All of Minecraft: Pre 0.0.9a to 1.8
September 8, 2014 10:20 AM Subscribe
A history of Minecraft. (slyt)
My wife and I got into Minecraft PE (the app for mobile devices) this summer. Which is now resulted in us talking serious about purchasing the computer versions. Lots of fun.
posted by nubs at 10:42 AM on September 8, 2014
posted by nubs at 10:42 AM on September 8, 2014
while I knew it was a big big success I hadn't considered the scope.
As someone who first encountered it a long time ago as the Little Indie Game That Could that was selling to a lot of game nerds, it's a little staggering. I mean, it makes TOTAL sense in retrospect. "This could be/kind of already is legos but fucking crazy" or whatever. But watching it go from what it was in 2010 to this thing now where it's the sort of game that kids play with endlessly for literally the same reason I played with legos endlessly, and the fact that there's a whole score of gamers who do nothing but play Minecraft... And in such numbers!
This video was a nice nostalgia trip at first and then just a really cool thing connecting the dots in a way I hadn't consciously felt given my super intermittent and minuscule playing of the game in the last few years.
posted by sparkletone at 10:45 AM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
As someone who first encountered it a long time ago as the Little Indie Game That Could that was selling to a lot of game nerds, it's a little staggering. I mean, it makes TOTAL sense in retrospect. "This could be/kind of already is legos but fucking crazy" or whatever. But watching it go from what it was in 2010 to this thing now where it's the sort of game that kids play with endlessly for literally the same reason I played with legos endlessly, and the fact that there's a whole score of gamers who do nothing but play Minecraft... And in such numbers!
This video was a nice nostalgia trip at first and then just a really cool thing connecting the dots in a way I hadn't consciously felt given my super intermittent and minuscule playing of the game in the last few years.
posted by sparkletone at 10:45 AM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
Without question the best 20 dollars or so I've ever spent(I can't remember what it cost during Beta). My first play through Pre-1.0 I feel I got my monies worth. I've played for weeks as various other versions have come out. Each time I play is almost like a new game and each time I get my monies worth again and again.
This is truly a great game for kids to play. It is relatively low violence (and even that can be turned completely off), the emphasis is on creativity and building. Truly marvelous things can be created.
I see no lack of future artist or builder or visionary being asked "What inspired you to X" and them responding with "Minecraft"
posted by Twain Device at 10:50 AM on September 8, 2014 [5 favorites]
This is truly a great game for kids to play. It is relatively low violence (and even that can be turned completely off), the emphasis is on creativity and building. Truly marvelous things can be created.
I see no lack of future artist or builder or visionary being asked "What inspired you to X" and them responding with "Minecraft"
posted by Twain Device at 10:50 AM on September 8, 2014 [5 favorites]
Minecraft is the one game that every kid they know plays
Yeah, "kids"
posted by Hoopo at 10:54 AM on September 8, 2014 [11 favorites]
Yeah, "kids"
posted by Hoopo at 10:54 AM on September 8, 2014 [11 favorites]
Also, yeah the game is particularly unrecognizable to me in the later half of the video.
I haven't played in a few years and yeah. Occasionally I miss my old homestead on the Aporkalypse but that server is gone (last I looked) and the game seems to have gone far past me.
posted by octothorpe at 10:57 AM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]
I haven't played in a few years and yeah. Occasionally I miss my old homestead on the Aporkalypse but that server is gone (last I looked) and the game seems to have gone far past me.
posted by octothorpe at 10:57 AM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]
By the way you can still play on any of the old versions using the launcher.
posted by dilaudid at 11:00 AM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by dilaudid at 11:00 AM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
"Occasionally I miss my old homestead on the Aporkalypse"
You and me both, buddy. You and me both.
posted by komara at 11:00 AM on September 8, 2014 [11 favorites]
You and me both, buddy. You and me both.
posted by komara at 11:00 AM on September 8, 2014 [11 favorites]
I bought it back when you got it forever for $9, and it remains the best example of early access done right I've ever encountered. Not only was the game at the time I bought it interesting, but it has continued in development with new features added.
When we compare it to the slew of "early access" these days, that basically means "give us money now, development will stop and you'll never see the finished game" it stands out not only for gameplay and creativity, but for basic honesty and decency by the developer(s).
posted by sotonohito at 11:10 AM on September 8, 2014 [5 favorites]
When we compare it to the slew of "early access" these days, that basically means "give us money now, development will stop and you'll never see the finished game" it stands out not only for gameplay and creativity, but for basic honesty and decency by the developer(s).
posted by sotonohito at 11:10 AM on September 8, 2014 [5 favorites]
I wish they had dates along with the version numbers, it would tell me when I last played Minecraft.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 11:10 AM on September 8, 2014
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 11:10 AM on September 8, 2014
Oh for the days of getting broken updates and then bitching constanly about Notch's coding ability.
posted by octothorpe at 11:13 AM on September 8, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 11:13 AM on September 8, 2014 [5 favorites]
Yeah, the big difference is that Notch's version of early access wasn't an attempt to get money to make the game. It was more the realization, "This game isn't remotely done yet, but it's already enormous fun to play around with."
posted by straight at 11:16 AM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by straight at 11:16 AM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
(I wrote a comment a while back detailing all the ways Minecraft is a genius work of game design.)
posted by straight at 11:21 AM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by straight at 11:21 AM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
It helped that he was very responsive to the community. It basically played out as "pay me less money now to play with this and give me feedback, and 1) you'll never have to pay for it again (on this platform) and 2) the product will continue to get better"
Software Companies, take note. THIS is how you beta test. Set Expectations, Be Honest and Upfront, Know your Audience.
posted by Twain Device at 11:21 AM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
Software Companies, take note. THIS is how you beta test. Set Expectations, Be Honest and Upfront, Know your Audience.
posted by Twain Device at 11:21 AM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
I downloaded the PE version for the iPad, and my 6-year old was immediately hooked hard (we just play creative mode).
As with any new app I just left it for him to find, open and explore. But I planned to sit down later and show him some ideas for how to build some basic structures, maybe a hut or something. I later found he had already build an elevated stage with a drum set (which he would "play" with a bone), and 2-storey high flames and smoke behind the stage, and a secret passage and trap door in the middle of the stage for dramatic entrances. Somewhat to the side, an enormous eighth-note made of mushrooms towered on the grass.
posted by Kabanos at 11:24 AM on September 8, 2014 [15 favorites]
As with any new app I just left it for him to find, open and explore. But I planned to sit down later and show him some ideas for how to build some basic structures, maybe a hut or something. I later found he had already build an elevated stage with a drum set (which he would "play" with a bone), and 2-storey high flames and smoke behind the stage, and a secret passage and trap door in the middle of the stage for dramatic entrances. Somewhat to the side, an enormous eighth-note made of mushrooms towered on the grass.
posted by Kabanos at 11:24 AM on September 8, 2014 [15 favorites]
"Without question the best 20 dollars or so I've ever spent"
I just went back and checked and yesterday was the four-year anniversary of me having purchased Minecraft for €9.95 EUR. No idea what the exact conversion rate was but I seem to remember it being around 1.35 so we'll just say I spent $13.00 on it.
