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[s0]

i dont think minecraft of all gams needs better marketing lol

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

yep, there are many ways a game gains popularity. minecraft has a slow start but it's marketed well in other ways, since everyone who makes something cool in it uploads a video or shows it to their friends, some of whom then want to try to make something themselves. the marketing is built right into the structure of the game (either intentionally or not)

[ANtY]

u're right but still not everyone will play for 5 hours if they won't get hooked in at start, trailer's purpose is to make me download the game, first 5 minutes' purpose is to make me play longer to see what the game is about, that's how I see it, maybe it works differently for ppl that play more games, dunno, I don't play that much and am not a hardcore gamer

[Ant]

I don't even know how you'd make the first five minutes of Minecraft exciting. Part of its charm is starting with absolutely nothing.

[Christian Knudsen]

It's interesting to note in that regard that most people seem to agree that the first night of Minecraft is the most 'gamey' as you're vulnerable and have a clear goal: build a shelter to survive the monsters that come out at night.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

u're right but still not everyone will play for 5 hours if they won't get hooked in at start, trailer's purpose is to make me download the game, first 5 minutes' purpose is to make me play longer to see what the game is about, that's how I see it, maybe it works differently for ppl that play more games, dunno, I don't play that much and am not a hardcore gamer

sure, but i didn't claim everyone will play for 5 hours; you'll lose a lot of players if your first 5 minutes are boring, but so what? who really cares about people who would give up on a game after 5 minutes? it's their loss. lots of people give up on some of the greatest literature in the world in the first few pages, and that's their loss, it's not really the fault of the great literature that the first few paragraphs are boring, it's the fault of the readers, and the fault of the endemic attention deficit of the current generation caused by facebook or whatever

[ANtY]

why is this anyone's fault? it's just how it goes, if I don't like it I won't read/play it, should I say sorry because the game is said to be greatest?

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

no if i don't like the start of something and then give up and then give it a second chance and then realize how great it is there's no reason for me to be "sorry" to anyone, except perhaps sorry to myself that i originally missed out. there are plenty of great things i've given up early on and then went back to later on and enjoyed, so i don't think it's as simple as 'i like what i like'

for instance, when i was younger i would skip watching 'millenium' because after watching a few episodes of it i saw it as a stupid version of x-files, but later on i watched the whole millenium tv series in a row and realized it's far superior to x-files and that i was stupid to skip watching it

[crowe]

You might consider it a loss in an opportunity-cost interpretation, though if you were finding it a chore at the time it's more likely that your circumstances have changed and you made the right choice to begin with.

[mysteriosum]

I hear you have to give yourself server admin privileges and do console commands to get items. But you can't even refer to them by name! So you have to go through the code and find numeric values of each item! Talk about mining...

[ThemsAllTook]

Minecraft is one of the most "passive" games out there, it does nothing to "grant" you fun by handhelding, cutscenes, tutorials, achievements and blah.
The matter with it is that lots of people are tired sick (me included) to be hand hold in every game and just want to go around and experiment and see what happens, and Minecraft works really well for them.

This really hits the nail on the head.

When I started playing Minecraft, I expected to hate it. I was just playing out of curiosity since I'd heard so many people I know talk about it. I first tried playing without consulting its wiki, and couldn't get very far - it's a game that requires the use of resources outside the game to enjoy properly. This page is absolutely required viewing to get started with it. Once I read through that a bit and saw how to craft some things, I started experimenting with them, and it turned out to be fascinating - the game completely won me over after I spent a bit of time with it.

There are also quite a lot of different ways to play Minecraft. If you want it to feel more like a traditional game, you might like Vechs's Super Hostile custom maps. They remove the randomly generated world and give you a structured game level, with goals and challenges along the way. If you want to tinker with complex machines, you could try one of the mod packs from the Feed the Beast launcher. You can also do PvP, electrical engineering (redstone), farming, exploration, creative building... There's a huge amount of variety, but it does take some effort to discover and appreciate.

[Alevice]

Personally I got Minecraft after I got Terraria, which is a more streamlined game in some regards (no crafting puzzle), so people could start there and see if they like that. It also helps that I play such sandbox games multiplayer, so it is more about the interactions between me and my buddies rather than the game itself, which is just a platform.

[Alex Higgins]

The thing about Minecraft is that, unlike most games, it gives you little to no direction from the onset and requires players to determine their own goals for themselves. If you do not create a goal, then you will be bored. If you do, then Minecraft can be amazingly fun.

Therefore, Minecraft is a weird case in which, if the game bores you, I don't necessarily think that it's the game's fault. What you get out of Minecraft depends on what you're willing to put into it. And if you're not willing to put anything into it, that's okay too (I'm certainly not anymore).

[Dragonmaw]

HOW COME PEOPLE LIKE THIS THING I DON'T LIKE

[InfiniteStateMachine]

My favorite part is the first couple nights where you are struggling to survive.

[Impmaster]

My favorite part is spelunking. I get a small adrenaline rush every time I get minerals.

[Ant]

My favourite part is exploring the world to find a nice spot to set up a den, be it on the side of a mountain overlooking sweeping lands or next to a lake nestled in the trees.



kinda want to go play minecraft now

[GhostBomb]

I stopped playing minecraft a while ago because I fell out of habit but I have to agree with some people in this thread.

If you got bored of Minecraft within the first 5 minutes then you must be a pretty boring person if you can't find a single thing to do.

It's like if you said that drawing sucked because after 5 minutes all you had was still just a blank piece of paper.

I can understand if Minecraft isn't your "thing" but don't just go dissing the most successful indie game of all time without acknowledging why it's so successful in the first place.  Can we at least stop being pretentious long enough to acknowledge success when it smacks us in the face?

[Impmaster]

I really dislike all the recent patches, since Jeb took over. They aren't adding any new gameplay, just mods of existing gameplay. And Jeb seems intent on turning Minecraft into the world's blockiest RPG.

[impulse9]

I can understand if Minecraft isn't your "thing" but don't just go dissing the most successful indie game of all time without acknowledging why it's so successful in the first place.  Can we at least stop being pretentious long enough to acknowledge success when it smacks us in the face?

Well this is the whole point of the thread, basically. To be fair, the dissing part was just an attempt at getting some honest answers. It worked.