What Gaming Can Learn From Minecraft

I will admit this up front: I am addicted to Minecraft. I cannot stop playing. Collecting, crafting, building, and demolishing little pixel-y blocks has pretty much taken over my life. The beauty of the game is that it’s broad enough to accommodate varying play styles, whether you want to burrow like a mole, or go charging into danger like a drunken viking. Hiding from pixel-y monsters in a dungeon of my own making seems safer than venturing out in daylight, even when I need supplies. But that’s just me.

Why does it hold my attention like it does? I have a few ideas. A big part of Minecraft’s appeal, to me, is that it is very much like virtual Legos. You can build almost anything, and unlike Legos, they don’t even necessarily have to be attached to anything. They don’t even have to obey gravity. Add to that using your Legos to fend off monsters and survive each night, and you have magic. All things the video game industry seems to have forgotten.

Minecraft seems simple. But the pixels and blocks that hold the world together are just there to mask a fairly deep crafting system, as well as a single player mode that is constantly trying to kill you. It starts small, you need so much of one thing to make another. But then it kind of snowballs. You can combine certain materials into others, or into tools that make it easier to collect materials you need for other items. Then, kids, you are hooked. Much like drug dealers giving away the first taste for free to lure in potential buyers, just playing around with the crafting system will wind up eating hours of your time.

The resource mangement is perfect. You have plenty of item slots to start, and if you want to squirrel stuff away for later, you can always build a treasure chest or two. Run out of something, though, and you’re going to need to plan. Torches? You’ll probably need torches. And a pickaxe. Possibly a shovel. Definitely a sword. Do you leave your craft box, or take it with you? Do you need your furnace? How about all that wood? Buckets? Everyone needs buckets.

Everyone will not have the same Minecraft experience. When you first start the game, it builds the world from scratch, and throws you right in the middle of it. Nothing will be in the same place for another player, or in multiplayer. The world is entirely yours, to do with what you please. Or to die horribly while wandering it, depending on if the monsters have any say.

There is quite a bit the rest of the gaming world can take away from Minecraft, or at least pay attention to. Granted, I realize it’s still under construction, so to speak, but it’s already gotten so much right that it was worth mentioning. The loot, the world, the monsters, even your pixel-y little character, all hiding video game crack underneath the low-rez graphics. I can only imagine what will happen when the game is finished, other than me losing hours of sleep.