Still, Minecraft is a mystery for many, myself included.
In an effort to understand just what makes Minecraft such a massive hit, I asked the biggest fans I know — my nephews, 9-year-old Diego and 5-year-old Tony, whose mom limits their playing to only a couple of hours a day — to show me the ropes.
The very first thing I did was download an extremely unauthorized Spider-Man "skin" from the internet for my character. The kids, used to such wonders, were completely unimpressed. So much for being the cool uncle.
Matt Weinberger
We decided to try "Creative" mode first, where there are no limits on what you can build and no real dangers. It drops you into a lush green wilderness, and your only goal is to do whatever you want with it. It's a little bit like the movie "Cast Away," only you have the power to do whatever you want in the world.
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I set to exploring my new island paradise and quickly encountered this guy. It's an "Enderman," Diego helpfully explains. He looks a little creepy, but he leaves me alone, so I leave him alone. Mostly, he just teleports around and carries blocks.
Matt Weinberger
Indeed, blocks make the world go 'round in the very cubical Minecraft: Different blocks, from dirt to stone to brick, represent different materials with their own unique looks and properties.
Matt Weinberger
I set to work building my very first house. A very rude cow wanders into the lot while I'm in the middle of building and starts bouncing on my bed. Diego informs me offhandedly that I can kill him if I want. I don't have it in me. Also, I don't know how to attack yet.
Matt Weinberger
Well, it's ugly, and I made the blocks out of thin air, but it's mine. I'm immediately taken in by how easy it is to actually build stuff. Just point where you want to place a block, and a block appears. With no experience whatsoever, I'm able to build a house lickety-split.
Matt Weinberger
Then Tony demonstrates for me how to fill a house with horrible Zombie Pigman monsters.
Matt Weinberger
Well, two can play that game. I decide to erect a zombie-combat arena on my new home's roof. Except that it turns out zombies burn in direct sunlight. Whoops. There's actually a lot of complexity buried in the game. Superfans love figuring out and exploiting how all of these systems work together.
Matt Weinberger
Diego tells me that one of his favorite parts of the game is exploration. In that spirit, I try to dig as deeply as I can through the island ...
Matt Weinberger
... and promptly fall through the end of the world, into an eternal abyss. While I ponder the philosophical implications of literally falling off the planet, a visibly frustrated Diego asks why I don't just fly back up to the mainland.
Matt Weinberger
He ends up grabbing the computer away from me to fly me back to reality, one of the things you can do in Creative mode. Which works, thankfully. This was an awful long way to fall.
Matt Weinberger
Meanwhile, 5-year-old Tony is experimenting with some next-level architectural concepts, including a house with a roof covered in beds.
Matt Weinberger
Diego tells me that apart from exploring, his favorite part of Minecraft is "building things and blowing things up." I decide to indulge in the impulse with some handy crates of TNT. Say goodnight, mountain. Before ...
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... and after.
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Nope, not enough. I want this whole mountain gone. Again, I'm shocked at how easy this is. I'm just completely changing a virtual world in deep, interesting ways after only a few minutes of playing. It's like playing with Legos, times a million.
Matt Weinberger
In the meantime, Tony is using livestock to demonstrate how TNT can be used as a building material. He tells me that he likes to build at least one block of TNT into the base of every house he builds, just in case there are intruders in the night. The only person he ever plays with is his brother.
That sheep perished in a related explosion not long after.Matt Weinberger
I decide that since I'm basically a supervillain now, I need a secret lair built into the remains of the mountain I destroyed. I think the lava flow makes it look desirably sinister.
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Except I put too much lava on it. Minecraft's physics wins again: The lava soon flows off of my house on all sides, blocking my door.
Matt Weinberger
In my infinite wisdom, I decide the only way to stop the lava is with water. So now I have two problems.
Matt Weinberger
An exasperated Diego grabs the computer from me again and shows me how to use a bucket to clear away lava and water. Except that once I stem the lava flow enough to get back into my house, a river bursts from my door.
Matt Weinberger
Finally, I get in, only to find that the lava made a hole in the ceiling, through which it and water can get in. I don't think I'm going to get my deposit back on this place.
Matt Weinberger
A lot more bucketing later, my house is back where I wanted it to be. I realize that this is a big part of Minecraft's success: It gives you the tools to do whatever you want, so funny stories and adventures just flow naturally. The kids are making up stories about their Minecraft characters and the ridiculous things they build, the same way that my brother and I used to with our action figures and wooden blocks.
Matt Weinberger
Most of the time I'm playing, Diego is watching Minecraft videos on YouTube. His favorite channel, "Minecraft School," is a series of videos that are ostensibly about how to build things in the game, but are more like a kid-friendly, bizarre sitcom. He says he once tried to build something from "Minecraft School" himself in his own game, but it took too long, "like over an hour."
YouTube
Emboldened by my success with building, almost destroying, and saving my mountain fortress, I ask Diego if I should try Survival mode, the other way to play Minecraft. "Sure, if you want to die," he scoffs.
Matt Weinberger
He's totally right.
Matt Weinberger
In Survival mode, unlike Creative mode, you actually have Health and Hunger meters, meaning you have to eat food to stay full, find shelter from the game's many roving monsters, and stay alive. Oh, and you can't just make materials out of thin air. You actually have to find the stuff you need on the island.
Matt Weinberger
When you first start Survival mode, you're naked; you're unarmed, and you're totally at the mercy of the monsters who walk around at night. Remember the Enderman from before? He's a lot less friendly now.
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After dying at his hands, and the hands of the zombies that kept finding me, I end up spending my first night in Survival mode in a pit I dug in the middle of the woods, staring at the stars, and hoping I make it to morning.
Matt Weinberger
The next day, I went out and punched some trees until they gave me wood. And then I turned that wood into planks. And then I built myself a little house. It's ugly, but I was safe.
Matt Weinberger
Minecraft's survival mode has two major components. Mining, where you find deposits of valuable minerals like coal ...
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... and crafting, where you turn the stuff you find into useful items, like swords, axes, armor, hoes (you can do some light farming). The more rare the material, the stronger the stuff you'll make. I hear that some of the stuff you can find or make is even magical. Oh, mining and crafting, I get it!
Combining two sticks and three pieces of wood makes a simple wooden axe. I'm not proud that I had to Google this, since the kids had to leave to do their homework.Matt Weinberger
As you make better equipment, you can delve deeper into the caves that dot the landscape, finding more desirable minerals and rare treasures.
Matt Weinberger
Slowly, but surely, I started making my little house into a little home. As I gathered materials, I was able to build stuff like a bed, a furnace, and a crafting table, which let me make more complicated items.
Matt Weinberger
I hear tell that in some versions of the game, there is a final boss, the fearsome Enderdragon. But even if he's in the Windows 10 version, I'm a long way off from facing him. Mostly I'm just enjoying making my virtual Minecraft life a little better and going a little deeper into the caves every time.
YouTube
Ultimately, I'm really impressed by Minecraft. I knew that really creative people love it, but I vastly underestimated just how much it captures your imagination. In both Creative and Survival modes, it gives you the room to be the hero of your own story, and that story is whatever you make it.
Matt Weinberger
It's no wonder that Microsoft is showing off Minecraft with its futuristic HoloLens holographic computer. If HoloLens is half as intuitive to use and fun to build with as Minecraft itself, then sign me up.
Microsoft
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Matt is a former Deputy Editor, Tech based in San Francisco. Matt came to Business Insider in 2015 from IDG Enterprise, where he reported on application development and new enterprise technologies for CITEworld, Computerworld, and Networkworld.
