hey!

hear me out!!

it gives you a lot of room for creativity and it has some really cool mechanics (redstone, pushblocks, etc). if I had this game when I was a wee lad, I'd be making entire towns and train stations and whatnot for hours on end. in creative mode.

the problem is that survival mode is shit. it's not good. the gameplay loop is tedious. the punishment for dying is dropping all of your shit on hand, which discourages exploration. If you take all of your good shit with you, you can still die and lose all of the stuff it took you hours to get, and you're never getting it back. or if you take mediocre gear, you can't really explore super far without getting fucked by extremely difficult enemies. the magic system is effectively random and there's no way to reliably get the enchantments that you want. and since enchantments cost experience, you have to grind to get back up to level 30.

"git gud" NO, I have a JOB and a LIFE I can't be spending 40 hours a week on minecraft on top of everything else. it's a game that does not respect your time, which makes it perfect for kids.

that’s what I’m saying!!! the gameplay loop to get to the point where you can maybe do the interesting stuff on the map is so tedious and feels like a huge waste of time. and if you fuck up, the reset time could be hours before you can try again. this is not a game that respects the player’s time!!!

hey!

hear me out!!

it gives you a lot of room for creativity and it has some really cool mechanics (redstone, pushblocks, etc). if I had this game when I was a wee lad, I’d be making entire towns and train stations and whatnot for hours on end. in creative mode.

the problem is that survival mode is shit. it’s not good. the gameplay loop is tedious. the punishment for dying is dropping all of your shit on hand, which discourages exploration. If you take all of your good shit with you, you can still die and lose all of the stuff it took you hours to get, and you’re never getting it back. or if you take mediocre gear, you can’t really explore super far without getting fucked by extremely difficult enemies. the magic system is effectively random and there’s no way to reliably get the enchantments that you want. and since enchantments cost experience, you have to grind to get back up to level 30.

“git gud” NO, I have a JOB and a LIFE I can’t be spending 40 hours a week on minecraft on top of everything else. it’s a game that does not respect your time, which makes it perfect for kids.

“When Daddy comes in, he carries you to bed. Is there anything you feel like you could eat, Pokey? Anything at all?

All you can imagine putting in your mouth is a cold plum, one with really tight skin on the outside but gum-shocking sweetness inside. And he and your mother discuss where he might find some this late in the season. Mother says hell I don’t know. Further north, I’d guess.

The next morning, you wake up in your bed and sit up. Mother says, Pete, I think she’s up. He hollers in, You ready for breakfast, Pokey. Then he comes in grinning, still in his work clothes from the night before. He’s holding a farm bushel. The plums he empties onto the bed river toward you through folds in the quilt. If you stacked them up, they’d fill the deepest bin at the Piggly Wiggly.

Damned if I didn’t get the urge to drive to Arkansas last night, he says.

Your mother stands behind him saying he’s pure USDA crazy.

Fort Smith, Arkansas. Found a roadside stand out there with a feller selling plums. And I says, Buddy, I got a little girl sick back in Texas. She’s got a hanker for plums and ain’t nothing else gonna do.

It’s when you sink your teeth into the plum that you make a promise. The skin is still warm from riding in the sun in Daddy’s truck, and the nectar runs down your chin.

And you snap out of it. Or are snapped out of it. Never again will you lay a hand against yourself, not so long as there are plums to eat and somebody-anybody-who gives enough of a damn to haul them to you. So long as you bear the least nibblet of love for any other creature in this dark world, though in love portions are never stingy. There are no smidgens or pinches, only rolling abundance. That’s how you acquire the resolution for survival that the coming years are about to demand. You don’t earn it. It’s given.”

excerpt from Cherry by Mary Karr, context being after a suicide attempt at age 13