Minecraft
So, I've fallen in with the Minecraft crowd.
It's a great game, really suits me. I'm an explorer. And a builder.
Let me describe it. The game looks like some sort of living Lego world. All the terrain is made up of blocks. You can interact with the blocks, and "destroy" them. They usually stack up in your inventory, so you can then either just deposit them somewhere ELSE, or you can craft them and process them into other things. Simple materials like wood are easily handled, but you need to build tools to process them faster, or to process harder (and rarer) materials like stone and coal and iron.
The physics isn't excatly realistic but the vistas are great fun. The random algorithm to build and extend the world as you explore makes some really beautiful things appear. The first time you peer down a deep natural cavern and spot your first glowing river of magma is a beautiful moment.
The driving forces are the urge to get better materials to build with, and the need to protect yourself against the coming of night. At night, and anywhere that's not well-lit, can see various monsters appear when your back is turned.
So your first day or so is all about finding a hole to hide in (and a source of light to chase the darkness out), before the beasties show up.
Before long, you're building bridges, towers, huts, towers, castles, moats, fenced farms, irrigated gardens, all sorts of gorgeous things.
For those who need a GOAL, this isn't their game. For those who enjoy poking their nose into the dark, just to see what's IN there, and who like being able to get in touch with the child inside who loved to make things out of blocks, this is well worth it. It's not free, but for now it's EUR15.00 -- and I've gotten far more enjoyment out of it than most movies. :)
The only thing about it I'm not sure about... I think it would have been more fun to play WITHOUT reading all the tutorials first. Exploring and Discovering. But that WOULD be frustrating, as many important things in the game aren't obvious to build. Perhaps you could be told the BASICS and then just cut loose. I think that would have been more enjoyable. I've stopped looking at the wiki for now, because of that.
Any other players? I think the multiplayer server would be a load of fun too.
It's a great game, really suits me. I'm an explorer. And a builder.
Let me describe it. The game looks like some sort of living Lego world. All the terrain is made up of blocks. You can interact with the blocks, and "destroy" them. They usually stack up in your inventory, so you can then either just deposit them somewhere ELSE, or you can craft them and process them into other things. Simple materials like wood are easily handled, but you need to build tools to process them faster, or to process harder (and rarer) materials like stone and coal and iron.
The physics isn't excatly realistic but the vistas are great fun. The random algorithm to build and extend the world as you explore makes some really beautiful things appear. The first time you peer down a deep natural cavern and spot your first glowing river of magma is a beautiful moment.
The driving forces are the urge to get better materials to build with, and the need to protect yourself against the coming of night. At night, and anywhere that's not well-lit, can see various monsters appear when your back is turned.
So your first day or so is all about finding a hole to hide in (and a source of light to chase the darkness out), before the beasties show up.
Before long, you're building bridges, towers, huts, towers, castles, moats, fenced farms, irrigated gardens, all sorts of gorgeous things.
For those who need a GOAL, this isn't their game. For those who enjoy poking their nose into the dark, just to see what's IN there, and who like being able to get in touch with the child inside who loved to make things out of blocks, this is well worth it. It's not free, but for now it's EUR15.00 -- and I've gotten far more enjoyment out of it than most movies. :)
The only thing about it I'm not sure about... I think it would have been more fun to play WITHOUT reading all the tutorials first. Exploring and Discovering. But that WOULD be frustrating, as many important things in the game aren't obvious to build. Perhaps you could be told the BASICS and then just cut loose. I think that would have been more enjoyable. I've stopped looking at the wiki for now, because of that.
Any other players? I think the multiplayer server would be a load of fun too.