What's the goal of Minecraft?
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- čas přidán 16. 05. 2024
- Minecraft has evolved immensely over the years, and attempts to appeal to a lot of different play styles. This can make it hard to figure out what it's aiming for, and critique it going forward. I attempt to give an answer to both!
Discord: / discord
Twitter: / camcamburger
Thank you to my CZcams members: Elithris, Jarl, MooKeow, Sarlor7, soko Awen, The Dead Comedian and zOtqku!
0:00 Introduction
1:41 Progression
6:05 Functional building
12:33 Improving current systems
19:36 Hunger system
22:57 Conclusion
Minecraft News: / block_updates_
Complexity Theory: docs.google.com/document/d/1E...
Indexed: docs.google.com/document/d/1e...
Untitled Food Mod:
docs.google.com/document/d/1w...
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The mobs not spawning on artificial blocks is actually a thing I believed was a real game mechanic as a kid. It just made sense.
They can't on half blocks and see-through blocks such as slabs trapdoors glass and scaffolding
yeah me too
It's pretty much what Terraria does.
That does apply to some passive mobs tbf
@@Michael.Nietzsche.Macucowsthey can on top slabs
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a CZcamsr so passionate and knowledgeable about Minecraft’s game design philosophy before. Great video.
Thank you so much! Glad it's showing
cough antvenom
Seems like they know more than Mojang themselves sometimes…
@@SDT493 no not really, AntVenom talks about weird mechanics and all but not the actual game design and philosophies
@@tylerwebb2495 Taking a peek on the devs' on twitter would destroy this notion entirely
I think a lot of this is why I appreciate the existence of Terraria, as it caters to people who want an extrinsically motivated sandbox experience.
ill never understand that "i dont know what to do" in minecraft mindset. you build shit. when you get bored, build something bigger or more complex. use your imagination. if you dont have one, then dont play a creative game?
@@Rooftopaccessorizer The problem isn't really that people don't want to build when they're bored, but rather coming up with ideas can be hard for some people. People can be creative all they want, but the struggle of coming up with new ideas so often can lead to burnout.
this was the entire point of the video you just watched. minecraft puts extrinsically motivated systems on the player after the first 5 minutes or so for the next several hours, which is generally the most enjoyable part of playing this game for most people (getting books, building shitty houses, exploring, finding diamonds/structures for later, etc). after some more exploration, you kill the joke of a final boss the ender dragon and the game leaves you with nothing. no more interesting systems, nothing more to grind for, and you've already reached "OP" status for most things.
sure you can build shit, but the game never incentivizes it before this moment and entirely relies on it for gameplay afterwards.@@Rooftopaccessorizer
@@zakariyaz8233yea because its a building game? its a game where 99% of what you do is going to involve breaking or placing blocks. it inherently incentivizes creativity and sandbox play. almost all of the progression mechanics are designed to improve your ability to gather or place blocks more efficiently. I have a theory that there are two kinds of survival minecrafters. one is the kind of player who knows that the real game starts when you get to an end city, and the other whines that the dragon. was too easy and theyre bored after the credits roll.the difference is that one player is capable of imagination and self direction. the other just sees minecraft as a game to be beaten. i dont think mojang should cater to the latter
@@TheVioWithin I feel like ppl gotta just comprehend that maybe minecraft just is not for them, instead of complaining the game’s design is bad because the progression is weak.
i really like your attitude towards changing things in a manner that only provides bonuses and doesn't invade the gameplay for the user who wants to ignore the additions. it's really difficult but very important with the way minecraft is designed to just entice a user into interacting with your system for their benefit without making it necessary or something they do begrudgingly. i hope minecraft continues to be updated with content that isn't superficial in nature and entices players to interact with what makes it truly fun
Thanks! I find it to be a fun challenge to try and balance content against a bunch of different play styles.
