Sell It To Me

[blackouttwo]

OK, so, I'm an avid gamer, but some games don't seem to 'click' for me. X-Box 360 and PC games are my biggest ones, since I lack any other gaming console, and I'm not really into retro-games (a rare exception being X-Com, which I'm terrible at).

Your job is to tell me what the appeal is of certain games. This thread will also double as a discussion on the appeal of games in general, and what makes those certain special games really special for us all.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's time to play 'Sell It To Me!'

First order of business: Minecraft.

What's it all about?

[Worira]

Doing things with blocks.

For example. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYlFFqiiG2I)

[Maxios]

And running away from exploding green monsters. And of course, mining. It is one of the GREATEST games ever, in my opinion :smallwink:

[blackouttwo]

Doing things with blocks.

For example. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYlFFqiiG2I)

I'll have to watch that later. This computer lacks the appropriate programs to play the video on Youtube.

Yeah, I know. No Flash Player. :smallannoyed: 'Tis very annoying.

Anyways, a bit more detail would be awesome. Blocks, like Lego?

[thegurullamen]

I'll have to watch that later. This computer lacks the appropriate programs to play the video on Youtube.

Yeah, I know. No Flash Player. :smallannoyed: 'Tis very annoying.

Anyways, a bit more detail would be awesome. Blocks, like Lego?

One of the few (if not only) games where you can make a permanent change to the world. If you build something, it stays there and you can modify it to your tastes over and over and over again. Sort of like Lego, except you don't have to spend thousands of dollars on some obscure piece that only came off the production line in 1982. (Damned collector-related inflation!)

Just Google some of the works done.

In short, it's amazing because of the unprecedented amount of freedom it gives the player.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Because it's a game where building a 30-foot skull that bleeds lava from it's eyesockets and mouth is a perfectly reasonable way to spend one's time.

Or you could build a greenhouse made entirely of glass. Or a rollercoaster. Or a building-sized calculator. Or just a small log cabin and spend your days farming sugarcane, milking cows and baking cakes.

You really can do whatever the hell you like.

[Leecros]

Minecraft never really came off as impressive to me. Yes i bought it when i first learned of it, but i don't really get a huge amount of enjoyment out of it. It's a game where you tend to have to devote yourself to a project so you can have a goal so you don't just bumble around, but i have projects, several actually, and i tend to play it for maybe an hour or so a week before i lose interest and move onto something more fun.


Addendum: Strangely enough i enjoy watching other people play Minecraft...

[warty goblin]

My difficulty with Minecraft was the one I end up having with all games about building stuff: namely why the hell am I building fake stuff in a game when I could build real stuff? If I make actual things, I can actually use them.

So yeah, I doodled around in Minecraft for a bit, realized there was no story, no goals, the mechanics were simply uninteresting, and if I wanted to make something, I could get off my ass and actually make something. All in all I'd rate it as one of the least worthwhile $10 I've spent on gaming, since I got precisely nothing out of it.

[factotum]

All in all I'd rate it as one of the least worthwhile $10 I've spent on gaming, since I got precisely nothing out of it.

What do you normally get of games other than entertainment? I find Minecraft entertaining enough, and saying you could just build something in real life is all very well, but you often can't build the sort of things in real life that you can in Minecraft...I suspect my neighbours might complain if I built a 36-metre obsidian monolith in my back garden :smallwink:.

[Bayar]

Meh, Minecraft is over-rated. Sure, it is fun to play, but it is not the Holy Grail of gaming. It does a couple of things good, but is lacking in other things.

I mean, most megaprojects that can be done in minecraft can also be done in Dwarf Fortress, and you get the added bonus of numerous things that try to kill you, want to trade with you and then try to kill you when you piss them off, every world gen comes with an extensive history that is unique every time...

The only downsides are the lack of first person view and big learning curve.

[Om]

My difficulty with Minecraft was the one I end up having with all games about building stuff: namely why the hell am I building fake stuff in a game when I could build real stuff? If I make actual things, I can actually use them.

So yeah, I doodled around in Minecraft for a bit, realized there was no story, no goals, the mechanics were simply uninteresting, and if I wanted to make something, I could get off my ass and actually make something. All in all I'd rate it as one of the least worthwhile $10 I've spent on gaming, since I got precisely nothing out of it.I'm going to assume that you never saw the appeal of Lego

[warty goblin]

What do you normally get of games other than entertainment? I find Minecraft entertaining enough,

I didn't, which is what I mean when I say I got nothing out of it.


and saying you could just build something in real life is all very well, but you often can't build the sort of things in real life that you can in Minecraft...I suspect my neighbours might complain if I built a 36-metre obsidian monolith in my back garden :smallwink:.

I can't make the same things, true, but I can make actual things. Using real tools, feeling the materials in my hands, and at the end having something tangible and possibly useful is quite gratifying.


I'm going to assume that you never saw the appeal of Lego
Nope, loved Lego, have loads of 'em.

Remember there were two pieces to my criticism of Minecraft, the first was the pointlessness of building virtual things instead of actual. Legos are actual, physical objects, so that's mostly sorted out.

The second was mechanical. As a game, Minecraft's mechanics are, to me, extremely poor, tending towards grinding. All that tunnelling, looking for arbitrarily rare blocks, dealing with monsters, these are activities I need a compelling story or purpose to be interested in. There isn't one, and I find none of the activities fun on their own.

There's a third reason, that I have not touched on. Lego, or the fantasy world I spent several years creating in modeling clay that at one point covered three card tables, all gave me a way to create and look at an entire little world. A world full of people, of buildings and animals, things that I could use to tell a story to myself. I like looking down at little worlds and choreographing the movements of everything.This carries over into my electronic gaming as well, it's one reason why I like my RTS games with long zoom.

Running around a giant empty one all alone* captures none of the appeal of Legos for me.

As I said before, it's one of the worst $10 I've ever spent in gaming. Not as bad as when I bought the absolutely vile The Tomorrow War, but pretty close.

*Somebody's going to tell me I could be running around with my friends in multiplayer if I don't put in this footnote. I have no gaming friends - it may even be accurate to say I have no friends - and the ability to do this doesn't suddenly make something a good game for me. It's possible to have a lot of fun with one's buddies playing an absolutely terrible game, all this proves is that spending time with one's friends is enjoyable. It says nothing about the quality of the game.

[Leecros]

*Somebody's going to tell me I could be running around with my friends in multiplayer if I don't put in this footnote. I have no gaming friends - it may even be accurate to say I have no friends - and the ability to do this doesn't suddenly make something a good game for me. It's possible to have a lot of fun with one's buddies playing an absolutely terrible game, all this proves is that spending time with one's friends is enjoyable. It says nothing about the quality of the game.

Meh, Multiplayer's overrated in every game.:smallconfused:

[Triaxx]

The end of the world comes a bit closer. I agree with Warty. Scary. Personally, I love Legos, can't stand Minecraft.

I do however, madly love Dwarf Fortress. Because there the things I'm building DO get used. Even if only by my Dwarfs. Who doesn't love the Magma powered forges, or the water powered digital clock.

Or the CALCULATOR. Seriously.

Then there's the fun of actually having a use for these mighty inventions. Which is to say for the torture of nobles, and killing of enemies.

Minecraft feels just like building for the sake of building. It doesn't do any good. DF gives me the feel that I'm providing for my little dwarven minions.

Now, I'm off to dig more bedrooms and prepare the magma flows as soon as I figure out which one belongs to my Mayor. Bismuth Bronze items my left arm.