesting patches stop coming out (and I was quite dissapointed with the 1.0 one), I’ll probably also stop playing.

  15. noahpocalypse says:

    I used to play Minecraft, but then a creeper blew up my knee.

  16. modus0 says:

    Started playing in Fall 2010, and still play. I’ve even got a world that I started before the Nether and biomes update that I still do a lot in.

    I’ve even visited TwentyMine a few times, just to look around. Other than that I’m strictly Singleplayer.

    As for beating it, I made it a goal to do so after the official release, and as a result of dying 3 times I ended up fighting four Enderdragons.

    That was a challenge.

  17. Tse says:

    I used to play minecraft but then I realized I can do much more in AutoCad/Revit/ArchiCad/3DSMax.

  18. RichVR says:

    I gave up on it when I built a new computer. I kept meaning to transfer it over from the old one and just never got to it. It’s not on my to-play list anymore. SW:TOR, Skyrim, JA:BIA… Who has time these days?

  19. Daemian Lucifer says:

    I was never entertained much by these types of games,so I skipped minecraft.Though I do enjoy watching some of the things others have built.

  20. Stranger says:

    Started playing with version 1.7.3 . . . not sure what the date was. I immediately started a single player game, and kept with it until the 1.8 update. During that time I did a lot of things and got sidetracked by Obsidian mining.

    Once 1.8 came, I spent more time trying to find what the new content was like and putting more effort into “testing” it. I got onto a friend’s server and moderated it for a time making a much nicer tower than my first game. On a single-player creative I built a sprawling city of sorts based off the NPC village templates.

    Then recently I went back to find that Snow was turned on again and I accidentally built the whole city in the midst of it. Waterways turned into icy blocked paths, and the massive lakefront became wood piers out into a huge icy patch.

    I sort of gave up after that, though I poke at it now and again.

  21. X2Eliah says:

    Didn’t play it.. In terms of sandbox, I’m much more of a space-flight-sim fella, and for fantasy-monsters-setting, I prefer visually pleasing worlds (therefore.. skyrim, oblivion, and the like). Minecraft – I understand it’s premise and attraction, but it just doesn’t mesh with me.

    Besides, if/when I want to “build” something, I rather fire up my student-edition 3DS Max.

  22. Conlaen says:

    I played it for quite some time. I basically stopped playing because I’d run out of inspiration for things to build. I’d been on a bit of an aquatic themed binge, building a house on poled over the water, a ship and a lighthouse. But then I didn’t have any inspiration and kinda stopped playing. I tried to get back for a while, but it just didn’t really come back to me. Also tried single player but the building was what appealed to me most and not being able to show off my constructs to friends just quickly killed single player for me.

    Might get back to it again when I get some inspiration to build something. Though probably not on a server like twentymine, cause I’d just feel inadequate with all the beautiful things people have built there all around my probably very lame little structures.

  23. Sleeping Dragon says:

    Been playing since alpha though with varying degrees of intensity. Usually I’ll get into some projects, spend entire days in minecraft for a week or two then I’ll drop to several hours a day and, like now, several hours a week. Then I’ll see some awesome MC video or an interesting feature in an update and get back to it.

    I actively play on a private server set up by some friends, toy a bit with Industrial Craft in single and since I’m experiencing some fatigue with those modes I’m sort of considering looking for another interesting server and/or a mod that would give me purpose to play again. I’ll probably stop playing altogether for a few weeks soon until my interest peaks again.

  24. Adam P says:

    Minecraft is the kind of game that was fun for the strangest reasons. I enjoy finding caves and tapping their resources. I enjoy crafting and constructing. But that’s just single player. I don’t care for the mobs, because they don’t really do anything. They’re more annoying than anything. Playing on peaceful is too boring, though. There is a certain thrill to finding a cave that’s populated with skeletons, spiders, and zombies. There’s a strange compulsion to clear the cave out without risking all of my accumulated resources. But that’s as far as I’ll take Minecraft: caves, skeletons, spiders, and zombies.

    Endermen, slimes, dragons, wolves, cats, and creepers don’t really add anything to the game. Creepers are certainly iconic, but there is nothing pleasant to be said about a “screw you and the time you put into this game. NOW DO IT AGAIN.” Wolves can be tamed, but they’re more obtrusive than they are helpful. I haven’t even seen a naturally occuring slime. Fighting dragons is more tedium than it is fun; the Big Bad of the game that was supposed to be so hard, yet when you go in with diamond armor (unenchanted!) and health potions, you need to do little more than whittle it’s health down with arrows. Endermen don’t really do anything of note.

    I hear that Zombies will be able to break wooden doors in an upcoming patch. That’s good, I suppose. It’s too easy to get comfortable in our massive fortresses. But very little since beta 1.4 (wolves) has really added anything of value to the game. There were the pistons in beta 1.7, but their utility is minimal. Impressive mechanisms can be built with them, but getting a piston to work properly and look good? There’s a hard choice between function and aesthetic with pistons. There are strongholds and ravines and abandoned mines. The Nether has fortresses! But these don’t address the actual problems with the game…

    The world is empty. The world exists solely for the player. The world, by it’s nature, reacts to the player but there is nothing for the player to react to. The interactions are few and minimal. Consider the villagers and other mobs in the game.

    Villagers are meaningless. They stand around in their crap-shacks. They have no purpose other than to give the illusion that the world is populated. It’s not! Those aren’t villagers! They don’t do anything! They’re bland mobs that don’t attack the player.

