About
Adam Ruch is is a researcher and program director at Qantm College in Sydney Australia. He coordinates the Bachelor of Interactive Entertainment degree, teaching game design. This is a collection of thoughts that such study encourages.
Recent Posts
- On “White Knights”
- ArmA 2 Wasteland: Development vs. Design
- Videogames and the Gillette Model
- Game Maker Day 6: Not Forgotten
- Game Maker Day 5: Great Expectations
Tag Cloud
advertising Australia canon console controller criticism cyberculture development drama fun Gamecube game designers game maker game theory Gears of War Genesis Heavy Rain history immersion industry interactive narrative interview Janet Murray journalism Kotaku Mass Effect mechanics media N64 narrative Nintendo Playstation playstation move R18 review romance RPG rules Sega sex sexism simulation Sony tech ideas X-Box
WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck and Luke Morton requires Flash Player 9 or better.
Categories
- Creative Ramblings
- Cyberspace and the Interwebz
- Game Maker RPG Project
- GameSpy
- Grand Theft Auto 4 Project
- Kotaku AU
- Uncategorized
- Videogame Commentary
The Great Undiscovered of Minecraft
Minecraft within Minecraft
I have to admit, I am not much of an indie gamer. I spend most of my time with the big-budget mainstream titles in my research. There is a reason for that, but it isn't the point of this article. What is important is that Minecraft managed to get my attention, partially due to its intensely addictive fun, and to the buzz its created within the gaming/blogging community. I'd like to address the game and its context a little here.
Firstly, why is this thing so fun that around 500,000 people have parted with their 10€ to play an alpha release that would have been known as a demo five or ten years ago? The reasons aren't that hard to grasp, and have been documented in a few places already. There is the intense feeling of agency: the player is able to affect this world in deep, meaningful ways relative to the complexity of the world itself. This world doesn't have a narrative or social structure, it only has a physical presence. So, the physical interactions the player can have with every block of space, whether filled with material or not, is akin to being a small God in a simple universe. Every square block is offering its existence to the player to be tampered with, shaped and molded into something greater, offering no resistance and bending to the will of the creator.
This is a powerful feeling, and demonstrates the rule of agency quite nicely. Many AAA games are far richer in content, but that content is out of the player's reach. Whether it is the physical landscape or architecture, whether a vehicle, a door, or an NPC, these rich pieces of the gameworld are impervious to interaction. The player can't do anything to them. These parts of the gameworld simply do not care about the player. Every part of the Minecraft world does care.