... and then I proceeded to lose over two straight years of my life to that dang game, and made so many friends on the Aporkalypse, and still to this day have weird flashbacks and distinct place-memory intrusions. Minecraft grabbed portions of my brain that have never been grabbed before, and a lot of my neurons haven't recovered and are still convinced that all the places I walked through and dug out and built up were physically real and I still have a sense of scale, distance, and time for everything. I can not overstate how powerful this place-memory is, and I am sure that if I were to tour my old homestead on the Apork it would send me into greater paroxysms of nostalgia than if I were to walk the streets of my hometown. I know why, too: because the game was a constant input stream of "this is good, this is nice, this works, this satisfies your desire to organize and build and oh hey it's also a non-stop social activity as well" - the good time / bad time ratio in the game was orders of magnitude greater than real life.
I'm glad I'm no longer playing and I know there's never any way to un-play the game and then recapture the early days of exploration and learning, but if there were I'd pay good money to do it.
[--mistersc]
posted by komara at 11:24 AM on September 8, 2014 [17 favorites]
I just went back and checked and yesterday was the four-year anniversary of me having purchased Minecraft for €9.95 EUR. No idea what the exact conversion rate was but I seem to remember it being around 1.35 so we'll just say I spent $13.00 on it.
... and then I proceeded to lose over two straight years of my life to that dang game, and made so many friends on the Aporkalypse, and still to this day have weird flashbacks and distinct place-memory intrusions. Minecraft grabbed portions of my brain that have never been grabbed before, and a lot of my neurons haven't recovered and are still convinced that all the places I walked through and dug out and built up were physically real and I still have a sense of scale, distance, and time for everything. I can not overstate how powerful this place-memory is, and I am sure that if I were to tour my old homestead on the Apork it would send me into greater paroxysms of nostalgia than if I were to walk the streets of my hometown. I know why, too: because the game was a constant input stream of "this is good, this is nice, this works, this satisfies your desire to organize and build and oh hey it's also a non-stop social activity as well" - the good time / bad time ratio in the game was orders of magnitude greater than real life.
I'm glad I'm no longer playing and I know there's never any way to un-play the game and then recapture the early days of exploration and learning, but if there were I'd pay good money to do it.
[--mistersc]
posted by komara at 11:24 AM on September 8, 2014 [17 favorites]
I should say ~20 dollars. It was probably less than that but I don't remember. It was shortly after Beta came out. But honestly, as much entertainment as I have gotten out of it, it could have been 50 and I'd still be pretty happy with the purchase.
posted by Twain Device at 11:30 AM on September 8, 2014
posted by Twain Device at 11:30 AM on September 8, 2014
I was sort of hoping that video would have introduced various mods, but under stand that way lays madness.
MADNESS I HAVE LIVED.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:33 AM on September 8, 2014 [2 favorites]
MADNESS I HAVE LIVED.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:33 AM on September 8, 2014 [2 favorites]
Yeah, I had a great time with the Aporkalypse crew back in Fall 2010. Right around 1/3 of the way through the video was where Minecraft mechanics just took off. The things you can do with redstone / pistons / dispensers / sensors these days... Minecraft is practically a software / engineering university course.
posted by anthill at 11:34 AM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by anthill at 11:34 AM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
Man, redstone bugs, amirite? If I'm not mistaken, anthill, it was during the construction of your lighthouse where we found that if a redstone torch was being held OFF (dark) in a chunk that was not the chunk where the power signal [was generated / originated] then the game would break or erase that torch during nightly server reboot. I don't think it was possible to get enough mileage out of the conversation that we'd just paid money to be beta testers for a game with no bug tracking solution.
posted by komara at 11:42 AM on September 8, 2014
posted by komara at 11:42 AM on September 8, 2014
I was sort of hoping that video would have introduced various mods, but under stand that way lays madness.
MADNESS I HAVE LIVED.
Having built a working nuclear reactor with information readouts, a fully functioning power grid, a door-to-door metro system with beautiful stations for each of my friends' homes, a monster masher that used a train system to convey mobs to their doom, and then store their liquefied meat in a huge tank, a fully functional polyphonic synthesizer that plays video game music (written in Lua), a gigantic functioning oil refinery, and a pneumatic item conveyance system that sorts items and raw materials into a giant bank of chests....
...I have no idea what you're talking about. Perfectly sane. Nothing (tic) wrong with a little (twitch) modding
posted by jake at 11:54 AM on September 8, 2014 [8 favorites]
MADNESS I HAVE LIVED.
Having built a working nuclear reactor with information readouts, a fully functioning power grid, a door-to-door metro system with beautiful stations for each of my friends' homes, a monster masher that used a train system to convey mobs to their doom, and then store their liquefied meat in a huge tank, a fully functional polyphonic synthesizer that plays video game music (written in Lua), a gigantic functioning oil refinery, and a pneumatic item conveyance system that sorts items and raw materials into a giant bank of chests....
...I have no idea what you're talking about. Perfectly sane. Nothing (tic) wrong with a little (twitch) modding
posted by jake at 11:54 AM on September 8, 2014 [8 favorites]
The addiction is such that I got maybe 1/3 through the video when I realized: I haven't played this in a while.
So I clicked out of the video, downloaded the .exe and started playing. Again.
Maybe I'll watch the rest of it now.
posted by Splunge at 12:06 PM on September 8, 2014
So I clicked out of the video, downloaded the .exe and started playing. Again.
Maybe I'll watch the rest of it now.
posted by Splunge at 12:06 PM on September 8, 2014
This is neat, and presented information in some clever ways. It was fun to watch to see the first thing I just had no idea what the crap it is.
I mostly played mp though, so when they introduce minecarts I'm like, "Yeah but when did they work," and I expected to see boats appear then later break into pieces.
posted by fleacircus at 12:20 PM on September 8, 2014 [2 favorites]
I mostly played mp though, so when they introduce minecarts I'm like, "Yeah but when did they work," and I expected to see boats appear then later break into pieces.
posted by fleacircus at 12:20 PM on September 8, 2014 [2 favorites]
...I have no idea what you're talking about. Perfectly sane. Nothing (tic) wrong with a little (twitch) modding
If there was another MeFi Minecraft server, I expect it would be nothing but red matter steam within a few weeks.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 12:33 PM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]
If there was another MeFi Minecraft server, I expect it would be nothing but red matter steam within a few weeks.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 12:33 PM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]
My son starting playing this in 2011 (at the age of 10) and has been "Skypecrafting" (Playing Minecraft while Skyping with buddies) for almost as long. Being a good 21st century tech-dad I paid careful attention to the "friends" he met online ("Who's that guy with the Jack Daniels avatar, sorry, he's off your list"). However, I've never felt more like I was living in the future when it became apparent that he was playing this game simultaneously with a.) his friends from school, b.) his cousins in California and c.) his new friends from Dublin (!)
