Minecraft or Mindcraft?
Minecraft is a 3D blocks game, developed by Mojang Studios and released on the faithful day of 18th November 2011. In the game, you explore vast and exotic terrains, caves scattered across the map in which you can go in and extract materials to create tools for various amounts of different activities: like farming, fighting mobs and building structures in your world. Minecraft is a game that is accessible on all platforms, including mobile devices. There are different modes in Minecraft, the two most popular being Survival and Creative. Survival is where players survive in the world until the reach the end goal of defeating the Ender Dragon, also being able to complete different achievements. Unlike Survival, Creative allows you to have the unlimited amounts of materials which is why a lot of people like using this mode to craft massive building, real life of fantasy, to spend their time relaxing.
The game is considered an "intuitively interesting and contagiously fun, with an unparalleled scope for creativity and memorable experiences", said by Jaz McDougall in his ‘Minecraft Review’ on PC Gaming. It reflects the public’s love for Minecraft as sales reached over a million in its first release in 2011. Just a year later it was rewarded the 6th best seller game on PC of all time, its more prominent awards coming from the Game Developers Choice Awards where it won categories such as ‘Best Downloadable Game’. Minecraft had died down as the years flew but its popularity remained vastly constant, until COVID 19 where the games popularity spiked once again as people in lockdown were forced to find other forms of entertainment.
The general opinion is that it is known to be quite therapeutic as the freedom of the game’s code allows you to explore your new world to your hearts content. It triggers artistic talents and create beautiful pixel art pieces from scratch, allowing you to build your own societies and infrastructures. You can fight many different mobs to prepare for the last battle with the Ender dragon; using weapons such as sword, shields and bow and arrows to help keep up in the battle, mixing in potions to increase certain skills. You can mine in caves to collect materials to create blocks for building and tools for fighting, but also finding hidden treasure and unluckily fall in lava pits. Minecraft’s game system has also started to integrate within schools to help students relax after studies.
Personally, I like Minecraft because of the different options it allows for you to utilize to your disposal, but many people have different opinions. I opened a survey, asking people “What are your thoughts on Minecraft?” and this is what they had to say:
“I like playing Minecraft because it is very relaxing with multiple game modes for player preference (creating survival, hardcore e.g.). It can be played either alone or with friends in a realm/multiplayer server which allows us to play our own games and use teamwork to build buildings in our town.”
“Playing Minecraft has allowed me to unleash my creativity. I can create anything I desire such as a statue of my favourite anime character, Reigen from Mob Psycho 100.”
“I think Minecraft is a very good, long lasting, real life kind of game. There are multiple things you can do inside and outside of your own world, it’s educational and extremely fun. You can even play with your friends! As you gradually build yourself up in your world, you will gain enough skill, power and materials to have an epic boss fight near the end of the game. I definitely recommend it if you’re bored and need to find something to entertain yourself in the meantime.”
“I really like the new 1.18 update on Minecraft that has been released for bedrock which includes the new cave generations and biomes!”
“Minecraft has really helped me with my mental health, as the mining concept of the game helps me focus on the job without having to worry about my problems. With the help of Minecraft, I have been able to connect with friends that I never expected I would have.”