    You’ll see villages in the middle of nowhere. How do these villagers survive? Why are they here? How did they get here? These are questions that don’t matter because the world generator doesn’t look at where a village could logically exist, it just plops one down. You’ll find strongholds in the middle of nowhere without any visible entrance and mazes of rooms that serve no purpose; again, there isn’t any logical reason for these strongholds to exist, so they’re just plopped into the world. The same thing goes for the abandoned mines, which rarely ever connect logically to the rest of the world; how did anyone get any mining done if there isn’t any way to get into the mine?

    Hostile mobs don’t matter because there aren’t any paradigms for their existence. If it’s dark enough and there is space, then spawn a mob. Otherwise, they just spawn any where. Sure, slimes can be found only below a certain depth in uncertain chunks, and ghasts/blazes/magma slime can be found only in the Nether, but that’s really not enough. The problem isn’t that there aren’t enough mobs, the problem is that there is no order.

    The illusion before B1.4 was that we are strangers in a strange and hostile world of caves and hills. The caves are there because they are caves. They do not exist for the player to discover, they simply exist. The skeletons and zombies populate the caves because caves are dark and sunlight hurts them. The mechanics came together in a way that made sense and sold the illusion that Minecraft was a world (albeit a simplistic one) instead of a digital playground.

    There are many things in the world, but the world is still empty because nothing has purpose. Survival singleplayer is solipsism taken to the extreme.

    Then you join a multiplayer server and find that it’s all Creative mode. Can’t have creepers because they’ll destroy the precious creations””it’s funny that the one time creepers add value to the game world, they’re either disabled or nerfed! There is rarely any communal building, because everyone wants their own thing. Everyone wants to be the next Michelangelo.

    There is no concept of ownership without server mods/plugins, so everything is on very stringent honor rules; really, I’m just talking about locks on doors. There is no theft, no breaking and entering, as doing so will get you kicked from the server due to “griefing”””and the mods and admins will know who stole what or “destroyed” someone’s house because they have a plugin to track that.

    But it doesn’t matter because mobs do not pose a threat on multiplayer servers. They do not siege the buildings. They do not create or divide communities, because everyone shares the same spawn point (until they sleep in a bed). There is no reason to gather together because mobs do not pose a threat to groups of players.

    In short (because I want breakfast), multiplayer doesn’t matter because survival is not the objective. The objective in MP is to build the biggest things and turn the server into a public gallery.

    Naturally, I haven’t played Minecraft in several months. I’m looking forward to seeing what wollay does with Cube World, though. If anything, it certainly has a far more vibrant color palette than Minecraft does.

    1. ps238principal says:

      While one could hand-wave the Strongholds and abandoned mines by saying “these are ruins from long ago, the place they were built on was abandoned, had cave-ins, etc. which is why they’re cut off and aren’t supported by other obvious infrastructure,” I’ll agree with you about the world needing to be not so player-centric.

      It does become kind of weird to play knowing that YOU are what makes things spawn, grow, change, and so forth, just by you being present wherever said growth/change is taking place. Conversely, knowing that my chicken farm and wheat crops aren’t moving along unless I’m nearby just reinforces the whole “Truman Show” aspect of the way Minecraft’s world works. It’s kind of an ultimate quantum physics metaphor: If I’m not there to even tangentally observe something happening, it won’t happen.

      Maybe Notch can make some kind of mod that accelerates time for places you re-enter or some other method of letting places where you aren’t present evolve without you there.

  25. Amazon_warrior says:

    I never did try Minecraft, but I’ve had obscene amounts of fun playing its 2D cousin, Terraria. Both as a multi-player with a friend and as a single-player game, it never ceases to impress me. I even got my sister hooked on it. :D

    1. Jeff says:

      I haven’t touched Minecraft, but I’ve played a fair amount of Terraria as well.

    2. Michael says:

      I played Minecraft for all of about 1 day when they were having a free weekend or something on their site, I forget the details. Then I found Terraria, and at least according to steam sunk over 100 hours in the damn thing while trying to be productive…

      The weird thing that always irked me with Minecraft is that the cubes are too big, something Terraria actually fixed for me. The player is 2x1x1 in Minecraft, while in Terraria they’re 3×2.

      1. Amazon_warrior says:

        Steam says I’ve logged 134 hours playing Terraria! In my defence, that includes the day I just left it running so my friend could log in and play in our shared world while I was at work, and also the time my sister played on it before I bought her her own copy, but yeah… XD

        I think I see what you mean about the proportions, too. I’ve only experienced Minecraft as Youtube vids, but everything in it looks sort of squat. Terraria never feels like that to me.

        1. Nidokoenig says:

          Never played Minecraft, because I knew given the amount of time I pour into Dwarf Fortress it would eat my life. So I waited until Terraria went on sale and bought that. 364 hours in Terraria for me. You guys are small time ;) I never seem to build anything “sensible”, though, it’s always bizarre buildings made out of various circles and curves using the oddest materials I can find, like obsidian or cobalt brick. My current project is a floating fortress lit by mushroom grass. The amount of dynamite required to lower the ground enough to do that was crazy.

          I’ve been considering getting Minecraft, recently, though, because there’s a My Little Pony mod, and being able to fly around as a pegasus is strangely appealing. Found out about that when I was asked to do an interview about my MLP mod for Dwarf Fortress.

