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They are, however, also working within the confines of Minecraft. The grinding-progression mechanic is probably the most desirable within the game systems since

They are, however, also working within the confines of Minecraft. The grinding-progression mechanic is probably the most desirable within the game systems since Minecraft only begrudgingly offers combat and other systems, emphasizing find, fetch, and make. That's its bread and butter, so I'm not surprised they built up using that technique.

minimaxir 9y ago
That's fair. (I'll admit I don't 100% understand the appeal of Minecraft and other survival simulators) What may also be interesting is looking at the systems of periodic quests with high rewards, such as the daily quest system used in games like Hearthstone, the secondary purpose of which is to encourage diversity of play, which keeps players from being burnt out. These quests are typically drawn from a list instead of being algorithmically generated, which seems like a missed opportunity...
- philipov 9y ago
  In Overwatch, this takes the form of weekly "gimmick" game modes. I think Riot (League of Legends) was the first company I saw really embrace and explain secondary game modes by introducing limited-time-only featured game modes. On the one hand, they wanted to offer novelty to players, and also to their designers by letting them create wacky stuff and see how it played out, but on the other hand they did not want to dilute their primary game mode, nor did they want to allow the gimmicky secondary game modes to become worn out and trite. And so their solution grew out of their holiday event game modes into a deliberate full-time policy.
- derefr 9y ago
  > I'll admit I don't 100% understand the appeal of Minecraft and other survival simulators Survival games have the same draw as entrepreneurship; they're "bootstrapping simulators." A survival game starts off risky, with a "runway" of finite starting resources, and then—through efficient and well-timed cleverness—you operationalize a process that gathers resources more quickly than you can spend them, putting you "in the black." Likely, the tools you use to do this increase your needs, which pushes you into dealing with higher-level concerns—but, while these are more complex, and you find yourself juggling more concerns at once—you're usually under less risk of everything toppling than you were at the beginning. As you progress through such a game, complexity goes up but risk goes down. Because of this—and just like with real founders—if you're "in it for the game" of bootstrapping, you'll probably get bored and quit once it gets to the stable point, and start all over again at bootstrapping something else.
- bitexploder 9y ago
  There is just something so simple and basic about Minecraft. To me, it has the same appeal as cracking open a SNES emulator. It is an accessible platform for ages 4-120. I can play and build with my kids. I can show them little tricks with logic gates. I can indulge in a Lego-like simplicity of building something for the sake of building it. It is just a nice, easy, distraction that has massive appeal (due to the range of audience). It is like the Lego block of its gaming Era.

minimaxir 9y ago

That's fair. (I'll admit I don't 100% understand the appeal of Minecraft and other survival simulators) What may also be interesting is looking at the systems of periodic quests with high rewards, such as the daily quest system used in games like Hearthstone, the secondary purpose of which is to encourage diversity of play, which keeps players from being burnt out. These quests are typically drawn from a list instead of being algorithmically generated, which seems like a missed opportunity...

philipov 9y ago
In Overwatch, this takes the form of weekly "gimmick" game modes. I think Riot (League of Legends) was the first company I saw really embrace and explain secondary game modes by introducing limited-time-only featured game modes. On the one hand, they wanted to offer novelty to players, and also to their designers by letting them create wacky stuff and see how it played out, but on the other hand they did not want to dilute their primary game mode, nor did they want to allow the gimmicky secondary game modes to become worn out and trite. And so their solution grew out of their holiday event game modes into a deliberate full-time policy.
derefr 9y ago
> I'll admit I don't 100% understand the appeal of Minecraft and other survival simulators Survival games have the same draw as entrepreneurship; they're "bootstrapping simulators." A survival game starts off risky, with a "runway" of finite starting resources, and then—through efficient and well-timed cleverness—you operationalize a process that gathers resources more quickly than you can spend them, putting you "in the black." Likely, the tools you use to do this increase your needs, which pushes you into dealing with higher-level concerns—but, while these are more complex, and you find yourself juggling more concerns at once—you're usually under less risk of everything toppling than you were at the beginning. As you progress through such a game, complexity goes up but risk goes down. Because of this—and just like with real founders—if you're "in it for the game" of bootstrapping, you'll probably get bored and quit once it gets to the stable point, and start all over again at bootstrapping something else.
bitexploder 9y ago
There is just something so simple and basic about Minecraft. To me, it has the same appeal as cracking open a SNES emulator. It is an accessible platform for ages 4-120. I can play and build with my kids. I can show them little tricks with logic gates. I can indulge in a Lego-like simplicity of building something for the sake of building it. It is just a nice, easy, distraction that has massive appeal (due to the range of audience). It is like the Lego block of its gaming Era.