I used to wonder why so many projects were getting shelved by others, due to someone running a Minecraft server. A month ago, I had someone ask me if I could set one up, and I just happened to have spare hardware lying around. My 900x900x3-block sky island over the ocean is 30% complete, I've hit bedrock in two 50x50 quarries, and my weekends feel shorter now. I'll finish building that DVR someday, once I've worked out how to build a bigger sliding floor for the shelter.

Nickster79: cretinbob: Oh wait, that's the Xbox version...clueless gamer indeed

I haven't played in forever--what's different/inferior about the console version?

No texture packs, smallish 850x850 world size, not as many features as the PC version, no mods, however, the crafting interface basically does it all for you, you don't need to remember how to make anything, just gather the materials. I prefer the consol version.

Is this a grind type game like EverQuest?

That was in no way funny and that guy did a terrible job of explaining minecraft, while Conan was being deliberately stubborn. This is a good example on why Jon Stewart receives my viewership over Conan.

skinink: Is this a grind type game like EverQuest?

It's more like a "do whatever the fark you want" type game. You collect materials to build stuff, and the rest is up to you. It's a great game if you just want to relax or blow off steam.

I was also a huge minecraft basher, until it came on the 360. Achievement Hunter started doing let's plays on minecraft and I tried it out shortly afterwards. It's really just a great game because you make your own objectives and have unlimited amount of time to complete them.

Since this is a Minecraft thread for anyone interested in questing what Minecraft is about or showing what can happen when fans have to much time on their hands search westroscraft, a bunch of people remade the entire Game of Thrones world in Minecraft and it is insane.

Never played it (too hard on the eyes is a nonstarter) but I stumbled across a YouTube video where some guy was hardcore into playing The Hunger Games in Minecraft. Looked like he had devoted dozens of hours playing this sub-game. I found the level of nerdiness fascinating; he was like a Russian doll nerd, you open him up and there is another nerd inside and another and another.

Lsherm: I crapped on Minecraft for two years without ever playing it, and then I finally broke down and started about three weeks ago.  I played for 10 hours straight during my first session.  There's something strangely addictive about it.  Before I learned how to build a bed, I got lost easily, so I built a 3 mile high lit tower I could see from anywhere on the map to find my way back home at night to the spawn point.

I also spent three hours steadily filling in a hole at the bottom of a cave so I could make my superman fortress.  Then I decided I wanted to run a creek through it, which took another three hours.  Then I wanted the top half of the cave to be made entirely of glass, and I'm about 14 hours into that an only halfway finished.

Needless to say, it is a fantastic time-waster.

They have pills for that.

You think the 360 version is limited, look into the smartphone version. Damn, talk about crippled.

Its apparently getting better though.

PC version all the way for me.

Took almost half a year for this to be greenlit?

If you haven't popped into Minecraft in awhile, now is a good time with some of the work the community has done modding the graphics. While the shaders aren't perfect, they really add a LOT of awesome to the game. Great shadows, trees and grass/wheat wave in the wind, etc...

GLSL Shaders video

It just takes a couple files to get up and running. Magic Launcher to load the Optifine and GLSL Shaders mod - that's it. You add shader presets in game like you would texture packs. One popular shader is Sonic Ethers Unbelievable Shaders, though it's a tad buggy when underground.
Then there's the Eldaria custom map that is lots of fun to run around and explore/build (you can see the Shaders at work here as well).

Minecraft is definitely one of those games you have to actually play to understand why anyone would.

VvonderJesus: skinink: Is this a grind type game like EverQuest?

It's more like a "do whatever the fark you want" type game. You collect materials to build stuff, and the rest is up to you. It's a great game if you just want to relax or blow off steam.

I was also a huge minecraft basher, until it came on the 360. Achievement Hunter started doing let's plays on minecraft and I tried it out shortly afterwards. It's really just a great game because you make your own objectives and have unlimited amount of time to complete them.

So it's a job you don't get paid for, then.

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of how SOOOOOOCKS!!!!!

HotWingAgenda: VvonderJesus: skinink: Is this a grind type game like EverQuest?

