Sunday, March 10, 2013

Minecraft: another dimension of cyberspace

I was recently introduced to Minecraft by a friend, colleague, and contemporary.  My first notion was, "No sir, too blocky for my taste."  But, always willing to give things a fair evaluation, I did just that.

The Syracuse Innovator's Guild (SIG) has launched a Minecraft server, which we hope to open to the public soon.  Right now, we are crunching blocks, and building interesting things for people to experience when they do visit us.  We hope to have the SIG Minecraft Server open to the public for Spring.



So, what won me over?  I mean... this clearly isn't SecondLife or OpenSIM.  What it lacks in graphics quality, it makes up for in world size and game play.  It is, for the most part, a sandbox style game.  But there are many plugins available to even change the style of game-play.

If you have ever become addicted to an MMOs crafting system, Minecraft will definitely appeal to you.  You can break down everything in the environment (e.g. rocks, trees, sheep), and make more complex things by combining (usually) several different items in a particular pattern.  Folks who have crafted in The Secret World will be familiar with this notion.

You start out with nothing but your hands, and can craft your way up to diamond armor, sword, and tools.  You can make pick-axes to mine with, you can make axes to chop down trees.  You can even make sheers to trim the wool off of sheep.  You can breed the sheep, but be careful that wolves don't eat them.  You can befriend wolves with meat, and breed them as well.

A quick tip for noobs (of which I am one):  Don't try to click-click-click as you mine, or dig, or cut. The game is pretty easy on your mouse.  Click and hold. ;)

The depth of relationships between items is the core of this game's charm.  Unlike other sandbox virtual realities, it is a true game as well.  Out of the box you will have to fight to survive spider, zombie, and skeleton attacks.

While the initial look may seem "cheesy" - you quickly realize that that the low-polly graphics are actually quite charming.

In the end - I hope developers create portals, so one can jump from an OpenSIM to a Minecraft server.  This is, after all, another dimension of cyberspace.