Does Minecraft need an introduction? I’m pretty sure there are uncontacted tribes in the Amazon Rainforest who know what the game is at this point. It has penetrated the cultural zeitgeist in an irreversible fashion. 

There are Minecraft toys in the video game aisle, the toy aisle and by the checkouts at the store. It’s the highest-selling video game of all time by an extremely large margin. I know people who don’t generally care for gaming but love Minecraft.

So why is it that I, a gamer since I was a toddler, could never get into this worlding of mining and crafting?

Well, let’s look at the basic gameplay loop of the game. First, you mine, then you craft. 

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I know that seems like I’m being facetious, and to an extent I am, but that is literally what the gameplay loop boils down to. 

The most common thing to start “mining” is wood. Punch an iconic, blocky tree until you have a nice amount of logs. Then, craft it into a crafting table. Mine more wood. Craft tools like a pickaxe. Mine stone. Craft a better pickaxe.

So, if the game is so simple, why is it so gosh darn popular?

The beauty of Minecraft is that one’s imagination is the limit. See that mountain? The player can climb to the top or dig into the center of it. On a game with my friends, I built a house on top of a mountain and pretended to be a wise sage who believed firmly in the concept of private property.

If there is a jungle, nothing is stopping the player from making a complex civilization above the canopies. Or, if they’re feeling evil, they could deforest the world and sit atop the ashes as its ruler. 

A decade ago, my little brother persistently asked me to play Minecraft with him, and I finally relented. Once I got the hang of it, I built myself a house out of dirt. Nothing too fancy but enough to keep me safe from monsters and to hold all of my items. 

Then my brother found it, called it an eyesore and demanded I build it with something else.

So I went to the beach and mined as much sand and sandstone as I could find. I destroyed the dirt and made a beautiful sandstone house

It was still too ugly for my kid brother. I didn’t play much Minecraft with him after that. 

I tried playing it on my own. I tried playing it with my friends. Admittedly, it is a lot more fun when you’re sharing the experience with someone else, but still, it never quite clicked for me. 

I tried living a peaceful life, where I simply fished and farmed and whatnot. I made a world where I fearlessly spelunked through abandoned caves and mineshafts. Still, I never quite felt that Minecraft magic.

It puts me in an odd spot, as it’s one of the few games that non-gamers are super familiar with. When new people find out I’m a big gamer, Minecraft tends to be one of the first games they ask about. I’m always left telling them that the game and I never jived. 

Even so, it’s impossible to ignore the aforementioned impact of the game. It has spawned a media franchise big enough to have its own Wikipedia page separate from the base game. The film just came out and it’s a global phenomenon, for better or for worse. 

I don’t think I can give Minecraft anything but a 5/5. Even if it’s not necessarily the game for me, it is objectively an excellent piece of media that encourages creativity and exploration. The game is overwhelmingly open-ended in a way that is suitable for all ages. 

Tolbert can be contacted at tolbernj7262@uwec.edu. Invite him to your Minecraft server.