Amarinth:

Engarde:
You most clearly forgot to mention the heart shattering agony of creepers. Excuse me while I grieve over my broken replica of the Chichen Itza.

I swear creepers are evil incarnate.

They will always, without fail, ambush you when you least expect it. Usually while you are standing right next to the building you JUST finished constructing and before you have a chance to yell "Oh shit, not agai--", they blow the living daylights of you and put a crater the size of Manhattan in your new building...

I once mined into a cave with teeny holes in the roof. I wondered what they could possibly do. Take a guess....

Shamus,
My name is Paul Spooner.
You can read more about me here http://minecraft.net/credits.jsp
I wrote a little article about exotic uses for portals a few years ago.
I also enjoy coding parametric geometry http://www.peripheralarbor.com/gallery/v/CG+Art/scripts/
You're starting game development too, I hear, and I want in on "Craft of CraftCraft"!

I didn't like it.

Hear me out before you lynch me.

I KNOW it's indie and I KNOW it's powerful but it just didn't grab me. Perhaps it's growing up in a boxed environment like Ant Attack and 3D Monster Maze, but it just seems like effort poured into say "Look at my effort".

I'm sure thousands, if not millions, look at it and say "WOW", but I'll stick to Dwarf Fortress.

The_root_of_all_evil:
I didn't like it.

Hear me out before you lynch me.

I KNOW it's indie and I KNOW it's powerful but it just didn't grab me. Perhaps it's growing up in a boxed environment like Ant Attack and 3D Monster Maze, but it just seems like effort poured into say "Look at my effort".

I'm sure thousands, if not millions, look at it and say "WOW", but I'll stick to Dwarf Fortress.

Crazy idea here...what would happen if we merge Minecraft with Dorf Fort?

I checked to see what's it about. The website requires registration to see how much the game costs.

Fail. No purchase.

Nevyrmoore:

Crazy idea here...what would happen if we merge Minecraft with Dorf Fort?

Sgt. Sykes:
I checked to see what's it about. The website requires registration to see how much the game costs.

Fail. No purchase.

Well, considering you need to create an account in order to play the game, and that you can still play the free version with that account even if you don't buy the game, I can hardly see how that's "fail". The account's free, you aren't sent any spam and you can just forget about the account if the demo doesn't persuade you to buy it. Nothing but pluses in my book.

the escapist minecraft group/server as more than 100 players now! http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Minecraft-Appreciation-Club

Sgt. Sykes:
I checked to see what's it about. The website requires registration to see how much the game costs.

Fail. No purchase.

Not if you click the 50% off banner on the left:
http://www.minecraft.net/prepurchase.jsp

The website is like the game, it's back to basics (as in it could do with some restructuring).

Actual

Nevyrmoore:

The_root_of_all_evil:
I didn't like it.

Hear me out before you lynch me.

I KNOW it's indie and I KNOW it's powerful but it just didn't grab me. Perhaps it's growing up in a boxed environment like Ant Attack and 3D Monster Maze, but it just seems like effort poured into say "Look at my effort".

I'm sure thousands, if not millions, look at it and say "WOW", but I'll stick to Dwarf Fortress.

Crazy idea here...what would happen if we merge Minecraft with Dorf Fort?

Someone did that. They made a utility that converts a Dwarf Fortress map into Minecraft.

SAMAS:
That's called Word Of Mouth. People telling other people about it.

A sample of things people have made in Minecraft:

A gigantic roller coaster (note that everything except the base terrain (and probably some of that, too) was "hand"-made by the player.

Enourmous Explosions (When Shamus said it takes a while to bring down a mountain, he's apparently referring to how long it takes to stuff it with TNT.)

A Waterslide.

Rapture. And by the same token, Columbia.

A 1x1 scale model of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

Computers. Yes, real live working computers in the game.

The Earth (Through this is naturally scaled down, the actual world generated in a Minecraft game can actually be two to three times the size of the Earth, relatively speaking.

To get another idea of the size and creative potential, here's An isometric view of Penny Arcade's Mulitplayer Server. You can see towers, cities, the above-mentioned Rapture, Floating Islands, A Trade Federation Landing Force, and much more.