It's just I don't feel like the hunger system should be entirely replaced with a healing system I was thinking of a potion like food system to add aspects of certain foods to a base food
I also was thinking of a chest plate enchant that somehow isn't q backpack but instead reduces exhaustion and gives a saturation bonus
Looking into Minecraft's core design makes me realize how much I appreciate Terraria's core design. Terraria is mostly extrinsic, but I've found a lot of fun in the intrinsic stuff I've gotten up to that's completely unnecessary progression-wise. The thing that bugs me most about Minecraft is how punishing taking risks can be. If you take risks, you're likely to lose all of your items and exp, whereas dying in Terraria (if you play standard) only results in some lost coins and maybe the boss despawning if you're fighting one.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of how punishing minecraft's death system is either.
Keep inventory is almost always on when I play because it just isn't fun to backtrack to find your stuff or lose stuff in lava
100% agree with everything.
Always have keepinventory on, the idea of losing all my best gear I worked for the entire playthrough to gain, potentially not being able to recover anything, is immensely punishing and instantly makes me want to quit.
Terraria is one of my most played games ever, the fact there's such an immense sense of replayability along with a constant stream of goals and never really being punished for anything makes it super enjoyable for me.
Meanwhile I've been struggling to enjoy playing Minecraft for maybe 7 years now.
I only ever did the "just build random stuff and mess around in creative" when I was around 11.
Only way I find myself enjoying the game anymore is playing a modded quest progression based modpacks in a restricted world.
@@baguetto563 what I flippin hate about keep inventory is that it ALSO applies to XP. why is there not a separate toggle for xp??? I don't want death to be a completely consequenceless fake punishment, but my only options are "lose everything on death" or "lose nothing on death". maddening oversight
I think my ideal would be to lose armor and XP on death, but keep items. though this could pretty easily be sidestepped if you have a moment to anticipate your death and strip naked.
@yikes6758 I don't really do much enchanting when I play so xp really isn't a big deal for me. I do agree some kind of drawback needs added so it isn't just a teleport to spawn but I dont know what without it being a shit mechanic like 3 random items are dropped or you get a debuff when respawning
By far the best video I've ever watched about this game, it's impressive you managed to cover basically every problem I have with it; a very welcome critique of Minecraft.
Thank you very much! It took ages to put together
I wish critiques of Minecraft were more like this, instead of the usual “Mojang lazy/updates with little content bad/updates that take longer bad/notch good”
I think you touched exactly what I've been feeling.
I want to enjoy the game, but once I have built a house, I'm unable to feel motivation beyond a small burst every month.
Same. I've just accepted that I prefer to express myself creatively through other means, like writing fiction.
I never thought the most boring dimension could be this poetic
I still don't understand why seasons are viewed as not suitable for Minecraft game design. It's a perfect motivation for the player to always build something. To keep animals from the cold, to adjust villages and other important structures for different weather. To change location over time. To build a crop field and farm food as fast as possible
It kinda goes against the player intervention needed philosophy where as long as I don't touch something I expect it to always behave the same
@@Hack--rz1io seasonal cycle always behave the same
@@Hack--rz1io Seasons are the cycle of spring, summer, autumn, winter therefore it always behaves the same way once implemented. At the start it will massive change the game like everything added already by Mojang but overtime players will get used to it. Besides players have redston on their side and the clock would get actual use.
Because Mojang doesn't want to add anything that changes the world without player intervention. Creepers only blow up next to you, lightning only strikes nearby you, endermen only pick up a few blocks, etc. In addition, lots of season mods struggle with chunk loading and winter snow. Typically, it snows in winter, but only in chunks the player is in. And once they leave those chunks, even if it changes to spring the snow stays, causing snow all over your world in the wrong seasons.
@@petey5009 I kinda see the solution to that. When it's summer and player loads a winter chunk, all snow from winter chunk gets removed and then render it to player.
