Minecraft

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Ragdollmaster
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Minecraft

Post by Ragdollmaster » Sun Nov 14, 2010 10:00 pm

http://www.minecraft.net

Minecraft is a game that's become a rapid cult classic recently. There are several game modes in Minecraft, depending on what version of the game you're playing, but the most recent is called Alpha. Alpha is a free-roaming exploration style game that is really quite unique. It centers around three main things; Mining, crafting, and fighting. Mining involves breaking Blocks, big pixelated chunks of terrain (of which there are dozens of types) to get resources. These resources can be used in their raw states, in refined forms, and they can be combined with other resources to craft tools and the like. Crafting is basically a glorified form of drawing; you have a 2x2 grid in your inventory that lets you craft things like sticks, torches, and a workbench. The workbench is a static station that offers a 3x3 grid for creating more advanced tools and the like. For instance, putting down a Stick with two pieces of Wood above it will create a Wooden Sword. Putting down two Sticks on top of each other with a piece of Wood on top creates a Wooden Shovel. There are various tiers of building materials (wood, iron, steel, gold, diamond, and so on) and various tools/things you can make (swords, bows, shovels, axes, pick-axes, hoes, steps, windows, arrows, etc)

The main attraction of Minecraft is the creativity behind it. You can make so many things out of the terrain and the resources you mine. The game feels like living art. In addition to the retro graphics and the simplistic play style, the game features a beautiful soundtrack which, although it plays sporadically, has some amazing atmospheric tracks by C418.

There are also Mobs. These include passive mobs like Sheep, Pigs, Cows, Chickens, Fish, and the Zombie Pigman, along with aggressive mobs aka Monsters like Skeletons, Zombies, Ghasts, Creepers (aka exploding green penises), and so on. There's also a realm called the Nether that you access through custom Portals which is essentially hell- full of lava and monsters, but it has valuable materials, and you travel much faster in the Nether. Just go about twenty feet in the Nether, make a new Portal, and you will find yourself much further away in the real world than where you started.

There's also a rough multiplayer mode with no monsters and no working health, but people have gotten creative with their friends and created games like Spleef. In Spleef, you and a number of other players (typically 4 in total) are on an arena made of a single layer of blocks, underneath which is lava or water, and you all try to mine each other off with pick axes or shovels. Here's a video of me playing leaf-wood-hellstone-lava Spleef with the boys at Data Realms (yes, that is a Batman skin I have there)



And here are some screenshots.

Image

Image

Image




Minecraft is currently 9.95 Euros (roughly $13.65 USD) but will be 20 Euros when it is finished. Buy it now to get the future updates for free. There is a free browser version for single player and multiplayer on Minecraft.net which is essentially the outdated versions of the game that Notch has decided to just put up as freeware.

WARNING - THIS GAME IS EXTREMELY ADDICTIVE I SPENT LIKE 10 HOURS PLAYING IT TODAY AND YESTERDAY. APPROACH WITH EXTREME CAUTION.

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Freshbite
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Re: Minecraft

Post by Freshbite » Sun Nov 14, 2010 10:27 pm

Wow, it took like, a minute and a half before I realized that you were in that video.
But yeah, Minecraft is great fun. As long as you have someone else to play with, the Multiplayer Survival Mode is also a great amusement, even with all the bugs and errors.

If anyone feel like it, here's a video by SeaNanners explaining the basics of the survival mode of Minecraft:


It's part of a series with 17 episodes, at the moment.
After like, the third episode, the instructional part is past and from there on it's mostly just for the lulz.

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Grayswandir
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Re: Minecraft

Post by Grayswandir » Sun Nov 14, 2010 10:48 pm

This game throws it's scat at my computer and then proceeds to kick it in the nadgers repeatedly.

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Zhukov
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Post by Zhukov » Mon Nov 15, 2010 12:11 pm

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

However, I lost interest rather fast. Mainly because the game has no narrative, no challenge and no overarching goal. Sure, you can build awesome stuff, but there's no point to it beyond just doing it to prove you can.