Lol is that the alien contact device from the movie Contact? Does someone try and blow it up every week?

So I tried the demo.

I imagine the first thing everyone does is burrow into the earth as if plotting out a summer home, then finding a natural plateau, start constructing a giant multilevel tower eventually connecting your humble mudshack hole via the dungeons.

Or was it just me?

... I think I might buy it.

Nevyrmoore:

The_root_of_all_evil:
I didn't like it.

Hear me out before you lynch me.

I KNOW it's indie and I KNOW it's powerful but it just didn't grab me. Perhaps it's growing up in a boxed environment like Ant Attack and 3D Monster Maze, but it just seems like effort poured into say "Look at my effort".

I'm sure thousands, if not millions, look at it and say "WOW", but I'll stick to Dwarf Fortress.

Crazy idea here...what would happen if we merge Minecraft with Dorf Fort?

Seeing as Minecraft is merely Infiniminer merged with Dwarf Fortress, I'm not sure what that result would be. What minecraft will look like in a year maybe?

Sup dawg! I herd u dont liek DRM so I- actually no I have nothing. :(
Anyway I agree, there is a lot more interesting discussion in the flaws sometimes. You get thinking about what you didn't like and what you did kinda like but what you would do to make it better. Much more interesting than "this game is good it's fun and has good graphics" and stuff like that.

Anyone know where I can preorder Craft of Craftcraft? Sounds promising and I don't want to miss out.

Baldr:
Um, DRM is Digital rights management

So is copy protection, anti-piracy software, and online activation. The point of that was that he really hates DRM. Like if I was to give you this list of games I didn't like: inFamous, Kingdom Hearts, inFamous, Splosion Man, inFamous, Sonic Rush, and inFamous, one of the things I want to get across is that I really hated inFamous.

(And I do hate inFamous a whole lot in case you were wondering)

I am totally renaming my novel series "CraftCraft."

To me, Minecraft just seems like a single-player Dwarf Fortress, but in Fortress mode instead of Adventure, and with somewhat better graphics.

So... uh... is that it?

I tried Minecraft and found it utterly boring!

I won't write a huge post about it this time, though.

Shamus Young:
Also, what is it with all games that have "craft" in their name being awesome? World of Warcraft. Starcraft. Now Minecraft. Publishers: I have this idea for a game I'm working on, I'm calling it "Craft of Craftcraft." Let me know if you want in.

What, so you believe Warcraft I, II and III weren't awesome? Heresy.

(Also, there was CrimeCraft, and it really wasn't awesome.)

Minecraft is excellent, though. A testament to its brilliance is the fact that Creepers remain the only video game enemy I'm truly terrified by.

Double A:
To me, Minecraft just seems like a single-player Dwarf Fortress, but in Fortress mode instead of Adventure, and with somewhat better graphics.

So... uh... is that it?

Much easier than Dwarf Fortress, and infinitely less complex, but, yeah, pretty much.

apparently I'm no longer a gamer....I look at all this stuff thats been built by people and I say to myself "wow, what an incredible waste of time".

Now, let me tell you that back when I was a huge gamer, something like this would have probably been THE ONE for me. Back in the day it was school, then home, homework, then gaming, and that was it. I probably spent more time playing games back in middle school and high school than I did on school itself. I was a huge WoW player in my early 20s, spending about 50-70 hours a week playing.

But nowadays, I can't play a game for more than an hour before I get bored. I kind of think "This is enough time to enjoy the game, not get tired of it, and not waste my life". I've tried very hard to see the appeal of this game, and while I understand it, it's definitely not something I would play nowadays.

Starcraft and Warcraft are both called that because they're both RTS's made by Blizzard.

Amalith:

Double A:
To me, Minecraft just seems like a single-player Dwarf Fortress, but in Fortress mode instead of Adventure, and with somewhat better graphics.

So... uh... is that it?

Much easier than Dwarf Fortress, and infinitely less complex, but, yeah, pretty much.

But the complexity makes it fun!

I bet you can't drop a besieging army into a pond which is filled with rabid dwarf-eating zombie whales, then flood the room with magma, encasing everything inside in obsidian, which you then will use to build statues of yourself.

