The Tao of Minecraft?

I've been playing some minecraft lately, and asking myself "What is it about this game that makes it so appealing with its rigid pixely graphics and un-guided nature?"

Minecraft, for any of you who do not know, is an open-ended sandbox game in which you can gather blocks of wood, stone, glass, etc, by mining, chopping trees, etc, to craft objects and build your own structures while surviving in the wilderness, creating your own little virtual life and set of adventures. It's gained a massive following.

But in its more recent releases, there is a new dimension called "The End", in which you can eventually teleport to, to slay what is called an "Ender Dragon". Once you slay the dragon, you are brought to an ending scene, complete with credits. This seems to have upset many players who personally felt that it didn't need an ending as its meant to be an open-ended game.

On the ending scene, there is a poem-like script that occurs where to unknown entities talk about the "player". Just out of my own curiosity, I, like many others, used a mod, to get to the end, slay the dragon, and read this ending scene. I was rather impressed! The thing I noticed though, was that the ending, wasn't actually an ending to the game itself technically, since after all the credits roll, it puts you back into the game to continue playing as normal.

But on the Minecraft forums, there are threads of people severely bashing the poem in the end scene, saying it was just the makers "trolling the players" and that it was just a big joke? I'm not sure what that meant. The poem didn't sound exactly funny. It did sound philosophical though.

After reading many very negative reviews on the ending, I eventually ran into two certain sources that actually seemed to not only shed more positive light on the ending, but actually gave the game as a whole, more of a purpose and meaning itself, and gave an immensely enlightening view of real life as well!

The video below is one guy's review of it. I seriously think that you will enjoy this video as he describes the nature of Minecraft in terms of life philosophies and how the ending of it incorporates it. It's really funny too. :lol:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTnJYIKvssw

And finally, I found the official interview with Julian Gough, the writer of the poem, who is actually a follower of Joseph Campbell. What she says about how she wrote the poem reveals a great deal about it, added to the review above.

"The fact that we write the stories of our own lives is very interesting. We’re hardwired to be storytellers, and when we look back on our lives we build them into stories. And the more we find out about the nature of human consciousness, the clearer it is that we are making up stories after the facts a lot of the time, to make sense of decisions that we’ve made at a totally unconscious level: we have to make them into a story in order to navigate our own personal universe.

When someone goes into therapy, for example, you see how they can build two totally different stories about their life from exactly the same materials. When you’re playing a computer game, especially a very open one, you’re creating a self and an epic adventure that you’re the hero of. But you’re also doing that in real life when you’re walking down the street.

"

-Julian Gough

Full inteview here: http://boingboing.net/2012/01/09/ending-an-endless-game-an-int.html


Do you play Minecraft? And what is it about Minecraft you enjoy the most? Can you relate to Minecraft in the way that EmceeProflt in the video, and Julian Gough describes?

I've been a gamer since I was about 8 years old, but I don't play Minecraft myself, though my brother and sister do. I've watched them play, but never really saw the attraction. But I do like open-ended games, MMO's, etc. I've gotten to the point where I don't play games that have an ending. I like the ones that you could play forever. Like Star Wars Galaxies (original version), Battlefield, DayZ, and so on.

Anyway, since you brought it up, I might have to try it out

i love minecraft, though i tend to play on multi-player servers. it can seem boring but when i get a good idea, i can build it! no, its great yet childish and can only, truly, be played by people with imaginations. isnt that what games are for? to let you imagine and have fun?

I really like minecraft. It is a kind of lego for adults. I play alone as well as with friends and every time there is a new story to play, new worlds to explore and new freedom for fantasies. This is a tool to let at least some of your dreams become 'reality.'

Thanks for sharing the video. It is really good and the credits are also awesome

It's amazing how Notch(the creator) made minecraft, not only his job was awesome, but also the theories behind the game play are.

The most interesting thing in this game is "Loose to gain" thing, which is really awesome! Lose one seed, get grain and seeds! Spend one diamond, go faster, get better things...

The moment I finished minecraft, the poem seems to talk about 'game', but when you look closer, it's more about 'game of life' than 'minecraft -the game', read this poem, if you hadn't already, on minecraftwiki.net. do it now!