          1. Amazon_warrior says:

            Heh, not going to get into a “who’s played mo’ Terraria” argument! :)

            Sensible? What’s that then? I built a glass-and-silver-and-iridescent-brick “beach hut”. My friend tells me it looks like the illegitimate offspring of Brighton Pier and a Kew Gardens greenhouse. :p I also want to do something insane and OTT with copper bricks. Mmmm, copper…… Love the idea of a floating fortress, too, that sounds awesome! :D

            I’m rather curious about Dwarf Fortress, but I generally only have enough focus at any given time for one horribly addictive game.

            1. SolkaTruesilver says:

              Dwarf Fortress is worth taking up, only for the depth of gameplay available, which is ages beyond what Minecraft or Terraria has to offer.

              On the other, take care it doesn’t have a difficulty curve. It has a difficulty Cliff of Insanity

  26. Piflik says:

    Never played it and never really understood the appeal…the first time someone showed me the game, I thought it was some ten year old game…I find it extremely ugly…not bad graphics, but ugly…missing aesthetics…

    I do like Terraria, though…

  27. Uscias says:

    I mostly play minecraft on singleplayer to build whatever great, big project has popped into my head that week. I’m not terribly artistic, but I greatly enjoy myself trying. :)

  28. Mark says:

    I hardly ever play these days except to update and test my mod (shameless plug).

  29. Strangeite says:

    We are a non-video game playing household, but I picked up my first account during Alpha.

    Since then, my wife has become addicted and the last game she really got into was Chip’s Challenge (1989 game she became addicted to in 1996), my 13 year old son is addicted and my 5 year old daughter is addicted. My 18 month old son LOVES to sit on people’s lap and watch us play.

    I rented a server and bought a couple of additional accounts so the family can all play together on a communal canvas. So while my interest has waned, my family has picked up the slack.

    Minecraft is a strange bird. There was a discussion here on TwentySided how Minecraft is not so much a game, but a digital toy. I think this definition is very accurate and is why it appeals to my household where more tradition games don’t.

  30. Tuck says:

    I played for a while back in 2010, but I burned out building my cathedral and apart from mucking about building random things with some friends (single player only still, though, never got multiplayer working) I haven’t touched it since…

  31. River says:

    I enjoy playing Minecraft multiplayer for survival, this one time me and a friend started a server and were just screwing around. Then night fell and i ended up digging straight down and he made a little hill around himself

  32. Rosseloh says:

    I sort of still play. I started playing pretty much right after Shamus posted that video back in 2010, back when SMP wasn’t fully built. I can’t stand getting on there without friends though, and when my buddy’s client would NOT STOP CRASHING every 3 minutes, we kinda let it slide out of our gaming minds. But after the most recent update, that seems to have been fixed, so now I’m playing again.

    The problem is that I play MMOs too. If I only played single player games except Minecraft, I think I could play it till the cows came home (switching to SP games if I got bored for a week or two). But with MMOs there’s a sort of obligation to get on and help your guildmates, especially since you’re paying a subscription fee. So when I get on Minecraft, I catch hell from people I play with in MMOs. When I stay on MMOs, I hear it from those I was working with in Minecraft…Fun times.

    As for TwentyMine, I actually hopped on a few times in the last few weeks to check out new constructions, but it was completely dead each time. I had heard about the survival server (survival is what I prefer to play) but then saw it was invite only, so I didn’t pursue it further.

  33. Rayen says:

    i still play minecraft occasionally. New games for me are so few that i run on a cycle playing the hell out of one game until i get bored then moving on to another and going through all my games so when i replay something it’s fresh again. minecraft should be coming around again. I would play on twentymine but whenever i go the place is empty. Also i’d love to become part of the community but i want build rights first. Apparently i need to be part of the community first to get build rights. I have no incentive to go and be part of twentymine until i’m already part of twentymine. I’d love to be part but i feel this is one of those incompatible relationship things.

  34. Irridium says:

    I don’t play it anymore.

    I used to play waaaaay back in alpha. Stopped in September of… 2010, I think.

    I just got to the point where I build everything I wanted, and had the materials to build anything else. Just said “yep, done” and stopped. Had no desire to go back. Back when I played I was on twentymine though.

  35. Brandon says:

    I stopped having fun with Minecraft at some point. I really love exploring, but I guess I finally saw “everything”. Obviously not every single thing in the game, but there are only so many times you can find an underground waterfall going into a giant pit and feel a sense of wonder.

    I’m more of a survival player, I don’t have the creative drive to build grand structures for the most part. I play survival multiplayer and I’m everyone’s best friend because I dig out huge tunnel complexes and always have loads of materials for crafting as a result, and rarely need all of it, so I just give it away.

  36. I attempted to play Minecraft for about three hours.

    I stumbled around in the game for the first half hour without a clue as to what or how I was supposed to do anything.

    I watched a “how-to” video on Youtube for 15 minutes – just long enough to figure out how to chop down a tree and build an axe.

    I then spent an hour wandering around aimlessly trying to find a place to mine some ore.

    Upon finally finding a place to mine, I spent the last hour and 15 minutes digging into the ground until I found myself lost, underground and in the dark with no hope of finding my way out. At that point I gave up and quit the game, never to return.

    I guess I’m just not Minecraft’s target audience?

    Leslee

    1. noahpocalypse says:

      I did that my first time as well. It is the nature of the game (and it’s not just due to the lack of in-game tutorials)- everyone new to it screws up terribly at some point. It can be great fun once you know how to play, but you need a modicum of knowledge to have much fun. This is Minecraft’s worst error- it should at least have a few pages of instructions or tips on the main menu, if not tutorials in-game.

