3 ms·

For some background, the old wiki was hosted on Fandom. All the major volunteer contributors are moving to minecraft.wiki, but the old page will almost certainl

For some background, the old wiki was hosted on Fandom. All the major volunteer contributors are moving to minecraft.wiki, but the old page will almost certainly stay up, frozen in time, throwing trackers and ads on kids not savvy enough to locate the new link. It is interesting to me how many games, Minecraft in particular, rely on wikis - they're very different experiences, sometimes almost unplayable, if you don't read up on how to make progress.

codetrotter 3y ago
I remember in 2009 or 2010, when I first came across Minecraft. It was not hugely popular yet, but it already had quite an active community. I played quite a few hours of the game, both alone and together with a couple of friends. One day, after a couple of weeks or something, I learned about a crafting wiki that told you how to craft different items. At the time, at least for me, it was not clear how you figure out what items you can craft and what items need to be combined in what patterns to craft those new items. So for me, that crafting wiki became quite essential. Maybe other people were figuring out how to craft things by trial and error? Or maybe there was something in the game that told them how to craft specific things?
- Kwantuum 3y ago
  There was not. There is now but for the better part of a decade it was just... Something you were supposed to have learned from a youtube video or a friend or something.
- nickstinemates 3y ago
  People figured out from friends how to craft things or looked at the wiki. Then NEI came out (successor is now called JEI) which showed every item and its recipe. Game changer.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    Vanilla now has a recipe book, and it's also now "gated" by things you find in the world. But NEI (and of course, NEI in GregTech New Horizons) is the only way to play. Because what is Minecraft without regular expressions in your inventory? https://wiki.gtnewhorizons.com/wiki/Not_Enough_Items#Search_Bar https://wiki.gtnewhorizons.com/wiki/Not_Enough_Items#Search_...
- Angostura 3y ago
  > Maybe other people were figuring out how to craft things by trial and error? Certainly my experience. I don't think there was much/any guidance in-game at the beginning.
- undersuit 3y ago
  I think Wikis are hugely important for games. This opinion came from playing Guild Wars 1 and 2. Arenanet supported the game wikis, no ads. The wiki is even integrated into the game you can pass /wiki an in-game item or even a search query and a browser window to the official wiki will open up. Sometimes I forget how to build a gate versus a fence in MC, the trial and error takes just about the same time as search the MC wiki, I still search the wiki more often than flail.
- TheRealPomax 3y ago
  Never having played Minecraft: does this game not come with a manual? (even if it's in PDF form or the like?)
  - dyno12345 3y ago
    no, and there's no tutorial or anything. it's weird to jump right into the game without prior experience. you sort of need a friend to explain it to you.
    - mcpackieh 3y ago
      There was a tutorial level in early console versions, but that's gone from console versions now: https://minecraft.wiki/w/Legacy_Console_Edition_tutorial https://minecraft.wiki/w/Legacy_Console_Edition_tutorial
    - aendruk 3y ago
      And for the group I played with this was an essential element of the fun. The chaos of trying to survive the first few nights when you knew nothing about the game. The fear of the unknown as darkness falls, panic induced by sightings and sounds of threats unfamiliar. I’d love to be able to forget all I know and re-experience this version of the game.
  - pohuing 3y ago
    Not at the time. Now there's a guide structured as quests, as well blueprints in the crafting ui
  - jtvjan 3y ago
    The main way the game teaches you how to play is the "advancements" system. It's a tree of achievements, starting with "walk around" and "chop down a tree", and ending with "defeat the final boss" or "bake a cake", each with a one-line description. There's also a "recipe book", which tells you how to craft[1] items. More recipes get added as you collect the ingredients needed to make them. However, these systems were only added in 2017. (For contrast, the game started development in 2009 and reached 1.0 in 2011.) Before that, how to progress was a lot less clear. It was assumed you had someone teaching you how to play, that you watched videos of other people playing, or that you read the wiki. [1]: The process of combining the items you've collected, by slotting them into a 3×3 grid in a specific pattern (the "recipe"), to make new, more useful items.
- mrob 3y ago
  If you want to see an almost entirely unspoilered playthrough of Minecraft, Japanese player PiroPito has a long series of videos on Youtube (with English subtitles): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbqkLu2V1bJJUQ2aLZjFdz8decGs1kHg- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbqkLu2V1bJJUQ2aLZjFd... This series is notable for inspiring the addition of Ruined Portals, as construction of a Nether Portal had no in-game hints at the time, and was the only thing he needed a spoiler to figure out.
  - mcpackieh 3y ago
    He also needed a hint for spawning the Wither. The game already has a hint for this but it's obscure, so he was given a hint for where to find the in-game hint. Tragic but funny result when he eventually figured it out.
willio58 3y ago
>but the old page will almost certainly stay up, frozen in time, throwing trackers and ads on kids not savvy enough to locate the new link Eerily reminiscent of w3schools for people getting into web dev.
a13o 3y ago
You might enjoy this citizen science dive into the relationship between WoW and wikis, titled "Why It's Rude to Suck at Warcraft". One of the premises is that wikis are required reading; because if you aren't min/maxing, you're breaking the social contract with your guildmates. It's a totally emergent and novel way for a game to become 'unplayable'! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BKP1I7IocYU https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BKP1I7IocYU