Furthermore, the ecosystem surrounding this game is impressive. After watching multiple "episodes" of other people on Youtube playing Minecraft he quickly graduated to making his own screencasts. Then making plain videos wasn't enough, he also had to make his videos look good so he had to learn Photoshop (to make cool titles) as well as video editing. It's not a stretch to say that Minecraft has this creative mindset that reaches beyond the edges of the game and has influence in the real world.
posted by jeremias at 12:41 PM on September 8, 2014 [6 favorites]
Furthermore, the ecosystem surrounding this game is impressive. After watching multiple "episodes" of other people on Youtube playing Minecraft he quickly graduated to making his own screencasts. Then making plain videos wasn't enough, he also had to make his videos look good so he had to learn Photoshop (to make cool titles) as well as video editing. It's not a stretch to say that Minecraft has this creative mindset that reaches beyond the edges of the game and has influence in the real world.
posted by jeremias at 12:41 PM on September 8, 2014 [6 favorites]
So basically this thread is like a meeting of Minecraftics Anonymous.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 12:54 PM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Pyrogenesis at 12:54 PM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]
Is a history of Minecraft really complete without the fan-produced Notch vacation calendar?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 1:27 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 1:27 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
robocop is bleeding, that is one of my favorite Minecraft videos, nay videos ever. I just had to rewatch it now, and I still laughed as hard as I did before.
I've been recently getting back into Minecraft lately, and it helped me manage my depression.
posted by X-Himy at 1:41 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
I've been recently getting back into Minecraft lately, and it helped me manage my depression.
posted by X-Himy at 1:41 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
Looking back at the video, the last thing I really remember is something like the introduction of doors. Everything after that was all new to me.
I have some friends whose kids basically play so much Minecraft that they sold all of their LEGO collection as they no longer played with them. Minecraft blocks have the distinct advantage of being infinite.
Curious to see what software will come out of a generation trained on MC interaction.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 1:51 PM on September 8, 2014
I have some friends whose kids basically play so much Minecraft that they sold all of their LEGO collection as they no longer played with them. Minecraft blocks have the distinct advantage of being infinite.
Curious to see what software will come out of a generation trained on MC interaction.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 1:51 PM on September 8, 2014
in about 40 years the leading style of architecture inexplicably becomes "Ziggurat held up by a single pole."
posted by The Whelk at 2:07 PM on September 8, 2014 [8 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 2:07 PM on September 8, 2014 [8 favorites]
that is one of my favorite Minecraft videos, nay videos ever.
Well then, have you seen in animated in Lego?
posted by robocop is bleeding at 2:15 PM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]
Well then, have you seen in animated in Lego?
posted by robocop is bleeding at 2:15 PM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]
I began flirting with Minecraft after the Halloween Update in 2010.
I fell in love with Minecraft the next year. I had just started grad school in August. My daughter was due in November. Between class, homework, papers, taking care of my sick wife, and fretting about my daughter I put serious time into taming a mountainous stretch of Minecraft property. It was set in this sort of valley with high mountain walls on the north and south, a pleasant grade on the west and small forest to the east leading before turning into desert.
I began with a house, as usual. But after a while I realized the house was nice but it wasn't safe. Here was a perfect little valley but it was plagued with monsters and darkness. But it didn't have to be!
The forest was the first to go. I used a lot of that wood for torches and fences, putting up light posts in the valley to keep the monsters from spawning inside my territory. Next I put up a 4-block high wall with the appropriate two-block overhang (this before cobblestone fences, which would have been helpful). I made the wall out of stone bricks - might as well look nice (that took a long time to smelt).
After the forest was cleared, the paths were lit, and the wall was built I started making improvements. A lookout here, a duck pond there, a lodge up on the south hills. It was looking nice but it didn't feel like home yet. At this point I was spending all my free time in Minecraft, waiting for my wife to finally get to sleep so I could play guilt free - usually way later than I should have. I wanted this little valley to be perfect, and safe.
So I plunged into the Nether (after building an appropriately awe-inspiring portal monument). I got blasted by ghasts in my search for glowstone but I eventually farmed enough to build a...I dunno, a reactor? A star? In the middle of my valley, enough to light the whole thing.
It finally felt safe.
A week later, my daughter was born. After I brought her home I didn't need to play.
posted by Tevin at 2:35 PM on September 8, 2014 [9 favorites]
I fell in love with Minecraft the next year. I had just started grad school in August. My daughter was due in November. Between class, homework, papers, taking care of my sick wife, and fretting about my daughter I put serious time into taming a mountainous stretch of Minecraft property. It was set in this sort of valley with high mountain walls on the north and south, a pleasant grade on the west and small forest to the east leading before turning into desert.
I began with a house, as usual. But after a while I realized the house was nice but it wasn't safe. Here was a perfect little valley but it was plagued with monsters and darkness. But it didn't have to be!
The forest was the first to go. I used a lot of that wood for torches and fences, putting up light posts in the valley to keep the monsters from spawning inside my territory. Next I put up a 4-block high wall with the appropriate two-block overhang (this before cobblestone fences, which would have been helpful). I made the wall out of stone bricks - might as well look nice (that took a long time to smelt).
After the forest was cleared, the paths were lit, and the wall was built I started making improvements. A lookout here, a duck pond there, a lodge up on the south hills. It was looking nice but it didn't feel like home yet. At this point I was spending all my free time in Minecraft, waiting for my wife to finally get to sleep so I could play guilt free - usually way later than I should have. I wanted this little valley to be perfect, and safe.
So I plunged into the Nether (after building an appropriately awe-inspiring portal monument). I got blasted by ghasts in my search for glowstone but I eventually farmed enough to build a...I dunno, a reactor? A star? In the middle of my valley, enough to light the whole thing.
It finally felt safe.
A week later, my daughter was born. After I brought her home I didn't need to play.
posted by Tevin at 2:35 PM on September 8, 2014 [9 favorites]
*Pours one out for the Golden Apple store I built on Apork a million billion years ago*
posted by The Whelk at 3:51 PM on September 8, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 3:51 PM on September 8, 2014 [2 favorites]
I played a bit of MP on Reporkalypse and had a lot of fun. It's really weird going from solo to MP though. It's like having a studio in your attic and then going to take drawing lessons at the community college. A little embarrassing, a little thrilling.
posted by Tevin at 4:14 PM on September 8, 2014
posted by Tevin at 4:14 PM on September 8, 2014
I finally picked it up a couple months back to play with my teen-aged nephews, and have been completely blown away by the limitless depths. Mod packs, adventure maps, complete the monument maps, world border maps, to say nothing of the brilliant vanilla game. For kids? Bah! I'm in my 40's and I'll be playing this for the rest of my life.
posted by calamari kid at 4:19 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by calamari kid at 4:19 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
Oh, and I forgot to mention. Youtuber Zisteau is a few episodes into a lets play where he's starting with the initial alpha release and will be working his way through all the updates over the course of the series. Well worth following imo.
posted by calamari kid at 4:22 PM on September 8, 2014
posted by calamari kid at 4:22 PM on September 8, 2014
I'm glad I'm no longer playing and I know there's never any way to un-play the game and then recapture the early days of exploration and learning, but if there were I'd pay good money to do it.
