I Just Started Playing Minecraft--I'm Mesmerized

kashiegamer

Minecraft is a game that has been out for a long time. I despised its low resolution graphics and the absence of curves and slopes in the game.

 

One day though, I read in an article online that Notch said that one of his inspirations for making the game are roguelike games. So, for the people familiar with me, you know that I am an addict when it comes to diablo-like games, which can be considered as far descendants of roguelike.

 

So the other day, I think it was either Friday or Saturday, I tried Minecraft, v1.1 survival mode, modded with LB's 256x photorealistic texture pack. Boy was I mesmerized. It gave this Morrowind-feel of exploration, resource management, and content creation--add to the fact that I love creating my own things. The best thing about the game is that it doesn't force any goal for me--I always find myself setting my own goals for myself. It's either I'll be starting the [in-game] day by mining, or preparing a farmland, or harvesting my own crops, or preparing fences for my farms and animals, or luring wild cows and chickens (sheep are elusive, or maybe I've killed them all) to the safety of my farm, or maybe breeding these animals, or maybe killing them for food.

 

Minerim (Skyrim/Minecraft Mashup)

 

And a la Skyrim, 'that's just barely scratching the surface of the game'. I saw some videos is YouTube about house-creation, furniture creation, lamp post creation (yeah this is a big revelation to me), sliding doors, calculators, computers---all made by players. I want to learn how to create these things like they do!

 

Minecraft is a true sandbox experience for me. My one wish is that maybe Minecraft can be upgraded into a modern 3d-game, like Morrowind or Skyrim. How I wish to recreate my experiences in Minecraft with games that has the graphics of Morrowind or Skyrim.

 

How many of you have tried the game? Did you like it, too?

Supergrass

I think Minecraft is a great game, but I don't really enjoy playing it anymore. The reason being is that the game is constantly evolving.. so with each new patch it seems like he's adding a new biome or something major where you gotta reset your map.

 

Plus I only find the fun to last maybe a couple weeks or so. I like to build, sure, but only to the point where it benefits me. Like houses, farms, minecart stations, etc.. so you build all that within a week. And mining is practically pointless as you get all your needed tools within one mining session. 

Kyleran

My friend tells me her 12 year old son and 9 year old daughter are entralled by the game, its all they want to play these days.

So obviously it appeals to all ages, must be something to the forumla and you'd think some AAA MMORPG Dev would take a hard look at that and consider making a title more along its lines than the standard theme park model so often aped these days.

 

Toxia

Minecraft is the bomb. Definetely one of my top 10 of all time.

The reason i don't play it so much now is that i'm just too good at it(besides creating stuff). As for finding resources, in about a days time i can have everything i need to have diamond tools and sword, iron armor, a nether portal, blaze spawner. then it's all about hunting enderman to get some pearls, then i'm off to the End. one dragon later, poof, roll credits.

When i first started though, it was truly addicting. i've built tons of stuff, even made my own city before! and finding those first few diamonds and squeeling in delight while spinning in my chair, until i fell into a lava pit that ate them was one of the most emotional moments in my gaming life ^_^

lalartu

now, try Terraria

it was the Indie GOTY of 2011. Just as Minecraft was last year

It's the same premise but in 2d with some awesome fights

Toxia

Originally posted by lalartu

now, try Terraria

it was the Indie GOTY of 2011. Just as Minecraft was last year

It's the same premise but in 2d with some awesome fights

Tried it, couldn't stand it after playing minecraft. 2d Aint Fo Me! (Unless we're talking some SNES, then its on!)

Reprobate

Originally posted by lalartu

now, try Terraria

it was the Indie GOTY of 2011. Just as Minecraft was last year

It's the same premise but in 2d with some awesome fights

Yes try Terraria. I don't have time for mmos anymore but I do play Terraria some here and there and its a blast.

SuprGamerX

  Heh , being a lego addict myself , I found minecraft to be very enjoyable. 

Got nothing bad to say about it.  It's a great solid game!

lalartu

Terraria has a lot more RPG feel to it + awesome weapons and bosses which are totally fun to beat

I play it at work a lot because it's so easy to alt-tab hehe

 

Ceridith

Minecraft is great, but I've gotten bored of vanilla, despite all of the 'adventure update' additions.

That said, the game is still incredibly addictive since I've been playing with the Buildcraft and IndustrialCraft2 mods.

Nilden

Add minecraft to MMORPG.com!

