... Minecraft what's the point?

[William MacKay]

the point is to build stuff, except it takes little effort. i built a rollercoaster in 30 mins. how many architects can say that?
i play it when im waiting for my Steam to download stuff so i has something to do.

 

[Azure Sky]

I think it has the perfect mix of:
"You can, but why would you want to. But if you do want to, you need to work for it so there is real satisfaction when you are done."

I can't actually remember how Yahtzee described it, but he hit the nail right on the head.

Not for everyone, but awesome game none the less. =3

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

OP snip

When you create with a goal, you do it for someone else. When you create without a goal, you do it for yourself.

"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving" -Lao Tzu

 

[Jamous]

Use it as something to have fun and muck about with in your own personal world while you're not playing another game, or you're waiting for a game to come out, say Skyrim, or Arkham City.

 

[LaughingAtlas]

I like to think of it like this:
"My name is Notch and I'd like to ask you a question; Is a man not entitled to destroy a locked door?
"No," says the man at Bethesda, "You have to pick the lock!"
"No," says the man at Bioware, "only jedi can do that!"
"No," says the man at Konami, "you have to find a certian piece of junk!"
I rejected those answers, I chose the impossible, I chose... Minecraft.
Minecraft! Where the only doors are the ones you create. If you don't want them anymore, you can always break them down."

The freedom to reshape the world as you see fit, I guess. Fun until you run out of ideas.

 

[toquio3]

The point of Minecraft is like the Matrix. No one can be told what the point is, you have to experience it for yourself.

 

[Fraeir]

A few friends of mine run a server of their own, where they built a huge wall around an area filled with torches in order to have as little monsters as possible spawn in there at night.

One of them, in secrecy, built a huge <a href=http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg199/SpitFireMarkA1/Minecraft%20Goodies/2011-03-02_000024.png?t=1301048675> pyramid (81x81x40 blocks), complete with a maze, a monster room, and a mine-filled bridge underneath. He had it rigged so that when a few people run through it to 'claim the treasure' they'd step on mines and fall into the monster pit and die gruesomely.

He started in late January, spent around 4 hours a day on it for about four weeks, and moved over 6000 blocks of sand, as a few reference points.


I, myself, for no other reason than doing it alone, began the construction of my own cathedral, and picked through at least 3 diamond shovels simply flattening the area I was to use (81x51x64, this is at sealevel) which took 1 and a half day to do. then planning a bit using the pixelgrid in photoshop where to put my foundations; So far, only the <a href=http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg199/SpitFireMarkA1/Minecraft%20Goodies/2011-03-09_014746.png?t=1301049027> towers are really completed.


So yeah, there's no set goal, there's no 'victory'. You give yourself a goal and try to pull it off, simple.

Simplicity rules, but that doesn't mean you can't pull off grander things as well.

 

[kwagamon]

I like to think of it like this:
"My name is Notch and I'd like to ask you a question; Is a man not entitled to destroy a locked door?
"No," says the man at Bethesda, "You have to pick the lock!"
"No," says the man at Bioware, "only jedi can do that!"
"No," says the man at Konami, "you have to find a certian piece of junk!"
I rejected those answers, I chose the impossible, I chose... Minecraft.
Minecraft! Where the only doors are the ones you create. If you don't want them anymore, you can always break them down."

The freedom to reshape the world as you see fit, I guess. Fun until you run out of ideas.

You sir win my undying respect. Back on topic, though...

The point of MineCraft is to make something awesome. I've made some pretty damn cool stuff, although the only people that see 90% of it are my sister and her significant other. Do I feel that the time was wasted because only two people saw my work so far? No sirrie! If you're looking for something grander, try looking at the mods on the MineCraft forums. Some add an Adventure Mode, there's a work in progress mod that's adding a heaven area and expanding on the Nether, there are some that just make the game sanity-breaking hard. You could try those out.

As far as griefing being a problem, you should either make your own multiplayer server with a whitelist or get onto a whitelisted server. The potential for griefing is still there, but a lot less likely since everyone on the server needs permission from the operator to be on it.

 

[brunothepig]

I've been playing Minecraft, And I love it. It's a super fun and creative game. My issue with it comes from ... well ... there being no point. There is no reason to do anything. Yeah, I could make a huge satanic skull out of a mountain of lava, But who cares? Whose going to see it? And if someone did, Why should they care? It's what's keeping me back from being completely immersed in this, pointless, yet fun game. I've played multi player but it seems if griefing is a big issue with multi-player. And the last thing I want is a gigantic penis starring back at what once was my demonic skull mountain. Not mention, Everytime I've ever done anything the server ends up getting reset and my work goes with it ...It's like working really hard on this amazing piece of art, putting it in a museum of monkeys HOPING! They don't fling they're fecal matter at it while people periodically come in and remove all of the art from the walls ... and proceed to throw into the trash. So I beg to ask the question, What is the point? Multi player is still sketchy, and single player, no matter how much work you put into it, doesn't matter.

