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The secret of Minecraft (2014)

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Re: The secret of Minecraft (2014)

#2
Call me a hater but I think Microsoft ruined Minecraft. The "secret knowledge" that the author describes is no longer a thing. The game shows you all the recipes. There are way too many blocks now so there's not as much need for creativity in building.

Simplicity made Minecraft a true sandbox. There was no real objective, just blocks and ways to arrange them. Now there's always an objective to get the next magic/powerful item.

Re: The secret of Minecraft (2014)

#3
The article says that there is no built in tutorial or guide, but that isn't true. For as long as I have played the game, there has been the basic prompts that tell you to cut down a tree and make a crafting table. Accessible from the inventory or crafting table are recipes for every single item you can craft with the materials you have found. That's all the guide you need, as the rest is sandbox. All the progression can be discovered and needs no guide, though people usually use guides anyways.

Re: The secret of Minecraft (2014)

#4
> The genius of Minecraft is that the game does not specify how this is done.

Is this still true? Long time ago I last played Minecraft, but it's terrible common for games to change to be more mass-market friendly when bought by larger companies (Microsoft in this case), so it would surprise me if its still like that.

Re: The secret of Minecraft (2014)

#5

The article says that there is no built in tutorial or guide, but that isn't true. For as long as I have played the game, there has been the basic prompts that tell you to cut down a tree and make a crafting table. Accessible from the inventory or crafting table are recipes for every single item you can craft with the materials you have found. That's all the guide you need, as the rest is sandbox. All the progression…

I only remember Minecraft from when it had no built in tutorials what so ever. Seems that has changed now at least, for better or worse.

Re: The secret of Minecraft (2014)

#6
post #4

> The genius of Minecraft is that the game does not specify how this is done. Is this still true? Long time ago I last played Minecraft, but it's terrible common for games to change to be more mass-market friendly when bought by larger companies (Microsoft in this case), so it would surprise me if its still like that.

[deleted]

Re: The secret of Minecraft (2014)

#7
post #4

> The genius of Minecraft is that the game does not specify how this is done. Is this still true? Long time ago I last played Minecraft, but it's terrible common for games to change to be more mass-market friendly when bought by larger companies (Microsoft in this case), so it would surprise me if its still like that.

It tells you to cut down a tree and make a crafting table, beyond that there isn't anything (bedrock edition may be different I haven't touched it in a while)

Re: The secret of Minecraft (2014)

#8
post #2

Call me a hater but I think Microsoft ruined Minecraft. The "secret knowledge" that the author describes is no longer a thing. The game shows you all the recipes. There are way too many blocks now so there's not as much need for creativity in building. Simplicity made Minecraft a true sandbox. There was no real objective, just blocks and ways to arrange them. Now there's always an objective to get the next magic/powe…

It is interesting that despite the overwhelming success of Minecraft, Microsoft/the team building it still felt that it needed to have a full tutorial system and overarching story objectives tacked on it to further encourage players to get hooked on it if the open-ended aspect of it didn't appeal.

Re: The secret of Minecraft (2014)

#9
post #2

Call me a hater but I think Microsoft ruined Minecraft. The "secret knowledge" that the author describes is no longer a thing. The game shows you all the recipes. There are way too many blocks now so there's not as much need for creativity in building. Simplicity made Minecraft a true sandbox. There was no real objective, just blocks and ways to arrange them. Now there's always an objective to get the next magic/powe…

I never understood the appeal of having game knowledge on a separate websites.

I can understand this situation happening because of lack of development resources. Like - yeah, it's easier to just let the community to write the documentation and concentrate on the game, if you're small company.

But why would it appeal to the actual players? It's not really secret knowledge, there are wiki websites with all the recipes.

Re: The secret of Minecraft (2014)

#10

The article says that there is no built in tutorial or guide, but that isn't true. For as long as I have played the game, there has been the basic prompts that tell you to cut down a tree and make a crafting table. Accessible from the inventory or crafting table are recipes for every single item you can craft with the materials you have found. That's all the guide you need, as the rest is sandbox. All the progression…

> Accessible from the inventory or crafting table are recipes for every single item you can craft with the materials you have found.

That wasn't there at first. I'm not sure when it was added, but this article is from 10 years ago, and I wouldn't be surprised if it hadn't been added yet.

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