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The secret of Minecraft (2014)

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Re: The secret of Minecraft (2014)

#191

Post by instagraham »

This secret knowledge is common to older competitive games like Counter Strike. The game does not explicitly tell you about recoil control, or economy, or any of the other aspects that are crucial to surviving even entry-level ranked play.

I've mixed feelings about it - deploying secret knowledge almost feels like cheating (a staggering amount of casual players don't do basic recoil control like 'pull mouse down', so when you play against them you have a clear edge) but I also don't like having to Google the right way to play a game.

Minecraft breaks all my usual expectations of this, because it's fun no matter what you do.

Re: The secret of Minecraft (2014)

#192

Post by Malcolmlisk »

ilaksh wrote: post #106

He makes a good point about "secret" knowledge, but I don't think that's the real secret. I believe almost everyone, including the author here, misunderstands what made Minecraft take off. It was NOT just the fact that you have creative control (which is what most people mistakenly assume is the main point) or that you need to learn how to craft to advance, or the procedural generation. It was the _combination_ of al…

Graphics are always secondary, no matter what. Graphics are a tool in videogames. You have impressive light management like in DayZ with graphics from 10 years ago, and you have one of the most expected games and one of the best games in the last decade which is elden ring (or zelda for the same purpose) that have normal graphics (or even cartoonish in zelda's case) and does not matter a lot.

Re: The secret of Minecraft (2014)

#193

Post by zimpenfish »

trallnag wrote: post #160
lolinder wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the kind of pessimistic take that gets a lot of traction on HN, but man does it not match my experience. > Minecraft mods were how a lot of teenagers got acquainted with scripting, and it's a lot harder to get started with your own server since MS bought it and forced it to authenticate through Azure. First off, the pivot from mods to running a server is sort of related, I guess? But it's not at all clear how…

> Microsoft bought Minecraft in 2014 That was such a long time ago... I remember people proclaiming the death of Minecraft.

> I remember people proclaiming the death of Minecraft.

To be fair, it's on a long slow Yahoo!-style death path - Microsoft have not been good stewards of the game. They've owned it for 10 years and we're still having to rely on 3rd party mods monkey-patching the game for basic optimisations and QOL improvements. The bug tracker is awash with things that should be fixed but are ignored in favour of "mob vote of the year" and forcing in things they can tie to merch / media and IAPs.

Microsoft bought Minecraft to milk it dry for money - and they are doing that amazingly effectively - but they did not buy it to make the game better or their users happier.

Re: The secret of Minecraft (2014)

#194

Post by spoiler »

sdwr wrote: post #162
npunt wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree. You can't reduce an experience like Minecraft to any one thing, it's the formula that makes it so enduring. re: harping on Minecrafts graphics, there's a lot of people that completely misunderstand the purpose of graphics in games and just think greater fidelity = better. Sure, in AAA games especially, graphics are there to sell the game, and that's certainly one part of the creative ensemble that the…

Minecraft is the best building game ever made. It's perfect like Bach - built so simply you can see how it was done, and fits into the constraints of the medium perfectly.

A game that has similar building (albeit less "scriptable" since there's no redstone) is Enshrouded. They use smaller voxels and a different polygonisation algorithm (seems to also differ based on voxel material tool). It's a really fun game, even if there's less variety than Minecraft. Also it's still in early access. I recommend you check it out if you enjoy building in Minecraft

Re: The secret of Minecraft (2014)

#195

Post by brisky »

kevinsync wrote: post #86

Microsoft didn't ruin Minecraft -- all they did was graciously allow the Java version (moddable) to continue to exist and improve while making Bedrock work consistently cross-platform (way more important than you may realize, so many kids are introduced via phones and tablets) and be the place where branded IP / predictable content goes. My 12 year old son has been playing since he was 6 I think, and is an unbelievab…

It's just the feeling, but I think Microsoft is itching to kill the Java edition

Re: The secret of Minecraft (2014)

#197

Post by sufficer »

npunt wrote: post #112
ilaksh wrote: post #106

He makes a good point about "secret" knowledge, but I don't think that's the real secret. I believe almost everyone, including the author here, misunderstands what made Minecraft take off. It was NOT just the fact that you have creative control (which is what most people mistakenly assume is the main point) or that you need to learn how to craft to advance, or the procedural generation. It was the _combination_ of al…

Totally agree. You can't reduce an experience like Minecraft to any one thing, it's the formula that makes it so enduring. re: harping on Minecrafts graphics, there's a lot of people that completely misunderstand the purpose of graphics in games and just think greater fidelity = better. Sure, in AAA games especially, graphics are there to sell the game, and that's certainly one part of the creative ensemble that the…

There can also be too many graphics and effects going on. I played the Elden Ring dlc and a few fights there are so many particle effects going I literally have no idea what's going on sometimes.

Re: The secret of Minecraft (2014)

#198

Post by [deleted] »

momojo wrote: post #46

> I’m a writer, and don’t get me wrong: To publish a plain ol’ book that people actually want to read is still a solid achievement. But I think Markus Persson and his studio have staked out a new kind of achievement, a deeper kind: To make the system that calls forth the book, which is not just a story but a real magick manual that grants its reader (who consumes it avidly, endlessly, all day, at school, at night, un…

[deleted]

Re: The secret of Minecraft (2014)

#199

Post by 00_hum »

i remember when the first demo of minecraft was released on a forum thread. the handfull of people who tried it didnt think very highly of it. one would imagine they all would have been excited that the most popular game in history had been released… they were too stupid to see what was right in front of them.

Re: The secret of Minecraft (2014)

#200

Post by Carlseymanh »

hoten wrote: post #27
Carlseymanh wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot think of any game that could approximate a full-time job as much as EVE (I am currently obsessed with factorio, which I play after working for 8 hours on production line automation systems)

Oh boy. Do many of your colleagues play, or at least understand your obsession? this reminds me of truckers playing trucking games in their rigs during downtime.

Oh yeah, i'm playing in a server with a colleague. The sane ones give us the look™ when mentioning it though.
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