      Try logging onto Twentymine- there is a good community there who will help you learn a bit. (But don’t be discouraged by the immense constructions. Those guys know what they’re doing.)

      1. tengokujin says:

        I object to this. I have no idea what I’m doing.

    2. ps238principal says:

      Best “how to not get lost” tactics I know:

      1. Wherever you’ve got an entrance to a significant underground area, build a really tall tower with torches or some other light sources all over it.
      2. Make a map as soon as possible so it’s easier to explore. If you’re going delving somewhere, stow the map in a chest or other safe place, just in case you get killed.
      3. Always try to put your torches on the same side of the corridors you explore/dig (usually the right-hand side) so you can tell if you were going “in” the mine or “out” when you’re trying to navigate your way back to the surface.

  37. Eric says:

    I tried the demo a couple years back, right before the popularity wave hit. I got bored after about an hour and never touched it again. I appreciate what people do with the game, but it just isn’t for me. I need more structure, more definite goals, and messing around in what is basically a really primitive 3D modeling program is not my idea of time well spent.

    It doesn’t help that the game basically revolves around the never-ending treadmill of grinding for resources, something I kind of abhor these days. In some senses the game isn’t much better than FarmVille or Runescape as far as coldly manipulating players into performing endless random tasks goes.

    1. tengokujin says:

      That’s why there’s our creative server :p
      We have a item duplicating mod and an array of item samples available for the people who just want to build things.

      Still, that doesn’t address the other complaint, does it? :/

    2. Zukhramm says:

      At least in Minecraft there’s something to do with thouse resources other than “get even more resources”.

    3. “It doesn't help that the game basically revolves around the never-ending treadmill of grinding for resources, something I kind of abhor these days. In some senses the game isn't much better than FarmVille or Runescape as far as coldly manipulating players into performing endless random tasks goes.”

      This is actually quite an inaccurate comparison. While I understand the grind aspect of obtaining the necessary resources, the difference is in the immediate and direct control given to you of those resources and it is a biiiig difference. I’ll admit, I’ve never played FV or RS, but I’d bet cash monies (if I had any :P) that they don’t offer anything even closely resembling the malleability of Minecraft, hence why all that grinding rings hallow while most find MC’s so rewarding.

      Not to say you’re wrong for not liking MC (I mean…you are, I’m just not sayiung it ;)). An opinions and opinion after all, but comparing it to Farmville grinding? Yeah, no.

  38. krellen says:

    I like Legos and all, but I never thought to myself “you know what would be really cool? HUGE SELF-SIZED LEGOS!” So while I can appreciate the things other people create in Minecraft, the first-person perspective of nearly person-sized blocks just isn’t my creative cup-of-tea.

    Besides, what I mostly built with my Legos was swords to fight my brother with. We actually got pretty good and reinforcing them so that they didn’t break on impact.

    1. Eric says:

      I actually think the first-person perspective turns me off too. Hard to get a sense for the layout of the land and can make getting from one place to another a bit disorienting. It’s a building game, so what’s wrong with a top-down or isometric perspective? First-person would be fine for the tunnels and stuff but I feel like it’d be so much easier if the game was point-and-click based.

      Of course, there’s also just the “everything must be in first person because didn’t you get the memo, first person is more immersive!” thing. Sigh.

      And yes, Minecraft is generally only fun with friends, I think, much like an MMO is usually only worth playing if you’ve got people to play with. I think that in itself kind of highlights that the strength of the game isn’t its mechanics so much as what players are able to bring to it.

      1. Dys says:

        No, the first person perspective is integral to Minecraft. Without it, the game would be very different.

        The point of being first person is that you have a tangible, direct connection to everything you do. Placing a block requires you to BE there, not just wave a hand from your cloud and make it so. It gives an immediacy to the game which it would otherwise lack. Construction becomes an act, rather than just an operation.

        You can, in theory, copy a 3d model from somewhere, translate it into a schematic and place it in minecraft without ever touching the game proper. In that sense, those who would rather use 3d modeling software have a point and I think that’s the understanding which produces such a perspective.

        I guess it’s the difference between building a treehouse or ordering your servants to build a treehouse for you. If all you wanted was the treehouse, there will be no practical difference, but I think the two will be fundamentally different things.

        That said, the old hands of Twentymine use a bunch of tools from worldedit all the way down to simple flight. I think giving those to a new player would destroy any appeal the game has.

        1. Eric says:

          Having a different camera viewpoint would change the game, I never denied that. I just think I would find it preferable. I enjoy first-person games enough, but the fact that everything has to be first-person these days is getting old very fast. I don’t find it more immersive, the number-one argument used for it in most cases I see.

          And no, you don’t have to compromise the sense of building and creation the game has. Simply make it third-person, or require the player’s avatar to reach a location in order to build there. Done.

      2. swenson says:

        Oh, I couldn’t stand Minecraft if it wasn’t first person. I have the opposite problem from you–isometric/third-person views of that sort of game completely disorient me. Besides, you would completely lose the survival aspects of the game, which would be a big loss for people who prefer to build outside of peaceful/creative (which makes it so much more interesting!).

        Also, I’m not sure how you could do 3D. You can’t explore cave systems very easily in third person or a top-down view.

  39. Museli says:

    I played for a while, after getting into it fairly late. 90% of my playtime was solo, but 90% of my fun was had in co-op with my chums. If they still played, I would too. Whenever I feel like a bit of diggy-diggy-hole now, I go back to the game I played before Minecraft, Terraria.

