Minecraft's Appeal

I've been playing a lot of Minecraft lately and there are reasons for it. A big part of why I play video games is for the social interaction. While the social tools in Minecraft aren't nearly as good as they could be, playing on a server is very much a social activity. I made a server so that I can hang out and play with all my friends that are interested in exploring, gathering materials, and building awesome stuff. And before you ask, no you cannot have access to my server unless you actually know me.

I have heard some complaints that Minecraft has bad graphics and just doesn't have enough of a point to make it an interesting game. Those complaints come from a lack of understanding of what Minecraft is. You, as the player, can come up with the point of the game for yourself, or you can depend on the other players if you have a multiplayer server to inspire your actions. And if you think about it, the collection of parts and construction of objects is very much like playing with Legos. The blocks in Minecraft are restricted to cubes (and occasionally half cubes), which is slightly different than the Lego restrictions, but similar enough to the basic building blocks from a set of Legos. Of course there are custom blocks made for specific types of building projects, such as light sabers for Lego men to hold in the Star Wars sets. I argue that those pieces are similar to a player holding a sword.

It is also for this reason that I do not want to install the iConomy server mod to my minecraft server. I think that adding a currency to the game is perhaps a little bit of overkill. There are already tons of resources to collect and use for various things. Depending which projects you are working on, you might want to trade the cobblestone you've collected to someone else that has surplus iron. On my server, however, the barter system has almost entirely been done away with in favor of community drive building projects. A couple people get an idea, and everyone that hears about it wants to contribute. It's really a good feeling to have a game that is almost entirely cooperative to contrast with all of the other popular games that tend to thrive on being competitive.