Yes, I could construct spiralling towers of glass and gold that pierce the heavens, bridges that span the globe and cities beneath the sea. But since I already know that I can do that, why go to the effort of actually doing it? And if I did build something epic, what would I do with it then? Look at it? Jump off the top of it? Set fire to it? Blow it up?

I might try the multiplayer at some point. At least then I would be able to show off my awesome creations. That is to say, show them off for the two minutes it would take for the hordes of griefers to show up with picks and explosives and descend upon said creations like vultures upon a corpse.

Speaking of which, this is the one game that has tempted me to try my own hand at a bit of griefing. Just imagine the possibilities. You could place land-mines just outside people's doors. You could burrow under someones house, load their foundations with TNT and blow it sky high from a safe distance. You could set up deadfalls of sand or gravel. You could wall people in with obsidian. You could herd creepers into people's buildings. Or you could just be boring and steal people's supplies. Oh, and let's not forget that anything built of wood is just one flint and steel away from hilarity.

So... anyway, cool game. Lots of possibilities. Keeping an eye on it. Griefer's paradise.

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Freshbite
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Re:

Post by Freshbite » Mon Nov 15, 2010 1:36 pm

Zhukov wrote:You could place land-mines just outside people's doors. You could burrow under someones house, load their foundations with TNT and blow it sky high from a safe distance. You could set up deadfalls of sand or gravel.
And the most beautiful part of it is that noone will ever know it was you.
Taking into considerations that you are sneaky enough.

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Jendraz
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Re: Minecraft

Post by Jendraz » Mon Nov 15, 2010 2:15 pm

Minecraft is great. Can't tell if I'm looking forward to its completion or if I like it how it is.

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rudel_ic
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Re: Minecraft

Post by rudel_ic » Mon Nov 15, 2010 2:17 pm

Minecraft <=> OCD

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Ragdollmaster
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Re: Minecraft

Post by Ragdollmaster » Mon Nov 15, 2010 3:59 pm

Yeah, I know what you mean, Zhukov, but in a way that's one of the attractions of Minecraft. You're just tossed into this world and you have to survive as best you can. Now if you know what you're doing (or if the difficulty is at "Peaceful"), it's not really much of a challenge, but it is a pretty cool new take on gaming IMO.

However, keep in mind that Minecraft is still a heavy work in progress, and Notch is adding new stuff every day. I find myself comparing it to Cortex Command- sure, that game started off with no story, no menu, and no modding capabilities (it was essentially just soldiers fighting with a handful of guns), but it grew into this Goliath of an indie game with fully destructible terrain, modding support, Lua capabilities, and there is even a rough, laggy, very prototype multiplayer version of the game on Data Realms that was created entirely by some of the geniuses in the community.

Or, to use a more local example, Overgrowth. It started off as a round moving ball in a plane devoid of anything save a concrete block or two, and now we're on Alpha version hundred-something with these amazing looking textures and mod tools.

I don't know where Minecraft will finish, but I do know it's pretty fun to play as is, and I think it's just going to get better. Notch knows what he's doing- the man practically became a millionaire overnight. In my opinion, that's no fluke :wink:

Also; IMO, the satisfaction of building something epic comes from the act itself. Yes, it's great to look at the product, but the fact that you had to put in all of the work to build it makes it feel a lot greater. True, it's not useful for much beyond aesthetics, but aesthetics can be enjoyable in of themselves. Like I said before, in its current state, Minecraft is like living art.



As for griefers; they are quite annoying. In whitty's server, he has set up a whitelist of usernames that the server allows to enter. All one has to do is go to his thread and say, "Hey, add the username John Q. Example bro", and he will do so. If your username is not on the whitelist, you are automatically kicked and banned by the server upon attempted entrance.

tldr no griefers. Anyone who gets the temptation can easily be kicked and their name taken off the whitelist. I'm sure there will be more official support for this in the future, but even now, you can have a relatively cool multiplayer experience so long as you don't play with douchebags.

