Okay, so with the latest update (1.8/ 1.8.1) we were given Survival Mode and Creative mode. I thought this was a great addition to the game and allowed for two different types of game play. One type of game play is pure sand box mode. You can fly, spawn in just about everything in the game and ultimately create whatever you please. However, I can't help but feel insulted by "Survival Mode". I think it's great to finally put a label on what we really did in minecraft. We generated a world and then did our best to collect resources and "Survive". However, with 1.8, game play feels changed. We are not playing the old game that we all know and love... you know, The one that sold millions of copies and ultimately made Notch and Mojang piles of money. With the new Survival mode we are given a hunger bar. This is a spit in the face. In the original Minecraft (And yes, I realize it's Still beta) you were not dependent on food. You didn't even have to care about healing. If you took the proper steps, you could avoid all confrontation with enemies. The most well-known thing about minecraft is "Surviving the First Night". This is iconic. You are given just about 10 minutes to gather resources and build a small hut in order to protect yourself from the dangers of the monsters that come out at night. The game did not encourage fighting monsters and actually made it quite difficult to take them on. Instead, it required you to slow down at night and work on things indoors. Typically, people went mining at night, passing the time until they can explore the surface again safely. Now with the hunger bar, you have to frantically find pigs, Cows, seeds, chickens, stone for a furnace, a bucket for water to make a garden, wood to make a hoe and pick, and so on. You used to be able to spend days down in your cave systems. With the addition of a hunger bar, you are forced to resurface and direct your time to just killing pigs and cows, like it's a chore. Minecraft already forced you to return to the surface for wood. The game is entirely dependent on wood. Without wood, you can't even make a crafting table to continue the game. But why is there a need for a hunger bar? Why force onto us yet another restriction? Originally, people went hours into the game without even making a furnace. Now, you need one on the first night. Sometimes a map makes it hard to find coal. But in order to make food, you have to find it or make it. The game has forced you to stop doing what it wants you to do. Explore it. The generated worlds are so giant, you can never conceivably view it all. However, when watching any let's play, all the people seem really interested in exploring this unique seed and finding something cool. When you add a need to readily find food, you restrict the player's ability to explore this world, ultimately ruining any need for such a large place. Once again, I am utterly insulted by this. Every generated world is fresh and new and unique. So why would you force the player to stay in one spot by making him reliant on being able to find pigs and other animals? This also leads into the idea of a desert biome, which are now basically useless. Animals don't often spawn in the desert, and if they do, they quickly leave. You can no longer practically have a desert house. No building material is made there and the only thing it's good for is sand for glass. By making a hunger bar, you have rendered it impossible to survive in a place where animals are scarce, limiting your ability to explore these cool looking deserts. Also, Minecraft never had a goal or end game. Its greatest point was that you ultimately controlled your fate. You gave yourself a task and did you best to gather resources to finish it. You would think of an elaborate, ornate structure to build. You wanted to create a really cool house and generally you ended up with a feeling of dominance in your world, as if you were in control of what happened. Monsters like Skeletons, Creepers, zombies, and spiders made this more challenging. They forced you to fight for your control. And by killing mobs, you felt you really earned your place, ultimately enhancing the playing experience. With the new generations, ravines offer a way to start the game out finding iron and other rare minerals from the start. By adding this to the game, you have forcibly torn out what it meant to find these rare materials. If anyone can just jump into a ravine and get everything they need, why would anyone ever waste their time building a mineshaft? The whole point to minecraft was that you had to dig into the depths of the earth and find these materials yourself. Mining generally was a menial task, it took a while to do and you typically were ill equipped. Your wood or stone picks would break quickly and it made for more reason to look for iron and diamond. When you finally found it, you felt as if you earned those materials. You worked hard to find them and you were rewarded for your hard work. Now, you can find them just lying on the surface of the world without any hard work beyond walking. This is yet another insult to the gaming experience. By making the less common materials more common, you have removed the struggle in the game, breaking any tension that the gamer was feeling before. I feel that Notch and Mojang were trying to appeal to wider audience of people. They were trying to get all gamer's involved by creating a system where Weapons, armor, food, eating, and surviving were just as important as building things.
It is at this point where these explanations are finally put into a point. If a game wants something for everyone to enjoy, they can't make it all into on game mode. They need to make several different ones. They should split it into something like this (These are just a few examples):
1.) Survival Mode- Player must find food and resources to protect themself from the harsh outside world. You should focus on fighting mobs and staying alive as long as possible. Surviving should be difficult and enjoyment comes from beating the odds against you.