Minecrift sort of did it for me.
posted by St. Sorryass at 4:23 PM on September 8, 2014
Minecrift sort of did it for me.
posted by St. Sorryass at 4:23 PM on September 8, 2014
1.8 is pretty terrific, as is the next gen update for ps4/xbox one. Really great core additions. Mods on PC as usual make a compelling case for OASIS Alpha.
posted by chainlinkspiral at 4:28 PM on September 8, 2014
posted by chainlinkspiral at 4:28 PM on September 8, 2014
and still to this day have weird flashbacks and distinct place-memory intrusions. Minecraft grabbed portions of my brain that have never been grabbed before
So we have been watching a lot of This Old House recently, because we bought an old house that is getting some renovations. And I have at several points looked at something they were doing, and started to think of it in terms of Minecraft. An example from just this evening--they were putting on a new deck on this house and were showing where the boards were going, and I thought "there's a void under that deck--you'd better fill it in or put down torches, or you're gonna get mobs."
This game gets into your brain but good.
RIP Aporkalypse
posted by DiscourseMarker at 5:34 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
So we have been watching a lot of This Old House recently, because we bought an old house that is getting some renovations. And I have at several points looked at something they were doing, and started to think of it in terms of Minecraft. An example from just this evening--they were putting on a new deck on this house and were showing where the boards were going, and I thought "there's a void under that deck--you'd better fill it in or put down torches, or you're gonna get mobs."
This game gets into your brain but good.
RIP Aporkalypse
posted by DiscourseMarker at 5:34 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
This video is great and nearly made me sniffle: I am still playing. Four years of Minecraft since that fateful day in August 2010 when I stumbled across it, probably through a link right here on the blue. Curse you! No, thank you. It's the only game I play. Probably the best $17 I ever spent.
Sometimes I worry about the fact that almost everybody else has moved on and sometimes I worry that I am the last adult left playing Minecraft (this is exacerbated by working at a bookstore where I order the books for kids and almost daily see these same kids' parents look at me like I am from Planet Pathetic of the Losers when I say to their children, hey, I've been playing since Alpha - their children, however, light up like glowstone, so I don't care about the parents) but then I think, well, fuck it. I still like it! I still play almost every day as I have for um. Four years, I guess, and I still have never joined a server. I toured around the Aporkalypse once or twice but it was too intimidating and I had to go back to my quiet solitary worlds.
I don't log the amount of time I used to when I was unemployed and horrifically depressed - what? It's perfectly normal to put in 40 hours a week on Minecraft! How else could you build towns and trains from town to town and. . and . . - but it's rare that I don't at least check in for an hour or so, on my ancient, huffing desktop which still will play, even though I'm starting to get ominous warnings on the launcher that my graphics card is too old. I even bought the mobile version so I could play on my phone when my rotator cuff was torn and I couldn't handle a keyboard. In fact, I just built a nice underwater villa the other day, because I wanted to see how all the new stone blocks worked as flooring. And now, if you'll excuse me, there are villages to protect, horses to tame and just so much stuff I haven't built yet.
posted by mygothlaundry at 5:44 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
Sometimes I worry about the fact that almost everybody else has moved on and sometimes I worry that I am the last adult left playing Minecraft (this is exacerbated by working at a bookstore where I order the books for kids and almost daily see these same kids' parents look at me like I am from Planet Pathetic of the Losers when I say to their children, hey, I've been playing since Alpha - their children, however, light up like glowstone, so I don't care about the parents) but then I think, well, fuck it. I still like it! I still play almost every day as I have for um. Four years, I guess, and I still have never joined a server. I toured around the Aporkalypse once or twice but it was too intimidating and I had to go back to my quiet solitary worlds.
I don't log the amount of time I used to when I was unemployed and horrifically depressed - what? It's perfectly normal to put in 40 hours a week on Minecraft! How else could you build towns and trains from town to town and. . and . . - but it's rare that I don't at least check in for an hour or so, on my ancient, huffing desktop which still will play, even though I'm starting to get ominous warnings on the launcher that my graphics card is too old. I even bought the mobile version so I could play on my phone when my rotator cuff was torn and I couldn't handle a keyboard. In fact, I just built a nice underwater villa the other day, because I wanted to see how all the new stone blocks worked as flooring. And now, if you'll excuse me, there are villages to protect, horses to tame and just so much stuff I haven't built yet.
posted by mygothlaundry at 5:44 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
I bought this game when I saw this video posted on the blue.
high five to all the apork master builders. Hope you are all doing well! Maybe we should schedule a 5 year porkaversary?
posted by rebent at 6:07 PM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]
high five to all the apork master builders. Hope you are all doing well! Maybe we should schedule a 5 year porkaversary?
posted by rebent at 6:07 PM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]
I loved Minecraft single player survival mode but could never get into multiplayer. I imagined survival multiplayer would be like single player, where you explored the world, found resources, and built stuff, but occasionally running into other people in the wilderness. Occasionally meaning like...once every few hours...and people would spawn miles and miles apart, or even on different continents. Meeting someone else would be like meeting someone in DayZ...do you cooperate or fight?
But instead every multiplayer server has you spawn into some gigantic crystal castle with no editing rights and some crazy mod enabled, and you have to run for like 10 miles in some pre-made city before you get out of the city, and then outside the city is just a barren mined-out wasteland. It's like you have to work just to find yourself some wilderness to survive in. It's awful. I've never tried Second Life, but I imagine it's just like that.
posted by pravit at 6:26 PM on September 8, 2014
But instead every multiplayer server has you spawn into some gigantic crystal castle with no editing rights and some crazy mod enabled, and you have to run for like 10 miles in some pre-made city before you get out of the city, and then outside the city is just a barren mined-out wasteland. It's like you have to work just to find yourself some wilderness to survive in. It's awful. I've never tried Second Life, but I imagine it's just like that.
posted by pravit at 6:26 PM on September 8, 2014
I miss the Aporkalypse. I can think of at least 12 things I was in the middle of building on there and never quite finished.
posted by Jimbob at 8:03 PM on September 8, 2014
posted by Jimbob at 8:03 PM on September 8, 2014
Wow. I bought minecraft Nov. 4, 2010, for myself and my kids. My daughter, now 15, hasn't played it in a while, but my son, 11, still plays it every day—after school today he Skypecrafted with a new friend, worked on the mini "complete the monument" map he's making, and logged in some time on this new exclusive server/map project, "The Reef." We went to the first Minecon, in Las Vegas, and met Notch and the whole gang. Through minecraft, my kids and I made friends with people quite literally all over the world. During middle school, my daughter had her virtual minecraft friends to hang with when IRL school cliques were too awful to bear. Just this summer, my son met up in person with one of his best minecraft friends after playing together for over two years now. They also learned a lot about how to be good citizens online, and how to deal with people who aren't being good citizens online; how to spot drama and how to speak up when server talk gets sexist or cruel or inappropriate; how to code and make videos and install mods. It's been educational and entertaining in ways I couldn't have anticipated.