  40. Yar Kramer says:

    Ehhh … I played it for a while, but I’m kind of too … I guess “goal-oriented” for a game like Minecraft, where you don’t have an “ultimate thing you are trying to do which will result in ending-cutscene and/or closing credits”, but you merely end up running out of things to do.

    1. modus0 says:

      Actually, there are goals now of a sort in the Achievements, and there are “ending” credits once one has been to The End and defeated the Enderdragon.

      Of course, after that there are no current goals and you can still play…

  41. Michael says:

    I played Minecraft Creative for a bit, but I haven’t picked up the actual release, yet. I’m waiting for it to gain tangible goals, or a story, or something, because I’m horrible with unlimited freedom.

    Something about the enemy of art being the absence of limitations.

    I’m keeping a close watch on releases, though, and the one that added towns and cities looked fun. Until I was told there were mods that did it better.

    Sigh.

    1. ps238principal says:

      Get to “The End.”

      Slay the Enderdragon.

      You “win.”

  42. Lord Nyax says:

    My friends and I have a SMP server thats been going on for half a year now. We got kind of bored of building and surviving so now we’re experimenting with creating our own games. Just last night I was up until 1 in the morning playing a game we’d devised where one team builds a castle and attempts to build a giant silver cross (made of solid iron blocks, with a gold block in the middle) while the other team, who were “werewolves” attempted to kill them all. Once a builder was killed he joined the werwolf team. Werewolves couldn’t use iron (silver) tools, weapons, or armor, and they could only attack the castle at night, but they could respawn as much as they wanted. It was a lot of fun (the werewolves won.)

  43. Falcon says:

    I played a ton for about a year. I even got into the twentymine server quite a bit for a time. Eventually a few changes have made me not go back. Mostly my schedule changed with a new job, and the server troubles that twentymine had. When all that cropped up I stopped playing for a while, and haven’t gone back. It makes me sad, but at this point the game has changed so much, plus my games backlog is ridiculous now thanks to the Steam winter sale.

  44. Even says:

    Got the game at 1.7.3 and played for a while. Initially it was fun to explore and learn the game, but shortly after reaching Nether it just stopped being interesting. In the past six months I’ve only logged to check some of the updates and play a couple adventure maps, but that’s about it. It still amazes me how people find the interest and time to dedicate to designing and building all the massive pieces of art and architecture I’ve seen. My best effort so far at making anything good has been trying to carve out a home from a natural cave near the top of a steep hill, making additions here and there, but I just haven’t been able to decide what exactly I want to do with it. All its got so far is just some fancy balcony and a glorified entrance with a suspended wooden walkway covered with a stone brick roof leading to it.

    Multiplayer is still a bit of a unexplored territory for me but I haven’t been terribly inspired to really get into it. I hung out on a private survival server for a while but it got run down after 1.8 came. Didn’t get much done either on the building side, just a small shack with bare essentials. Spent most of my time exploring the massive cave system underneath. I’ve visited Twentymine only a couple of times to check out the scenes. For my lack of building genes I didn’t really feel like sticking around.

  45. Vipermagi says:

    Started playing pretty much when Twentymine was a week old. Joined the server, made a treehouse. Spent a lot more time on the server than in single player. Latexink and I also played a couple of Adventure maps.

    Release 1.1 destroyed one of my largest creations (which is, of course, never truly finished), and that completely killed my interest for the time being. The change in question is that ladders no longer have a collision box. I used that a lot to create an obstacle/parkour course. 1.2 will change it back, but God knows how long it’ll be until that releases. Bah. :(
    The update hit right when I was trying to get back into the habit of logging onto IRC, too.

    1. Dys says:

      That sucks. I remember my apartment in hq4 burned down after the update which made lava and bookshelves a bad combination, but cosmetic losses are nowhere near as severe.

    2. GM says:

      i heard ladders were changed back.

      1. Vipermagi says:

        In the weekly snapshots, yes, which are not actual releases. Twentymine doesn’t run the snapshots because our server plugins don’t work with those; we have to wait for the next release (1.2). :(

  46. RTBones says:

    Yes, I still play Minecraft, though not like I used to. I can still say, given that I bought the game very early in beta, it has been one of the best dollar values per hour of gaming spent for me in a long time. Virtually all of my Minecraft experience has been single player.

    Some people will wile away the hours watching random YouTube videos (me included). One of the other things I do is try random seeds, and fly around in creative mode just to check out the map. If I find a seed I like, I’ll play survival. I am less of a builder than an explorer – you wont see elaborate structures in my worlds. Rather, you’ll see houses with small farms and crafting areas, multiple ‘roads of markers’- cobble-blocks-with-a-torch-on-top – and railroads. The one thing I do do is build a portal to the nether. Pick a random direction in the nether to explore, build another portal back, build a home to survive in, then connect the two spots with a railroad.

    Having said all of the above, I will play more again once the Pocket Edition improves.

  47. Paul Spooner says:

    I started back before Infdev, when everything was still limited to one plot of land. Enjoyed the game immensely, decoded the save file format, and wrote a number of python scripts to make things like castles, big trees, and giant craters. The tree one was a big hit in the community, and Notch put it in the game.

    My wife and I beat the game in survival mode on a private server just after the release came out (took a couple of days start to finish). That’s probably when the interest waned for us. We still play a bit, both single player and multiplayer.

