Final Formal Analysis of Minecraft
The format of Minecraft gives endless freedoms. The ability to create your own story is one of the main reasons people play video games in the first place, to immerse yourself into a different life and do what you want. The freedom and the accessibility of the blocking system are the driving forces of why this game became so popular, whereas the specifics of the blocking system used which creates a simple way to create a complex narrative and story however you’d like.
Simplicity. This is a huge theme in the world of Minecraft, or should I say worlds of Minecraft. Each new seed generator you use, which can be any combination of letters or numbers, creates a newly formed map. Each of these maps is made with 1x1 blocks formed in different patterns, making every experience unique. If this was a game where the graphics looked real and you couldn’t mine or chop down a single block of wood or iron then it would take away from the authenticity of the experience that the creators set out for. With graphics that represent the real world there would be many more limitations even though it wouldn’t seem like that from the surface. First of all the digital technology couldn’t withstand such a thing when Minecraft was created, but secondly being allowed to chop down trees and use the wood to make that into a structure that resembles a log cabin gives power to the people playing. Being stacks of blocks allows the game to be accessible to all ages as well creating more of a fan base. To explain how this game works, the main premise is that to get resources such as dirt, stone, or wood, you have to hit the block enough times until it breaks. This will put the block of whatever in your inventory allowing you to build or craft with it. You can put blocks wherever you want on the landscape, but the crafting has its limits on the items you can create in the game. The different terrains; mountains, grasslands, deserts, etc. gives you so many choices that you don’t even know where to begin. It gives a sense of wondering to be able to choose your own environment as well as accomplishment and freedom to make your world look however you want it to look.
As I stated before the simplicity of the game is what makes it accessible and allows people the freedom of choice to create and do whatever they want, but there are still people who play this game and use the structure of the game mechanics to build complex structures as well. The blocking system gives us the opportunity to make art as well as structures, treating each one like a pixel allows us to make “paintings” if we really wanted to. I have seen structures that are spitting images of some characters such as Mario and Bowser all made of these blocks high in the sky. The creativity of people’s minds coupled with the ease of building gives us almost no boundaries. The different blocks of wood, wool, different kinds of ore, stone, ice, etc. gives plenty of options for color, opacity, and overall texture. While I have said that this world is made up of all 1x1 cubes, this is just the space each individual thing takes up on the ground. You can craft the material into stairs, window panes, and many other utilities that create even more possibilities and more of a story. The ability to make the textures look different gives the player more power as well as freedom wrapping around to what I began with. Now, in these different maps, you can choose if you want some pre-built structures or not. If you choose to have them there will be places all around the world; Villages with little villagers running around in them, jungle temples, underground railroads that lead to a stronghold, sand palaces, and many more adding to the complexity of the world. This is all still made of 1x1 blocks just as digital images are made out of 1x1 pixels all merged together in a certain way to represent something that we can understand.
The simple nature of everything that the world consists of being these blocks makes forming the world to your liking that much easier to do. If you wanted your building to be built on a lower level of terrain, you can shovel or mine out a layer of dirt or rock to have it sit lower, and that is just one example of this. Other than the structures created by the game itself, the world is bare and full of choices on what to take out as well as what to put into it, the freedom of choice to do as you wish with what the world gives you in the beginning allows each and every person to experience a totally different story changing at every turn. Your imagination is what gives this game endless possibility because while you can make anything resemble what you want, the creators only give you so many variations of the 1x1 blocks that you can make. The blocks give you a sense of controlled freedom, instead of having a definite landscape that you can’t mold to your liking you have land that can be shaped however you want. All of this coupled together creates the complex game that is Minecraft, the way it allows you to imagine anything you want and make it depending on how much work you want to put in put the player in a position that had never been thought of when it first came out. You have the freedom to be in control of the games outcomes whether it’s what it looks like or how you go about spending your time in it. You can become an animal herder, a farmer who grows carrots and wheat, a warrior who goes into the other dimension to fight the evil monsters lurking around, or even to live out your life building everything you can think of.
For the makers of Minecraft, there were many different ways that they could’ve gone about making the formatting of the game. But the reasoning for making the world all out of the most simple of formats, the blocking system, allows anyone and everyone to experience the game. For young kids and teens playing this game they are able to live out their imagination that is in their head to help them learn problem-solving, critical thinking, and most of all creativity. This world gives you endless possibilities if you have the imagination for it then you can stack these blocks to build an intricate castle, or a farm that houses animals, maybe even just create art structures resembling real life ideas/people. The complex nature of this game is built on the simple format of the game, making it so the game doesn’t control how you go about your business. Allowing you to choose freely what you want to do with anything in the world is what makes this game so popular and so personal to your own story, whatever that may be.
