Here is a thought…Minecraft is becoming a (serious)  game engine more so than being just a “game”…

Here is a thought…Minecraft is becoming a (serious)  game engine more so than being just a "game".  

Yes it has always had the ability to be turned into many things  not thought  of at Mojang HQ , but over time it has opened up in ways such that even Vanilla (non moded) Mincraft has been used to all manner of ends.  

 The mod packs for Minecraft extend the game play to all manner of genres. Not just thematic changes though, with the inclusion and rapid spread of multiblock structures, portal systems and functional game play mechanics the possibilities grow even more varied. All this even without an official API. 

But over time unmoded Vanilla Minecraft has been including things that are making the game open up to ideas and contortions that were once only possible in the land of the mods. The Command Blocks , as one example, are doing things to dev and players that have mad possible things like….this demo map, using the latest vanilla snapshot, is a great example. 

So yeah…Minecraft. When the official API comes out I am expecting  my mind to finish melting. 

Now it is true a lot of what we are seeing we have seen back in the days before Second Life sputtered out in a haze of stripper poles and poker slot machines….but I do not remember it being as varied as what I am seeing from the Minecraft Dev Community. Is it because there is on one all encompassing server where everyone was ontop of everyone else…for better or what seems worse?

True there are Minecraft servers with thousands of people on them playing various minigames and curated scenes and indeed some of these are starting to confederated and affiliate in such a way that you are moving form server to server easily….but not as seamlessly as  as flying a steampunk based hot air ship over to each one like I did in Second Life. 

Could it be that whitelists and isolated islands helped Minecraft skirt some of the issues that made Second Life so unappealing?
 
(Sidebar….I have dabbled a bit with the "official" Python/Minecraft hookup over on my Raspberry Pi….and yea…shades of things to come for sure. )

#Minecraft   +YOGSCAST Lewis & Simon  #MinecraftAPI