That's a very sweeping statement. Arguably, Minecraft is an RPG and Skyrim is a "sandbox game". The two kinda go together.

Sandbox games or free to roam games, are not my favourite types of game obviously.

I was thinking more like, the GTA series or Just Cause as ideal examples. It's not that you can go 'off mission', but the lack of structure I suppose. People spending hours crashing cars into trees and houses in Vice City or GTA 4 just blows my mind. If I was that lost for something to do, I'd seriously consider self-harm.

http://notch.net/



LOL - that's a website

Would I buy it?

I don't know. I'm not really sure what it is so I can't really have an opinion on it.

It just seems like lego on a computer to me?

I know you can build some cool stuff on it. Not sure exactly what can and can't be done with it though.

Also, there doesn't seem to be any story or anything to it. i.e. I'm mining and killing stuff and building things, etc... but why?

I'm not saying it's bad just that I don't know enough about it etc...

It used to be pure Sandbox - but you can actually "win the game" now. They've added levelling up and all kinds of stuff that wasn't in the original, and there's an actual boss to kill. You'll need to learn magic stuff to even get to that world.

I don't want to win though. Well maybe once, but that was never the point. It's nice to simply end the day better off than you started. It's nice to see amazing things. It's nice to push the envelope and try to do something no one else has. It's nice to just build games to play with friends, hide things for people to find or explore what they've done. Life isn't about following a set story to the end - it's about making your own. You can be a scientist, an artist, a farmer or a evil genius who lays super-intricate traps for people and then mugs their corpses and builds a giant golden cock and balls from all the loot.

You can even build a computer in Minecraft that you can play Minecraft on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdnO1QZJ--M
You have no idea how long that must have taken to build with the components available. You may find the second video more interesting. I think Pacman would have been more fun though

an update on my Minecraft computer, if anyone is interested

now has 5 bytes of sequential ROM and 3 bytes of addressed working memory
runs at about 16 ticks per clock cycle (4 full repeaters), but i havent tried decreasing this so it may get faster
2 digit hexadecimal 7 segment display built with glowstone and pistons hasnt changed in a while, but i dont remember if ive mentioned that before here.

i recently constructed a new memory controller (old one was laggy and huge), but seem to be having a few problems getting bytes to clear: although the command works fine when given on its own, it fails to get through if given as part of a program. something tells me this might be a bug with Minecraft, or atleast thats the best reason i can think of for this sort of behaviour. suggestions are welcome.

im uploading the latest version to Minecraft World Map, itll take a while to finish but heres a Recent Version. the site offers an isometric view of the world, and you can also download it to play in your copy of Minecraft

*EDIT* new map is uploaded now here, but the viewable maps havent been processed yet. it is still available for download though

Had my first Minecraft experience (Xbox). It's every bit as good as people say it is. I wasn't sure what to expect but after being dropped into a world with nothing but the clothes on my back and dying during the night I quickly realised I needed shelter to survive. I dug a hole in the side of a hill and built a door to see me through till the morning. It sounds simple (and to be fair it is) but I took immense satisfaction from it.

It's the absolute distillation of the 'sandbox' game is minecraft. It basically gives you a flexible environment and a limited set of tools and then says 'there you go, do what you like with that'. The way it all hangs together is genius game design. Plus some of the object design & AI is inspired. The chickens crack me up every time.

It has a bit of a dip in the middle when you've got enough kit together & built enough fortifications that you're not actually under any threat but before you get a portal built but the beginning and end are first class.

Jon

You can lose vast amounts of your life in there, but I do prefer multi-player. I've not played for ages now due to computer problems; there's loads of new features I've not experienced

In fact, last time I played the game had no end.

The end encounter was only recently added, so the pacing was bound to be messed up. no doubt this could be fixed by changing mob/resource spawn rates though, or just by playing the game on hard mode if you are finding it too easy

ION, version 4 of my Minecraft computer is up now. it has 8 bytes of ROM, 4 bytes of RAM, a 7seg redstone lamp screen (requires minecraft 1.2.5 to use), and the problems with the memory controller present in version 3 have been fixed im working on a user input system right now: currently it will wait when it reaches a blank ROM byte, and restarts where it left off once the user entered a number and has pressed the "GO!" button this is partially present but not wired or working in version 4, once its working smoothly ill upload version 5.

Ah, ok.

I've often wondered... when building a simulation of a car for instance...

Why not simulate every atom. Then simulate the physics of all the interactions, etc....

OK, maybe not every atom but you'd get a very accurate simulation out of it.

Minecraft is a program that (on a slightly more macro scale) lets you do that.

"slightly more macro" meaning "cubic meter"

LOL!

Been watching a couple of "Minecraft Computer" videos.

Some of them are amazing.

Anyway, they got me wondering how close the workings of a Minecraft CPU are to an actual CPU?

Obviously the size and speed are nothing in comparison but the WAY in which they work got me interested.

I'd guess that there is more knowledge around the Minecraft community of the inner workings of a CPU than there is in the rest of the world (CPU manufacturers excepted).

I wonder when it will get to the point that optimisation found in MCPUs can be applied to the real world?!

its a similar sort of thing as far as the logic goes, though of course you dont have to worry about voltages and short circuits only take out a component for a few seconds in stead of permanently damaging it Minecraft primarily uses NOT and NAND logic in the form of redstone torches (they only turn on when they receive no power from other sources, in other words output = !input), which can be used to make lots of other logical equations pretty easily.

a basic list of the logic gates made is available here but others can be made, and they can be made in different ways (things such as repeaters and pistons have only recently been added, and havent yet been fully utilised). I've designed a custom XOR gate, edge trigger and T Flip-Flop for my computer