There is something to be said for there being a slew of newer games out, as it is the busiest season for videogame releases, and games like Minecraft continue to remain strong. In fact, Minecraft is still the third-most played game on Xbox 360 according to the latest Xbox Live charts. In a way, that is incredible considering that there have been so many major, anticipated titles released within the past month or two, yet little Minecraft continues to be the game that everyone is going back to. If you look at the indie charts, you’ll see that most of the popular Xbox Live Indie games are just cheap rip offs of Minecraft, so I think at a certain point there need to be some serious questions as to why Minecraft is such a popular game.
In my mind the answer is crystal clear as to why Minecraft is one of the most popular games available now, and that is because Minecraft is a game that relies heavily on the gamer’s creativity and allows them to play the game however they see fit. In an age of heavily-scripted games with famous screenwriters, star-studded voice acting casts and millions and millions of dollars of development money thrown at them, it is nice to see a rather simple yet imaginative game thrive in a world of big budget, AAA titles. Players are spit out in a world that is chock full of resources, animals and nature, nothing else. It is up to them to shape their world and play the game as they see fit.
You could definitely argue that some of the game’s monotonous tasks such as mining for resources or farming is a part of that addiction factor, but the openness of the game keeps drawing players back. It shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone that the concept of “openness” would draw players in, as we’ve seen a giant run on open-world games since Grand Theft Auto and there really is no end in sight for those. In a way, players have spoken with their dollars, as much as they like multiplayer shooter games, space marines and games with a big budget, they like being able to use their minds.
more games should challenge players to play the game how they see fit and even reward players for creativity. Sure, it can be a daunting task to create something and then to leave it to the end consumer to decide what to do with it, but it helps to create a more intelligent community of gamers in the end. I remember growing up and the crusade that parents and teachers had against gaming, as it was a “waste of time” and they saw it as a less-than-noble way to spend our time. Games like Minecraft can help change that stereotype, which still persists to this day, and help gaming to continue to make that big push into the mainstream.
Do you want to see more games that reward a player’s creativity, or are you more for a fixed-narrative type of game?
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