Why is the Escapist obsessed with Minecraft?

[V8 Ninja]

Mostly because The Escapist is comprised of PC gamers, and Minecraft has been able to divert the attention of angry PC gamers from bashing on every single game that is on consoles. Also, a news story about any popular game is guaranteed to make you a couple of page views.

As for the new show, I don't get it. It just looks like a popularity grab along with those two, somewhat new shows Drinking Games [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/drinking-games] and No Right Answer [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/no-right-answer].

 

[Eggbert]

I imagine a major part of that would be the fact that the game can be played damn near infinitely, as it has the procedural worlds and that whole build-whatever-you-want thing. As a result, you've got a huge number of people playing it at all times. Then, when these people stop playing, and go talk about what they're doing in games, they're going to talk about what they've been playing the most. Which would be Minecraft. Then they share ideas, go off, build more interesting stuff, and you see even more conversations about amazing things they've managed to construct. And so the cycle continues.

 

[Phlakes]

some other succsesses: What else has been a success this year next to Minecraft?
dead space 2
bulletstorm
gears of war 3
catherine
F.E.A.R 3
crysis 2
resistance 3
PORTAL 2
l.a noire

F.E.A.R. 3 (or I should say Fthreear) was balls. Lots of them.

OT: Minecraft is really, really popular and there are people who 1. want to know what's happening with the game and this site is their primary news source, and 2. like watching things that are relevant to their interests.

 

[Futurenerd]

Mostly because The Escapist is comprised of PC gamers, and Minecraft has been able to divert the attention of angry PC gamers from bashing on every single game that is on consoles. Also, a news story about any popular game is guaranteed to make you a couple of page views.

As for the new show, I don't get it. It just looks like a popularity grab along with those two, somewhat new shows Drinking Games [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/drinking-games] and No Right Answer [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/no-right-answer].

I'm actually a big fan of No Right Answer, Drinking Games on the other hand is just kind of retarded. I have no interest in watching drunk people play games, unless they're Rob and Roamin of Witty Wizard. Those guys are fucking hilarious.

 

[repeating integers]

I think the question you should be asking is;

"Why is the INTERNET obsessed with Minecraft?"

And in the end, the reason is the same: Everyone loves it. It tickles all the right fancies of nerd gamers everywhere, including myself.

 

[Beryl77]

I don't really understand why you made a thread for this. Is it so hard to understand that some people might like something more than you do? I'm not the biggest Minecraft fan either, I play it sometimes and I think it's fun but not that special but I know that there are other people who think differently. Everyone has his own opinion and I'm sure you know that, so I don't really understand why you made a thread for this, there isn't really something to understand here, you don't think it's special, others do, it's that simple.

 

[Zarmi]

Don't know man. We all know that Minecraft sucks.

On a serious note. No idea, I've actually been wondering the same. Is it THAT good? Just seems boring to me...

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

Because a Minecraft update brings new features, and people want to know about them.

Mind-boggling, really.

Personally, I love Minecraft because it encompasses two great things; my current gaming hobbies and my childhood love of Lego. With the added bonus of unlimited space and unlimited creativity to build whatever your imagination can think of! Literally!

Both of these people hit it right on the head. It's basically a lego game with tons of freedom and lots of stuff to do, plus challenges. People love lego. Also: they mostly report on major things, like the addition of new mods and other things that would naturally interest people.

 

[Jacob Haggarty]

You seem to be lacking the knowledge the Minecraft is rather popular. It's not just the escapis, Minecraft is huge. Many, Many people like it, and many people on every gaming forum want to hear about it.

And what I'm saying is, I know that, I just don't understand. Why is Minecraft so popular? What's so special about it that makes everyone think it's the best fucking thing since sliced bread?

Well, thats a totally unreasonable question. Its also un-answerable because everyone will have a slightly different opinion as to why they enjoy it. Some might like the survival aspect, some might like the creativity that it provides, some might just like the fact that its an original game in a time where all we seem to get is reboots, remakes, carbon-copies and sequels. Could be a mixture of all of these, or more, or none, you just wont be able to find out.

Just ignore it if your getting that worked up about it. If you don't enjoy it as much as other people do, theres no need to question why they like it, just find something else to do. Don't lose sleep over why other people think its the PC gaming messiah, whereas you think its just a regular prophet or at the very least a more interesting preacher.

 

[Reincarnatedwolfgod]

i could care less about minecraft. but then again i have a computer that can't even handle the graphic of terraria so what hope do i have of even being able to try mincraft

if can get a new computer i am interested in trying it to see what the hype is about

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Because the users love Minecraft.

Escapecraft was set up by users on the Escapist, not the staff. The server has been around for a year and it's been successful so The Escapist is endorsing it. That was just an intro episode. It's designed to get people to go on the server and you probably won't understand a few things unless you already go on the server.

It's not just The Escapist pushing it on us, we asked for it.

Anyway OT
its a simple case of the vast majority of the escapist loving to jump on to bandwagons, same thing happened with that whole pony nonsense. Expecting people to think for themselves here is expecting too much.

Eh, aside from being a little insulting, that's also not very true. It's not a majority that's into that pony thing or Minecraft, they're just vocal about it, and it's not the same group of people.

 

[The Funslinger]

Snip

Because it allows us to fulfill our block stacking/patterning needs without being diagnosed as obsessive compulsive!

OT: In all seriousness though, I personally love the game. Deal with it.

 

[BabyRaptor]

People like to build things. MineCraft seems to be exceedingly good at allowing them to do so. *shrugpony*

 

[Luxatrum]

You know what's kinda funny? In the latest posts a few minutes ago this and three other Minecraft featured threads were there.

To answer your question, I've played and thought it was fun. Guess so did a lot of other people.

 

[MoeTheMonk]

I own minecraft, had fun with it, and still play around with it every so often. But yeah, I've never really understood why it is hailed as seemingly the best game ever made as of late.
But then, I don't understand why everyone is obsessed with magical rainbow ponies either. So I'm either not dorky enough or out of the loop.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Until today, I thought it was weird that the Escapist wrote an article about every single update to the game, and pretty much everything Notch or Jeb said about what might be coming in the future. But today the Escapist drew the line. Now we have a fucking SHOW about Minecraft.

I watched this show. It's not interesting. It's random skits. It's not even funny.

So, yeah, why is the Escapist so enraptured by Minecraft? I have Minecraft, I play it, but it's not THAT cool. What's so damn special about it that we need to get all riled up everytime something happens that's remotely related to Minecraft?

[Flameshields Activated]

I see more about how "great" Skyrim is then I do about Minecraft...

 

[-Dragmire-]

I don't own Minecraft nor have I ever played it, that said, I do enjoy seeing what everyone has made with that game so I look into some of the news anyway... I just find it interesting.

I haven't got it because I see it as a gigantic time sink I can't afford right now...

 

[Shakomaru]

Well, like James said, it's good because it has one key mechanic, but you can take it as far as you want. I haven't really gotten totally into it yet though.