I bought it todeay but both linked loaders didn't work. Others are having the same problem. It's funny that FREE games and mods give me less trouble.

Fucking dipshit dev guy.

I might get dwarf fortress very soon. Sounds infinitely better.

In fact i might demand a refund.

Baby Tea:
HUZZAH! Minecraft is awesome!
Thank you, Shamus, for joining in our love of little blocks and exploding creepers.

I don't know about you, but I hate creepers. Little bastards, sneaking up on me when I just want to explore that nearby cavern. And although I'm never stupid enough to take anything valuable, they always seem to kill me just when I've accumulated enough iron or something to make it worthwhile to leave.

SAMAS:
That's called Word Of Mouth. People telling other people about it.

A sample of things people have made in Minecraft:

A gigantic roller coaster (note that everything except the base terrain (and probably some of that, too) was "hand"-made by the player.

Enourmous Explosions (When Shamus said it takes a while to bring down a mountain, he's apparently referring to how long it takes to stuff it with TNT.)

A Waterslide.

Rapture. And by the same token, Columbia.

A 1x1 scale model of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

Computers. Yes, real live working computers in the game.

The Earth (Through this is naturally scaled down, the actual world generated in a Minecraft game can actually be two to three times the size of the Earth, relatively speaking.

To get another idea of the size and creative potential, here's An isometric view of Penny Arcade's Mulitplayer Server. You can see towers, cities, the above-mentioned Rapture, Floating Islands, A Trade Federation Landing Force, and much more.

Holy crap, that is all so amazing. And here I thought that Husky guys videos of blowing shit up were impressive. Well, they are, but they plae in comparison to a world. I really think you should be able to make blocks unbreakable on a server you create. That would prevent griefing. Put a spawn trap while you're building, then remove it and everyones ability to grief so others can see your creation.

Minecraft is simply one of the best. games. ever.

Just played six hours straight(just to find this article and make me want to go play some more), and my only problem with it right now is being able to stop.

Man, once I start building, there's no stopping until the thing is finished. Which takes some time...

By the way, halloween update is coming, just to add more to what is already perfect.

PS: Shamus, I'm interested in Craft of CraftCraft, could you elaborate it a little more? I understand it's about de craftsmanship of crafting crafts, but it's not clear if this crafting is owned by the crafter or if the crafter only crafts the crafting, so the crafting might craft other crafts. Thanks.

CaptainCrunch:
For those who share the addiction, there's an Escapist server set up for Minecraft:

minecraft.escapistmagazine.com

/digdigdig

EDIT: For clarity, the url above is for in-game use - you enter it in the Minecraft client when you want to use the multiplayer option.

We also have a minecraft usergroup with a massively popular server.

Onyx Oblivion:
Minecraft?

It feels like a timesin to me, honestly.

I just don't get the appeal, I've got too many other games to play.

I have to agree, I just don't seem to get Minecraft's appeal. I mean, yeah I've seen some of the awesome stuff that people created in it, but that only proves that people are friggin' dedicated to it, I doubt I'd ever be able to do something like the guy who made the computer or the USS Enterprise.

I've seen gameplay footage and played a bit myself, and it all seems like it lacks a real point to it. Don't get me wrong, not every game needs to have a set goal or whatever, but it feels like I'm not playing the game....right. Like I'm just doing something wrong and I have no idea what I'm doing.

By all means, enjoy the game, I'm not saying it sucks or anything. I just don't really get what the hubbub is all about, and I really want to know, I honestly do.

Yeah I gotta admit the game is pretty awesome. I played it a while ago and had to force myself to quit after wasting several days constructing a giant underground maze of some sort.

Interestingly enough, this game and Dwarf Fortress are the only two games that I couldn't tear away from easily and they both look blocky. Literally

SHAMUS! Play dwarf fortress, it's hard to learn, but it's amazing. I've been playing for about 32 hours total. still getting the hang of it all..

I think the minecraft server is down...
I was ALMOST done my castle walls too!

AC10:
I think the minecraft server is down...
I was ALMOST done my castle walls too!

Oh it's you building that monolith on the horizon :p

I was just getting settled in...