    I think the best thing about Minecraft is that it has given me a way to experiment with architecture and personally experienced spaces. I’m very comfortable with 3D modeling, but walking around in a space gives it a distinct feel. That, and it has allowed me to fulfill the dream of building a castle on a hilltop, and a tree fort in a huge tree. I’d still like to do those things in real life, but I’m grateful to Notch for giving me the tools to live it virtually first.

    Also, shameless plug for Zach who inspired Minecraft with Infiniminer, and went on to write Spacechem , one of the best puzzle/engineering games ever.

  48. Scerro says:

    I’m still playing minecraft, primarily because of the industrialcraft and buildcraft mods at this point. I run a server off my computer just for a few of my friends, and we go into hiatus after every patch comes out and breaks the mods. In fact I finally just brought the server back up to date last night(I hate Space Toad and his 10 modules you have to download through adfly. It’s a pain.)

    Yes, I do still play. Not a bunch, but it’s fun to have a server with friends where we really enjoy playing and seeing what we can build.

  49. Michael says:

    I played it for a month or so. Got bored pretty quickly. I had no patience to mine and gather materials. I was also disappointed at the number of things that could actually be crafted. The hype surrounding it made it seem like there were so many more possibilities then there actually were. I just didn’t have the patience to build anything all that grandiose and the creative mode where everything is made available to you just seemed boring… Not for me, I guess.

  50. The area I picked out for the new MPS server turned out to be a big ‘ol dud, so I dropped it and went back to SP. Figured I’ll play until I ‘beat’ the game and then check up on MS again, though I’ll doubt I’ll ever find a spot as sweet as the pre-release MPS map.

  51. Zukhramm says:

    Still playing, not as much, or as regularly as I used to. And not much survival, as that has turned into something that doesn’t really do what I want it to.

  52. McNutcase says:

    Haven’t played it. I’ve been very impressed with what people have done with it, but I don’t want to let myself play it. I get addicted too easily.

  53. ChuckP says:

    Yes, I play Minecraft. Unlike some others, I quickly found singleplayer boring, whereas SMP is addictive. From comments I have seen elsewhere, a lot of this relates directly to the community of players. If the majority of other players are helpful, courteous, and fun, then you are more likely to stick around. (I know, it sounds so obvious when I write it out.) In this respect, I think the Escapecraft server (plug) http://www.escapecraft.net for the forums, escapecraft.net for the MC server succeeds on all counts.

    I also blame Shamus for getting me started.

  54. MechaCrash says:

    I can’t play vanilla Minecraft anymore, because it feels like once you’ve made some diamond tools and built a home, you’ve basically done all there is to do.

    I do, however, still play using the Technic Pack, which completely revitalized the game for me and made it fun again.

  55. Taellosse says:

    I have not played Minecraft. I think it’s a nifty idea, but the aesthetic doesn’t appeal to me all that much, and my gaming preferences favor story-based games over sandboxes, generally.

    I used to have tons of fun with Legos as a kid, but I liked them because they allowed me to make my own toys, which I could then play with. While the things you can make in Minecraft are amazing, they’re either static–basically just monuments–or weird Rube-Golberg-esque machines. Such things are cool to look at if someone else makes them, but they’re not my kind of thing to make myself.

    And survival mode just generally doesn’t interest me that much. I can see how it would be appealing, but, again, not within my preference-range.

  56. NonEuclideanCat says:

    I bought it the day before it left alpha, since the site said that people who bought it then wouldn’t have to pay for later updates. But in all that time I’ve only put maybe 6 hours into it. It just didn’t hold my interest. Nowadays I tend to forget it even exists unless someone talks about it.

  57. DeadlyYellow says:

    My interest in it comes and goes. I never saw much entertainment value in it. I’d install the Technic Pack, tinker in a world for a half hour or so, get bored, delete the world, and then not play it for weeks. Really need mods to add some variety to it, as the vanilla version feels like an engine utility with half the functionality cut out. Never bothered to beat survival mode, as the whole ending section just felt arbitrary and tacked on.

    Do love the user reviews for Minecraft. It seems like half of them praise the game for being empty and bare, while the other half despise it for making Notch rich and lazy.

  58. Dovius says:

    I used to play quite a bit of multiplayer (On Twentymine, in fact), but I’ve gotten kinda burned out on that. These days I just occassionly open it up and expand my singleplayer tunnel-system some more.
    Because screw Khazad-Dàºm, I’m digging the Deep Roads, 10 feet at a time.

  59. Dragomok says:

    I have first heard about Minecraft in this VGCats’ strip (posted on 16th March 2010). After that, I mostly forgot about it, and it would probably remain like that if not for the demo that came over a year later.
    That was when my Minecraft obsession began.
    I played it like crazy, multiple times, even though it had 100 minutes limit. I mastered the art of the first night survival, using various tactics (including hiding in a treetop – 7 minutes of staring into sky and pitch black enviroment only to be blown by a creeper right after coming back to the ground). It was there where I have constructed my most original base – a dig site with no roof, located on the beach, with walls of sand and glass. Also, I have familiarised myself with every item on the wiki and began to follow updates, read Notch’s blog and dig a little bit into Minecraft‘s history.

    After all that, I finally got the full version (as a gift) in the middle of summer and I have been playing since in single player Survival.
    As of now, I enjoy it even more than before, even though I’m currently doing probably the most boring thing in this game: moving your hoard to a new base, thousands of cube away.

    I believe the key to enjoying every game, song, book or movie is to make pauses to play, listen to, read or watch something else.

  60. madflavius says:

    I adore Minecraft.

