Virtual Legos

I never really did like Legos much as a kid. I would always get frustrated by how easily those rainbow colored blocks came apart and dismantled whatever I was building at the time. Plus I hated it when this happened:

Really, the one thing I enjoyed doing with Legos was following the instructions to build the in-box stage piece, which I then used to make up stories with the included Lego people.

The reason I bring this story up is because the latest indie game to set the world on fire, Minecraft, is essentially a virtual Lego simulation. You gather materials from the randomly generated environment and you build stuff with them. There's a game mechanic where you're supposed to be building a fort to defend yourself against monsters during the night cycle, but most people tend to ignore that mechanic in favor of just building things. By all accounts, I should not like this game. I don't have the patience to build a 1:1 replica of the Starship Enterprise. Nor do I have the creativity needed to build a 16-bit processor within the game. There's also the fact that anyone can mess with what you create if you're playing on a multiplayer server, which means griefing has never been easier. If I didn't like playing with real Legos, then I shouldn't like playing with virtual ones right?

Well, the strange thing is, I actually like Minecraft. And I'm still not truly sure why.

Despite everything Minecraft has going against it, the game has become oddly endearing to me for some reason. I find the more time I spend with the game, the more I appreciate its nuanced design.

You see, there's a rhythm to the way a game of Minecraft unfolds that seems to keep me excited about playing. It starts with the aesthetic style of the game. I'm going to try to explain it, but first, let me simply show you what the game looks like before it gets touched by human hands.

This is the style of Minecraft: cubes and incredibly low resolution textures. This art style adds a lot of charm to the game. It might be the nostalgia factor or it might be the fact that I like Cubism, but the game's aesthetic design is very warm and inviting. It encourages me to explore the rest of this world and see what it has to offer.

Which leads me to the second part of Minecraft's "rhythm" of gameplay: exploration. At the start of every single player game, a new world is created at run time. This means that every new game is a chance to explore something new. And since I consider myself to be part spade gamer, this is perhaps my favorite part of the game. Exploring the world, and getting lost only to find something completely new and unexpected is a great experience. During many play sessions, I'll find myself aimlessly walking around and taking in the environment before I even realize I need to build something to protect myself at night.

The final piece of Minecraft's gameplay is the way in which you manipulate the environment. As I stated before, you destroy blocks to gain materials, which you then use to build other tools and items for your impenetrable fortress. It's a simple and enjoyable mechanic on its own, but it's the previous two parts of the game that really help the building portion stand out. Here is how I think the structure of Minecraft works:

The aesthetic style and the unfamiliarity of the world encourages the player to explore their surroundings. This allows players to find new and essential materials throughout the world. The player can then use these new materials to build the things they need to survive the night cycles. The possibility of finding stronger and rarer materials for building new items keeps the player exploring the world.

It's this structure of gameplay that makes Minecraft an entertaining game. Very few of the ideas in Minecraft are that unique. Randomly generated levels are nothing new in game design, and many of my friends have described Minecraft as "Dwarf Fortress Lite." But the fact that each portion of the game is influenced and built upon the previous gameplay "beat" is a key element to keeping the game fun. Because I was intrigued by the design of the world, I decided to explore it. And through exploring the world, I feel there's more of a purpose to gathering and building in Minecraft that I never really got by playing with Legos. So maybe this is why I like Minecraft; it offers a purpose to building blocks.

Or maybe it's just because I don't have to search for that one piece for twenty minutes.

Aside: I would like to take this moment to apologize to Garrett for accidentally blowing up his replica of the Parthenon the last time I was on the server. I totally wouldn't have used dynamite if I had any other materials. :p