Personally I’d like to have nonlinear progression in Minecraft. Items that aren’t valued as greater or lesser than others like how diamond is better than iron and so on. Finding a way to mix and match gear to create a specific play style would be great
Yes, thats one thing terraria does incredibly well in my opinion
I've been working on a design doc for the next time I host a server actually. Making better armor add a speed penalty, among other things
Yeah I agree. I think that would also somewhat solve the problem that was discussed about the mid game feeling like it promises you progression that doesn't exist. If there was a greater focus on different items that aren't strictly better or worse it wouldn't feel like you were "climbing up the tech tree" that much and thus not create the same faulty expectation of challenge to keep rising as well. It would just insetivise you to explore the different options (you could make finding each one a journey in itself but I'd also like to see some just be simple stuff you can do fairly easily) and find what you want to use or have to bring different items to different situations instead of just grinding for hours for super op gear that you never face a challenge that justifies it. The trident is a good example of an item that provides something that isn't a direct upgrade, but it locked to a mob spawning with it and dropping it. I feel like a lot of potentially really cool things are locked behind very rare events that makes farming/grinding the only option to get them even though I feel like if a lot of these were simply reasonably optainable through simpler means they could really help make everything feel less linear like it intents to be, right now it's more so like there is a consistent yet very linear option that paints a wrong picture for how non-linear the game as a whole is, and a bunch of neat alternatives that are too hard to obtain for what they offer, leading to them being forgotten unless stumbled into at random early on or being obtained as just a novelty in the end game through farms or grind when they aren't useful anymore as you have likely reached the op portion of the linear yet consistent system by then.
Tldr: Push alternative options for gear more, make obtaining them simpler so that they can be found/made consistently during a time that matters, and make it to where it's not just all overshadowed by getting basic armor with every enchant on it
I think Mojang agrees
This is detailed as hell. I’d like to see some branches in progression, like the gear sets in Terraria. Imagine the possibilities…
Yeah thats what enchantments should do instead of just having a best option
@@kingducky7123 enchants that provide straight boosts and maybe to an extent mending need to be removed and replaced with enchants that encourage the player to actually try out other enchants and encourage variety
this and an anvil fix would be perfect for the game since it wants players to focus on exploration rather than grinding villager trades
@@exhausted204 might be a bit controversial but i'd say to scrap enchanting entirely, and then have different materials grant different bonuses, similar to what BTA does
for example, in the case of tools - the progression goes wood -> stone and then opens up, with each new toolset being on the same level but with a different intrinsic ability
iron could have more knockback, gold could have silk touch, diamond could have sweeping edge, etc
you could even add new materials that fit the other enchantments too - instead of fire aspect, perhaps nether fortress chests have a chance of including non-craftable fire-themed tools - swords that have fire aspect, pickaxes that auto-smelt, etc
or new ores - silver ore could match its anti-undead properties in actual mythology, and therefore allow you to craft swords that have smite, blocks that could prevent mobs from spawning, pickaxes/axes/shovels that mine 'cursed' blocks like soul sand/spawners faster, etc
@@fizzyeggmaterials should still for the most part be directed upgrades (especially netherite as you need to sacrifice plenty of diamonds to get it now) and the materials used in enchanting should still be used (and possibly some new additions) as most enchanting stuff is completely built around being used to enchant however removing most if not all current enchantments and replacing them with stuff that has boosts and drawbacks would be a nice change
A few ideas for this could be as follows.
Fire aspect still allows you to burn enemies but you have decreased durability
Punch increases the knockback of your arrows but nerfs your overall dmg
Curse of binding makes it so you have to die to lose your armor but it massively reduces dmg to the point full COB iron has a similar amount of dmg reduction as full uninchanted netherite
And plenty of new enchantments could be added as well
@@fizzyegg i feel like you'd really like tinker's construct if you havent tried it already
I had an old idea about fixing the anvil repairing problem by requiring players to have water, lava, power snow and boiling water cauldron (you get by putting a fire/heating block underneath a water cauldron) near an anvil.
Basically to repair items you'll need a one or combination of the above cauldrons depending on the tool tier, how damaged it is and is it enchanted or not.
Encouraging you to use anvils to repair your gear without using mending, using cauldrons which are in itself a pretty unused feature and also acts as a sink for your extra resources.
Integrating temperature into it like that sounds really interesting
This is a fairly neat idea to make another use for cauldrons. It could also get rid of the need to use Netherite Ingots to repair tools, weapons, and armor made from that material (which will likely be another hurdle to making repairing useful compared to mending). I imagine you could probably get away with only using water, lava, and powered snow, but it would be nice to have an actually bubbling cauldron in the game and if it was added perhaps it could be used for potion stuff as well...