    I first purchased it in Alpha (back when it was about $10). I started in single-player, but I only built a simple hilltop fort before I discovered multiplayer. When the first player crossed my bridge across a valley, I was hooked. I now operate a heavily-modded survival server that’s been online for about six months and gets about twelve players a night (I haven’t advertised it widely yet, so I’m rather happy about the player count!), with cities, factions, a player-based market economy, naval battles, sieges, diplomacy, and intrigue. It’s awesome, and it’s so much more exciting than I ever found vanilla Minecraft to be. If anyone is interested, by the way, it’s called Eleutheria, and is found at 74.63.229.11.

    All this to say, I love the capacity for Minecraft to expand to be what we want it to be, and for that reason it has captivated me ever since Alpha.

  61. Adam F says:

    Still play it (been on since before 1.7). Not as much as I used to, but so it goes with any game. I only play multiplayer, but I’m picky about who I play with. I love sandboxing but I want people to see what I’ve done.

    I generally love the game, in particular the great freedom you have when combining the basic elements to create things, and the simple enjoyment of having an interesting world to walk around in and discover.

  62. swenson says:

    I go in cycles with Minecraft. When I first got it, I played nonstop for days. Weeks, really. Then I sort of got bored and stopped playing for a long time. Then I started again, getting obsessed with a different single-player world (that I play on peaceful. Y’all can hush; I wanted to build, not fight things.), and that lasted for several weeks again. Then I stopped again, got back into it, got bored again, etc. etc. I’m currently in the “playing it” part of the cycle, building some cool creations and villages and whatnot in creative mode.

    I’ll say this, though: one of my favorite things to do isn’t build incredible things, it’s simply flying around looking at the gorgeous terrain. There is a weird beauty to it, especially when it comes to mountainous regions and ravines, or huge cave systems.

    1. Adam Fuller says:

      I’d like a screensaver that just flies over minecraft terrain. Or any procedurally generated terrain really *cough*projectfronteir*cough*

  63. Josh says:

    I found Millénaire pretty fun, but installing it and the other add-ons that it requires is incredibly annoying. And you have to do it again every time Minecraft gets upgraded… it’s just too much bother.

  64. AlternatePFG says:

    I played a ton of it in Alpha, haven’t touched it since. Really haven’t liked the direction it took, and a lot of the features added since then didn’t seem to really add much to go the game. It’s still pretty buggy too.

  65. Mr. Son says:

    I play Minecraft pretty often. Nearly exclusively on single-player. Partially because I don’t know of many multi-plaver servers I’d be interested in joining, and partially because of my crippling social anxiety.

  66. Jez says:

    I’ve seen gameplay videos and watched a few friends play it, but never actually played it myself. I don’t know whether I enjoyed it or whether I’d find it too directionless. In simulation games I tend to fixate on non-cosmetic forms of achievement, as in even as a child playing the first Sims I would nearly always focus on getting my family’s earners to the top of the career ladder. Even in Terraria nearly everything I build is about function rather than form.

  67. Atarlost says:

    I do not play Minecraft. Minecraft has no attraction for me.

  68. Alex says:

    I actually intended to buy the XBLA version of Minecraft weeks ago. I probably should have snatched it up when it was free(ish). But my computer’s not built for gaming, and I vaguely recall reading that the visuals are pretty deceptive when it comes to the actual system requirements.

    (Might have read that here, actually…)

    I was so disappointed to find out it wasn’t out on XBLA yet. Ended up buying Bastion instead, and all I got out of that was buyer’s remorse.

    1. GM says:

      you regret buying Bastion? ahh it´s that you don´t like the top art style while you enjoy Kirby style and yes Kirby art style is good.
      You are a strange beast.
      Only thing i had trouble seeing was at the end, i just found it gorgeous not 1990 although that makes me think you are comparing it to something?
      How did you enjoy the music?

      1. Alex says:

        It’s the game that inspired me to get glasses. Just to make sure if it was the game’s fault or if I just have bad eye-sight.

        I don’t.

        Although, I guess I should just be glad I supported the indie scene. I feel less ripped off with “Supergiant Games”, than I would if it were a $70 blockbuster turd from an actual super-giant developer/publisher.

        1. Irridium says:

          This is actually why I’ve been playing less console games. Most of the newer ones assume I have a big-ass HDTV. Which I don’t. Though, I do have that 360-to-PC adaptor that lets me play through my monitor (which I bought in 2005. Which is more “HD” than most television screens. I believe xkcd is appropriate here), which makes things easier to see. But my monitor isn’t wide-screen, so most games have those annoying-ass black bars on the top and bottom.

          I freaking hate those black bars so much it makes me want to flip tables whenever I see them. In games AND movies.

          1. Alex says:

            Funny thing is, I’ve never been bothered by black bars. I can totally get why people wouldn’t like ’em, but it’s something I can tolerate. I guess I’d just prefer to see everything in a shot, even if it’s smaller than to see some of it cut off.

            That’s why I’m really bothered by how many shows/movies/commercials/games are formatted only to fit the screen on the Starship Enterprise:

            -old and flu seaso-? -ick up some Nyqui-! -nd get back to your day, medici-!

            Thanks for the advice, lady who had half of her face chopped off-screen, apparently!

            Although with Bastion, I think the problem is that it was too far zoomed out, and all of the characters blended in too much with the backgrounds. In a sterile environment, in still screens and such, the characters and backgrounds separately look fine. But in motion, the whole thing is a blurry, squinty affair.

