You may or may not be aware of Minecraft: The Island - the first official Minecraft novel, written by Max Brooks. You may even have bought it and read it, which I have, and it's possible you may have spotted a few minor mistakes in the story, relating to how Minecraft works.
This thread is in two sections: Inaccuracies and Explanations. Inaccuracies are certain aspects of Minecraft shown in the book that actually work slightly differently in the actual game. Think of it as like deciding how scientifically accurate a certain space movie is, for example, except in this case, it's how accurate Minecraft is portrayed in the book.
Obviously in actual Minecraft you're just playing it on a computer screen or on your phone or console, not actually being physically inside it. Obvious things like that are not listed in the Inaccuracies section.
Explanations is regarding to the fact that the character spawned into a new world with no guide on how to play Minecraft at the start, so had to figure out everything for themselves, and thus assumes some certain things that are not actually true. A seasoned Minecraft player who reads the book would know all the answers to these things, which is why I'm including this section.
Do be warned that this thread may contain spoilers to the book. Any written content below that would spoil certain major aspects of the plot are in... a spoiler.
Inaccuracies:
Finding books underground:
Towards the end of the book, the character found numerous information books within mineshaft and dungeon chests. These contained information about certain topics like food or redstone.
Obviously in the normal game, there are no books found in underground mineshaft chests. These books were probably put in the book (heh) to help accelerate the plot.
However, in vanilla Minecraft, it is possible to change the loot tables of chests so they contain different items, so the world that the character was in may have had that done to it by whoever had created the world to help the character (and others trapped inside??) progress to the mid and late game.
Like the argument in the 'Explanations' section below that the mineshaft hadn't been dug out by somebody else, but rather had been generated there by the game, similarly, the books were probably also not left there by somebody else, but rather placed in the chests by loot tables.
However, the loot table explanation has another flaw to it - customisable loot tables were not added to Minecraft until 1.9 - the same update that came out while the character was on the island (see "Combat Update" below), meaning when the island was first generated in the previous version, 1.8, the chests with the books in them would have been generated with default loot tables that contained no books.
At the same time, this argument can be explained if, when the character was mining in the mineshaft, they travelled so far into the ocean underground that they went into unexplored ocean terrain that would have been generated with 1.9's rules, including the chests with customised loot tables.
Water flowing on lava (and vice versa):
As most Minecraft players would know, when you pour water on lava, the lava turns into obsidian, which was named 'blackstone' by the character. but that only works for lava lakes. If you pour water on a lava flow, the lava will actually turn into cobblestone. The book incorrectly portrays water being poured on flowing lava as also turning into obsidian.
Also, when lava is poured on water, the water turns to stone. The book gets this fact wrong as well - instead it is portrayed as turning water to cobblestone. Details of when each inaccuracy occurs in the plot are in the spoiler.
When the character's house is burning down and they're trying to extinguish the lava flow that was threatening to kill the animals, they pour water onto the flowing lava, however it is described: "Water rushed out, smothering the lava, turning it to blackstone."
When the character makes more island by pouring lava on water, it is described as turning the water into cobblestone.
Silverfish:
While mining underground the character encounters some monster egg blocks containing silverfish, or 'crabupines', as the character first called them. Monster eggs only spawn underneath extreme hills biomes, however, and there were no extreme hills on the island, which was predominately a birch forest with ocean all around it.
Explanations:
The Combat Update:
At about halfway through the book, the character's left hand started tingling and mobs suddenly were able to take twice the punishment before being defeated, and also the character was suddenly able to craft a shield even though the same combination had not worked before.
This is likely because while the character was inside the world a Minecraft update came out and changed some things - specifically, Minecraft version 1.9.
The update did add shields to Minecraft, but the reason why mobs were suddenly tougher than before is because of 1.9 also adding the infamous new 'attack cooldown' mechanic which required you to time your attacks when fighting rather than 'spam clicking.' It's likely the character was attacking in a way that would have been considered 'spam clicking' by the game at first until they got used to it, as mobs' health points were not buffed at all in 1.9.
Witches:
When the character encounters a witch for the first time, they assume witches to be people just like them, but evil and crazy. Obviously the character was not able to connect them as being crazy variants of villagers, because the character had never met villagers beforehand in the book.