It would be just easier if they remowed the exponentially increasing repair costs all together, along with mending. Its contradictory to have a system in the game that forces the players to make new tools over and over again, while also having one that lets the player enhance said item significantly, albeit at a high investment.
So I should just lose the expensive items I worked a lot for? That makes little sense, you either have one or the other
@@tamas9554 I feel like they could get away with fixing repairing while not removing Mending. I think, along with exponentially increasing repair costs going, they could probably just remove material costs from repairing at an anvil and make the XP cost equivalent to what it costs to repair a tool with mending (based on how much durability was used). This could make mending more of a QoL enchantment that gives you the benefits over the anvil of repair on the go, not having to go to or carry and plop down an anvil, and the anvil wearing out over time with use.
@@YourNeighborNat But that wouldn't really work thematically. How do I repair something broken with no extra materials? (I get that in reality new materials aren't necessary to reforge a tool, but this is a game)
For an anvil it just comes naturally to also need materials, and that would also give players the reason to mine for more diamonds (would even make upgrading to netherite a real choice you should think about), something they tried to achieve with the armor trims, but those are just decorations.
Mending was also implemented purely to fix this problem, but if the problem isn't present anymore, I think its just unnecessarily op.
The only excuse I could see it remain in the game is if they make it extremely rare through some method. Like some really legendary enchantment
I really like the idea of extrinsic rewards that require staying in the nether for long periods of time. Since the nether is always hostile, with the monsters generally being deadlier than the ones in the overworld, better incentives to live there will encourage players to fortify, and build bases for the purpose of survival.
Yeah, the nether is already a dangerous place so we could get away with more events there
On the Potion notes: Consider checking out "The Betweenlands" mod, they have an INCREDIBLE potion/status effects system, and the mod itself feels like if Minecraft grew up.
Edit: The Food/Health idea from the developer of Famer's Delight is similar to how Sea of Thieves' health system works, fruits which can be found everywhere only give you a flat health increase, whereas cooked fish and meats give both health AND a "regeneration buffer" that kicks into gear if you are not at full health and if you haven't taken damage in a bit.
Yeah I've always found it kinda disappointing that speed-runs barely have to build anything. It's shows that in Minecraft's block-based building system is basically unnecessary. I definitely think there should be more extrinsic motivation for building structures.
I do wish there was more survival motivation. Personally bases that can get attacked and partially destroyed sounds kinda fun
It would be cool, just very difficult to figure out exactly how
But also, if there is too much extrinsic motivation for players to build structures, and it is mishandled, you will end up with a system where players stop building anything which doesn't provide that extrinsic motivation
I feel like the mob vote also shows just how much some members of the community do not understand the game whatsoever
However, I know this is kind of crazy, but if ships and airships were added through say, turnable and floatable blocks, we might be able to get ships in minecraft, which I think are a good way to give extrinsic motivation to build at least something, but intrinsic motivation to build something cool
Maybe you just need the ship to have vaguely enough blocks to enter a new size category, but also this system would have to be simple and easy to understand
I have always loved mods which basically add movable structures, as well as the slime and honey blocks which let you do this in a limited way in vanilla, if there was a way to turn structures, or a slimeblock creation which could travel up blocks at the cost of not being a flying machine, like um, a push up block, if it pushes down, and it pushes into a block, it pushes everything above it up, as though it were an up facing piston, but where it is a block above it, it is also like a sticky piston on all faces except the bottom one, hm, like, gravity doesn't really work in minecraft, I just want a practical solution to a mobile home by making it able to turn I suppose, like an anchor block or multiblock axle structure?
And yes, omni-directional flying machines do exist, I just want to sail a ship or hot air balloon in the mid game, such that you don't need to rush to elytra, but also, you can still use it post elytra in the endgame
Like, imagine if there was a balloon block, which can lift other blocks connected by slime or honey but instead of a push limit, you can attach a bunch all at once, and like, I mean sort of like a multiblock megapiston? There are issues implementing this idea but yeah I want skyships, sue me
@@bolicob Just make the player lose a ton of hunger when sleeping or make evil portal things spawn everywhere in the world including your base, like Vintage story does it. This encourages the player to have a more spread out base and maybe change location every now and then.