  69. Fnord says:

    Whenever people talk about the awesome things about Minecraft, it always makes me want to play Dwarf Fortress. It seems to scratch the same explore/survive/build itch. Not that I’d necessarily recommend Dwarf Fortress over Minecraft for anyone who hasn’t already endured the brain-frying learning curve for the former.

  70. Neko says:

    I still play my singleplayer world occasionally, but these days I mostly go to my friend’s survival server. It’s only populated by a handful of friends, which is why I like it.

    I’ve been to twentymine and looked around, and the buildings are impressive but servers like that always feel too “sterile” for me. Then there’s the big unmanaged servers where there is no point building anything because some asshat will have griefed it before the next time you log on. Neither experience is fun. Going to a small, private server of known humans is the only way to go, IMHO – you get to share and show off things you build with your friends, but you don’t have to worry about build rights or griefers. Just simple survival fun.

  71. JupiterCobalt says:

    I stopped playing a while after all the actual RPG stuff got added into the game. I was getting bored with it already by then, and it and all the big changes after it got in the way, so I just sort of dropped off it. That, and not so many of my friends who played it played anymore, so there really wasn’t very much for me to stick around on its multiplayer because I didn’t know anyone on the servers.

    I do miss good ol’ cave diving, though. The game was fun.

  72. rofltehcat says:

    Cute Valentine’s Day banner, Shamus ;)

    No idea what everyone has about Valentine’s Day… *forever alone*

  73. Eärlindor says:

    I tried playing Minecraft, but it did not run well on my computer for some reason. :/

  74. Destrustor says:

    I’m just waiting for the xbox version because my computer is too lame to run it. Got the demo once and it averaged 3 frames per second. Maybe ten if everything else was closed on a good day.

  75. Alex says:

    Back when it was still free(ish), a friend of mine linked me to some low-res(er) Minecraft textures for slower machines. I’ve also heard of higher-resolution textures.

    Wish I hadn’t been so lazy in regards to checking it out. Hell, I still need to see if I could get Team Fortress 2 running with those N64-ish graphics.

  76. Dude says:

    I find the biggest problem for me in Minecraft is, anything I can build in there, I can build much, much, much faster using Duke Nukem’s Build map maker, which is eons old, and which I sunk a ton of time in way back. I’m all mapped out.

    So what I end up doing instead is making massive skirmishes in ArmA 2: Operation Arrowhead. I used to play with buckets of army men more than Legos in my childhood. Figures.

  77. Higher Peanut says:

    I used to play Minecraft until beta 1.8. It introduced some sort of major memory leak with my system that no amount of tinkering with settings or asking Google could solve. If it gets patched out I may go back but until then it’s only possible to play for 10 minutes at a time.

  78. Markus says:

    I never got into it.
    Maybe some day when I have the time.

  79. Zaxares says:

    I never got into Minecraft. With the exception of games like Sim City, sandbox games have never appealed to me. (And no, I never liked Lego as a kid either. :P) That doesn’t stop me from appreciating the artistry of what people create in Minecraft though!

    1. Adam Fuller says:

      Someday someone is perfectly going to marry the ability of users to make beautiful content and everyone else to enjoy that content. And it will be awesome. Some games do this already, but there’s more that can be done.

  80. cyber_andyy says:

    As most server goers will know, Instead of playing MC i tend to hang around on IRC for the conversations nowadays.

  81. Hitman (scott) says:

    My relationship with minecraft is special, about once every few months my roommate and I will get a hankering to play some minecraft. We get so excited and set up a private little server for ourselves.

    We build and build, dig and dig, all while jamming to some music. We usually start on a Friday afternoon, and we play almost non-stop until Sunday.

    By the time Monday rolls around we start asking ourselves questions, like why are we playing this, do you realize what we have been doing for the last hour! I have been down here methodically digging a cave system that will let me find diamond the best. We have free time and this is how we spend it? The illusion breaks and we feel silly for having spent soooo much time doing this.

    Currently I’m on an off cycle, but I can feel a minecraft urge coming on soon. But it will probably be staved off until I feel tired of The Old Republic

  82. Bill says:

    Don’t talk to me about minecraft…

    I run my own server for my friends and I. Custom-built the machine just for it. I’ve built a full scale replica of the Hindenburg. In my cathedral I have a redstone music box that plays “Ode To Joy”. My walled town has townhomes, appartments, a market, an inn, a bank, a bath house, two guild halls (miner’s and crafter’s), a butcher, a baker, and a candlestick maker, not to mention the castle complete with barracks and archery range. I’ve built underwater domes without the use of mods. Most of my recent solo-survival maps have dragon egg shrines. The only reason I haven’t built a Star Trek ship yet is because I just haven’t been able to commit the time to the project.

    So yeah… I play it.

  83. Jack of Spades says:

    Don’t play Minecraft, never have. I get my building bug out elsewhere.

  84. Teldurn says:

    I never played it, though it looked interesting. Actually, It’s not that I don’t have the time (which I really don’t), it’s that I know how I get with games I really like. I’ll get all obsessed about it for a long time. It’ll take over all my thoughts and my productivity will go downhill fast. So I’m really resisting playing so I can keep employed and married. :P

  85. Josh H says:

    Does the Twentymine server have a mod that makes it possible to change your player name? Back when I bought Minecraft I chose a terrible username, and have been stuck with it ever since.

  86. froogger says:

    Sure I do. I still start it up for an hour or so once in a while. Single player unmodded is my cup of tea, and I am still trying to bag all the achievements. The say shooting a skeleton at 50 meters is impossible and a bug, I still keep trying.

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