Today, we are covering basic beginners guide on Minecraft. So, what is Minecraft?
Back in 2009, a version of the game Minecraft went online for PC gamer to try out. It was called an alpha build, meaning it was very much in flux and would be adapted and updated as users gave feedback. Minecraft had a very unique look hankering back to the days when games were made of pixel art. I hesitate to really call Minecraft a game as it's much more of an experience and aiming it solely a game might undercut its impact.
What you do in Minecraft is very much up to you, the basic mechanic though is that you wander through this world and breakdown resources that you find which allow you to then build your own structures, weapons, etc. Some resources are difficult to find so exploration is also key. There are four modes that you can play in the game.
The first is survival, where you have a life bar. You must find resources and build while also being on the lookout for enemies such as zombies and something unique to Minecraft called a creeper. If you want to just build, which many players do, you can play via the creative mode which gives you access to all the resources in the game and allows you to navigate your map by flying so you can build all sorts of giant structures. People try to build recreations of real-life landmarks or objects from popular fiction or even just massive sprawling castles for their character to inhabit. The third mode is called adventure mode, where you can build or experience adventures built by other players, maybe they build a really dangerous map that you must navigate safely. This is a chance to share fun, adventures with others or just play maps that others have created. Lastly, there's spectator mode where you can visit maps without fears you're not really interacting with their world at all. This is best if you just want to see fun creations and wander through the maps without the restrictions of it being an actual adventure, maybe you see someone's really cool creation and you want to see it in-game so you'd use spectator mode to check it out yourself. They won't even know you're on their map as you're totally invisible.
So, was this successful? Yes, by January 2011 Minecraft surpassed 1 million purchases and at this point there was no advertising except for word-of-mouth. Creator - Markus Persson known as notch began working on the game alone but eventually created the company Mo yang to hold the profits he was getting. Eventually with the sky rocketing in the game's popularity notch began looking for a corporation to buy Minecraft and ended up selling the Mo yang company in the intellectual property rights to Microsoft for 2.5 billion dollars in 2014.
Let's see how profitable Minecraft became in 2014, Minecraft is one of the best-selling video games of all time with about 60 million copies sold and a hundred million users. It had branched out to consoles becoming one of the most popular and most played games on both the Xbox and PlayStation online stores now. The Microsoft had the intellectual property rights, they began to make money by licensing it out such as the game Minecraft story mode, which was an adventure game set in the Minecraft world and created by Telltale Games. Even now, quite a few years after its inception Minecraft continues to be a huge platform, YouTube and twitch are massive venues where people will create and play while others watch and comment. Even schools are beginning to get on board with students from around the world getting free or cheap access to Minecraft. The British Museum even launched a plan to recreate its building and its exhibits all inside the game with help from the public.
There's even an annual convention called Minecon which held its most recent convention in London with about 10,000 attendees and is the largest convention held for one single video game. Another exciting thing for Minecraft future is the news, that it will be available for a few different virtual reality and augmented reality systems on the screen. You're seeing a demonstration of Minecraft being viewed through an augmented reality system called Microsoft HoloLens. This will get people a whole new way to view their Minecraft creations and incredibly immersive ways. If you think that looks cool check out this part where they can use the HoloLens to display their Minecraft level on a flat surface. Mind-blowing Minecraft, while at its core is indeed a video game is really a sandbox you can engage with the world however you want by building or by destroying by flying through the skies and just looking or by trying to survive the darkness and the horrors that come out at night. This is a game but it's also a learning tool and a way for people to communicate with others from all over the world that is Minecraft.
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