@@bolicob I've been saying this for a years but Raids is a nearly perfect opportunity for this
I feel the beauty of the original versions of Minecraft was found in the balance between forcing the player to build and helping them learn to take pride in what they created, like you mentioned, and I believe modern Minecraft really just pushes players further and further away from engaging with new content through choice. I don’t see a world where the more extrinsically motivated players find that same joy in creation when every problem that used to or should need a creative building solution can be avoided altogether, especially when they aren’t necessary to experience at all. A player isn’t going to fortify and eventually bond with a village they mean to protect if they don’t need to, they’ll find it a nuisance and drink milk to avoid it. They won’t discover a new experience with the warden, they’ll mine around the deep dark biome. They won’t engage with the night at all, they’ll just sleep. Humanity might be the best at coming up with creative solutions to problems, but you’re more likely to see a human be creative when they need to be, otherwise they’d just forget about the problem entirely. A person will try the obvious solution, and when it fails, then they will be creative. It’s common human nature that mojang doesn’t account for because some existing players would get mad at change and I don’t appreciate the effect it has on extrinsically motivated players who used to be inspired to be creative like myself.
Yeah, it's hard not to take the optimal route sometimes. But forcing players to do it has the side effect of pushing away players who genuinely want to be left alone. There's only so much that can be changed for a 15 year old game. I think it's also a matter of perspective. I find it hard to be creative in Minecraft but I find it very easy to think laterally when designing mods, and be artsy when doing creative writing.
You'd love rebirth of the night modpack, honestly that's the direction mojang should've taken
Okay, but players should be able to skip parts of the game they consider a nucance, while developers should consider why the players consider it a nucance; as well as offering having multiple viable ways to progress towards the same goal; so players can get the blocks and equipment they want to use, without being fulleled down a grindy means of obtaining it, because other means are suboptimal.
@@agsilverradio2225 i wouldn't say skip, but offering a large amount of alternatives so players can tackle problems they should be facing in the game would be ideal, as to not railroad any sort of experience or play style, but still provide a challenge that can be fun to overcome. I don't think players should have to mine for resources, for example, but i do think the alternatives should be fun and challenging enough to still push them to think creatively and not choose it as the easier or quicker alternative.
Yeah like what me and my friends did on my server we just looked up tutorials for farms and this was fine for me because I like to build shells to make them look good and I have made a couple of farms of my own but for some of my friends they just built every farm in the game and made the best one and then some people stopped playing because every problem was already solved by the farms
There's a reason most big modpacks have a quest log, most of which rewards the player by completing them.
This is also why people want the game to be more difficult, or say the game went too easy. It's not that the combat is simply easier, they just want challenges.
I try to do this without a quest log on my own modpacks, and trying to communicate the challenges by visuals instead, but it's hard for the casual player without plain text.
Yeah, though people who mod the game are much more likely to be hardcore gamers. There's plenty of people who just want to explore and build at their own pace.
One thing that always bothers me is that for a game about building stuff, you don't actually need to place that many blocks in order to progress.
a workbench, a furnace the netherportal and maybe a few chests is all you really need. You can beat the game by operating from a hole in the ground with only a few blocks ever placed.
You CAN build many different buildings and structures but they rarely every do anything. Only the beacon and enchantment table are instances where placing several blocks has an effect. I'd love more "recognised" structures in MC, like Terraria only considers homes to be suitable if certain requirements are met. I think Mojang can come up with something that is still very flexible but also incentivises the construction of larger structures.
Absolutely agree! The enchanting table always inspires me to create a cool magic library, and I really wish there was more stuff like that! Make anvils more efficient near lava or magma blocks, for example.
I'd also like to see late-game hostile mobs that can break into your home or ruin your crops if you don't build defences. Imagine if you could get raided by Illagers, who'd break down doors and scale walls to get in and steal stuff?
@@PotatoPatatoVonSpudsworthi highly disagree with your last point about mobs stealing things and ruining crops. illagers breaking down wood doors and trying to kill you? now that’s cool. it would give an actual use to iron doors.