AdamTM

Found Minecraft to be really boring, love Terraria though.

neuronomad

My six year old and I have spent many a hour playing Minecraft.  It is a great sandbox and as someone mentioned it is fun in the same way Legos are.    Personally I love to just set creative mode and build stuff.   My daughter on the other hand loves to explore the randomly generated worlds and set up TNT to blow up mountains.   All in all it was well worth the price we paid for it (had it on preorder).   Is it anything revolutionary?  Nope.  Does it look amazing? Not really.  But it is simple and fun to see exactly what all you can make out of the tools given. 

I am not much of an artist so my stuff is pretty plain, but to see the power of the game look up where people have made the Enterprise in game, and other stuff like Zelda maps and so forth.   Amazing what a few dozen different  type of blocks can make.

AutemOx

There are plugins for minecraft to transfer characters from world to world, and there are some minecraft universes made out of 3-5 worlds so can have up to 300-500 players.  I think that qualifies as a MMORPG!!  They should add it here.

I like minecraft a lot, I think its progression is perfect, theres always something new and interesting to create, etc, that is increasingly hard to do.  The plug ins and modding is excellent.  What I would like to see is a more official multiplayer server list so its easier to find the server type I want and also on-the-fly downloading of client side mods so that servers can have all the cool mods that require client side components.

kashiegamer

Minecraft is great. I feel at home there. It's like Skyrim/Morrowind but without the pressure (urgency to finish quests) and action (constant battles with random mobs). I just relax in Minecraft.

 

I want to try other mods, too. Two, to be exact: Millenaire and Vegetation Overhaul. The two mods are great but it bugs my game--I'm experiencing lag, and I don't know which is the cause. So there, I'm stuck with Vanilla as of now. But that's okay with me, since I haven't explored the whole game yet.

 

I'm really thrilled to explore the game. I want to get better stones (all I have right now are cobblestones). I don't have a bucket, I don't know how to operate pistons, and I don't know what redstones are. Ironically, that's the fun part. I don't know anything about the game. Exploring will be more fun because of that.

 

EDIT:

Many people are mentioning Terraria. How is it? I don't want to switch games quickly, but I did see a Minerraria mod, which supposedly ports Terraria features to Minecraft. Has anyone tried the mod? Is it good?

Krashner

Originally posted by kashiegamer

Minecraft is great. I feel at home there. It's like Skyrim/Morrowind but without the pressure (urgency to finish quests) and action (constant battles with random mobs). I just relax in Minecraft.

 

I want to try other mods, too. Two, to be exact: Millenaire and Vegetation Overhaul. The two mods are great but it bugs my game--I'm experiencing lag, and I don't know which is the cause. So there, I'm stuck with Vanilla as of now. But that's okay with me, since I haven't explored the whole game yet.

 

I'm really thrilled to explore the game. I want to get better stones (all I have right now are cobblestones). I don't have a bucket, I don't know how to operate pistons, and I don't know what redstones are. Ironically, that's the fun part. I don't know anything about the game. Exploring will be more fun because of that.

 

EDIT:

Many people are mentioning Terraria. How is it? I don't want to switch games quickly, but I did see a Minerraria mod, which supposedly ports Terraria features to Minecraft. Has anyone tried the mod? Is it good?

Millenaire has some serious performance issues, hopefully when they finally get around to making the regular villages matter it will be simillar to Millenaire. As for Terraria, it's awesome, but to me it doesn't have the longevity of Minecraft since every world is limited in size.

TheLizardbones

I have been looking at Minecraft recently and am debating whether or not to get it. I'm really interested in running a server of some sort. It makes me wonder what is missing from the game for it to be some sort of mmorpg. For instance, if I build a house, can I save that house as an object, and just plop down more houses someplace else? How does the game handle different areas? Is the entire world persistent? Does the client have to store the entire world if something changes on the server in multiplayer mode? I suppose all questions will be answered at some point, but still I wonder.

** edit **
Some of these mods are a little ridiculous. Just sayin'.

AutemOx

Originally posted by lizardbones

I have been looking at Minecraft recently and am debating whether or not to get it. I'm really interested in running a server of some sort. It makes me wonder what is missing from the game for it to be some sort of mmorpg. For instance, if I build a house, can I save that house as an object, and just plop down more houses someplace else? How does the game handle different areas? Is the entire world persistent? Does the client have to store the entire world if something changes on the server in multiplayer mode? I suppose all questions will be answered at some point, but still I wonder.



** edit **

Some of these mods are a little ridiculous. Just sayin'.

