Poll of the Day > Minecraft is a brutal game, yo

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm convinced it only went mainstream because of coop, creative mode, and the modding community.

The last time I played was probably before Microsoft acquired it (I don't recognize the launcher) and I'm being reminded how hard survival mode is.

I have a single player survival world Ive been playing off and on for a couple years. Im really interested in seeing if they have more new features/mobs planned for snapshots this week. Ambiance update ftw

NeoSioType posted...

I'm convinced it only went mainstream because of coop, creative mode, and the modding community.

I've played it for thousands of hours and I never engaged with any of those things.

Also, it didn't have creative mode or mods when it first started taking off and becoming popular. Those came after the initial explosion.

I would love to see what the breakdown of Minecraft players looks like, because I agree that Survival is not the most forgiving experience. Very little is actually explained in game, I know people that have played the game and were not even aware of the existence of the Ender Dragon. I have often wonder how likely it is that someone could actually reach the End, knowing nothing about the game going in and not relying on any outside sources of information.

rjsilverthorn posted...

I would love to see what the breakdown of Minecraft players looks like, because I agree that Survival is not the most forgiving experience. Very little is actually explained in game, I know people that have played the game and were not even aware of the existence of the Ender Dragon. I have often wonder how likely it is that someone could actually reach the End, knowing nothing about the game going in and not relying on any outside sources of information.

I think it depends on when you started playing. Early on features got added a little at a time, so some people were playing before there were even hunger bars. It was easier to figure stuff out on your own when there wasn't as much stuff to figure out.

Then, as the game just kept getting bigger and bigger, people started relying more and more on the wiki, including the actual game devs. So they probably figured they didn't need a ton of in-game explanations or info when people could just go to the wiki anyway.

Which, admittedly, probably makes jumping into Minecraft now waaay harder for anyone who doesn't know the wiki even exists, but it wouldn't have been so bad in, say, 2010.

Didn't they overhaul the in-game achievements a year or two ago in order to help guide players? There's also the in-game crafting book to help players...craft. I feel like there was a long period where the game was just super easy. Between the old hunger system and the new combat system. With the new combat system, expanded cave biomes, new mobs and mob AI, the game seems pretty difficult again.

I was confused yesterday why I couldn't make armor.

It was because I was trying to use copper. Terraria bros...

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I think it depends on when you started playing. Early on features got added a little at a time, so some people were playing before there were even hunger bars. It was easier to figure stuff out on your own when there wasn't as much stuff to figure out.

Then, as the game just kept getting bigger and bigger, people started relying more and more on the wiki, including the actual game devs. So they probably figured they didn't need a ton of in-game explanations or info when people could just go to the wiki anyway.

Which, admittedly, probably makes jumping into Minecraft now waaay harder for anyone who doesn't know the wiki even exists, but it wouldn't have been so bad in, say, 2010.

That seems like a sensible analysis of the experience. I never touched Minecraft until maybe...2020?

The game used to be alot easier, game started getting obnoxious when Phantoms were added, such a shitty enemy.

The devs also don't really give a shit, they'll put in 1/10th the effort a single modder will into development.

Someone made me flood my house with lava so I quit and never went back

NeoSioType posted...

It was because I was trying to use copper. Terraria bros...

The overall uselessness of copper annoys me. There is such a weird gap in gear progression where you get wood and stone essentially at the same time, but then you can have a pretty steep curve to iron depending on your starting location.

I need to buy a copy, since my high seas version no longer works. Thankfully my worlds should be fine.

kind9 posted...

Didn't they overhaul the in-game achievements a year or two ago in order to help guide players?

That reminds me of waaay back (2012? Somewhere around there - pretty sure it was before the Ender Dragon was added) when I basically built an entire world that existed solely to get every achievement. It was more or less a massive dungeon complex you entered right next to the spawn point, and each room had something in it you could use to get an achievement (ie, a room with a tree in it to get wood, a room with a crafting table and supplies to make a pickaxe, one with wheat for bread, one with stone to craft into a furnace, and so on). You basically worked from one room to the next, just popping achievement after achievement.

Once I'd finished it, I could basically bring anyone into that world, then send them through the dungeon, and max out their achievements in about 10 minutes. I had to go with them for some stuff (like taking diamonds out of a chest and throwing them at them so they could get the achievement for picking up diamonds), but they could do most of it alone. I even put signs in each room telling them what they needed to do so they wouldn't need me to specifically explain each achievement to them.

