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When I started playing Minecraft back in 2011, I was 25 years old and working a fulltime job. One of the things I loved most about the game was the fact that it had no particular goal, no pressure, no need for me to be "productive". I was already being productive at work 40 hours every week, surrounded by people all working towards the same boring corporate goal. A completely open-ended game like Minecraft, in which enjoyment and creativity was my only goal, was exactly what someone like me needed back then. Funnily enough, it was actually a collegue at work that first showed me some videos of Minecraft during our break, before I decided to buy it. I'm still playing Minecraft to this day and have played every update since Beta 1.3_01. Yet I've never defeated the Ender Dragon or been to the End at all. I don't want Minecraft to end or have a preset goal that I should work towards. I also vividly remember not liking villages being added because it ruined the idea of me being stranded in an unfamiliar, dangerous and most of all lonely world. To this day I still play Minecraft as the ultimate sandbox game, same as when I started 14 years ago. Survive, mine and build, that's all I need.

I'll never quit Minecraft. Playing version 1.8.9 since 2015.

Honestly, Minecraft just sits in this REALLY awkward design space for me. As a 'story progression'-type game it's sorely lacking. There's no story, no world-building, the art direction and sound design is kinda mid, and the world is overall hollow. Plus very grindy. Overall there's much better experiences for this like Metroid Prime, Half-Life 2, et cetera, et cetera. As a 'creative sandbox' game, on the other hand it's grindy, and it limits you a lot compared to actual creative endeavors. It gives you that feeling of 'Why am I doing this when I can be learning how to play an instrument, how to draw, how to do 3D modelling, etc?' As a 'just for the gameplay' game... well, it's not at all hard, just time-consuming. The obvious objection is 'you have to make your own story/fun', but with a piece of paper, or a PC, I can already do that, and have a lot more freedom doing it, and it'll teach me transferable skills. So in the end I guess it's just a decent space to meet with your friends?

Me Grimlock no forget Ferro taxi. Its like the g1 cartoon characters facing the traumatic remnants of the war explored in the comics. I really enjoyed the short story, and always seemed to naturally stumble upon hidden content replaying it. The upgrade system is not explained at all, and its easy to mess up progress on building Optimal weapons. But Its a compelling enough to keep grinding and keep getting stronger. In a funny way allowing you to role play a weapons engineer like Wheeljack coming up with clever and overpowered weapons. Its one of my favorite platinum games, Though I wish it gave us more detailed feedback on the rating screen like some of their other games do such as Vanquish. I can just smash the vehicle attack to get an S rank most of the time. The ending does also tease a Nova Prime fight. Which would have been a great reward as a secret boss. But they were clearly crunched as it was with their budget. But that would have a great true ending to see. Megatron Fails and Nova Prime awakens from Stasis to finish the cyberforming.

Minecraft is a mess right now... I completly agree with the "first nigth" loop, and the bed problems. We could probably "fix" most issues with mods, but it's still hard to do it.

15:27 lmfao! Hit 'em where it hurts! hahah

Omg The Clash is actually played at that part of the intro??? I thought you just added that cus its cool?? Omg i love it i have to play it now. Wasn't a fan of the 5th game that much

All I’m gonna say is that putting it in hard mode brings back a lot of the tension. You really have to get diamonds and keep diamonds and even even then one slip up and your dead

You've managed to really sum up the fatigue I've been feeling about Minecraft for a few updates/year now, which has really hit it's peak with everything that has been announced for 1.21 - the game is already to big for me to stick to, I don't need more things that make it even more overwhelming. Not to mention, things that feel like they don't *have* a point, no progression connection - it's as if the empty world that you as the player were supposed to fill, now needs to be filled from the get-go when you create a new world. It's... something.

I play minecraft once a year, at most and it's always on an older, better version. Usually 1.2.5 with mods. They've added so much stuff that isn't minecraft, to me.

Maybe its time for you to move on and let it go instead arguing why the game doesn't feel the same way like back in the days. (Spoiler: It can not) Especially, if MC (unlike many other games) gives you the possibility to play it exactly the way you like it. If you prefer to play on an alpha or beta build - go ahead. But jet here we are...im not trying to offend you, but this is a "you-problem".

I think another solution to the problem you point out is that Mojang should rather add biomes than even more dungeons. I think biomes encourage creativity because you get more building blocks and a new setting for your structures. Adding new dimensions is another way of doing this.