In 2012, two of my young adult books ("Gift," a full-length novel, and "Waking Up," a novella/longish short story) were launched with specially commissioned minecraft maps based on the worlds of the books to accompany them. (The one for Waking Up was actually #14 in Vechs' notoriously challenging Super Hostile series of maps—and in fact Mojang devs Jeb and Dinnerbone and Marc_IRL and a few others even livestreamed their attempt at playing it, first on hard, then normal, then finally easy, before giving up completely and surrendering to Vechs. Lol. The Gift map was easier, though we did also release a harder version called Giftwarped.)
I haven't played since early 2013, and at this point the development of the game has outpaced my own knowledge and experience of it. Before, I was the one showing my kids how to do cool stuff; now my son looks both exasperated and sad for me as he is forced to describe his intricate redstone and command block creations like I'm 5. But, wow, do I remember those early days, and the feeling of awe upon visiting the Aporkalypse and seeing all those amazing things (hey, mister_sc! I was personofinterent!), and the feeling of awe in general at exploring and discovering and building and gathering and being immersed in a game the way you are in a book, or in a flow state, or in that kind of timeless suspension of heightened creativity. Just the best.
posted by mothershock at 8:06 PM on September 8, 2014 [4 favorites]
In 2012, two of my young adult books ("Gift," a full-length novel, and "Waking Up," a novella/longish short story) were launched with specially commissioned minecraft maps based on the worlds of the books to accompany them. (The one for Waking Up was actually #14 in Vechs' notoriously challenging Super Hostile series of maps—and in fact Mojang devs Jeb and Dinnerbone and Marc_IRL and a few others even livestreamed their attempt at playing it, first on hard, then normal, then finally easy, before giving up completely and surrendering to Vechs. Lol. The Gift map was easier, though we did also release a harder version called Giftwarped.)
I haven't played since early 2013, and at this point the development of the game has outpaced my own knowledge and experience of it. Before, I was the one showing my kids how to do cool stuff; now my son looks both exasperated and sad for me as he is forced to describe his intricate redstone and command block creations like I'm 5. But, wow, do I remember those early days, and the feeling of awe upon visiting the Aporkalypse and seeing all those amazing things (hey, mister_sc! I was personofinterent!), and the feeling of awe in general at exploring and discovering and building and gathering and being immersed in a game the way you are in a book, or in a flow state, or in that kind of timeless suspension of heightened creativity. Just the best.
posted by mothershock at 8:06 PM on September 8, 2014 [4 favorites]
Great video, thanks! Looks like there's been a lot of crazy new stuff since I stopped playing. But man, that early section definitely takes me back. What an amazing game it was from the start, even with all the bugs.
Hello Aporkalypse folks!
posted by equalpants at 8:10 PM on September 8, 2014
Hello Aporkalypse folks!
posted by equalpants at 8:10 PM on September 8, 2014
I miss the Aporkalypse. I can think of at least 12 things I was in the middle of building on there and never quite finished.
Oh man, I rember all my projects so fondly. The regional Whelkonia, a huge tree in the middle of a lake connected via high speed mine cart - the settlement in Porkton: A seedy-style bar called The Twisted Tail with a rooftop patio, a basement bar with a stage ( and weapons checkpoint) and a hidden door to the sewers called the Buffy Summers Memorial Enterance. The First Church Of Porkton, made of the then novel white wool block with a half finished golden dome and hidden Evil Church under it you got by jumping int the font and letting it drop you in. The Golden Apple Store, a glass cube on the expensive side of town with a minimalist aesthic ( just one tree and one chest holding the then rare and hard to get golden apples.) The Couchon D'Or, a stupidly expensive black marble and glass boutique that carried only golden weapons and items ( hard to make and completely useless!) and building rooms in the Porkton Museum Of Art, which I thought I was very clever by having "displays" of every block type and a "conceptual art" room based on the Dirt Room in NYC, there was a rooftop scuplture garden.
MEMORIES.
posted by The Whelk at 8:15 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
Oh man, I rember all my projects so fondly. The regional Whelkonia, a huge tree in the middle of a lake connected via high speed mine cart - the settlement in Porkton: A seedy-style bar called The Twisted Tail with a rooftop patio, a basement bar with a stage ( and weapons checkpoint) and a hidden door to the sewers called the Buffy Summers Memorial Enterance. The First Church Of Porkton, made of the then novel white wool block with a half finished golden dome and hidden Evil Church under it you got by jumping int the font and letting it drop you in. The Golden Apple Store, a glass cube on the expensive side of town with a minimalist aesthic ( just one tree and one chest holding the then rare and hard to get golden apples.) The Couchon D'Or, a stupidly expensive black marble and glass boutique that carried only golden weapons and items ( hard to make and completely useless!) and building rooms in the Porkton Museum Of Art, which I thought I was very clever by having "displays" of every block type and a "conceptual art" room based on the Dirt Room in NYC, there was a rooftop scuplture garden.
MEMORIES.
posted by The Whelk at 8:15 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
OMG that was all you??? I remember & loved all of those things!!!
posted by mothershock at 8:27 PM on September 8, 2014
posted by mothershock at 8:27 PM on September 8, 2014
Yessssssss. I was writing a book, would go to work 9-5 in an office and hack out words, then go home, eat dinner and build all night.
posted by The Whelk at 8:30 PM on September 8, 2014
posted by The Whelk at 8:30 PM on September 8, 2014
( what was the big city called? Porkham? I was so proud that I got the department store exterior to have a little pig nose balcony and eyes.)
posted by The Whelk at 8:32 PM on September 8, 2014
posted by The Whelk at 8:32 PM on September 8, 2014
Hamhattan I think.
posted by fleacircus at 8:45 PM on September 8, 2014
posted by fleacircus at 8:45 PM on September 8, 2014
I feel like there's this mode of MP Minecraft play where it's like:
P1: "Look at this thing I burned a million hours building, using absurd amounts of a rare material, out here in the middle of nowhere. It doesn't really do much of anything; you just look at it and appreciate it."
P2: "Neat!! Look at this thing *I* burned a million hours etc."
I can be amazed and impressed by the things that are built this way, but they don't really hit on what I like about multiplayer, which is community projects, cute/clever/useful little things, etc. Porkton is what made me fall in love with the Apork. I'm not even nostalgic for it because I can still visualize every building there anyway.
I most regret not being around that server during the Tempork days, which probably would have suited my Minecraft tastes pretty well.
posted by fleacircus at 9:43 PM on September 8, 2014
P1: "Look at this thing I burned a million hours building, using absurd amounts of a rare material, out here in the middle of nowhere. It doesn't really do much of anything; you just look at it and appreciate it."
