Org Minecraft Server

[TinCow]

Okay, this is driving me nuts. I've read every review, every thread, every post, and I still don't think I understand Minecraft. Is it just crafting gone mad, or is it an RPG? What the duece!? Hell, the player-run servers remind me of Neverwinter Nights.. had some fun times with those PWs.

If you guys had to break Minecraft down into a couple paragraphs, what would you say? Why is this so good? The level of popularity this game has been experiencing is more than enough to make me want to play it, but I want to make sure I'm not just jumping on a bandwagon here.

Minecraft is... unique, which makes it a bit difficult to describe as it doesn't really fit into of the normal gaming genres. I think the best thing to compare it to is actually Legos (the plastic blocks, not the Lego movie video games), but in first (or third) person mode and where you have to 'earn' every single piece you place and you can die. These 'blocks' you have to 'earn' include things which can help you survive, such as food, weapons, armor, potions, etc. The world is composed of basic natural resources, such as dirt, stone, trees, water, animals, etc. You dig, mine, chop down, kill, etc. these basic resources and can then combine them in certain manners to create other things. For example, the most basic starting system goes like this:

1) Spawn into a new world.
2) Punch a tree to get tree blocks.
3) Turn tree blocks into wood blocks.
4) Turn wood blocks into a crafting table.
5) Turn more wood blocks into sticks.
6) Turn a combination of wood blocks and sticks into a wooden pickaxe.
7) Use pickaxe to mine stone, producing cobblestone.
8) Use sticks and cobblestone to make a stone pickaxe (better than a wood one).
9) Mine coal.
10) Combine sticks and coal to produce torches, which provide light at night and in dark areas.

All of that can be done in about 3-5 minutes, faster if you can find coal quickly. There are an exceptionally large number of basic resources to mine/harvest/gather, and an even greater number of things to craft out of those resources, from doors to magic enchanting tables to jukeboxes to railroads to portals to other dimensions (there are 3 total 'dimensions'). There's even an extensive 'electricity' system (redstone) which allows you to make all kinds of automated mechanical devices. There are enemies to fight and an unbelievably large world (randomly generated) to explore, but there isn't any actual goal to the game. The point is basically to exist in a world where you can build anything that you can imagine, which is why I compare to Legos.

I agree with rajpoot, try the free version. It's an older version without as much stuff and you can't use multiplayer (which, IMHO, is a LOT more fun than SP), but it will get you used to the basic gameplay concepts. Be aware that there is no official manual, tutorial, or documentation of any kind. If you want to know how to do something, you should read the Minecraft Wiki, which is essentially the manual (or ask in here).

BTW, I had an incident with a creeper last night next to the glass spawning building near the noob hotel. I tried to repair it but for some reason I cannot fathom the area near about is all un-buildable-mineable.

Eh, don't worry about it. You can't fix it because only people with Ops can alter terrain within a certain radius of the server spawn point (30 squares, I think). I've been meaning to revamp that area anyway. Due to the whitelist we don't have random players logging on anymore, so it's far less important to have a whole lot of rule text there to greet them. The main thing is just making sure people spawn in safety.

I added another layer of pistons in my sugarcane farm and was having a lot of trouble getting them to all activate together. I finally got it to work though just have to finish the wiring. It was just a huge pain to figure out.

I think the biggest hurdle to overcome is understanding how the various switches, redstone dust, and redstone torches 'power' the blocks around them, depending on precisely which ones you use and how you position them. Once that starts to click into place, it gets easier.