Minecraft: You make the story

Harlem Grey writing for Gamer Headlines on Minecraft:

The indie sand box game that would rock the world and give indie developers recognition. The other games on my list did great things for their genre, Minecraft revolutionized what it means to be indie. Low budget, little support, one man developing it. The Alpha was released on PC in 2009 and would later on rise in popularity, many updates saw the growth from the alpha into the game we have today. Minecraft fully represents the quote at the top of the page, it’s not the most beautifully detailed game, it has no story but the success of this game is all from you. You make the story, the world and the character in the simplest way.

Last week in my office, a mother brought her son to work and stationed him in an unused cubicle. He was equipped with nothing but a MacBook Air and headphones. Hours later, my colleague whispered for my attention and told me to look into the boy’s cubicle. Like the rare sight of a beaver build a dam, my colleague and I quietly watched in amazement.

This kid was flying through the world of Minecraft at breakneck speed, building up and tearing down the environment, crafting explosives to drill into its natural water-supply. He was architecting the world in his imagination in real-time. Unlike our need to buy specific LEGO sets for certain pieces we required, his limits were overcome with a quick toggle to YouTube a video teaching new techniques.

This jumping back-and-forth between learning and application, curiosity and realization, and the drive to engineer a universe was incredible to watch. Minecraft has the power to unlock imagination in ways we only dreamed of as children.