Minecraft; Why it's so great.

I think it's about time i wrote something on Minecraft. So by now, nearly everybody should know about it. It's a game that encourages creativity and whatnot. It's essentially LEGO for teens. For the people who have no idea what it is, however, here's a video that shows you some of the Minecraft world.

Looks silly, right? Wrong. It's actually incredibly addictive, and fun. Very fun. I only came to try it out of sheer boredom, after months of a friend trying to talk me into it. Trust me, it's worth it. Let's go through a couple of things, so you can all know what all the rage is about. Keep in mind, all the pictures in here are from our own personal server. There is much MUCH better stuff out there.

What is Minecraft?

Minecraft is a game solely about building things out of blocks. Each block is different, and there is a big variety of things you can do with them. You do, however, need a certain type of tool to mine certain blocks. Sounds simple, right? Well it is, to an extent. Here is an example of the safehouse me and a friend built, right at the beginning.

Yes, that is lava inside that glass.

Now, visually, it's nothing special. At all. Everything is blocky, even the players. Amazingly, the simplicity adds to the experience. It takes some getting used to, but i wouldn't have it any other way.

At night, monsters come out, which is the main point of survival mode. They try to get in, and you need to build so they can stay out. Monsters spawn in the darkness, so every part of the interior of your place needs to be lit up. There are multiple monsters that can spawn, ranging from zombies to spiders. The most troublesome though, are the creepers, which explode taking chunks of whatever you've built with it.

All hail the mighty golem.

And it's creator.. Superman?

That's right. Superman. All skins are customizable in Minecraft. On the server i pay for, we have four people contributing to a slowly growing city, with an odd combination of persona's. Personally, i play as Vincent Valentine from Final Fantasy, but apart from that we also have Superman, Sailor Moon, and a guy from Crysis. The default skin annoys me so much, so i urge people to change it.

The world of Minecraft is huge, and oddly beautiful. I know, what could be beautiful about a bunch of blocks? It's strange, but you'd have to see it properly. The size of the world is roughly 6 times that of planet Earth, assuming each block is 1m³. That's huge.

If all of that isn't enough to impress you, think about this. Minecraft started out as a small one-person project. Markus Persson, Minecraft's creator, is now making over $300,000 each day. He makes this much money, because he made a game about blocks. For all you people thinking of designing an indie game, why not give it a try? It worked out alright for him!

An entrance to my mine.

Obviously to get resources, you need to mine them. However, if all you want to do is build, and you're an op, you can simply spawn all the resources you need. I don't do this, because i play games the way they're intended. The only thing I've done so far is change the time from night to day!


This game is simple, hellafun, and amazingly addictive. I know it looks childish, but when you get to play it, you'll find it's far from it. Before paying though, i would suggest playing the free version on www.minecraft.net.

I'll leave you with a couple more screenshots of our server. It might not be interesting, but it shows what I've been up to! Right now, I'm in the process of making a rollercoaster!

Far away view of my monument.

The greenhouse.

Thine commandments.