I think Minecraft's position today has as much to do with the content of the game itself as it has to do with its architecture/Mojang's engineering choices. Th

I think Minecraft's position today has as much to do with the content of the game itself as it has to do with its architecture/Mojang's engineering choices. The nearly-infinite expandability and modularity of Minecraft is partially due to the simplicity of the art, core game mechanics, and lack of storyline. Good mods are harder to make when the world they must integrate into is more complex. I think this means a lot of games wouldn't see the kind of sustained success Minecraft has seen, even with more "open" development practices. I hypothesize that the "open world" craze of years past was an attempt to capture Minecraft magic, but those games lacked the thematic open-endedness that really facilitates Minecraft's longevity.