Minecraft Review

[Shjade]

I can make claims for most games based solely on sales and common sense. Lets look at the biggest selling games. They are all fast paced, have a storyline, characters, ok to good graphics, and a good multiplayer. MC has none of that.

"With 20 million registrations and a paying player base quickly approaching 5 million..."
I guess MC has none of that...except the sales? Hunh. It's almost like you're assuming the only games that sell well are the ones you like. How odd.

Bastion sold pretty well as I recall, and is completely single-player with what I'd call an average (rather than "fast") pace.

Heck, Skyrim's not particularly fast-paced and lacks multiplayer, too. That one bombed on release, right? I can't remember.

I enjoy exploring in Minecraft because it always gives me somewhere new to explore. Does it look state of the art? No. It doesn't look too terrible with the art pack I use for it, but I'm never going to open up Minecraft and mistakenly think I just booted up Lord of the Rings Online. That's okay, though; I don't need lens flare to enjoy a game.

Your original comment was attempting to state how Jimbo's comment was nothing more then an exaggeration by saying that crayons did not have the same imaginative scope as Minecraft.

My comment was in reply to that stated how your view of Minecraft was actually incorrect, which is separate to the crayons as the crayons were exaggerated, not Minecraft

Your exaggeration simply showed your complete misunderstanding of Minecraft.

See, this is why I can't care about your assessment: it's clearly wrong. I wasn't saying crayons lack the same imaginative scope as Minecraft. That's a silly thing to say; crayons are inanimate objects - they don't have an imagination. Nor does Minecraft. Rather, I was pointing out that suggesting the experience of playing Minecraft is no different than that of drawing with crayons is an exaggeration, which it is. They're completely different. I then went on to exaggerate how much you can do in Minecraft as well (not everyone has the talent - or the patience - to make giant recreations in Minecraft either, even if it's easier than making good drawings with crayon), because exaggeration is fun and I figured both sides could use some.

After doing this, I pointed out that what I'd just said isn't right at all (referring to the majority of it being exaggeration). You must have missed that part.

It's okay to not understand what someone's written, but it's laughable to then criticize it in a fashion that makes it clear you didn't understand what you just read.

 

[Erttheking]

You know on this thread I'm seeing a lot of "NO IT'S A TOY, PEOPLE SHOULDN'T LIKE IT! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR WHY YOU ENJOY IT LALALALALALALALALALA IT'S NOT A TOY IT'S A GAME, OTHER GAMES HAVE BETTER GRAPHICS AND MECHANICS! YOU SHOULDN'T LIKE THIS ONE!" That doesn't really make much sense, should you not like Oblivion because Skyrim is a better game? Should you not enjoy pong because there are so many better things out there? Also keep in mind that "better" is purely subjective and there's no way to scientifically prove that one game is better than another, and even more impossible to prove that one game is more FUN than another. Also why does someone else enjoying a game get you so worked up? I think some games are overrated on this site but I don't feel the need to bash them and say that they're having fun for the wrong reasons.

In short, calm down, you're getting worked up over nothing. Also there seem to be some very elitist remarks here "all decent gamers know that farmvile is a joke"...what gives?

 

[Shjade]

"With 20 million registrations and a paying player base quickly approaching 5 million..."
I guess MC has none of that...except the sales? Hunh. It's almost like you're assuming the only games that sell well are the ones you like. How odd.

The illegal drug market is worth $320,000,000,000. Does that mean we should all go out, by some drugs and start speed-balling?
Sales means nothing. You have to look at the product, and then the sales, to see what the product is worth.

Plus, not that I care for an answer, but does it not seem utterly, utterly pointless exploring procedural terrain in the pursuit of...fuck all?

It helps if you look at the topic.

Lets look at the biggest selling games.

When someone says, "Let's look at sales," and we then talk about sales, it makes no sense for you to respond to our conversation about sales by saying, "Sales mean nothing." Yeah, sales mean nothing. Except when they're what you're talking about, in which case they're the whole point.

Yes, it seems utterly pointless. That's okay though: 99% of video games are pointless. Their only "point" is to entertain the player. Do you think you're somehow contributing to society by shooting virtual terrorists in Modern Warfare because it gives you artificial goals to complete? No, it's also a pointless waste of time. That's what video games are. (The remaining 1% includes games that actually make some effort to be educational or productive in some way. This statistic is 37% accurate 80% of the time.)

I can't explain the exaggeration issue to you in any simpler terms, nor do I understand why you're fixated on this crayon comparison. You can express your imagination using either, and your judgmental point of view doesn't really help with either. It's possible to make impressive creations, and recreations, in Minecraft to an extent that you can't manage with crayons in that it's difficult to make things with crayon through which you can take a virtual tour in a manner that at least resembles three-dimensional movement and shape. You can, however, do things like this [http://www.art-is-fun.com/crayon-art.html], which hardly looks like the results of using "poor tools to do anything with."