The world is saved serverside, entirely.  With certain mods you can save 'chunks' of the world and place them in other worlds, but that is more of a administrative thing so normal players on a multiplayer server couldn't do it.  It is totally persistent, loading screens only occur if you link multiple worlds/servers together or when travelling between the normal world and 'hell' (nether) world or 'cloud' (aether) which is pretty much never.  The client streams in information about the world as they explore it, so if theres some lag they can actually run to the end of the area they've loaded so far and sit there staring into blackness waiting for the world to load (thats when you know you are on a slow server).

TheLizardbones

---

Originally posted by wormywyrm

Originally posted by lizardbones
I have been looking at Minecraft recently and am debating whether or not to get it. I'm really interested in running a server of some sort. It makes me wonder what is missing from the game for it to be some sort of mmorpg. For instance, if I build a house, can I save that house as an object, and just plop down more houses someplace else? How does the game handle different areas? Is the entire world persistent? Does the client have to store the entire world if something changes on the server in multiplayer mode? I suppose all questions will be answered at some point, but still I wonder.

** edit **
Some of these mods are a little ridiculous. Just sayin'.

The world is saved serverside, entirely.  With certain mods you can save 'chunks' of the world and place them in other worlds, but that is more of a administrative thing so normal players on a multiplayer server couldn't do it.  It is totally persistent, loading screens only occur if you link multiple worlds/servers together or when travelling between the normal world and 'hell' (nether) world or 'cloud' (aether) which is pretty much never.  The client streams in information about the world as they explore it, so if theres some lag they can actually run to the end of the area they've loaded so far and sit there staring into blackness waiting for the world to load (thats when you know you are on a slow server).

---

Very interesting. Thank you. This seems to be a lot more like what the Lego Universe should have been. It's not just that you can build anything in the game, but after looking at the mods people have done, it seems like you could create a lot of different kind of games inside Minecraft if you wanted. It's like a sandbox made out of sandboxes.

kashiegamer

This I can reply to. Yes, it's a sandbox with a modding community: and that's a great combination.

 

Right now though I'm still playing Vanilla survival mode, as it captures the meaning of a Sandbox Game with a Sandbox Gameplay--meaning you are in a world with a set of rules (you have health, hunger, and you can die, there are mobs that are gentle and others that are aggressive, etc) but you have the freedom to do anything within the game world as long as it follows the rules (such as, you have to mine in order to have blocks, not all blocks are infinite, water flows naturally, you cannot fly, etc).

 

I like this better than the creative mode. Creative mode is the side of minecraft most exposed to non-minecraft players. The creative mode is a pure computer lego game. I prefer survival mode ( I still have that gamer side of me that wants challenges, even though I consider myself a casual gamer now).

 

I suggest you try it. My first day in survival mode was hard and memorable (no tools, no weapons, no food, no home).

AutemOx

I suppose its a sandbox RPG, but if you are trying to apply it to a genre it really fits better with builder games like Roller Coaster Tycoon or Sim City than RPGs.

Gudrunix

Originally posted by kashiegamer

 EDIT:

Many people are mentioning Terraria. How is it? I don't want to switch games quickly, but I did see a Minerraria mod, which supposedly ports Terraria features to Minecraft. Has anyone tried the mod? Is it good?

Terraria is great fun.  It isn't really the same thing as Minecraft, although there are common concepts - it is also a sandbox where you can explore, build, fight, etc., but the similarities end there.  Terraria is 2d and has a large amount of platforming and fighting, and much of the focus is on acquiring gear that is rare or difficult to craft.  There is still plenty of building and exploring, but it's more closely tied to gear acquisition and fighting enemies than in Minecraft.

Plus, it's super cheap at $10 - very frequently on sale for less on Steam.

The main thing I find to be interesting about it is how it adds structure to the game, but in a dynamic way.  Environments are bulit dynamically but are still convincing.  Put down enough mud blocks, plant some jungle grass seeds, and very soon you will have a jungle biome that looks like a jungle and starts spawning jungle creatures.  Build a home for an NPC and meet certain conditions (e.g., free the NPC from the dungeon), and the NPC will move into the home.  It's a novel way of creating structure in the game, without removing the sandbox feel and putting the game "on rails".  Too many game developers think that the only way to add structure to a game is to have static environments and stationary NPCs with "!" over their head - Terraria shows how structure can be added in a more natural and dynamic way.

In general, I do think the Minecraft/Terraria phenomenon is here to stay - and that big game companies should be seriously exploring doing AAA titles that use concepts pioneered by MC/Terr.  Yes, that will result in the usual crying over big companies "ruining" the genre, but these games could really benefit from big-budget development, even if some compromises are made in the process.  Better graphics would definitely help - I want to like Minecraft, really, I do, but its graphics make my eyes bleed.

Kenny39

Such necro threads make me sad. Where'd all the time gone?