Minecraft is the brainchild of Markus "Notch" Persson, an independent game developer from Sweden. Persson’s interest in the building elements of games like Infiniminer led him to expand upon the construction pitch of the game and add in expansive exploratory and dungeon-crawling features as well. In 2009, Persson released an alpha version of Minecraft , with an overwhelmingly avid public flocking to see the game. Persson continued to develop the game into beta, with users being frequently updated with new modes, mods and abilities as it developed. Before the game even went gold in March 2012, Minecraft earned over 4 million purchases. It is currently the sixth bets selling PC game of all time with over 33 million copies sold across all platforms (over 12 million of those being on PC alone).
Over the past few weeks I’ve spent a frankly irresponsible amount of time on my 3DS, a great deal of it with A Link Between Worlds . But when I wasn’t busy rescuing princesses from other princesses (or, uh, doing actual work for the site) I was delving into Bravely Default . Not just the full game, but the demo. Most of us have, at one point or another, obsessively played a demo for a game that had us hyped, but what may surprise you is that I’ve sunk over 10 hours into a single playthrough of this one. Any way you slice it, that’s a lot of content for free software. Well, I say "any way," but it comes pre-sliced, vertically.
When you first play Minecraft , you’re dropped into a blocky world with barely any direction whatsoever. You can generate tools and gather resources, but you aren’t given any sort of ultimate goal or context as to why you should. You are given the skills, but for no explicit reason. Instinctively, gamers realize that they can create structures which are eventually required to protect themselves from the rampant enemies that appear at night. To build structures (or any item, really), you need resources and you’re driven to "mine" for items like stone, coal and even wood and flowers.
Think about when you were a youngster and you went to the sandbox at the park. You weren’t told "build a sand castle" by your parents. You had your shovel, bucket and action figures and you did what you wanted. Fundamentally, you had no real goal; the end result was completely secondary to what you were doing to reach it. That’s the idea of a "sandbox" game: you aren’t being told what to do and you can feel free to express yourself creatively. You can break the status quo and go to places that you couldn’t otherwise. It’s not based around how much is given for you to do; it’s based around giving you tools and letting you discover what to do yourself.
Updated on March 20, 2025, by Mati Kent-Nye: 14 years after its release, Minecraft 25w02A snapshot continues to be updated regularly, bringing with it countless new blocks to build with and biomes to build in, whether on land, underground, or at sea. Its creative limits are constantly expanding, drawing in beginner and veteran builders alike. The most recent 1.21 update gifted players with an array of new copper blocks, opening up a whole new world of mechanical-themed builds. A new material mechanic, oxidization, was also introduced. Unless waxed, copper blocks will slowly change color from bronze to teal. They can also be waxed in their semi-oxidized state, making for versatile bui
If you’re a gamer and you haven’t read Reality Is Broken by Jane McGonigal (you might have seen her on The Colbert Report ), head on over to Amazon and check it out. It’s a fascinating look into how video games are making the world a better place, but also how we look at games overall. In the first chapter, she illustrates four main components of any game, one of which being the "goal", that important drive that gives gamers incentive to continue. It’s essential to any kind of game because without it, the game doesn’t have a meaning. It’s generally pointless to play, and therefore, a gamer won’t play.
And understanding what initially draws a person into video games is all the more difficult today. With three major consoles on the market and an avalanche of games to play, newcomers to the gaming world have ample opportunity and choice to select from. Fans of sports games are able to experience the fun of managing their favorite player rosters with Madden . Fans of Dungeon and Dragons or other tabletop games are able to get a faster-paced and more cinematic version of role-playing with The Elder Scrolls . Alternatively designed games like Minecraft , Journey and The Stanley Parable are becoming interesting to scholars who find fascination in experiencing a story from an unorthodox viewpoint. There are so many different styles and genres to choose from that, now more than ever, finding out why anyone gets into games is a question with too many answers to list.