It’s was always the mines we crafted along the way

The beta also had nightmares where a mob would spawn near your bed if it’s too dark around u

Yep Add to that microshit's involvement No thanks. It's garbage. not to mention that pirates were right once again. You should have listened to /v/. Never buy games, because they will try to take it away from you.

is this an ad?.... yeah its an ad...

unity next gen update pretttty plz

minecraft needs no introduction...

Dont dare you call end the end goal.. End fight is a day - 1 task to just start playing properly...

each and everytime I play minecraft after several month of having touched it i go into caves, for hours, its the most fun part of the game, its enthralling, its a puzzle generator, and while being weak its really fun to always be on your toes, to get lost, and then... i got to the nether, get 1000 quartz, build my house, and log off

34:48 VINTAGE STORY!

"There's only so many ways to make a build look pretty" that's just wrong - this is one of those situations where the answer is unfortunately just get good. I can name four dozen extremely talented minecraft builders off the top of my head, all of them have identifiably different styles and all of their builds are pretty. I agree there's a charm to the builds from the alpha era, but that's the only time when it was true to say that there are only a few ways to make a build pretty. Your one misunderstanding in this video is your conception of the average minecraft player - cottages aren't the thing we're all exicted by.

Guys try Vintage Story

If you don't watch Minecraft content on CZcams, you can play the game for years while still discovering new things every now and then, making them feel special each time.

“Hard dungeons […] sometimes have little to offer apart from the colour of blocks they’re made of” is so on point As someone who wouldn’t consider playing vanilla mc even after the Warden was added, I felt that

This is why I've gone back to 1.12. Simpler times and when Iron farms were genius and made sense!

This video really hit the nail on the head. Very inspiring.

i never want to hear a brit say "gyatt" ever again

I think the 'caves are better dungeons than dungeons' ideology is why I like the Alex's Caves mod so much. It's sort of a shame that they can spawn SO far away, because it essentially requires you to either make a nether highway (lame) or download an entirely seperate mod like Waystones (slightly less lame) in order to get to them.

When MJ and Peter talk, it's as painful as listening to two teenage virgins in their first relationship. When they kissed at one point in the game, it felt uncomfortable.

I gotta love the nerds that add "filler" in sponsorblock to jokes that change the pace of a video and "refreses" the viewer and make video more enjoyable... Why?

This video was phenomenal. Thank you. The bit where you talked about caves being dungeons themselves, while showing footage of both modern and older versions of the game, was mind-blowing. I definitely believe that Minecraft just became too big. It had to become relatable, realistic, and… well. Vanilla. And so I think part of this resurgence of sentiment for the earlier versions of Minecraft is most definitely coming from anti-corporate feelings. Microsoft IS worth criticizing. They are responsible for making Minecraft a brand, not a game. And i don't know about you, but that feels wrong. Because they nailed the simple sandbox. It was essentially creative mode if you were good enough, and I really love that. It rewarded the player in the creative sense, not through unique items or powerful abilities. But they just had to keep going. Mojang had to keep growing their brand, selling out to microsoft, and adding more features to keep player engagement. Now, it can be argued that minecraft's base game resembles more of a roguelike/rpg experience. The artistic vision for the game (and especially its music, i still miss C418) transitioned and it no longer was about the player anymore; it was about the world that the player was exploring. Just like youtube had to keep growing and keep monetizing their website, Mojang outgrew their simple indie grassroots. In the present day, the Minecraft instagram is full of corporate veneer and out-of-touch infographics and mojang allows shitty situations like the mob vote to persist because it, no doubt, generates unprecedented hype for Minecraft, all for it to add a useless, one-off mob to further bloat their game. But at the end of the day, Minecraft was always about the player experience. No one, not even Mojang or Microsoft, can take that away from us. So don’t let someone tell you what you can to cannot do. Go build that castle. Survive the night without sleeping, and see how long you can last in hardcore mode. Go create a custom world with no structures. Go play those older versions. It’s free, and they’re right there in the launcher. Minecraft is ultimately what YOU make of it, and that’s the most beautiful thing about it.