2.) Adventure Mode- This should be less about the actual killing of mobs and more about the exploration of the world. You should wander around, checking out the world and going on an adventure. You shouldn't be restricted by a hunger bar and should be allowed to spend day’s underground, exploring the far reaches of these amazing cave systems. The enjoyment of the game comes from seeing unique places and beautiful landscapes. Any contact with mobs should be for creating an opposition to the player. By putting problems in the way, the player is rewarded for his hard work and determination.
3.) Creative Mode- A complete sandbox tool. Create whatever you want without having to find it. The fun of this is the simplicity of building things. Just like Legos.
4.) Classic Mode- This should not be about anything. You should simply generate a world and do your best to collect materials and build things. Any contact with mobs should just be like a side game where you have to fight for your materials. There should be no goal and ultimately, the player gets to choose what is most important to them. They shouldn't be forced into having to collect any one resource, nor should they be forced to take time out of there task to gather food so they can keep working. The joy of this is that you fight for your materials and can feel proud that you found all the materials and took the time to do so. The game should not be about survival or fighting, but about creation and imagination.
As a nice closer to this whole thing, I offer a quote from a guy called William Shakespeare: "Brevity is the soul of wit." This basically means stop wasting my time. Keep things nice and simple. The game should not have a mess of complicated parts to it that require you to spend countless hours doing things you don't want to. Any amount of complexity should come from the player and their imagination. The game should be hard because they set out to do something hard. And at the end of the day, they feel that they accomplished something and have made something unique. This is basic and universal and makes your player feel like they have spent their time wisely.
i like this idea i hated the hunger bar animals never spawn in all the cool biome like i found a forest tons of animals i found a mountain biome no animals i died on my first night from hunger
A lot more could honestly be said, but I feel that this was just a good little bit. The original game of Minecraft offered very little. But in a way, that is what made it so great. The player set goals and then hopefully achieved them. And then the game became more than just a game; it became a new way to challenge the player's mind and imagination.
Another point is, sometimes you spawn on an island surrounded by water for miles. On this island are no trees or animals. The map you just generated is now worthless, because you can't even make a crafting table. If you are going to make it possible to spawn on islands, give us a way to build things still! Make this a fun and challenging edition. Like some of those island survival maps people make. It seems like it'd be another interesting game play device.
A lot more could honestly be said, but I feel that this was just a good little bit. The original game of Minecraft offered very little. But in a way, that is what made it so great. The player set goals and then hopefully achieved them. And then the game became more than just a game; it became a new way to challenge the player's mind and imagination.
Another point is, sometimes you spawn on an island surrounded by water for miles. On this island are no trees or animals. The map you just generated is now worthless, because you can't even make a crafting table. If you are going to make it possible to spawn on islands, give us a way to build things still! Make this a fun and challenging edition. Like some of those island survival maps people make. It seems like it'd be another interesting game play device.
The whole point of random generation is "You never know what you're gonna get," So you have to make the best of what you've been given. If you're given nothing, the best you make of this is "Nothing at all."
I have to agree, if only partially. A food bar is a tad restrictive, and it does suck having to build a furnace quickly or die. A farm is practically a requirement now. The health regen aspect also leaves much to be desired. Most dungeons are now practically suicide. Though I suppose mobs needed to be a bit harder to beat up anyway. However, at least food is much easier to come by, with every animal now dropping meat. Plus, food stacks, which is also helpful.
I also agree with your point on ravines. I've made 3 worlds since 1.8, and all of them have gotten iron before day 4. It does cheapen the experience a bit, making it so easy to get them.
Another point is, sometimes you spawn on an island surrounded by water for miles. On this island are no trees or animals. The map you just generated is now worthless...
I also agree with this. In previous iterations, these kinds of seeds would be amazing and fun. However, with the addition of a food bar, these are now worthless, because the only meat you'll get will be rotten, and you'll probably die multiple times in the first few days from starvation alone.
All in all, I think that there should be a "1.7" mode added in, persay. A basic mode without any of the 1.8 updates, for different worlds. I love 1.8, but I'd like to have worlds where I can mine a bit more freely, or try out island seeds such as Nightfall.
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Proud Minecrafter since Alpha 1.1.0 OH GOD LOOK OUT IT'S A SLUUUUT
Indeed. By the simple change in the way food works, the entire way you play the game is changed. You grind on animals, spend a lot of time cooking food and have to sit around and wait for your health to regenerate. Even though the game never encouraged you to fight mobs, it never discouraged it either. They were an obstacle. Sure, they drop gunpowder, string and bones. But none of that is necessary. Now, fighting even one skeleton forces you to stop and consider the consequences. You become paranoid and stop enjoying it.