Marcus
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Re:

Post by Marcus » Wed Nov 17, 2010 1:26 am

Zhukov wrote:Yeah, it's pretty cool.

However, I lost interest rather fast. Mainly because the game has no narrative, no challenge and no overarching goal. Sure, you can build awesome stuff, but there's no point to it beyond just doing it to prove you can.

Yes, I could construct spiralling towers of glass and gold that pierce the heavens, bridges that span the globe and cities beneath the sea. But since I already know that I can do that, why go to the effort of actually doing it? And if I did build something epic, what would I do with it then? Look at it? Jump off the top of it? Set fire to it? Blow it up?

I might try the multiplayer at some point. At least then I would be able to show off my awesome creations. That is to say, show them off for the two minutes it would take for the hordes of griefers to show up with picks and explosives and descend upon said creations like vultures upon a corpse.

Speaking of which, this is the one game that has tempted me to try my own hand at a bit of griefing. Just imagine the possibilities. You could place land-mines just outside people's doors. You could burrow under someones house, load their foundations with TNT and blow it sky high from a safe distance. You could set up deadfalls of sand or gravel. You could wall people in with obsidian. You could herd creepers into people's buildings. Or you could just be boring and steal people's supplies. Oh, and let's not forget that anything built of wood is just one flint and steel away from hilarity.

So... anyway, cool game. Lots of possibilities. Keeping an eye on it. Griefer's paradise.
I prepurchased the game a few days ago, and as of now, I am the only one of my friends that is plyaing the game.
I do feel that the game can get boring if you play it alone, so I guess I just have to wait for some of my friends to catch up and play with me.

Venatir
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Re: Minecraft

Post by Venatir » Thu Nov 18, 2010 10:01 am

Oh yea, that game.

I tried it out. I got bored because there was nothing to do but killing sheep.
It might be interesting if the graphics was a bit better, but meh. I like MW2 way better.

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Grayswandir
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Re: Minecraft

Post by Grayswandir » Thu Nov 18, 2010 10:06 am

Venatir wrote:Oh yea, that game.

I tried it out. I got bored because there was nothing to do but killing sheep.
It might be interesting if the graphics was a bit better, but meh. I like MW2 way better.
Whoosh.

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Sandurz
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Re: Minecraft

Post by Sandurz » Thu Nov 18, 2010 4:54 pm

I love this game. I started playing it, and two hours later I was all "WTF JUST HAPPENED?"

This is why I stopped coming here for a while.

ADDICT------->

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Ragdollmaster
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Re: Minecraft

Post by Ragdollmaster » Thu Nov 18, 2010 7:31 pm

>I tried it out. I got bored because there was nothing to do but killing sheep.
It might be interesting if the graphics was a bit better, but meh. I like MW2 way better.

An unfinished indie game made on an original engine by one amateur programmer is hardly comparable to a triple-A mega-corporate shooter developed by a team numbering into the hundreds. Though if you want to get technical, I've played Minecraft in 10 hour shifts before- MW2, I could never get more than 2 hours in before I had to take a break.

Plus, kill sheep? Yeah. Boring. Try making super landforms (ie giant waterfalls) or buildings, it's actually fun if you like design and creativity. There's monsters in the game that you fight, too, unless you have the difficulty set low. The Nether is also a fun place to visit (and one that I still have not been to yet)



My summation of the game: Epic, but incomplete. Thus, it can only get more epic. Conclusion: Why have you not bought it?

Gray, I am disappoint.

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Grayswandir
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Re: Minecraft

Post by Grayswandir » Fri Nov 19, 2010 1:28 am

You forgot to attack his mother and insult his intelligence. Why are you disappoint? Perhaps "Whiff" been better effect of sound.

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Ragdollmaster
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Re: Minecraft

Post by Ragdollmaster » Fri Nov 19, 2010 6:23 am

You seem to have confused me with Ren.

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