It's more like a "do whatever the fark you want" type game. You collect materials to build stuff, and the rest is up to you. It's a great game if you just want to relax or blow off steam.

I was also a huge minecraft basher, until it came on the 360. Achievement Hunter started doing let's plays on minecraft and I tried it out shortly afterwards. It's really just a great game because you make your own objectives and have unlimited amount of time to complete them.

So it's a job you don't get paid for, then.

One typically calls those 'hobbies', yah I know, strange eh?

GreenAdder: I Like Bread: I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of how SOOOOOOCKS!!!!!

Did you just drop a ZZT reference?

DWARF FORTRESS^

skinink: Is this a grind type game like EverQuest?

It's like having a nearly limitless amount of lego in a massive sandbox, with the only goal being "do whatever you want".

Haven't played it in a while, and this thread is reminding me of my as yet unfinished jungle in a glass bowl...bye weekend.

Hmm. Surprisingly accurate review. Having tried to play Minecraft, and not understood, I'd hoped to learn what the game was all about. I did. It's pointless. With bad graphics.

I have hooked 3 people onto it in my office. For me it started out with me surfing youtube and came across yogscast doing Day Z, I then checked out some of their other videos and found the Shadow of Israphel Series (are they going to do anything new with that?). The areas they were in were impressive. I then started watching the Yogscast Tekkit series and then Sips and Sjin. Shortly into the Yogscast Tekkit series I started playing Technic. At the same time I told a guy at work and he started playing. Shortly after that we set up a Tekkit server at his place and two other guys just started on our server.
Once you get a Power Flower or Blaze Rod Factory going, it gets to a whole other level. My project right now is a castle I am working on.

For those out of the know, Tekkit/Technic are mods that add a new layer to it where you can build machines interconnected with pipes that can create things in an automated fashion (stupid High Voltage Solar Arrays take too long manually).

I watched the documentary that just came out about the 1st year of Mojang and in there Peter Molyneux (creator of Populus and cofounder of LionHead Studios) put it perfectly.
Normal games are like modern day lego; you take all the pieces out, read the instructions and assemble, then put it on a shelf. Minecraft is old school lego, You empty the box on the floor and build something.

HotWingAgenda: VvonderJesus: skinink: Is this a grind type game like EverQuest?

It's more like a "do whatever the fark you want" type game. You collect materials to build stuff, and the rest is up to you. It's a great game if you just want to relax or blow off steam.

I was also a huge minecraft basher, until it came on the 360. Achievement Hunter started doing let's plays on minecraft and I tried it out shortly afterwards. It's really just a great game because you make your own objectives and have unlimited amount of time to complete them.

So it's a job you don't get paid for, then.

More of an addiction. Single-player is downright dull, but multiplayer destroys lives.

moothemagiccow: Yuri Futanari: now is a good time with some of the work the community has done modding the graphics.

This bothers me. It's like the plugins & mobile apps people create to make reddit not look like shiat and have useful social features. I know fans love minecraft and want to make minecraft great and minecraft has so much potential but they should be paid for making minecraft less horrible.

I know it feels like going out and planting flowers in your neighborhood, but it's more like planting flowers in a business park. It's farking crazy. Someone's making serious cash off this.

I don't really think either of those are apt comparisons. Most folks who make texture packs do it because they want their personal set-up to look different (or better), and then they share the texture packs with others who might also want it. I've messed with it a bit myself, only because there are certain things I want to do with my game that requires a little bit of variance in terms of textures.

Getting paid would be nice, but it's not like Mojang directly profits from someone doing their own textures for the game and letting other people download them. Mojang makes their profits from selling the game- everything the community does is what the community does.

Now, if Mojang started hijacking mod content or textures and adding them into the main game without credit or compensation, that would be wholly different.

Lsherm: I crapped on Minecraft for two years without ever playing it, and then I finally broke down and started about three weeks ago.  I played for 10 hours straight during my first session.  There's something strangely addictive about it.  Before I learned how to build a bed, I got lost easily, so I built a 3 mile high lit tower I could see from anywhere on the map to find my way back home at night to the spawn point.

