GET YOUR PICKAXE AND HELMET HERE
If you are reading this book, you have undoubtedly heard of Minecraft. Minecraft has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a niche game with a tiny but devoted fan base to be one of the greatest video games of all time, if not the biggest. The game plays on more platforms, is played by more players, and, to put it simply, becomes more and more immensely popular with each passing year.
Simply put, Minecraft is one of the most original, imaginative, and inventive video games ever made. Fans of the game Minecraft have utilized its distinctive mechanics to grow it from what it initially appeared to be—a straightforward survival and world-building game—into something much more—a global cultural phenomenon.
Minecraft’s creativity has gained so many fans across the world that it is now recognized as one of the most popular games ever created for not just one, but three major gaming platforms (PC, console, and smartphones). As of the summer of 2014, the game had sold over 50 million copies for computers, 54 million copies for gaming consoles, and 21 million copies for mobile devices. The combined populations of those 125 million copies just barely surpass the populations of
It makes sense that you could be interested in the game given how many people have jumped into the chaotic, block-filled world of Minecraft. However, you might be wondering, like many people before you, “What is it about this low-resolution existence that people appreciate so much?”
WHAT IS A MINECRAFT GAME?
Right off the beginning, let’s be clear: Minecraft is not like other video games. The fundamental notion of Minecraft is that you play a character that has spawned into a world filled with mobs, or living things, that you may kill and which are formed of elements that you can gather. Your main objective right now is to live. Although there are resources to create a shelter, animals, and vegetation can be used as food, and the world of Minecraft is not entirely hostile. Intense, dangerous mobs emerge at night and do their best effort to kill you and possibly cause some minor damage to your house. However, once you’ve built up your defenses against the pitch-black night, the similarity to a conventional video game becomes more apparent.
Minecraft has little plot, the graphics are basic (though we think they’re cool looking) and it rarely tells you what to do next. So why is Minecraft so popular?
THE DOME AND THE DRAGON
Fin sat on a lump of a yellow hill on the very edge of Telos. He munched his chorus fruit and stared down at the courtyard below him. It forked off from the main tower of one of the smaller pagodas in the city. Above it, banners hung still in the windless night. Below it, nothing but darkness.
But inside the courtyard? Inside it was the Underdome. Mo didn’t like to come up here. If they don’t want us, I don’t want them, she always said. Then she buried herself in something or other so she didn’t have to keep talking about it. But Fin couldn’t stop himself. He loved to watch the ender-frags learning, dueling, playing, sparring, drilling, and even their unofficial feuds and brawls. He stayed close enough to stack with them and keep from going angry (dumb and angry, Fin’s word for what endermen alone were like), but far enough away that no one could chase him off. This was where ender-frags trained to survive in the Overworld.
To serve the Great Chaos. To fight humans. Fin told his twin he didn’t care about the Overworld. She could see his thoughts, so it was true, or she would have called him out. But only partly true. Only mostly. Fin didn’t care about going up to the big, bright, hot place. But he longed to train with the other fragments in the Underdome. And the whole point of the Underdome was to go up to the Overworld someday and punch anything you found there to pieces. He imagined himself in the Dome with the others: top of the class, popular, with ten or even twenty people to talk to any time he had a spare thought, instead of just his twin and a cranky at the end of every day.
They were doing teleportation today. Flickering in and out of sight, up to the top of the tower and back down. Out into the hills and back to the courtyard. Here, there, and everywhere. I could do that, Fin thought. I could do it so well. Better than at least half of them. Three-quarters, maybe. Yeah. Three quarters.
MORE THAN SURVIVING
You can make Minecraft into anything you desire. Although that might sound exaggerated, that isn’t the case. A big mountain can be destroyed, a lake can be dried out, and you can build enormous structures that tower into the sky wherever you want in the world of Minecraft. This is feasible because every object in the Minecraft world is formed of blocks, each of which is composed of a resource like Stone or Wood. By “breaking” these blocks, you can either employ the new materials to build your ideal environment or transform them into even more building blocks and things. All it takes is a little investigation to locate the
EXPLORE FURTHER
When it comes to providing you with a ton of exploration, Minecraft does not hold back or hesitate. This new take on a classic game employs sophisticated algorithms to generate a vast array of distinct and interesting worlds for you to explore each time you load it. There are vast, flower-filled meadows, lava fields, and cave entrances that are all cast in shadow by towering, snow-capped mountains. If you can survive the creatures who live there, there are even numerous universes and an underground full of ruins and adventures that will take you many hours to properly explore.
WHY MINECRAFT IS GREAT
Your imagination is the only constraint in Minecraft. You can construct it or make it happen if you can think of it. If you are aware of how the game functions, that is. Additionally, we’ve combed the internet for the most impressive brand-new buildings and creations to display in our 100% brand-new gallery. Additionally, we’ve put together a look into some awesome aspects of Minecraft that even you die-hard Crafters may not be yet aware of. That’s accurate: A guide to the hugely popular world of online Minecraft minigames, profiles of the coolest, craftiest Minecraft players worldwide, and exclusive information on the insane, broad world of PC mods are all included in The Big Book.
