

Minecraft videos – why are they so addictive? - shenanigoat
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32736808

======
triggercut
The article is a bit of beat up and seems to omit a lot of features or aspects
of the game and it's community that make it so rich.

>"The underlying creativity is baked into the program - the combinations,
tools and materials - so the players have only one task to complete: design
ever more complex structures. Though this seems like the pinnacle of an
imaginative play experience, the kids we studied said they felt edgy and
irritable after Minecraft sessions."

>The game, said the researchers, becomes "less about open-ended play and more
about working to complete the never-ending stacks of buildings."

A bit surprised they seem to have ignored red stone, command blocks and
modding. These seemingly complex concepts are not out of the reach of
children. I don't have direct sources on hand but I've read many a programmer
and parent (even on here) use it as a gateway to introducing computer science
topics at a young age.

>but spending hours mindlessly watching others playing it represents a whole
new level of obsession.

There are a lot of quality content creators with long running series' that
have a narrative focus to some degree. I would rather my kids watch the likes
of Etho, BdoubleO and Zisteau for instance over Yu-Gi-Oh, or some Transformers
clone. Mostly so I can watch too.

------
TillE
> the game that allows children to build worlds made out of blocks

It's so weird to me that Minecraft has become a "children's game". _Nobody_
thought of it that way in the beginning, when the alpha started getting really
popular on Reddit and elsewhere. That perception must've started some time
after the 1.0 release, in 2012.

Nothing about the game changed to make it more kid-friendly. That's just the
culture that developed around it.

~~~
bitJericho
My experience is that us grownups got over it, but the kids can't let it go.

~~~
waterlesscloud
Call me crazy, but a game where kids build stuff, communally or individually,
is about a bazillion times cooler than games where kids just zap each other
with twitch reflexes.

~~~
DanBC
I don't even mind the twitch reflex games. I just get frustrated that it's so
hard to filter out the fourteen year olds screaming abuse at me.

~~~
eropple
Playing on PC mitigates a lot of that, IME. Also, co-op. Left 4 Dead is still
fantastic.

------
petercooper
I first _discovered_ Minecraft through a YouTube video. I started playing it a
few months after it was first released and it was essential to watch videos
and hit the wiki to figure out how to even play it. I stopped playing
regularly when they "broke" cart boosters but occasionally watch videos to
"keep up" on the game.

Amongst the people I know who watch a lot of Minecraft videos, there seem to
be a few key elements: staying "seeped" in an environment they love, picking
up new approaches and ideas for their own play, and also getting a vicarious
gameplay experience they can't get in real life (because they don't have
enough MC playing friends or they're not "into" the game enough).

------
aw3c2
> Minecraft, the online world that most parents simply don't understand, is
> now officially the most watched game of all time on YouTube.

It makes sense for the third-highest selling game of all time where Tetris is
#1 and Wii Sports is #2. Those were both bundle with hardware.

------
MarcScott
My little boy loves Stampy Longhead videos, detailing his adventures with
Minecraft. What I love is that Stampy has recently started a series called
Wonder Quest, which is an educational series, that my boy watches with equal
passion. It's lovely to hear him come put to me and talk about Galileo and
telescopes all learned from Wonder Quest.

[http://youtu.be/UC1Uupn45p8](http://youtu.be/UC1Uupn45p8)

------
bradleyland
> The game, said the researchers, becomes "less about open-ended play and more
> about working to complete the never-ending stacks of buildings."

Spoken like someone who hasn't spent much time with kids playing Minecraft.
I've run a MC server for my niece since January of 2014. There are around 15
of her friends who play regularly on the server. "Never-ending stacks of
buildings," would bore them to tears.

In addition to stacking blocks, Minecraft has:

Redstone: A set of blocks and items that can be used to create (electrical-
like) circuits.

Server Commands: A complex set of commands that can be used to manipulate the
environment, spawn creatures, and move the player around.

Command Blocks: Special blocks that can have commands stored in them, and are
triggered by Redstone.

The Minecraft server I run also supports something called mods, which extend
the standard functionality of the game, and in the case of my server, allow
the kids to create multiple worlds within which they can transport themselves
and create different types of play environments.

There are two world types that go far beyond stacks of blocks. The simpler of
the two are arenas. They've built an arena with a community-established set of
gameplay rules. You can compete alone or as a team. The arena master controls
the spawning of enemies and the difficulty of the game. It is fascinating to
watch a new arena master learn how to balance difficulty. Make the arena too
hard and no one wants you to be arena master (a job that is appointed in
impromptu elections). Make it too easy, and everyone gets bored and moves on
to other areas of the game. There are complex social dynamics at play. As the
sole adult on the server, I've spent plenty of time counseling 7 to 12 year
olds on the subtleties of _not_ abusing your friends when the opportunity
presents itself. They learn quickly.

The most advanced world type, and the one that really blows my mind, are the
"adventure" worlds. They combine structures they build with command blocks to
create interactive adventures. You press a button and you're transported to
the inside of a cottage. From there, a stream of messages orient you, and
you're tasked with some objective: solve a puzzle to escape the house, locate
an item hidden near by, find tools to fight off an incoming wave of zombies,
survive long enough to reach a far away destination. The possibilities are
endless, and the kids exhaust them all.

Minecraft is so open-ended that the types of play are no more bounded by the
game than outdoors play is bounded by the laws of physics.

------
charlieegan3
> Right now, they probably watch more YouTube than regular TV.

That must be tough.

------
jessriedel
Minecraft looks like a very engaging game. However, I've never sat down and
tried playing it, and I'm having a difficult time understanding why people
would routinely rather watch videos of it than play it themselves (which the
article suggests happens). Is this really true for a subset of players? Can
someone help me understand, maybe with an analogy? I certainly can't imagine
wanting to watch professionals build legos to the near exclusion of playing
with them myself, or to watch people perform Halo jump tricks and not play
Halo myself.

~~~
dyarosla
There's an element that many people who are frequent gamers don't usually see
and it's that watching a video of a game being played covers the gist of the
game in a less involved manner. Basically, you aren't setting yourself up to
be enthralled by the game and dedicated to it for hours, but instead
appreciate what the game covers, it's visual aesthetic, it's gameplay, all
without devoting a large chunk portion of time to it. There's also the benefit
of skipping around a video during boring/slow (and setup) parts of a game that
you simply can't do when you're playing it.

------
dccoolgai
I used to watch the ones by Keralis a lot on youtube. I think it had more to
do with his energy and personality than Minecraft itself, but I watched tons
of them.

------
Vaanir
> It bears out earlier research from YouTube video research firms Newzoo and
> Octoloy, which found that Minecraft material notched up more than 3.9
> billion views on YouTube in March 2015 alone.

Notched!