I also spent three hours steadily filling in a hole at the bottom of a cave so I could make my superman fortress.  Then I decided I wanted to run a creek through it, which took another three hours.  Then I wanted the top half of the cave to be made entirely of glass, and I'm about 14 hours into that an only halfway finished.

Needless to say, it is a fantastic time-waster.

Once I discovered water elevators every multiple story building had to have one.

My husband is rigging the entire map to blow.

moothemagiccow: BumpInTheNight: HotWingAgenda: VvonderJesus: skinink: Is this a grind type game like EverQuest?

It's more like a "do whatever the fark you want" type game. You collect materials to build stuff, and the rest is up to you. It's a great game if you just want to relax or blow off steam.

I was also a huge minecraft basher, until it came on the 360. Achievement Hunter started doing let's plays on minecraft and I tried it out shortly afterwards. It's really just a great game because you make your own objectives and have unlimited amount of time to complete them.

So it's a job you don't get paid for, then.

One typically calls those 'hobbies', yah I know, strange eh?

In the same way painting is a hobby, and you need to pay admission to a museum to visit your cousin's house and see his watercolors.

Also isn't a 3rd person shooter probably the absolute worst way to build something? It's like trying to work MS paint without a mouse.

Not sure I get the analogy, I paid once for the art supplies (the game) and I can visit any house (server) I want. Is 3rd person forced on the pleb-box360 version or something? I can switch first or third and yah screw trying to build in the third person view.

I've been looking to join a Tekkit/Tekkit(Mindcrack version). If anyone knows of a free server, EIP

I runa small 20 player server with just vanilla MC and while I enjoy mods we seem to have more fun just playing to core content now that there is some core content.

Has anyone played the android version? If I start with that, could I transfer my game to the full desktop version later if I wanted? My buddy had been trying to convince me to try it, but I don't really have the free time or inclination to get addicted to it like some if y'all are taking about, so I figured the tablet version might be a little... safer, as long as it's usable and a decent port of the real thing.

cretinbob: Egoy3k: I runa small 20 player server with just vanilla MC and while I enjoy mods we seem to have more fun just playing to core content now that there is some core content.

IP?
To be fair I usually run the latest builds as opposed to "stable" releases. As long as you are just running vanilla and not a brazillion mods it's very stable.

EIP

Right now it's just friends and family, I need to set up permissions and backup before letting it out into the wild. I plan to do that this weekend but I may not accomplish my goal I have a two PCs to build and I'm getting paid in beer. The last time I failed to properly setup craftbukkit it was due to a distinct lack of sobriety.

The only one of those reviews I find entertaining is Just Dance 4.

ferioritycomplex: Now, if Mojang started hijacking mod content or textures and adding them into the main game without credit or compensation, that would be wholly different.

That's part of the problem. There are SO many mods available, that it's difficult for Mojang to add anything new that hasn't already been added by a mod.

I almost consider the vanilla game to be more of a game engine, and the mods are games built on that engine.

I don't bother with vanilla anymore, it gets boring once you know about all the stuff you can add in a mod.

I admin on a tekkit server, and play FTB singleplayer.

I let my kids play this, they range from 12 to 5. I don't let them play on-line, just locally. They mostly play in creative modes and build the most elaborate structures and roller coasters. They've even gone on to create their own worlds for each other to play in.

Now if I can somehow transfer that energy into their school work I'd be set.

Lsherm: I crapped on Minecraft for two years without ever playing it, and then I finally broke down and started about three weeks ago.  I played for 10 hours straight during my first session.  There's something strangely addictive about it.  Before I learned how to build a bed, I got lost easily, so I built a 3 mile high lit tower I could see from anywhere on the map to find my way back home at night to the spawn point.

I also spent three hours steadily filling in a hole at the bottom of a cave so I could make my superman fortress.  Then I decided I wanted to run a creek through it, which took another three hours.  Then I wanted the top half of the cave to be made entirely of glass, and I'm about 14 hours into that an only halfway finished.

