When I visited Jordan at his home in New Jersey, he sat in his family’s living room at dusk, lit by a glowing iMac screen, and mused on Minecraft’s appeal. “It’s like the earth, the world, and you’re the creator of it,” he said. On-screen, he steered us over to the entrance to the maze, and I peered in at the contraptions chugging away. “My art teacher always says, ‘No games are creative, except for the people who create them.’ But she said, ‘The only exception that I have for that is Minecraft.'” He floated over to the maze’s exit, where he had posted a sign for the survivors: The journey matters more than what you get in the end.
Minecraft is the digital age’s Lego.
I think back to the early ASCII BBS games I played, the primary appeal (for me) was creativity. You didn’t play them for the eye candy, their creativity is what made them addictive. You went about build up your territories by modifying the environment, collecting objects, interacting with others, forming teams, etc. In those days you had to use your imagination a lot more, but just because these games are graphically obsolete doesn’t mean they weren’t creative, at least in my opinion.
Although I never had much appeal for minecraft, I will give minecraft credit for being very accessible to modern audiences. It seems to have a lot of commonalty with second life, which was also extremely popular back in the day. I wonder where the baton will go after minecraft?
Exactly. Those games, even when presented in 80x25x16 text mode, could do that. The game designers of course relied on the requirement that the player would use his imagination, which was neccessary to make the game appealing. Things like the level of “handholding” and the ability to read or explore “instructions” were important for gameplay.
See the video “If Quake was done today” for comparison:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1ZtBCpo0eU
So it’s size of post stamp on modern displays …
Yes, except you “magnify” the pixels and end up with a quite blocky graphics. Minecraft is a good example for this concept, but there are many games that try to work with that specific “look and feel”.
Traditional CRTs that could operate on different resolutions would simply switch to another mode when fullscreen was requested. Flat panels usually can do the same, either by their software, by the GPU driver, by a means of the windowing manager (“virtual desktop” with partial magnification) or by the game itself. But just try to impress a “modern brain” with a 320x200x256 game of “DooM” on a 40″ 16:9 “squished” flat panel… 😉
Another cool thing about a lot of those old text games is their accessibility to a wider range of people. Those without good vision can’t enjoy the games of today, ditto those without hearing. Both of these groups can enjoy text-based games equally well, precisely because it is the game and the story that is everything. The “effects” are all done in your own brain.
“Minecraft is the digital age’s Lego.”
Not even close. Minecraft is wildly popular with both kids and adults, there’s no question. But, it’s not in the same league as Lego is with either group.