4 ms·

I'd rate this a lot higher than the guy who made a big effort out of trying to build Simcity city with the largest possible population. SimCity guy spent years

by hugh3 16y ago

I'd rate this a lot higher than the guy who made a big effort out of trying to build Simcity city with the largest possible population. SimCity guy spent years on his city. I don't know how long this guy spent, but it can't have been nearly that long since the game is only a year or so old. It probably took some reasonable number of hours -- probably less than the average Minecraft player spends playing Minecraft without producing anything that anyone ever wants to look at. Secondly, SimCity guy was trying to get the highest possible score within the parameters of the game as defined, which is less creative than this guy who is using the game in an unexpected and novel way.

duck 16y ago
I agree, but I think the biggest net gain is how things like this show how cool and limitless Minecraft is, which will surely result in new users from the attention something like this gets.
- hugh3 16y ago
  Wait, was this done by the guy who wrote Minecraft? I thought it was done by someone else. If it wasn't I'm not sure how promoting Minecraft is a "net gain"... certainly encouraging more people to play video games is hardly an especially worthy goal.
  - JeanPierre 16y ago
    This guy learned how to make a 16-bit ALU (Which in my opinion is a great amount of experience) and got a job offer from playing a game on his spare time. Hackers that play video games want to learn and try out different things with the game, not only play it. I myself am really interested in how the game is saved (How chunks is designed, etc.) and is now currently studying linearly interpolated 3d perlin noise on my spare time because that's how Minecraft design the dynamic world. Hackers that have decrypted or learned how the game is saved will make tools to ease work, and/or to visually view their world, or to see it from a different perspective. Minecraft has made hackers design map-editors, cartograms and other things, including a 16-bit ALU in-game. Making programs and learning how stuff works is a net gain for the community.
  - duck 16y ago
    Correct, it was someone else... but people like him just want to see things like this succeed so it was net gain for everyone. And it really isn't about video games (I haven't played any game except for some Wii for the last 5 years), but just pushing the limits of what we can do and learn. I see Minecraft not as a game, but as what a single person did through great imagination and effort. encouraging more people to play video games is hardly an especially worthy goal Neither is Facebook, Twitter, most of the development we talk about here, or basically a million other things, but doing things to push the boundaries of what we know are.
DanielBMarkham 16y ago
I'd rate this a lot higher than the guy who made a big effort out of trying to build Simcity city with the largest possible population Agreed. Which is why this was the time to make my comment. He's obviously a smart person and this has value because of the learning potential. If I had commented on the Sim City guy, it would have been taking a cheap personal shot. Didn't want to do that.
lotharbot 16y ago
> "this guy who is using the game in an unexpected and novel way." MineCraft Alpha was built with logic-circuit design in mind [1]. This guy built a pretty extreme example, but it's not any more "unexpected and novel" than, say, making a very large castle. [1] http://minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Redstone_Circuits http://minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Redstone_Circuits
- wlievens 16y ago
  And the base concept is probably based on Dwarf Fortress, where logic does come from an unexpected and novel aspect: hydraulics.

by hugh3 16y ago

duck 16y ago

I agree, but I think the biggest net gain is how things like this show how cool and limitless Minecraft is, which will surely result in new users from the attention something like this gets.

hugh3 16y ago
Wait, was this done by the guy who wrote Minecraft? I thought it was done by someone else. If it wasn't I'm not sure how promoting Minecraft is a "net gain"... certainly encouraging more people to play video games is hardly an especially worthy goal.
- JeanPierre 16y ago
  This guy learned how to make a 16-bit ALU (Which in my opinion is a great amount of experience) and got a job offer from playing a game on his spare time. Hackers that play video games want to learn and try out different things with the game, not only play it. I myself am really interested in how the game is saved (How chunks is designed, etc.) and is now currently studying linearly interpolated 3d perlin noise on my spare time because that's how Minecraft design the dynamic world. Hackers that have decrypted or learned how the game is saved will make tools to ease work, and/or to visually view their world, or to see it from a different perspective. Minecraft has made hackers design map-editors, cartograms and other things, including a 16-bit ALU in-game. Making programs and learning how stuff works is a net gain for the community.
- duck 16y ago
  Correct, it was someone else... but people like him just want to see things like this succeed so it was net gain for everyone. And it really isn't about video games (I haven't played any game except for some Wii for the last 5 years), but just pushing the limits of what we can do and learn. I see Minecraft not as a game, but as what a single person did through great imagination and effort. encouraging more people to play video games is hardly an especially worthy goal Neither is Facebook, Twitter, most of the development we talk about here, or basically a million other things, but doing things to push the boundaries of what we know are.

DanielBMarkham 16y ago

I'd rate this a lot higher than the guy who made a big effort out of trying to build Simcity city with the largest possible population Agreed. Which is why this was the time to make my comment. He's obviously a smart person and this has value because of the learning potential. If I had commented on the Sim City guy, it would have been taking a cheap personal shot. Didn't want to do that.

lotharbot 16y ago

> "this guy who is using the game in an unexpected and novel way." MineCraft Alpha was built with logic-circuit design in mind [1]. This guy built a pretty extreme example, but it's not any more "unexpected and novel" than, say, making a very large castle. [1] http://minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Redstone_Circuits http://minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Redstone_Circuits

wlievens 16y ago
And the base concept is probably based on Dwarf Fortress, where logic does come from an unexpected and novel aspect: hydraulics.