Starting from today, I'm making a new series. Ohyus, you heard me correctly. Basically, I choose at random an app/game on my desktop from random and expand your knowledge on it.
Apparently the first episode chosen was on Minecraft. A lot of people know what Minecraft is (come on, with about 20 million players on PC alone, who hasn't?)but anyways, seeing as it was chosen at random I'll expand the topic.
Minecraft is a sandbox game. In other words, you think it, you make it. You build stuff, craft stuff and fight zombies. And spiders. Wait you're arachnophobic? HAH! Too bad...
So apart from a wide variety of enemy mobs there ARE hostile mobs. So while you run away from the skeleton you can slice a pig in half for some tasty porkchops.
Onto the main aspect: Building. There's a vast arrangement of blocks, from dirt (and yes, if you are that lazy, uninspired person then you CAN build a dirt hut.) to sandstone, wood of various colors and shades, and ore blocks.
Yes, there are ores: In Survival Mode there is no aim but there are achievements that you can fulfill if you like a challenge. Completing all of the achievements is a pretty hard task: There's some easy ones like getting wood but then there are harder ones like getting the sacred diamond and travelling to an entirely new dimension.
Speaking of Dimensions, there are 3 in Minecraft: They are the Overworld, The Nether, and The End. The Nether is obtainable by building a rectangular shaped portal out of a block called obsidian, formed when lava and water mix. However, getting to the End i a much harder task: The Portal can only be found in a "stronghold" hidden undergound, and they are veeeeeery rare.
Now, let's get back to the gamemodes. There are 3 in total: Survival, Creative and Adventure.
Adventure mode is basically for special maps which you can download. Basically you cannot, well, DO anything. You can jump and move and stuff but that's about it. It's mainly used in Parkour maps, or ones where you follow a storyline.
Survival mode sets you with a nearly-infinite world, a health bar, a hunger bar and no goal or aim. You do what you want, when you want. There are mobs out to get you though, so watch out...
Creative mode is one of my favorites, seeing as you get the ability to fly around, and every block in the game. You can build what you want-literally. Instead of Survival mode, you don't need to mine or chop wood for resources: You are given infinite amounts of everything. Build a mansion without having to use a mine every 5 minutes, a TNT cannon without having to go to the pain of finding gunpowder and sand.
Which brings me to the point I forgot: Crafting. The gaem IS called Minecraft for 2 simple reasons: Mine and Craft. Duh. The crafting system is horribly simple: You get 9 blocks of space to craft items out of anything you can try. Say you had a piece of coal and a stick. Stick on bottom, coal on top. BOOM! Insta-torches!
The game is a very reasonable 20 euro (figure that in dollars yourself) for something so re-playable. You may think "butt arr0n, itz gunna b ful1 of 4 yeer old nubssss!" Not likely: Sure, there's the odd whiny brat but on average, most of the players are around 13/14 maybe higher. A lot of very famous Minecrafters are in their 20s.
Oh yeah, and if you buy the game, you get CUSTOMIZABLE SKINS! WOOOO!
What are skins you ask? Well basically you are a blocky player who has the username you've chosen. You can customize the way he/she looks. For example, my player, AaronD001, has a Tails the Fox head wearing a rather dapper business suit!
Minecraft, the game of dreams n stuffz. If it was a cake, it would be a nice cake.