I don't understand the source of all this negativity bordering on hostility you're projecting, but it doesn't help anything. Be cool, Cool Kid. Chill.

 

[Shjade]

snip

I read it. I also pointed out it's irrelevant to the topic. Here, I'll give you the full excerpt of Jimbo's statement that prompted my response, since I guess you're not reading his posts.

Actually all decent gamers know FarmVille is a joke and can't last. This is proven by Zynga about to go bust. I can make claims for most games based solely on sales and common sense. Lets look at the biggest selling games. They are all fast paced, have a storyline, characters, ok to good graphics, and a good multiplayer. MC has none of that.

Notice how Jimbo is looking at the sales first, then the content second? Therefore, given that is the form he apparently wanted to use to judge what constitutes a quality game, I responded in kind: by looking at sales first. Minecraft has sold well, therefore it defies Jimbo's standards of quality by lacking all the qualities he claims games that sell well share. I'm not saying I'd judge game quality that way, I was responding to a silly premise by following the rules given by that premise. If you have an objection to judging a product's worth by looking at sales over content, take it up with Jimbo - it was his claim, not mine.

 

[Shjade]

*sigh* Yes, yes I did, in pointing out that Minecraft lacks pretty much all the content Jimbo described high-selling games as having, thereby contradicting his assumptions.

This is a very simple point. You can continue to not understand it if you must, but I don't have the patience to keep re-explaining it to you, so you go ahead and talk to yourself if you want (though it would be utterly, utterly pointless).

 

[Outcast107]

You know on this thread I'm seeing a lot of "NO IT'S A TOY, PEOPLE SHOULDN'T LIKE IT! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR WHY YOU ENJOY IT LALALALALALALALALALA IT'S NOT A TOY IT'S A GAME, OTHER GAMES HAVE BETTER GRAPHICS AND MECHANICS! YOU SHOULDN'T LIKE THIS ONE!" That doesn't really make much sense, should you not like Oblivion because Skyrim is a better game? Should you not enjoy pong because there are so many better things out there? Also keep in mind that "better" is purely subjective and there's no way to scientifically prove that one game is better than another, and even more impossible to prove that one game is more FUN than another. Also why does someone else enjoying a game get you so worked up? I think some games are overrated on this site but I don't feel the need to bash them and say that they're having fun for the wrong reasons.

In short, calm down, you're getting worked up over nothing. Also there seem to be some very elitist remarks here "all decent gamers know that farmvile is a joke"...what gives?

Look at who wrote that. Also look at who arguing with minecraft shouldn't be play by "adults" *points to jimbo and the cool kid*

So it's easy to say why this thread is the way it is. No idea why people have to go out of their way to insult someone who enjoys something they don't like. Though whatever, Minecraft looks fun if you can keep yourself entertain by making some amazing things.

 

[samsonguy920]

Nice catchy tune, but this isn't so much a review as it is a short indirect synopsis. There is barely any mention of the features added since the beta review, and the video is more a celebration of what people have done in the game.
That's great and all, but just about everything in this says to me that Mr. Clouse phoned it in.

 

[Hungry Donner]

I played Minecraft quite a bit last winter and spring and recently started it back up. I like that the food system was toned down, it really bothered me when it was introduced, and the new biome system is very nice. For the most part I'm having a blast.

However it still feels like a game in beta, and I'm not sure why Mojang decided that this was the build that would be the official release. I really think NPCs should have had some actual functionality at release, and I'm particularly disappointed by the fact that new biomes are planned. They either won't show up in existing worlds, or it will mess up world generation in them - neither of which seems appropriate for worlds created after the supposed official release.

Am I enjoying the game? Certainly. My gripe is really one of semantics used rather than the quality of the game.

 

[Hungry Donner]

I like that the food system was toned down...

Do you mean "I like that the food system is broken"?
You can just munch on poisonous food and quantity works over quality, something Minecraft sales often reflect.

I haven't tried eating poisonous food.

For me food requirements in games are an enormous pet peeve: if a realistic amount of food is required you need to carry a ton of food around with you and the task is laborious. If the amounts aren't realistic what's the point? When I first tried 1.8 I was disappointed by how rapidly the food meter went down, and unless I'm mistaken eating food replenished the bar but didn't slow it down much. When I jumped into the current version it didn't annoy me nearly as much, although it does feel stupid that all I need to do is eat a few loaves of bread now and then and I'm set.