Minecraft

[Jibbles]

Any Minecraft players here?

[Donovan]

My boy is addicted to the 360 version but I got a PS3. Looks like a lot of fun.

[Jibbles]

PC version is the way to go. The mods you can install... Minecraft is good... but the mods on PC... dear God... the possibilities.

[OnBendedKnee]

Is there a GameBoy cartridge available?
(fingers crossed)

[Jibbles]

Negative. Minecraft is a sandbox creator with RPG elements. It is PC and XBOX only. The XBOX version is much nicer because it was just released and Mojang (developer studio) has put all their time into it instead of PC updates. However, the PC is far beyond the XBOX version if mods are applied.

Standard Minecraft (no mods) comes in two modes: creative and survival. In creative, you cannot die, you can fly, access to all blocks, access to all items, and many console commands. Survival mode has enemies, deaths, and lots, and lots of stuff.

Here's a post (from RH) and some screenshots from an old server I used to play on.

Minecraft focuses on allowing the player to explore, interact with, and modify a dynamically-generated map made of one-cubic-meter-sized blocks. In addition to blocks, the environment features plants, mobs, and items. Some activities in the game include mining for ore, fighting hostile mobs, and crafting new blocks and tools by gathering various resources found in the game. The game's open-ended model allows players to create structures, creations and artwork on various multiplayer servers or their own single player maps. Other features include redstone circuits for logic computations and remote actions, minecarts and tracks, and a mysterious underworld called "The Nether". The ultimate goal of the game is to travel to an alternate dimension called the End, and defeat the Ender Dragon.

[video=youtube;v5fS4RF3ht0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5fS4RF3ht0[/video]

So... Minecraft isn't just a game to me. It's art. I've played on two servers now with IRL friends and getting to see how we will the randomly generated world around us with our artistic styles has been pretty fascinating. MC can be an incredibly time consuming task, whether you're in Survival or Creative mode and has endless possibilities for game play. There are even modded maps you can download that are roleplayed, where you follow messages and explore the story the developer has written for you. The biggest complaint I hear about MC is the lacking visuals. Good news, there are texture packs you can download to make the game look amazing (youtube: Minecraft Texture pack, my favorite is John Smith). Bad news, if your computer sucks you won't be to do this because MC is quite PCU intensive (there's a lot of blocks that require rendering).

The most gossiped about factoid of MC is what people create... most do this in Creative mode (infinite blocks and items at the click of a button) instead of Survival (you have nothing except for what you have gathered). Check this article out to see some nifty things: [URL="http://www.geekosystem.com/21-amazing-minecraft-creations/"]http://www.geekosystem.com/21-amazing-minecraft-creations/[/URL]

I prefer playing in Survival... in this game mode, you will have the game generate a map. You'll load into it at the start of morning, with no items. You have until night falls to create a shelter/tools to fend off the creatures of the night. At night, enemies will begin spawning in the darkness. Hopefully by this time you will have chopped down some trees, turned them into planks, then into sticks and used these sticks to create wooden pickaxes, axes, and torches. From here you can mine stone to make stone tools that can be used to make iron tools, and continue exploring to see what else you can craft. As the days go on, you begin familiarizing yourself with the world around you and you begin to explore. Eventually you're begin mining in caves you've found, and as you amass materials you'll start collecting resources to create whatever it is that your mind runs with.

Interesting tidbits: Gain experience from slain enemies, used to for enchantments on tools and armor. Build a portal to the Nether (MC's version of Hell, water does not exist there). Hunt down dungeons (areas under ground with enemy spawners, chest rewards). Complete The End quest (gather materials from the Nether and Endermen enemy to locate the stronghold and rebuild the portal to fight The End dragon). Breeding and farming. Decorating and intricate designs (google: MC furniture design).

Minecraft has a free, BETA download, of the game that you can play. If you love the BETA, the actual game is tons better. I believe the BETA is just a building sandbox, no enemies. The actual game is $26 I believe. You can play by yourself, buy your own server for friends who have also bought the game or join an already existing server (google search to find a server whose rules fit your play style). Also, I heard XBOX360 is coming out with an Arcade version for download and play.

[URL="http://www.minecraft.net/"]http://www.minecraft.net/[/URL]

This URL takes you to the Minecraft Wiki, which will by your Minecraft Bible. This link specifically will teach you everything about crafting: [URL="http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Crafting"]http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Crafting[/URL]

Some of the things created on my most recent server...

I may upload some pic's of the new server (we just uploaded a mod and texture pack to increase the depth four fold of Minecraft and the graphics to 64x) later this week.

[Ma Huang Sor]

Minecraft!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111

[Donovan]

Those are sweet, Jibbles. Thanks for the info, the game looks and sounds fun as hell I just don't have a way to play it. My boy really wants to d/l the laptop version but it's a memory eater I heard. I might end up getting an Xbox 360 for him and accidentally play it myself. That's all I need, another fun way to waste endless hours....I take it you've seen the bigass USS ENTERPRISE video right?