P2: "Neat!! Look at this thing *I* burned a million hours etc."
I can be amazed and impressed by the things that are built this way, but they don't really hit on what I like about multiplayer, which is community projects, cute/clever/useful little things, etc. Porkton is what made me fall in love with the Apork. I'm not even nostalgic for it because I can still visualize every building there anyway.
I most regret not being around that server during the Tempork days, which probably would have suited my Minecraft tastes pretty well.
posted by fleacircus at 9:43 PM on September 8, 2014
I can think of at least 12 things I was in the middle of building on there and never quite finished.
Yeah, me too
posted by Hoopo at 10:52 PM on September 8, 2014 [9 favorites]
Yeah, me too
posted by Hoopo at 10:52 PM on September 8, 2014 [9 favorites]
Wait, this video is completely wrong. Minecarts didn't make any noise until much, much later.
posted by straight at 10:58 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by straight at 10:58 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
Holy shit, Hoopo.
posted by Literaryhero at 12:01 AM on September 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Literaryhero at 12:01 AM on September 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
That...was on Aporkalypse???
I kinda gave up on Aporkalypse because its reliance on server plugins meant it was perpetually 6-months behind the main game. And I basically play Minecraft bleeding-edge for all the cool new stuff. And back then (waaaaay back 6 months ago) the launcher didn't let you pick versions so getting on the Aporkalypse involved renaming .jar files and I was lazy.
But it was an incredible world - playtested, if I recall, by Notch himself once when he wanted to see the performance of an extremely large world.
Surely someone still has the world files sitting around somewhere? That stuff should be uploaded to the Internet Archive.
posted by Jimbob at 12:06 AM on September 9, 2014
I kinda gave up on Aporkalypse because its reliance on server plugins meant it was perpetually 6-months behind the main game. And I basically play Minecraft bleeding-edge for all the cool new stuff. And back then (waaaaay back 6 months ago) the launcher didn't let you pick versions so getting on the Aporkalypse involved renaming .jar files and I was lazy.
But it was an incredible world - playtested, if I recall, by Notch himself once when he wanted to see the performance of an extremely large world.
Surely someone still has the world files sitting around somewhere? That stuff should be uploaded to the Internet Archive.
posted by Jimbob at 12:06 AM on September 9, 2014
Hoopoo, I remember most of those buildings, in fact my own stuff is visible in several of your pictures. Even my biggest project, the building in the background of your last picture.
posted by Harald74 at 5:12 AM on September 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Harald74 at 5:12 AM on September 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Holy shit, Aporkalypse was a survival map? I've seen screenshots of its many metropolitan features, and was always vaguely impressed, but that was when I thought it was creative. How did you... the Eye of Sauron is 100+ blocks tall, and it's all obsidian. Where the hell did the rainbow railroad come from?
posted by Mayor West at 5:49 AM on September 9, 2014
posted by Mayor West at 5:49 AM on September 9, 2014
Creative mode takes all of the drama out of playing the game. Plus, you can't build grinders if there aren't mobs.
posted by octothorpe at 6:58 AM on September 9, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 6:58 AM on September 9, 2014 [3 favorites]
Yeah thats why I focused on small but *terribly clever!* projects like a department store. Hard work but manageable, and being creative with my limited patience for grinding (I always liked how creative people got with wood slabs and posts in making these long, low Frank Llyod Wright kinda lake houses at one point)
posted by The Whelk at 7:02 AM on September 9, 2014
posted by The Whelk at 7:02 AM on September 9, 2014
Holy shit, Hoopo.
Yeah, that's 2+ years of a lot of free time through my wife's pregnancy and just being backup for a breastfeeding infant. They did a lot of quiet sofa time, which left me with a good amount of down time for jogging and minecraft. Now we're well into toddlerdom and I don't have much time or opportunity anymore.
What's crazy is that none of those builds I took screenshots of even stand out among the other buildings on the server. In fact if you were to look at albums of that server you'd probably never even see my stuff at all; it's not even really highlights. That server was basically a showcase of incredible scale and creativity and, well, clever "redstone engineering" stuff I will never figure out. Komara up there had so many giant farm buildings rigged up and automated. A few other people built a giant pyramid out of glass and rare materials that stretched from the bottom of the ocean to the top of the sky. There was this other guy that built an enormous, elaborately decorated underground complex carved out solo that would take 15 minutes or more to walk through. Mefites, man. I was just trying to keep up.
posted by Hoopo at 7:05 AM on September 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
Yeah, that's 2+ years of a lot of free time through my wife's pregnancy and just being backup for a breastfeeding infant. They did a lot of quiet sofa time, which left me with a good amount of down time for jogging and minecraft. Now we're well into toddlerdom and I don't have much time or opportunity anymore.
What's crazy is that none of those builds I took screenshots of even stand out among the other buildings on the server. In fact if you were to look at albums of that server you'd probably never even see my stuff at all; it's not even really highlights. That server was basically a showcase of incredible scale and creativity and, well, clever "redstone engineering" stuff I will never figure out. Komara up there had so many giant farm buildings rigged up and automated. A few other people built a giant pyramid out of glass and rare materials that stretched from the bottom of the ocean to the top of the sky. There was this other guy that built an enormous, elaborately decorated underground complex carved out solo that would take 15 minutes or more to walk through. Mefites, man. I was just trying to keep up.
posted by Hoopo at 7:05 AM on September 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
I just re-downloaded the game after ...4? years and THERE IS DIFFERENT MUSIC NOW AAAAAH
posted by The Whelk at 7:20 AM on September 9, 2014
posted by The Whelk at 7:20 AM on September 9, 2014
Mayor West: "Holy shit, Aporkalypse was a survival map? I've seen screenshots of its many metropolitan features, and was always vaguely impressed, but that was when I thought it was creative. How did you..."
The Apork was a testament to friendly gameplay. From the very moment I arrived (somewhere in the first month of the server's existence, if I'm not mistaken) it was apparent that if you needed something, and someone else had it, they were willing to share. When your entire society is predicated around that mindset then the subsistence level of gameplay is bypassed almost immediately. New people that joined the server had raw materials practically thrown at them. In a way it was almost like Creative just because the first steps of building a house and hiding from the creatures in the night was minimized.
And when you have those things taken off your to-do list then you can get right into the crazy stuff - building incredible automation. Right before hostile mobs were introduced to Survival multiplayer we banded together to build a grinder that went from skybox to bedrock. Quite literally as soon as the update was installed and toomuchpete restarted the server we had a steady flow of gunpowder, and thus the age of TNT began. Why did so many people bust ass to get it done? Because it's fun to provide for others.
Various updates nerfed or broke mob grinders, rendering some of the older ones absolutely useless, but new ones were built in their stead. Past that, if there was a way to automate or speed up any sort of repetitive process, we were doing it. I know of at least three sheep farms off the top of my head where anyone was welcome to go shear as much of any color as they desired. As soon as the food updates came I concentrated on automated push-button farms and I know I wasn't the only one to do so. Our server ended up with gigantic towers of sugarcane, pumpkin, and melons where the act of opening a chest to remove stock of those items triggered the farm to harvest itself and re-stock the chest automatically.
In many many ways it was a bizarrely utopian society where the act of saying in chat, "I think I'm going to build a house out of pumpkins" could get you smothered with more chests full of pumpkins than you could know what to do with. We had a gigantic mailroom with chests for all regular players where you could drop off items for someone to pick up later. Frequently someone would strike it rich in [new update material du jour] and go drop stacks in everyone's mailboxes for no reason other than to share.
So yeah. The Apork was a Survival server, but it was a Survival server of vast riches.
posted by komara at 8:31 AM on September 9, 2014 [5 favorites]
The Apork was a testament to friendly gameplay. From the very moment I arrived (somewhere in the first month of the server's existence, if I'm not mistaken) it was apparent that if you needed something, and someone else had it, they were willing to share. When your entire society is predicated around that mindset then the subsistence level of gameplay is bypassed almost immediately. New people that joined the server had raw materials practically thrown at them. In a way it was almost like Creative just because the first steps of building a house and hiding from the creatures in the night was minimized.
And when you have those things taken off your to-do list then you can get right into the crazy stuff - building incredible automation. Right before hostile mobs were introduced to Survival multiplayer we banded together to build a grinder that went from skybox to bedrock. Quite literally as soon as the update was installed and toomuchpete restarted the server we had a steady flow of gunpowder, and thus the age of TNT began. Why did so many people bust ass to get it done? Because it's fun to provide for others.
Various updates nerfed or broke mob grinders, rendering some of the older ones absolutely useless, but new ones were built in their stead. Past that, if there was a way to automate or speed up any sort of repetitive process, we were doing it. I know of at least three sheep farms off the top of my head where anyone was welcome to go shear as much of any color as they desired. As soon as the food updates came I concentrated on automated push-button farms and I know I wasn't the only one to do so. Our server ended up with gigantic towers of sugarcane, pumpkin, and melons where the act of opening a chest to remove stock of those items triggered the farm to harvest itself and re-stock the chest automatically.
In many many ways it was a bizarrely utopian society where the act of saying in chat, "I think I'm going to build a house out of pumpkins" could get you smothered with more chests full of pumpkins than you could know what to do with. We had a gigantic mailroom with chests for all regular players where you could drop off items for someone to pick up later. Frequently someone would strike it rich in [new update material du jour] and go drop stacks in everyone's mailboxes for no reason other than to share.
So yeah. The Apork was a Survival server, but it was a Survival server of vast riches.
posted by komara at 8:31 AM on September 9, 2014 [5 favorites]
Whatever happened to the Vatican City project that Cortex started?
posted by anthill at 9:57 AM on September 9, 2014
posted by anthill at 9:57 AM on September 9, 2014
Vatican City had a ton of roads laid out, but sadly very few buildings constructed.
Leveling the ground was something that the Aporkalypse excelled at. I'll never forget how awesome it was when everyone got together to level the ground for Diocletian's Palance (artistic representation). I often have thoughts of going back and giving it another shot, now that all the new building materials exist (how can I build a palace without MARBLE?)
posted by rebent at 10:15 AM on September 9, 2014
Leveling the ground was something that the Aporkalypse excelled at. I'll never forget how awesome it was when everyone got together to level the ground for Diocletian's Palance (artistic representation). I often have thoughts of going back and giving it another shot, now that all the new building materials exist (how can I build a palace without MARBLE?)
posted by rebent at 10:15 AM on September 9, 2014
I joined the Aporkalypse server in early 2011, when I heard about a replica of Ankh-Morpork (Morepork) that was being built.
I did eventually finish building the wall around the city (only partially laid out in this picture), complete with gates at the cardinal points. Then Mojang released an update that rotated the world, and all the names of the gates were wrong (as well as a bunch of other stuff on the server).
posted by DiscourseMarker at 12:38 PM on September 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
I did eventually finish building the wall around the city (only partially laid out in this picture), complete with gates at the cardinal points. Then Mojang released an update that rotated the world, and all the names of the gates were wrong (as well as a bunch of other stuff on the server).
posted by DiscourseMarker at 12:38 PM on September 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Unless something's changed in the last few months, I'd say the wiki is out of date.
posted by Jimbob at 2:51 PM on September 9, 2014
posted by Jimbob at 2:51 PM on September 9, 2014
The aporkalypse is a highlight of my gaming career. The things that were built were amazing, and the inspiration I got from seeing everyone's stuff was invaluable. I haven't touched minecraft since.
posted by clockbound at 5:20 PM on September 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by clockbound at 5:20 PM on September 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Thanks, toomuchpete!
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:05 PM on September 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:05 PM on September 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Well, it was fun while it lasted: Microsoft nears deal to buy Minecraft maker Mojang
posted by Poldo at 6:58 PM on September 9, 2014
posted by Poldo at 6:58 PM on September 9, 2014
Oh, that sucks.
posted by octothorpe at 7:08 PM on September 9, 2014
posted by octothorpe at 7:08 PM on September 9, 2014
I dunno, man. I am no fan of Microsoft but I am even less of a fan of the way Notch & Co. have handled so much of ... everything, really. It'd be hard for a Megacorp to make it worse and that's saying something.
Unrelated: tonight I found myself typing the shortcut to Minecraft and it didn't load and that means it's not currently uninstalled and I said a quick "thank you" to past-me and present-me went on with his business.
posted by komara at 7:33 PM on September 9, 2014
Unrelated: tonight I found myself typing the shortcut to Minecraft and it didn't load and that means it's not currently uninstalled and I said a quick "thank you" to past-me and present-me went on with his business.
posted by komara at 7:33 PM on September 9, 2014
It'd be hard for a Megacorp to make it worse and that's saying something.
Minecraft rewritten in C# and so you can no longer run a server on your Linux VPS?
I don't know, we'll wait and see. My reaction is basically "Oh no those utter bastards I'm totally going toquit continue to play Minecraft because I can't stop."
posted by Jimbob at 7:55 PM on September 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Minecraft rewritten in C# and so you can no longer run a server on your Linux VPS?
I don't know, we'll wait and see. My reaction is basically "Oh no those utter bastards I'm totally going to
posted by Jimbob at 7:55 PM on September 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Even though all I did was build the same, minimally ambitious rural stuff I always make in Minecraft, and I missed the really heady days of activity anyway, I really miss the MefightClub servers, too. It was just good to build stuff around nice people.
posted by howfar at 5:01 AM on September 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by howfar at 5:01 AM on September 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
The most surprising minecraft development to me was cottage industry of minecraft video producers. I hated watching other people play games when I was a kid, but Joe Hills makes it compelling.
posted by drezdn at 6:14 AM on September 10, 2014
posted by drezdn at 6:14 AM on September 10, 2014
I built a replica of the Atlanta Marriott hotel which took several weeks, and that was, by far, not even remotely close to the most impressive things on the map.
Ha ha! That first cityscape photo on the Atlanta Marriott site is so over-filtered it took me a few moments to realize I was not looking at a mincraft model.
posted by Kabanos at 7:38 AM on September 10, 2014
Ha ha! That first cityscape photo on the Atlanta Marriott site is so over-filtered it took me a few moments to realize I was not looking at a mincraft model.
posted by Kabanos at 7:38 AM on September 10, 2014
There were several things in the video I didn't recognize. The biggest is at about 2:50. Something black and lace-like rises from a library, then explodes. What is it?
posted by five fresh fish at 2:23 PM on September 10, 2014
posted by five fresh fish at 2:23 PM on September 10, 2014
I tapped out at 5:36 w/ baby zombie riding a chicken.
Then Mojang released an update that rotated the world
I wasn't playing MC during that, but when I came back to the Apork, it took awhile for me to really understand that's what happened. It seemed impossibly stupid that Mojang would do that and my brain kept rejecting it.
posted by fleacircus at 3:15 PM on September 10, 2014
Then Mojang released an update that rotated the world
I wasn't playing MC during that, but when I came back to the Apork, it took awhile for me to really understand that's what happened. It seemed impossibly stupid that Mojang would do that and my brain kept rejecting it.
posted by fleacircus at 3:15 PM on September 10, 2014
The direction the sun rose in changed, if I recall - originally, the sun actually rose in the north. At some point that "bug" was corrected so it rose in the proper east.
posted by Jimbob at 5:02 PM on September 10, 2014
posted by Jimbob at 5:02 PM on September 10, 2014
It's still maddening to me that the y axis is elevation, instead of z.
posted by curious nu at 5:21 PM on September 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by curious nu at 5:21 PM on September 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
I had my house setup to face the morning sun and dammit, Notch moved the sun.
Is the sun still square? I remember that they made it round for a while but everyone hated it.
posted by octothorpe at 5:27 PM on September 10, 2014
Is the sun still square? I remember that they made it round for a while but everyone hated it.
posted by octothorpe at 5:27 PM on September 10, 2014
Sun and moon are both still square. The moon has roundish phases though.
posted by sotonohito at 5:48 PM on September 10, 2014
posted by sotonohito at 5:48 PM on September 10, 2014
It seemed impossibly stupid that Mojang would do that
This is, like, the motto for every update. I haven't played in a few months, so *maybe* this has changed, but every update I would try to use boats, and every update I would eventually fail, because Boats. Are. Still. Fucking. Broken. They introduced huge oceans and navigable rivers, but couldn't get boats to work properly or reliably.
That said, I paid next to nothing for the game and admired the indie spirit. I can only imagine that Microsoft will crush that into dust.
And boats probably STILL won't work.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 6:21 PM on September 10, 2014
This is, like, the motto for every update. I haven't played in a few months, so *maybe* this has changed, but every update I would try to use boats, and every update I would eventually fail, because Boats. Are. Still. Fucking. Broken. They introduced huge oceans and navigable rivers, but couldn't get boats to work properly or reliably.
That said, I paid next to nothing for the game and admired the indie spirit. I can only imagine that Microsoft will crush that into dust.
And boats probably STILL won't work.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 6:21 PM on September 10, 2014
And boats probably STILL won't work.
I've heard this complaint often, and I do remember a period where they definitely didn't work on multiplayer. But as far as I've experience, they've seemed fine for a few years now? I mean apart from smashing into pieces if you ride them into a lillypad too fast.
posted by Jimbob at 7:24 PM on September 10, 2014
I've heard this complaint often, and I do remember a period where they definitely didn't work on multiplayer. But as far as I've experience, they've seemed fine for a few years now? I mean apart from smashing into pieces if you ride them into a lillypad too fast.
posted by Jimbob at 7:24 PM on September 10, 2014
Well, they went from 100% client side to 100% server side, so if your connection to the server wasn't great, they went from sprightly magic carpets to Marble Madness on a crappy emulator.
posted by fleacircus at 10:43 PM on September 10, 2014
posted by fleacircus at 10:43 PM on September 10, 2014
And then there was Climate Change (aka the biome update) that caused my first Minecraft home--surrounded by water, hand-made lakes and navigable rivers, secret underwater entrances (using sugar cane which is permeable to players but not water) and a water slide emergency exit--to become a frozen wasteland. Once-grassy hills and trees covered with snow. All that water frozen over.
Every once in a while I'll go back and look around and try to remember what it looked like before the ice came.
posted by straight at 11:00 PM on September 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
Every once in a while I'll go back and look around and try to remember what it looked like before the ice came.
posted by straight at 11:00 PM on September 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
odinsdream: the area in which you built could just as easily have been randomly converted to a desert biome meaning it'll never rain there again and any trees now look brown-ish.
I don't think there were any Minecraft updates back then (and maybe not now; I haven't checked) that addressed backwards compatibility. The Apork was generated In The Beginning and every stupid change that Mojang added was intended to be for a new map generated Right Then, with no consideration given to things that came before.
So yeah, the great unnecessary rotation of the world, the "well your old area didn't have biomes so we'll randomly assign them", the lack of considering that we may have an entire server dug out to bedrock but oh well now there's bedrock fog obscuring everything ... it was just so terribly implemented with no consideration for existing maps at any time ever.
posted by komara at 9:37 AM on September 11, 2014
I don't think there were any Minecraft updates back then (and maybe not now; I haven't checked) that addressed backwards compatibility. The Apork was generated In The Beginning and every stupid change that Mojang added was intended to be for a new map generated Right Then, with no consideration given to things that came before.
So yeah, the great unnecessary rotation of the world, the "well your old area didn't have biomes so we'll randomly assign them", the lack of considering that we may have an entire server dug out to bedrock but oh well now there's bedrock fog obscuring everything ... it was just so terribly implemented with no consideration for existing maps at any time ever.
posted by komara at 9:37 AM on September 11, 2014
Bedrock fog has gone, by the way, in the latest update. FWIW.
I guess I'm happier with the spirit of Minecraft impermanence than most. I commented, on Mefightclub, "Hey now that we have weather, maybe Notch will implement natural disasters! Earthquakes that knock blocks out!"
I was yelled at.
posted by Jimbob at 2:48 PM on September 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
I guess I'm happier with the spirit of Minecraft impermanence than most. I commented, on Mefightclub, "Hey now that we have weather, maybe Notch will implement natural disasters! Earthquakes that knock blocks out!"
I was yelled at.
posted by Jimbob at 2:48 PM on September 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
Because creepers and endermen aren't bad enough -.-
/gamerule notchGriefing false
posted by curious nu at 3:34 PM on September 11, 2014
/gamerule notchGriefing false
posted by curious nu at 3:34 PM on September 11, 2014
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Also, yeah the game is particularly unrecognizable to me in the later half of the video.
posted by The Whelk at 10:35 AM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]