I can't imagine trying to build a world like that now. I don't even have maxed out achievements myself at this point, because once they added all the multiplayer achievements I stopped trying.

Ah the new snapshot isnt super interesting. Changes how sheep and camels spawn. Couple other things like new structure maps from villagers

it went mainstream because pewdiepie played it

literally. minecraft was circling the drain before then, then all of a sudden pewdiepie plays it and it explodes in popularity overnight with players more than quadrupling the playerbase that existed prior

ConfusedTorchic posted...

it went mainstream because pewdiepie played it

literally. minecraft was circling the drain before then, then all of a sudden pewdiepie plays it and it explodes in popularity overnight with players more than quadrupling the playerbase that existed prior

Minecraft was literally the best-selling game of all time before he even touched it.

About two-thirds of all sales of the game took place before he played it. And there were nearly 300 million registered users (and 100 million active users) at the time.

If anything, he was one of the last people to the party.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Minecraft was literally the best-selling game of all time before he even touched it.

About two-thirds of all sales of the game took place before he played it. And there were nearly 300 million registered users (and 100 million active users) at the time.

If anything, he was one of the last people to the party.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2019/08/26/does-pewdiepie-deserve-credit-for-minecrafts-resurgence-yes-and-no/

ConfusedTorchic posted...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2019/08/26/does-pewdiepie-deserve-credit-for-minecrafts-resurgence-yes-and-no/

The article you quoted doesn't even agree with your premise. And literally nothing I said is contradicted at all.

so you didn't even read it

ConfusedTorchic posted...

so you didn't even read it

Did YOU?

Minecraft already had sold 180 million copies before pewdie ever broadcast it- that is in no way "circling the drain", as you put it, and it was "mainstream" well before that.

The article is also talking about Google Search trends, which is *not* a representation of player count or copies sold. Did he help spur some growth? Sure, but you're hilariously overselling his impact by orders of magnitude.

Anyways, I haven't turned on MC in years, mostly due to friends moving onto other things. The desire to build remains, and once in a while I get that itch. But I also wonder if all the changes over the years I.missed out on would confuse me now.

ConfusedTorchic posted...

it went mainstream because pewdiepie played it

literally. minecraft was circling the drain before then, then all of a sudden pewdiepie plays it and it explodes in popularity overnight with players more than quadrupling the playerbase that existed prior

Minecraft was extremely popular on youtube almost from its inception. The first youtubers I watched playing this game when it was relatively new were a now-dead channel called Kwantonium and Yogscast Simon & Lewis. Then Mindcrack became really popular, followed by Hermitcraft. PewdiePie has such a massive following I'm sure he brought a lot of new players, but in the grand scheme of things I'm sure they represent a slim fraction of the overall player base. I don't believe there was ever a period of time when Minecraft was "circling the drain".

For that matter, I ended up picking up Minecraft again in 2019 for the first time in a few years with absolutely zero influence from PewDiePie, just because it had been long enough since I last played it and I wanted to check out a couple of mods that had grown in popularity since I last played (mostly Botania, iirc). While I'm not about to suggest that my experience is universal, given the age of the game, when updates were released, and the evolution of the modding scene, it wouldn't surprise me if a significant number of people also went through that, particularly if the surge linked to PewDiePie also made Youtube's algorithm show people more Minecraft content than usual to remind them that it exists.

PewDiePie played a role, certainly, but suggesting that the game only entered mainstream popularity because he played it in 2019 is hilariously out of touch.

I typically only play single player survival, but I may have to agree that without coop, creative and the modding community, it may not have seen the mainstream success it has. It certainly would have still been wildly successful, but not to the degree that it is. Further, for better or worse, Microsoft's acquisition contributed to this by even further magnitudes. It was already extremely popular, but it was pushed even further with merchandising and spin-off games.

NeoSioType posted...

I was confused yesterday why I couldn't make armor.

It was because I was trying to use copper. Terraria bros...

I have always said that Minecraft needs to approach its development in a similar way to Terraria. There is just so much more content and a sense of progression. Admittedly, Terraria lacks in the creative and building areas, but Minecraft absolutely can have both.

adjl posted...

PewDiePie played a role, certainly, but suggesting that the game only entered mainstream popularity because he played it in 2019 is hilariously out of touch

Although, if I remember correctly, interest was beginning to wane for the game at that time. Pewdiepie was credited for bringing the fervor back and even more than before. It probably would have come back on its own regardless, but the number one subscribed Youtuber picking up a game and spending months with it is going to have an effect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34CZjsEI1yU