This is a very good critique. My way around a lot of this is by tweaking how I play the game to revive some of that sense of danger and exploration. For anyone who’d like to try it, it’s the following: -Set world spawn to 0,0 with a 10k block radius respawn location -Set keepinventory to true -Don’t sleep or breed/reassign villagers (what they spawn with naturally is what you get) -Lock the world to hard -No mending book -No using F3 coordinates Essentially this leaves you with a world where death results in a fresh start in a new part of the world, with only your clothes on your back and a handful of junk you happened to have on you. It being locked on hard keeps away the temptation to cheese danger by swapping difficulties to save a beloved base from being lost to the ruin of time. Lack of easy access to powerful villagers brings back meaning to your stronger enchants and has you excited for the good trades you do get, as well as incentivizing your protection of the locals, rather than their exploitation. No sleep means the night is a constant threat, made more dangerous over time as you power up through the introduction of phantoms requesting your construction of roofed pathways and pavilions. And without mending, you must pay an increasing cost to use your favorite tools, but do you allow them to break, or perhaps hang them up for display when they become too worn for repair? Exploration is once again dangerous without coordinates to guide your way. Bridges, simple landmarks, or perhaps a compass and lodestone shall be your guide back? A mid-game solution to the death problem, compasses allow you to trek thousands of blocks back home, establishing a more permanent residence if you care to. But the path is untamed, dangerous. You may end up dying again along the way. Or, perhaps, you’ve been there before. A stray trail of torches, an old cobblestone bridge across a ravine. Maybe even an old base you’d forgotten, left countless hours ago when you were still struggling. It’s quite something to come across Minecraft’s ruined structures for the first time, but something far different, more meaningful, to find an old base of yours, lost through time and come across by chance. The important thing is to keep going. Build bridges, dig roads, explore and make the world more habitable, more friendly to yourself for when you die, if you happen back to where you currently are. Before you know it, you’ve a network of bases, castles, and a perhaps even a miniature civilization on a world expansive and familiar, yet still full of new, untamed wilderness to conquer. I quite enjoy it, perhaps some of you might, too.

this made me realize that even transportation in old minecraft was based around building. the best way to move around was railways, which needed to be built. and while youre building it, you might as well give it a nice view, and make the tunnels look nice. now minecarts arent even very useful anymore, compared to using a horse which can be gotten way easier and hardly needs any special roads due to its efficient movement and jumping ability

15:26 that bed comment caught me so off guard, I have never said a woah-ier woah in my life

is it weird that personally i found the 1.7 update of the game to be the best? it had a lot of very good features in there but it felt unbloated to me compared to the future editions.

Idk, Minecraft has always been more of a sandbox than a game in my eyes and it continues to be so. Nothing has changed about that.

Is anyone going to talk how Watch Dogs 2 music style fit the games theme and feel so well? Honestly one of the best OST’s in any game imo.

This Video seems to dissect each of the modern game's flaws in a way I have never thought about in the 13 years of playing. I wish Mojamg would see this video and take in the points brought up here

Its like the people in this comment section hear "served in the military" and think "fat virgin" please stop going to the comment section to insult someone you don't even know before watching the whole video

There's no police? That's just silly.

I'm probably the only occasional Minecraft Enjoyer who has never actually beaten the ender dragon (The only times I have I was in creative mode and I wanted the egg for decor)

A lot of devs fall into a trap of only add, never trim. Especially those indie-feeling ones with a surprising number of contributors. Nobody wants to be the guy to remove James' work, etc.

Near the end of the video you bring up how you have nothing to build for. Nothing to motivate yourself. I understand this 100%, and up until recently I would have agreed to this completely. But in the last 2 years I made a Minecraft bedrock world that I’ve spent a serious amount of time on. What happened was when I was exploring I found a huge mountain that I just kept on expanding to the point it had everything. I’ve never had more fun in Minecraft. Even as a someone who despises bedrock, the challenge I had created for myself to build this base was hard. The achievements felt so much more drawn and satisfying. Building a 200 block water elevator took so much time and effort and when i finished it I felt accomplished. I think the lack of serious obstacles is what really places Minecraft down.

Now do a serious critique of Vintage Story.

I was on the verge of about to end my two week Minecraft period and watching this video inspired me to say fuck it open to up and do some more shit, fuck that its ugly I just need to make this the game I love again

vintage story both fixes and fails at a lot of these critiques. better direction and better crafting better incentives to play with the mechanics, but its not perfect and the pitfalls of constant development and change can still be a problem, mechanics will get introduced with little followup. But i do think theyve suceeded in many ways that minecraft never did when it pivioted to a survival loop

What is the track playing at 17:15? Im dying to know

Kinda annoying you focused on 1.7 modded when 1.12.2 is literally the most played old version, then and now... 1.12.2 forever.

The rushing to get a bed isn't a problem. Experienced players just aren't going to get the same feeling as the first time. It's still just repetitive going through motions it just takes longer. Let experienced players have ways to skip things they already did 100 times. Having to build a starter house or dig a hole and wait every game would be like the annoying time in factorio where you're stuk mining stuff with the pickaxe