codetrotter 3y ago

I remember in 2009 or 2010, when I first came across Minecraft. It was not hugely popular yet, but it already had quite an active community. I played quite a few hours of the game, both alone and together with a couple of friends. One day, after a couple of weeks or something, I learned about a crafting wiki that told you how to craft different items. At the time, at least for me, it was not clear how you figure out what items you can craft and what items need to be combined in what patterns to craft those new items. So for me, that crafting wiki became quite essential. Maybe other people were figuring out how to craft things by trial and error? Or maybe there was something in the game that told them how to craft specific things?

Kwantuum 3y ago
There was not. There is now but for the better part of a decade it was just... Something you were supposed to have learned from a youtube video or a friend or something.
nickstinemates 3y ago
People figured out from friends how to craft things or looked at the wiki. Then NEI came out (successor is now called JEI) which showed every item and its recipe. Game changer.
- bombcar 3y ago
  Vanilla now has a recipe book, and it's also now "gated" by things you find in the world. But NEI (and of course, NEI in GregTech New Horizons) is the only way to play. Because what is Minecraft without regular expressions in your inventory? https://wiki.gtnewhorizons.com/wiki/Not_Enough_Items#Search_Bar https://wiki.gtnewhorizons.com/wiki/Not_Enough_Items#Search_...
Angostura 3y ago
> Maybe other people were figuring out how to craft things by trial and error? Certainly my experience. I don't think there was much/any guidance in-game at the beginning.
undersuit 3y ago
I think Wikis are hugely important for games. This opinion came from playing Guild Wars 1 and 2. Arenanet supported the game wikis, no ads. The wiki is even integrated into the game you can pass /wiki an in-game item or even a search query and a browser window to the official wiki will open up. Sometimes I forget how to build a gate versus a fence in MC, the trial and error takes just about the same time as search the MC wiki, I still search the wiki more often than flail.
TheRealPomax 3y ago
Never having played Minecraft: does this game not come with a manual? (even if it's in PDF form or the like?)
- dyno12345 3y ago
  no, and there's no tutorial or anything. it's weird to jump right into the game without prior experience. you sort of need a friend to explain it to you.
  - mcpackieh 3y ago
    There was a tutorial level in early console versions, but that's gone from console versions now: https://minecraft.wiki/w/Legacy_Console_Edition_tutorial https://minecraft.wiki/w/Legacy_Console_Edition_tutorial
  - aendruk 3y ago
    And for the group I played with this was an essential element of the fun. The chaos of trying to survive the first few nights when you knew nothing about the game. The fear of the unknown as darkness falls, panic induced by sightings and sounds of threats unfamiliar. I’d love to be able to forget all I know and re-experience this version of the game.
- pohuing 3y ago
  Not at the time. Now there's a guide structured as quests, as well blueprints in the crafting ui
- jtvjan 3y ago
  The main way the game teaches you how to play is the "advancements" system. It's a tree of achievements, starting with "walk around" and "chop down a tree", and ending with "defeat the final boss" or "bake a cake", each with a one-line description. There's also a "recipe book", which tells you how to craft[1] items. More recipes get added as you collect the ingredients needed to make them. However, these systems were only added in 2017. (For contrast, the game started development in 2009 and reached 1.0 in 2011.) Before that, how to progress was a lot less clear. It was assumed you had someone teaching you how to play, that you watched videos of other people playing, or that you read the wiki. [1]: The process of combining the items you've collected, by slotting them into a 3×3 grid in a specific pattern (the "recipe"), to make new, more useful items.
mrob 3y ago
If you want to see an almost entirely unspoilered playthrough of Minecraft, Japanese player PiroPito has a long series of videos on Youtube (with English subtitles): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbqkLu2V1bJJUQ2aLZjFdz8decGs1kHg- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbqkLu2V1bJJUQ2aLZjFd... This series is notable for inspiring the addition of Ruined Portals, as construction of a Nether Portal had no in-game hints at the time, and was the only thing he needed a spoiler to figure out.
- mcpackieh 3y ago
  He also needed a hint for spawning the Wither. The game already has a hint for this but it's obscure, so he was given a hint for where to find the in-game hint. Tragic but funny result when he eventually figured it out.

willio58 3y ago

>but the old page will almost certainly stay up, frozen in time, throwing trackers and ads on kids not savvy enough to locate the new link Eerily reminiscent of w3schools for people getting into web dev.

a13o 3y ago

You might enjoy this citizen science dive into the relationship between WoW and wikis, titled "Why It's Rude to Suck at Warcraft". One of the premises is that wikis are required reading; because if you aren't min/maxing, you're breaking the social contract with your guildmates. It's a totally emergent and novel way for a game to become 'unplayable'! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BKP1I7IocYU https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BKP1I7IocYU