Fishing boots in the ocean:
At one point, when the character tries out fishing, they fish out a pair of leather boots, which are a 'junk' item that can be rarely fished out. The character assumes leather boots to be there because they either fell off their own feet or because someone else left them there, which then begins to make the character question whether other people have been to the island.
On a side note, when they added junk and treasure items to Minecraft fishing the first thing I thought was how polluted Minecraft's waterways had suddenly become.
Abandoned Mineshafts:
The character encounters an abandoned mineshaft while mining, and comes up with various theories as to how they got there and who dug them out, ranging from them being a witches' lair, to being dug out by other people who may had been on the island before him.
Also, as the mineshaft was built with oak wood as supports but there are mostly birch trees on the island, the character assumes the oak wood had been brought in from somewhere else.
Of course, in reality, mineshafts only spawn in underground due to a similar set of rules that make trees spawn on the surface or ores underground.
Disclaimer:
Before anyone starts criticizing me, I personally find mistakes in movies and books interesting, so I thought a list like this would be interesting to make. Remember people are only human, and people make little mistakes everywhere. (There's probably one somewhere in this thread! ) But as one of the life lessons in Minecraft: The Island goes, "Don't dwell on mistakes, learn from them."
If you have read Minecraft: The Island and can think of something else that should be added to this list please comment!
It is an interesting idea, but I'm sorry, I don't think it's practical, because it is possible to find 'faults' in almost every sentence in the book. For example, the very first few...
Your comment makes sense.
Yes, this is a work of fiction. With the inaccuracies I just wanted to talk about certain aspects of the game that were shown to be slightly different in the book, whether intentional or as an oversight by the author, such as the section on when the character encounters silverfish monster eggs underground even though they're not actually underneath an extreme hills biome.
I also stated in the introduction paragraph:
Obviously in actual Minecraft you're just playing it on a computer screen or on your phone or console, not actually being physically inside it. Obvious things like that are not listed in the Inaccuracies section.
In more detail, this means that while writing the thread I did not take into account the fact that the character was a real-life person somehow physically inside Minecraft, so I ignored any sentences or descriptions that described the character's feelings, actions, etc, even though I knew these minor actions such as blinking or coughing are not possible in Minecraft. That is the main fictional part of the story, but everything else outside of the character themselves - the world, the island, the trees, the mobs - are still Minecraft.
You may or may not be aware of Minecraft: The Island - the first official Minecraft novel, written by Max Brooks. You may even have bought it and read it, which I have, and it's possible you may have spotted a few minor mistakes in the story, relating to how Minecraft works.
This thread is in two sections: Inaccuracies and Explanations. Inaccuracies are certain aspects of Minecraft shown in the book that actually work slightly differently in the actual game. Think of it as like deciding how scientifically accurate a certain space movie is, for example, except in this case, it's how accurate Minecraft is portrayed in the book.
Obviously in actual Minecraft you're just playing it on a computer screen or on your phone or console, not actually being physically inside it. Obvious things like that are not listed in the Inaccuracies section.
Explanations is regarding to the fact that the character spawned into a new world with no guide on how to play Minecraft at the start, so had to figure out everything for themselves, and thus assumes some certain things that are not actually true. A seasoned Minecraft player who reads the book would know all the answers to these things, which is why I'm including this section.
Do be warned that this thread may contain spoilers to the book. Any written content below that would spoil certain major aspects of the plot are in... a spoiler.
Inaccuracies:
Finding books underground:
Towards the end of the book, the character found numerous information books within mineshaft and dungeon chests. These contained information about certain topics like food or redstone.
Obviously in the normal game, there are no books found in underground mineshaft chests. These books were probably put in the book (heh) to help accelerate the plot.
However, in vanilla Minecraft, it is possible to change the loot tables of chests so they contain different items, so the world that the character was in may have had that done to it by whoever had created the world to help the character (and others trapped inside??) progress to the mid and late game.
Like the argument in the 'Explanations' section below that the mineshaft hadn't been dug out by somebody else, but rather had been generated there by the game, similarly, the books were probably also not left there by somebody else, but rather placed in the chests by loot tables.
However, the loot table explanation has another flaw to it - customisable loot tables were not added to Minecraft until 1.9 - the same update that came out while the character was on the island (see "Combat Update" below), meaning when the island was first generated in the previous version, 1.8, the chests with the books in them would have been generated with default loot tables that contained no books.