All in all, I think that there should be a "1.7" mode added in, persay. A basic mode without any of the 1.8 updates, for different worlds. I love 1.8, but I'd like to have worlds where I can mine a bit more freely, or try out island seeds such as Nightfall.
This is sort of how I meant classic mode to be. The original Beta game that sold millions. I am no business man, but if you have a product that has sold millions of copies, and continues to sell hundreds more each day, I wouldn't go around changing that product too much. It clearly caught people's attention. This is the classic "Milking it for what it's worth" problem. A very good example is Star Wars. The original trilogy of 4, 5, and 6 made a lot of money for Lucas. He then made 1, 2, and 3. He created these movies to make more money and ultimately ruined the back-story to star wars, forever defacing a good name. I suppose what I am really saying is, I hate to see myself actually considering downloading an older version of Minecraft because the new version just isn't as good.
It is at this point where these explanations are finally put into a point. If a game wants something for everyone to enjoy, they can't make it all into on game mode. They need to make several different ones. They should split it into something like this (These are just a few examples):
1.) Survival Mode- Player must find food and resources to protect themself from the harsh outside world. You should focus on fighting mobs and staying alive as long as possible. Surviving should be difficult and enjoyment comes from beating the odds against you.
2.) Adventure Mode- This should be less about the actual killing of mobs and more about the exploration of the world. You should wander around, checking out the world and going on an adventure. You shouldn't be restricted by a hunger bar and should be allowed to spend day’s underground, exploring the far reaches of these amazing cave systems. The enjoyment of the game comes from seeing unique places and beautiful landscapes. Any contact with mobs should be for creating an opposition to the player. By putting problems in the way, the player is rewarded for his hard work and determination.
3.) Creative Mode- A complete sandbox tool. Create whatever you want without having to find it. The fun of this is the simplicity of building things. Just like Legos.
4.) Classic Mode- This should not be about anything. You should simply generate a world and do your best to collect materials and build things. Any contact with mobs should just be like a side game where you have to fight for your materials. There should be no goal and ultimately, the player gets to choose what is most important to them. They shouldn't be forced into having to collect any one resource, nor should they be forced to take time out of there task to gather food so they can keep working. The joy of this is that you fight for your materials and can feel proud that you found all the materials and took the time to do so. The game should not be about survival or fighting, but about creation and imagination.
As a nice closer to this whole thing, I offer a quote from a guy called William Shakespeare: "Brevity is the soul of wit." This basically means stop wasting my time. Keep things nice and simple. The game should not have a mess of complicated parts to it that require you to spend countless hours doing things you don't want to. Any amount of complexity should come from the player and their imagination. The game should be hard because they set out to do something hard. And at the end of the day, they feel that they accomplished something and have made something unique. This is basic and universal and makes your player feel like they have spent their time wisely.
Another point is, sometimes you spawn on an island surrounded by water for miles. On this island are no trees or animals. The map you just generated is now worthless, because you can't even make a crafting table. If you are going to make it possible to spawn on islands, give us a way to build things still! Make this a fun and challenging edition. Like some of those island survival maps people make. It seems like it'd be another interesting game play device.
The whole point of random generation is "You never know what you're gonna get," So you have to make the best of what you've been given. If you're given nothing, the best you make of this is "Nothing at all."
I also agree with your point on ravines. I've made 3 worlds since 1.8, and all of them have gotten iron before day 4. It does cheapen the experience a bit, making it so easy to get them.
I also agree with this. In previous iterations, these kinds of seeds would be amazing and fun. However, with the addition of a food bar, these are now worthless, because the only meat you'll get will be rotten, and you'll probably die multiple times in the first few days from starvation alone.
All in all, I think that there should be a "1.7" mode added in, persay. A basic mode without any of the 1.8 updates, for different worlds. I love 1.8, but I'd like to have worlds where I can mine a bit more freely, or try out island seeds such as Nightfall.
OH GOD LOOK OUT IT'S A SLUUUUT
This is sort of how I meant classic mode to be. The original Beta game that sold millions. I am no business man, but if you have a product that has sold millions of copies, and continues to sell hundreds more each day, I wouldn't go around changing that product too much. It clearly caught people's attention. This is the classic "Milking it for what it's worth" problem. A very good example is Star Wars. The original trilogy of 4, 5, and 6 made a lot of money for Lucas. He then made 1, 2, and 3. He created these movies to make more money and ultimately ruined the back-story to star wars, forever defacing a good name. I suppose what I am really saying is, I hate to see myself actually considering downloading an older version of Minecraft because the new version just isn't as good.