Currently, over 16 Million copies of Minecraft have been sold for the PC / Mac OS. And there's some more to be found for the PS3, Xbox 360, PS4 and Xbox One versions.
To give an idea of how seriously some people take this game, Denmark instructed its ministry to reconstruct the entire state in an online version, and some American hackers attacked it. It's an interesting story, read about it here.
For those unfamiliar with the game, suffice it to say it's basically LEGO in a video-game. You control a single person, born into a world of cubes. There, you have to collect the materials and build stuff. There's another mode of playing, but survival is more adrenaline-packed, because unexpected encounters might happen.
Minecraft is, in a sense, the simulation of a world, made out with computer's logic. Zeroes and ones, a switch opened or closed, and the computer's visual (graphical) representation of the circles can never be what mathematicians consider "perfect".
In other words, pixels forming a screen are square. So instead of doing an incredibly large number of calculations in order to achieve the stunning quality of some of the today's best games, Minecraft opts for a simple cube approximation.
(for those unfamiliar with games, a link to Bioshock Infinite, one of my favorite games story-wise)
If you accept that, then playing the game lets you live a simulation of the reality. And you know, we physicists nowadays learn a whole damn lot on simulations - basically, all the particle physics today would not exist without computer simulations, and when I was doing my PhD, that's exactly what I enjoyed doing most.
Without further ado, here are the 5 things I learned playing Minecraft (you might be surprised)
5. Practical skills
I learned how to orient myself better. The first tries at playing the game were horrible: me and my friends immediately lost the map we began the game with. So I and others had to explore the world and return alive. Many times that was not the case. The journey was of no return, deep down in a god forsaken cave, at the bottom of a lava river.
So it was of uttermost importance to get to know the cubic surroundings better, and be aware at the dangers around (especially some stupid holes). And there's absolutely no difference with the real world, only the graphics are better.
Another thing I learned was planning and forethought. Yes, this is something everyone will probably tell you:"Think before you act." In real world, usually our choices are complex, affecting multiple people and things that surround us. It is, therefore, very hard to predict the outcome of our actions.
Minecraft on the other hand, is simple - it is only a game after all. And investing some hours in actions that could have been avoided if I optimized my work, made me realize how to better organize myself. Both behind the screen, and in my actual plans for the future.
4. On Time
Minecraft was, the final step of a realization that was boiling under my skin for quite some time. No matter how long I'll live, I simply won't have the time needed to play all the games I would like, read all the books I'd most certainly love, watch movies, and the list could go on for ages.
What this particular game made me appreciate was the time you invest in something. It doesen't need to be a new experience each time. I realized I won't ever be happy if I endlessly pursued this path. Sure, there are some stories I'd love to get into, and some I actually will (the continuation of The Longest Journey - I hope it will be worth the 8 years wait), while others will remain unexplored.
What Minecraft says is simple:"Countless possibilities with randomly generated worlds, and the limit is your imagination." If one wanted, this could be a go-to game when some relax is needed.
3. The "Ending"
I put the ending in quotes simply because the game continues after the end. So it's only a symbolic ending of the sorts. Here's a really interesting explanation of some parts of the ending (link). But really, it's something that leaves you thinking and without doubt one of best endings I've seen in videogames.
For me, it was a confirmation of what I thought throuought the game. It explained to me that what I was thinking was not an obsession or addiction to games and I'm not going insane, or trying to understand meaning where there's none. Minecraft is a simulation of reality, giving you elements for introspection.
2. Work is as boring as you make it
This is something really interesting that I understood while playing Minecraft. Because the play itself is quite repetitive, especially when you have to collect the materials needed to build something.
Go to a cave and dig. Cut down the trees. Get some animals. Etc. etc... You have to repeat the same actions again and again, and many consider this to be boring, and the prime reason for not playing Minecraft.
I admit it. It is boring.
But to be honest, I never found that to be a problem. It was always something that was needed to be done in order to build great things. And it's exactly the same with work in real life. Sometimes you just have to be patient and do some work that is excrutiatingly boring and perhaps demanding, but there's no way around it - if, that is, you are working towards a goal.
As they say, practice makes perfect.
1. Friends and Foes
The enemies in Minecraft try to kill you and some destroy what you build. Sometimes it's really annoying when you finish building something, and then a creeper explodes nearby, possibly killing you and destroying parts of the building you just spent hours on building. But you know, life's not fair, so there's no point in arguing with a video game. It simply portrays on a smaller scale the random destructive events that can happen in your everyday life.
As for friends, this is really quite astonishing. As I mentioned briefly before, Minecraft can be used as introspection. I played it with one and up to three friends at my home, and playing the game really made me understand the people that were in the room with me. I'm not going to share any names, because this is personal, but people who were there will know.
There was one friend that could not stay in a group. He didn't care much for building, nor making plans together. All he wanted to do was find a new cave and explore it. And as soon as others wanted to join in, he lost interest. For him the most important part of Minecraft was to explore, and return victorious, with rare minerals, needed for better equipment. What happened more than once is that he died alone, and there was noone nearby to collect the equipement.
It's scary how accurate this is to the real life. He's a person that wants to succeed with his own merit - and will undoubtably do so. But along his path, he's sometimes too stubborn to see that help from others might greatly aid his endevour.
Another friend was overly fond of the animals in game. Whenever he returned to playing, and the sheep or cattle were missing, he was all like "Where are the animals?" and that would be his uttermost focus untill all was in place again. He understood most than all, that if we had a farm ingame, that would supply us with food infinitely, and we wouldn't have to worry about it ever again.
Same as in real life, he wants to obtain a basic living standard and build on that. And he's in a constant struggle because in life it's not that easy, or at least, immediate.
Another friend of mine was hard to convince into doing anything. He usually had his own vision for the world. But when we agreed on something, he was one of the most dedicated people I know. Mostly silent in real life, but we started and finished some pretty crazy stuff together.
This made me realize that despite him being a quiet type and spending most of the time in silence, he's a valuable friend that won't let me down if we start a project he's interested in.
As for myself, I realized I'm a really shitty team player. There were countless occasions when I went exploring completely alone, or started constructing stuff on my own, only later inviting people in. This I knew already. I'm competitive and sometimes want to prove myself.
But the more I played, the more I wanted all of the people that were playing with me to join efforts and build stuff together. That way, we got to know each other better, and build monuments that are great to look at.
Word count: 1500
Behind the keyboard
I'm otherwise a PC gamer (yeah, PC gaming master race and all the jokes around it), so this for me was also an interesting experience, getting to know the ps3 controller better - a different hand coordination is needed for a joy-pad compared to the keyboard & mouse. I think this will help me learn to play the violin easier.
As a final note, some will object that playing games is a waste of time and that it's just for kids. Those people have an antiquated vision of the world, as the games are gradually becoming more complex in terms of structure, narrative and message, and are effectively becoming a new form of art and education.
Like it or not, the games are here to stay. The question is: are you prepared to learn something from them?
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