At the same time, this argument can be explained if, when the character was mining in the mineshaft, they travelled so far into the ocean underground that they went into unexplored ocean terrain that would have been generated with 1.9's rules, including the chests with customised loot tables.
Water flowing on lava (and vice versa):
As most Minecraft players would know, when you pour water on lava, the lava turns into obsidian, which was named 'blackstone' by the character. but that only works for lava lakes. If you pour water on a lava flow, the lava will actually turn into cobblestone. The book incorrectly portrays water being poured on flowing lava as also turning into obsidian.
Also, when lava is poured on water, the water turns to stone. The book gets this fact wrong as well - instead it is portrayed as turning water to cobblestone. Details of when each inaccuracy occurs in the plot are in the spoiler.
When the character's house is burning down and they're trying to extinguish the lava flow that was threatening to kill the animals, they pour water onto the flowing lava, however it is described: "Water rushed out, smothering the lava, turning it to blackstone."
When the character makes more island by pouring lava on water, it is described as turning the water into cobblestone.
Silverfish:
While mining underground the character encounters some monster egg blocks containing silverfish, or 'crabupines', as the character first called them. Monster eggs only spawn underneath extreme hills biomes, however, and there were no extreme hills on the island, which was predominately a birch forest with ocean all around it.
Explanations:
The Combat Update:
At about halfway through the book, the character's left hand started tingling and mobs suddenly were able to take twice the punishment before being defeated, and also the character was suddenly able to craft a shield even though the same combination had not worked before.
This is likely because while the character was inside the world a Minecraft update came out and changed some things - specifically, Minecraft version 1.9.
The update did add shields to Minecraft, but the reason why mobs were suddenly tougher than before is because of 1.9 also adding the infamous new 'attack cooldown' mechanic which required you to time your attacks when fighting rather than 'spam clicking.' It's likely the character was attacking in a way that would have been considered 'spam clicking' by the game at first until they got used to it, as mobs' health points were not buffed at all in 1.9.
Witches:
When the character encounters a witch for the first time, they assume witches to be people just like them, but evil and crazy. Obviously the character was not able to connect them as being crazy variants of villagers, because the character had never met villagers beforehand in the book.
Fishing boots in the ocean:
At one point, when the character tries out fishing, they fish out a pair of leather boots, which are a 'junk' item that can be rarely fished out. The character assumes leather boots to be there because they either fell off their own feet or because someone else left them there, which then begins to make the character question whether other people have been to the island.
On a side note, when they added junk and treasure items to Minecraft fishing the first thing I thought was how polluted Minecraft's waterways had suddenly become.
Abandoned Mineshafts:
The character encounters an abandoned mineshaft while mining, and comes up with various theories as to how they got there and who dug them out, ranging from them being a witches' lair, to being dug out by other people who may had been on the island before him.
Also, as the mineshaft was built with oak wood as supports but there are mostly birch trees on the island, the character assumes the oak wood had been brought in from somewhere else.
Of course, in reality, mineshafts only spawn in underground due to a similar set of rules that make trees spawn on the surface or ores underground.
Disclaimer:
Before anyone starts criticizing me, I personally find mistakes in movies and books interesting, so I thought a list like this would be interesting to make. Remember people are only human, and people make little mistakes everywhere. (There's probably one somewhere in this thread! ) But as one of the life lessons in Minecraft: The Island goes, "Don't dwell on mistakes, learn from them."
If you have read Minecraft: The Island and can think of something else that should be added to this list please comment!
Your comment makes sense.
Yes, this is a work of fiction. With the inaccuracies I just wanted to talk about certain aspects of the game that were shown to be slightly different in the book, whether intentional or as an oversight by the author, such as the section on when the character encounters silverfish monster eggs underground even though they're not actually underneath an extreme hills biome.
I also stated in the introduction paragraph:
In more detail, this means that while writing the thread I did not take into account the fact that the character was a real-life person somehow physically inside Minecraft, so I ignored any sentences or descriptions that described the character's feelings, actions, etc, even though I knew these minor actions such as blinking or coughing are not possible in Minecraft. That is the main fictional part of the story, but everything else outside of the character themselves - the world, the island, the trees, the mobs - are still Minecraft.