Hi everyone!

I'd like to discuss some mechanics of the ever so popular Minecraft. How would you describe Minecraft and what about it makes it so fun and addictive?

If you have also played modded Minecraft, was it the same mechanics that were interesting in vanilla and the modded versions? If not, what changed?

I'm especially interested if your answers include the crafting "tech tree" in some way. One might say "progression".

Don't worry, I'm not creating yet another MC clone. This is research for a completely different game in a completely different genre. :)

Interesting. I personally only played two worlds, one vanilla 1.6 and one heavily modded 1.6 (DW20+extras).

While I did have some fun building in vanilla, I think the real satisfaction came from putting my gathered stuff to use. For me, progress was definitely important. I stopped playing once I had gotten access to every single block/item, which was effectively "the end" for me.

Modded MC is a completely different story. There's a lot more work involved in getting access to stuff. After a few months, I'm still exploring new content in my first modded world. Here, the exploration is a much more central mechanic, but you need to progress in tech- and/or skill trees in order to access it.

All in all, I think finding new uses for stuff and finding ways to get new stuff has been some of the largest enjoyment factors for me.

I found it quite enjoyable that I can hop on with a few friends when we feel the urge to go on an adventure, build a fortress, and explore far-a-way lands. Unfortunately I don't last that long when it's down to just building things but that's just my take on it.

What brought me to minecraft:

- Ability to build what I wanted.

- Exploring new blocks with each update.

- Exploring the world

- The fact there is a constant threat that I can ignore (building an enclosed fortress).

I wasn't a big fan of the progression but the first few minutes made sense:

- Cut some wood with your bare hands

- Craft a tool out of it

- Dig a hole

- Try to find coal before it gets dark

- Craft a torch

- Close your hole from the zombies

- Use Stone... Iron... Diamond... tools - meh...

You might look into other similar games with a more interesting and less "forced" progression. Space Engineers comes into mind...

Freedom. We all like it, hopefully.

...

For me, what Minecraft gets right is:

• The world seems to be its own thing, existing independently of my story or agency. It's not carefully set up to make me feel special or lead me anywhere in particular.
• Nonetheless, I make a mark on this world, and I make any mark I want.

These two things are important for the feel of the game, to me. It wouldn't be the same if the world seemed to revolve around me. Also, it's important that I can play the way I want in this world. When I make a mark on a normal game world, I can only do so in a few ways that the developers chose. That's not me making my mark, that's me making someone else's mark.

For progression, I didn't care much about it. But I think it's still important; some players will want some structure and some progress. (And when I get bored with doing whatever strikes my fancy, a default progression can give me something to do until a new crazy project bubbles up out of my subconscious.)