What is Minecraft?
Minecraft is a sandbox game. You are essentially free to choose your own road; building to your heart’s content, collecting as many treasures as you can, defeat every enemy in the game, discovering all the biomes and structure, and more.
When it comes to its gamers, not all of them are satisfied by all that is provided by the developers. Like every product, there will be negative reviews and different expectations. But with such a free land without limitations, what is missing?
Some may say that it is very repetitive
Certain people would say that the process of defeating the game is always the same:
- Get wood
- Make tools
- Get cobblestone
- Get iron
- Get armor
- Get diamonds
- Upgrade everything
- Enchant everything
- Defeat the Ender Dragon
- Defeat the Wither
- Make a beacon
- etc
This was the usual routine for Minecraft gamers. There wasn’t much places to explore. There wasn’t enough enemies to fight. There wasn’t enough pets to collect. There wasn’t even enough blocks to build more unique houses.
However, after numerous comments and suggestions from veteran players, the developers have added new updates. Here are some examples that shocked the community:
New Biomes!
New Structures!
New Mobs!!
He is blind but can sniff out the nearest player. He emits strong shockwaves and renders you blind, creating a dark flashing shadow around you. It is rather difficult to defeat him as he has more health than an average Iron Golem and walks faster the closer he is to dying.
THE CAMEL
The camel is used similar to how a horse is. It is rideable when a saddle is place in the slot bar. Unlike the horse and donkey in the game, the camel can seat two players at a time, the one in front steering and the one in the back simply enjoying the ride. Not only that, but when pressing spacebar, instead of jumping vertically, the camel leaps forward
They are very cute. They hop around mangrove swamp biomes and have interesting animations. They are enemies of the Slime mob and sticks out its tongue to attack them. They are breedable by using slimeballs and spawn tadpole eggs over water.
This is a helpful companion that will help you collect what ever item or block you seek. Just right click them with the item you are looking for and they will fly around the area searching for it laying around.
These guys are found in the Nether dimension. They wander around forests and will attack you on sight if you aren’t wearing any golden armor. If you drop a golden ingot, they will run towards it and pick it up, inspecting it. They will eventually drop a randomized nether item for you as a trade for the gold.
THE SNIFFER
This large friendly creature does exactly what it is named after: Sniffing. They can be acquired by digging through suspicious sand/gravel and finding a Sniffer Egg. Once they grow up, they sniff around the ground for ancient plants seeds.
Not only have developers contributed to enhancing the Minecraft experience, but the gamers themselves have been helping as well. With the help of command blocks and builders, gamers have created their own maps and made them available to others to enjoy. All they have to do is download the files of the created worlds and insert it into their own Minecraft Saves folder. (Most map creators tend to add their own resource packs too, modifying textures of blocks, items and entities)
To add a whole other twist, you can also add mods to your Minecraft experience. This feature extends the list of possibilities in your game. You might even question if you are still playing the same blocky videogame..
Some may say that it isn’t educational..
When parents think about Minecraft, they think that it rots their child’s brain, leaving no improvements on any of their cognitive abilities. However, like most videogames, there are ways it can be educational. Not only can it be amusing for children, but it can also help them develop stronger problem-solving skills, improve reading and writing skills, promote teamwork and math.
When playing in Survival Mode, the player has to learn how to manage the health bar, hunger bar. They are given many tasks and obstacles: gathering resources, fighting off mobs, crafting many tools, etc. In these desperate times where you are in danger, it really can solidify your critical thinking. Stressful situations call for quick thinking and with the right decisions, the player can make it out alive to see another day. In this BBC article back in 2019 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35341528, it is confirmed that 7,000 classrooms around the world use Minecraft for educational purposes. There is also a report around COVID about a teacher in New York taking online classes to a whole new level, creating a world for his students in Minecraft. In their minds, they recognize that long distance teaching would be a treacherous path. However, creative a fun and collaborative environment for these students helps them stay motivated to learn. They will better understand with the written guides on the screen and use the chat in-game to communicate with each other. Not only that, but there is tools in the game that help with writing and reading such as The Book and Quill, signs, reading enchantments on weapons and armor, and more.
There are many fields of expertise that you can learn in Minecraft. For example, redstone. Not many comprehend how it works. It is a whole other world of knowledge that not many seem to excel in with ease. Some say that it’s because redstone circuits take up lots of space. If someone were to create a simple piston entrance, you’d be surprised at what’s hidden underneath. Furthermore, there are more and more blocks being added to Minecraft that are integrated in the redstone world. Evidently, expanding would create more confusion, making it more of a task to learn.
In fact, sometimes it might take a computer scientist or electrician to fully get it. If children were exposed to this at a young age, they would probably grow up having a better understanding of circuits. It wouldn’t necessarily make them geniuses, but it would give them an early insight on what’s awaiting them in these job fields (if they are interested in pursuing Computer Science and Electrical Technology).
Here is what redstone experience can create: