What Is Minecraft?
Minecraft is a sandbox game that is playable in both Solo, or Multiplayer modes. There are several different modes in Minecraft actually, Creative and Hard Core modes are also included. By now, you might be wondering what exactly is a Sandbox Game?
A Sandbox Game is simply a game that has no central quest line. In other words, it’s not story driven. Most games have a story to drive the player further into the action. Sandbox Games don’t, they merely exist to please players. They allow you to go out, do what you want, and not have to worry about a quest line for a change. It’s a way to relax and just enjoy the moment. Minecraft certainly has plenty of them.
What is it that drives players to Minecraft? There are plenty of Mobs for you to kill as well as plenty of resources to build. The creative aspect of Minecraft has drawn many players to it alone. There are groups of players who dedicate themselves to rebuilding real world monuments in Minecraft, as well as numerous fictional worlds. This is one of those games where you can literally say, “There are endless possibilities.”
Spiders, Skeletons, and Creepers OH MY! You guessed it, there are plenty of monsters to kill, or what we refer to as mobs. There are different categories of mobs as well, they are listed below:
Passive mobs will never attack the player. All passive mobs require land and light to spawn on, except for Squids.
Cat, Chicken, Cow, Mooshroom, Ocelot, Pig, Sheep, Squid, and Villager.
Neutral mobs will not attack the player unless provoked. The act of provoking neutral mobs varies between mobs.
Enderman, Wolf, Zombie Pigman
Hostile mobs will attack the player when in range. Spiders may become neutral, but they do not spawn neutral.
Blaze, Cave Spider, Creeper, Ghast, Magma Cube, Silverfish, Skeleton, Slime, Spider, Spider Jockey, Zombie
Utility mobs are created by the player, usually for defense purposes.
Iron Golem, Snow Golem
Boss mobs have more complicated attack patterns and movements.
Ender Dragon
As you can see, the mob list is a decent one, with more on the way. The fun doesn’t stop there, with the amount of things you can create with redstone and pistons, the possibilities become even more. Redstone allows you to create powered circuits that may be used to open doors, traps, and stair cases. With these power sources, the fun never ends.
We can’t leave out Enchanting and Biomes. Yes, you can enchant weapons and armor in Minecraft to make them stronger. Unfortunately, bookshelves are needed for enchanting. The more bookshelves you have, the higher level enchanting you can work. The armor enchantments you can get are: Protection, Fire Protection, Feather Falling, Blast Protection, Projectile Protection, Respiration, and Aqua Affinity. The weapon enchantments are for the two types of weapons, Sword and Bow. Sword is as follows: Sharpness, Smite, Bane of Arthropods, Knockback, Fire Aspect, and Looting. While the Bow is as follows: Power, Punch, Flame, and Infinity.
Biomes are merely a way to separate the terrain in the game. Biomes currently include: Forest, Desert, Plains, Swamp, Jungle, Tundra, Taiga, Mountain, Ocean, and Mushroom. There are smaller, Technical Biomes that are included in the larger ones. These include: River, Beach, Mushroom Shore, Frozen Ocean, Mountain Edge, Hills, and Basin.
So, What Is Minecraft? Basically, what ever you choose to make it. It’s your world, be creative. I will say that there are future plans to add Adventure and Capture The Flag modes. Adventure mode will make creative Adventure Maps much easier. As a final note, Adventure Maps are player made maps that allow you to take on quest and different adventures. If you’re not playing Minecraft yet, you should be.