Do you sit around asking what is the point of Legos? Minecraft is very much something that needs a player to drive it; what you bring to the game is all there is. If you need someone to provide a goal for you, Minecraft is not for you.

Well put. Well put indeed.
I will add that if you wanna try multiplayer go on the Escapist server (join the group). I haven't been on in a long while, but the time I spent on their was fun. And I didn't notice much (any?) griefing. Or you could start your own with some friends.

 

[Hiphophippo]

I never considered the two games as similar in any way but I suppose you're right. Minecraft is an impossibly less complex and furry ridden version of Second Life with more charming graphics.

Huh.

Both have equal amounts of furries.
So yeah, your point is almost invalidated.
Also, red stone is fucking complex.

It's not. I was joking. Welcome to the internet.

 

[Vibhor]

I never considered the two games as similar in any way but I suppose you're right. Minecraft is an impossibly less complex and furry ridden version of Second Life with more charming graphics.

Huh.

Both have equal amounts of furries.
So yeah, your point is almost invalidated.
Also, red stone is fucking complex.

It's not. I was joking. Welcome to the internet.

uh, which part were you joking?
Seriously, As far as I see, there is no matter of laughing in your post, and if you think I was defending Second life then guess what?
You are wrong again, I don't even play the damn game.

 

[Hiphophippo]

I never considered the two games as similar in any way but I suppose you're right. Minecraft is an impossibly less complex and furry ridden version of Second Life with more charming graphics.

Huh.

Both have equal amounts of furries.
So yeah, your point is almost invalidated.
Also, red stone is fucking complex.

It's not. I was joking. Welcome to the internet.

uh, which part were you joking?
Seriously, As far as I see, there is no matter of laughing in your post, and if you think I was defending Second life then guess what?
You are wrong again, I don't even play the damn game.

I was making a joke about how Second Life is largely thought of as a haven for furries and sexual deviants.

You seem tense.

 

[Vibhor]

I was making a joke about how Second Life is largely thought of as a haven for furries and sexual deviants.

You seem tense.

So you are stating facts as they are jokes?
What the hell man?
Yes that means second life does have furries, got the info from a reliable source(dramatica)

 

[Hiphophippo]

I was making a joke about how Second Life is largely thought of as a haven for furries and sexual deviants.

You seem tense.

So you are stating facts as they are jokes?
What the hell man?
Yes that means second life does have furries, got the info from a reliable source(dramatica)

There is no source more reliable than dramatica.

 

[Ca3zar416]

Sounds like you've had some pretty crappy people to play the multiplayer with. I just do it with a limited group of friends and our one big rule is don't be a dick. Unless we're making mazes with obstacles. In that case it's the entire point. We make dungeons and challenge people to make it through without becoming pincushions. It's quite entertaining.

 

[Smooth Operator]

The point is it's a toy, you have fun playing with it but none of it matters beyond that, there is no goal to playing with toys.
What you decide to do with the toys and what you incidentally learn is entirely up to you.

 

[DevilWolf47]

It lets you flex your creativity muscles and prove that part of your brain other than the "Press RT to shoot, Press X to Not Die" parts are still functioning. Be honest, when was the last time entertainment had a point?

 

[Video Gone]

I probably shouldn't even post in this thread, because there is a huge risk of me devolving completely into a horrible flame monster, so I'll try and make this quick.
The point is to make your own fun. It's like Garry's Mod, or Will Wright's games. And, I guess, Dwarf Fortress or whatever game you want to pick.
This - and I'm making a general statement here rather than directing flames at you - has to be the complaint about games in general that I've gotten the most sick of.
It all comes down, really, to millions of people asking "Where's the game?!" about everything. I mean, Crysis is either "a bunch of cheat codes in the suit powers" or "a tech demo". Shadow of the Colossus is "just a series of boss battles". Garry's Mod is just an "Empty box with no reason to it".
It frightens me how trained we can become as gamers into demanding handholding. I mean, that's what happened to the sim genre, really. People don't have the patience or desire to create their own fun as much as they used to. A popular theory about Spore is that it was just too ambitious, but I think it may have just been direction from the publishing side to change it from that huge ambitious project into what it became simply because no-one wants simulations any more, and Spore was pitched as Will Wright's magnum opus and a simulation on an amazingly grand scale.
Again, not responding specifically to you, but going off on a tangent about a category of complaints your "What's the point?" post fits into.