Needless to say, it is a fantastic time-waster.

I can tell you whats so addicting about Minecraft. Its virtual LEGOs! That is how I see that game now. You can build anything in that game like you can with LEGOs. Its just fun. I found myself building a rather large pyramid in the middle of the ocean. Its 51 blocks high and long. I looked at it and said, "not good enough" so I build right on top of it, a 71 block tall and long pyramid and set it on fire. Just because I could.

PirateKing:That's part of the problem. There are SO many mods available, that it's difficult for Mojang to add anything new that hasn't already been added by a mod.

I almost consider the vanilla game to be more of a game engine, and the mods are games built on that engine.

See, I would disagree on that point too. I'm not against them doing things in their game that mods have already done. Deciding to try out new concepts (adding new minerals, new features, etc.) to the game is part of its development, and pre-existing mods shouldn't supplant their creative processes.

World of Warcraft does that all of the time. Popular mods are often incorporated into the UI of the game itself, which makes the addon unnecessary. It's a sort of theft, perhaps, in the form of taking player ideas and utilizing them, but at the same time they're not just taking the mod and pushing it into the game. They take the idea of the mod, and they make it work in the spirit of the game (which is also why a number of popular mods are not added into the game). There's a nuance there, and especially since the players aren't making money (strictly speaking, no idea about ad links and such) off of their mods and such, it's not like World of Warcraft or Mojang is deliberately depriving them of revenue by including mods and such.

I'd be quite pleased with Mojang taking certain popular mods and working to include them into the game. There's one called Smart Moving that's really nifty, though it doesn't really add anything substantial to the game itself. But it's one thing to take an idea and expand and rework it for the setting that Minecraft promotes, and a wholly different thing to take the mod itself and just make it a part of the game. I really like vanilla Minecraft; I've been playing it for nigh on a year now, and despite the interesting features that various mods have introduced, I've yet to be really tempted to get any mods aside from texture packs and visual mods.

My 6 yr. old daughter loves that game she plays it on her iPod. I played the demo on Xbox 360 it was pretty, meh.

/looks like it was made for the Atari 2600

Riotboy: My 6 yr. old daughter loves that game she plays it on her iPod. I played the demo on Xbox 360 it was pretty, meh.

/looks like it was made for the Atari 2600

This is also why I don't read many books, the cover art is usually very crappy.

Riotboy: My 6 yr. old daughter loves that game she plays it on her iPod. I played the demo on Xbox 360 it was pretty, meh.

/looks like it was made for the Atari 2600

You've obviously never played or even seen an Atari 2600!

Addictive? Makes meth look like baby aspirin. Currently running five different servers with various 'flavors', three for our kids, one test world and one I set up for a friend that runs Mindcrack.

Biggest difference between the kids servers and the 'adults'? We blow more stuff up :)

/Legos and 'splosions what's not to love?

Xase: Addictive? Makes meth look like baby aspirin. Currently running five different servers with various 'flavors', three for our kids, one test world and one I set up for a friend that runs Mindcrack.

Biggest difference between the kids servers and the 'adults'? We blow more stuff up :)

/Legos and 'splosions what's not to love?

I have a world that is called TNT. The only reason that world exsists is because I just dig to bedrock and plant a tower of TNT. Then blow it up and see how large a hole I can make.

I have to say the $10 i spent on Minecraft alpha with free lifetime updates has been one of the best video game purchases I made.

moothemagiccow: Yuri Futanari: now is a good time with some of the work the community has done modding the graphics.

This bothers me. It's like the plugins & mobile apps people create to make reddit not look like shiat and have useful social features. I know fans love minecraft and want to make minecraft great and minecraft has so much potential but they should be paid for making minecraft less horrible.

I know it feels like going out and planting flowers in your neighborhood, but it's more like planting flowers in a business park. It's farking crazy. Someone's making serious cash off this.

Think aftermarket car parts.

Car makers benefit because their cars now have the potential to grow beyond the factory setting.

I don't think anything would stop a texture artist from selling custom textured for mine craft.