[LuciferLynn]

My yongest son loves this game. He plays the PC version. I don't understand much about it, other than he has pigs as pets and had a roller coaster that caught on fire. I did download the "I can swing my sword" song to my phone so I can completely annoy everyone in the house (besides him) at any given time.

[cannongal]

There's an Android version, too-my youngest brat downloaded it to my tablet, so he can play in the car.

He absolutely loves it-except when the zombies spawn-what ever that means.

[Jibbles]

Those are sweet, Jibbles. Thanks for the info, the game looks and sounds fun as hell I just don't have a way to play it. My boy really wants to d/l the laptop version but it's a memory eater I heard. I might end up getting an Xbox 360 for him and accidentally play it myself. That's all I need, another fun way to waste endless hours....I take it you've seen the bigass USS ENTERPRISE video right?

Thank you. It's a big processor eater. You can run it with 4k ram decently, I'm running 8k ram. It really comes down to the processor. The world has a ceiling of 255 blocks or so, and you load it in chunks (widthxlength). These can be set to different fields of view... I've seen many of the creation videos, it's amazing what people conceive.

My yongest son loves this game. He plays the PC version. I don't understand much about it, other than he has pigs as pets and had a roller coaster that caught on fire.

It's a mind stimulating game with no "negative" features to conceive. It doesn't cross that realistic CoD/Battlefield type of killing (it's zombies, spiders, etc). It's very artsy and the complexity of the materials in the game is astonishing. You can use pistons to move blocks and machines that are automated... so many possibilities. It's an intellectual and an artists game all in one.

There's an Android version, too-my youngest brat downloaded it to my tablet, so he can play in the car.

He absolutely loves it-except when the zombies spawn-what ever that means.

You're raising him right. Keep up the good work.

[Cynical Ninja]

My daughter downloaded this and I have to monitor her play otherwise she would sit playing it all fucking day, and now the school holidays are here I have to insist she spends more time outside playing with friends than sitting indoors in her jimjams playing Minecraft.

[Donovan]

better that than those mindless shooting games. My boy is amazingly proud of what he is "building". I don't have a problem with it and whenever I start to bitch about outside I remember all the hours I spent (and quarters) at the arcade...

[Cynical Ninja]

I'd much rather have my daughter outside, running, jumping and playing with her friends than spending her summer indoors glued to her laptop for hours on end. It would be easier for me as a parent to have her sit like a zombie playing minecraft all day, but I think its important that parents don't take the easy option when it comes to parenting.

[Donovan]

except none of her friends are outside, they're all talking to each other on headsets while playing Minecraft. I just stop what I'm doing and go out with my boy. That works, and creates decent memories.

[Jibbles]

I'd much rather have my daughter outside, running, jumping and playing with her friends than spending her summer indoors glued to her laptop for hours on end. It would be easier for me as a parent to have her sit like a zombie playing minecraft all day, but I think its important that parents don't take the easy option when it comes to parenting.

It's about moderation.

except none of her friends are outside, they're all talking to each other on headsets while playing Minecraft. I just stop what I'm doing and go out with my boy. That works, and creates decent memories.

ie this.

Take your daughter and friends out to the park. Play manhunt. Or frisbee. Or go biking. Or the waterpark.

I find that kids nowadays lack the motivation to use their imagination to entertain themselves. You can't just put them outside anymore and expect them to do something. They're start texting, or fucking, or watching TV at a friends house, etc.

Also, Minecraft is an amazingly stimulating game that engages your mind. For example, my friend has upgraded our server to have a modification pack that incorporates seven different mods. This has increased the complexity of our world by an immense magnitude. We now have the capability of engines (redstone, combustion, nuclear), generators (geothermal, hydro, wind turbine, solar, combustion), pumps (lava, water, oil, refined fuel), automatic quarries. We have transport systems to handle the materials these different machinery use from wiring (gold, copper, insulated, etc), piping (waterproof, copper, stone, bronze, etc.), insulated piping. We have new ores (copper, bronze, tin, emerald, ruby, saphire, uranium, basalt, marble, a shit ton more). We have the ability to use matter to create any other object we want. We have different armor sets. We have special items (rubber boots for safe landing, mining lasers, destruction wands) and magic rings (explosive fireballs, flight, nature growth).

It can be a bit overwhelming, but there's nothing more satisfying than figuring out how to efficiently layout a facility to become self-sufficient an automated while concealing piping and wiring.

I.

Love.

Minecraft.

[Jibbles]

Cool Minecraft scenario maps. These are premade maps you can download and created to be played out with certain rules/stories/etc.

This is a 2v2v2v2 with 15minutes to prepare before the walls separating the teams falls.



This is a mass multiplayer server(s) that has rolling starts (a new game starts every 30min, 24/7, for example) of Hunger Games.



This is a massive labrynth with rules, checkpoints, so on and so forth. Really cool and well thought out.



This is a pre-made medieval castle and town. The level of detail is PHENOMENAL. And the scale of it is MASSIVE.