@@discminuteI think ruining crops is okay, and stealing items I think is fine if contained to a single mob
@@PotatoPatatoVonSpudsworthYess, I say this constantly to my friends that I want raids on my base that give me a reason to defend it (like this video mentioned too!) outside of mobs you can just slap a torch down and call it a day. I want unexpected events at my base, I want the world doing stuff around me! Illager patrols I guess "try" to do that, but they're so simple to take care of it's completely a non-issue.
You are wrong. Lots of useful redstone build and automatic farm need "structures" for it. Sammyuri made "Minecraft in Minecraft" with only redstone. The entire computer needs lots of space.
You may say redstone is hard for normal players, but the "recognised structures" will also be hard for normal players. In fact, redstone build is more flexible and incentivises than your suggestion.
One small thing I would really like is for a couple of the functions in the f3 menu to be added to an item, like crafting something with a compass to see your coordinates and cardinal direction, and maybe something with an amethyst shard or quartz that reads out the light level of a block.
It feels kind of disengaging to open a debug menu for general gameplay.
I had the same thoughts and it turned out there's in fact a datapack (not a mod so you can use it on a vanilla server) that makes it so that the compass shows you coordinates. It's still not enough motivation because why should you spend resources when you can just press F3, hence I decided to also use the "reduceDebugInfo" option when creating the world, which disables coordinates in F3.
@@somebodysomewhere8217 That's what I would like; for debug info to be reduced and to require a compass to get coordinates, like how RLCraft handles it.
Remember Glares?
Yeah, that mob didn't deserve to be in the mob vote in the first place and should just be added not because I prefer it over the others-- but because it's a mob with a mechanic that makes the game more intuitive by making players rely less on a debugging menu and by being better than it as well. (because a mob that automatically tells you that a place is dark enough for mobs to spawn is 100% better than looking at numbers, lighting difference and repositioning yourself/screen to tell)
Legacy console had coordinates appear on maps. I would also like if maps in your inventory would appear on your HUD like a minimap.
@@user-tzzglsstle585e38 honestly, even if the glare was added, most people would probably still use the debug menu, because it's just... always there and just two buttons, rather then relying on a mob, same issue for Compasses and other stuff. It's unfortunate lmao, they should definitely like, change the Debug menu into like, an info menu and if you have the right items on you, opens up the info menu, and leave the actual debug stuff in creative mode or smth.
One idea I have for balancing the elytra is to prevent the player from being able to take hard turns, making it so that it is controlled more like an airplane.
This would make elytras ideal for long distance travel in open areas. Using the elytra in confined spaces would likely cause the player to die. So players would be incentivised to build horse paths and minecart tracks in their bases but leave long distance travel to the elytra.
Idk then you have places you need to build too
I dont like the idea of the elytra. I've actually never used one. I think it takes away a core part of the game.
However, I understand why others enjoy it. I'm glad its locked away in the end and is kinda randomized and rare.
However, in smps.. I dont like it when others have elytras and can ruin that core aspect of exploration, world generation, and other modes of transportation that forces those that want to take it slower to have a much harder time.
One if my happiest moments was when everyone lost their elytras on our server and were thankful i had built a rail network to get around... when previously they had mocked it and were just flying around everywhere.
Maybe if they made it more difficult to fly or made it so that mending was no longer able to be on them. I think the efforts to make mending more rare will help with thats.
A lot of the changes suggested here are reminiscent of Valheim. In particular the concept that progression should physically transform the appearance of one's base in such a way which naturally leads into more creative building, and the suggested changes to food with variable effects.
This is a structured explanation of a lot of vague notions I've had about Minecraft for a long time. It was great to see!
Luckily we are getting a dungeon and tinkering update so hopefully we will get some more extrentic motivation
if i'm being honest, the most fun i got out of survival mode is when I just build stuff with stone or iron tools
I do too. I keep trying to tell others this but nobody gets it
I do really enjoy this, I play in survival and basically get 5 diamonds and that's when I build a house, and I'll stay and build that house for a decent while before moving on and pushing into the nether and going to actual end game
It's why I want to build a wooden city
Ok, this is undoubtedly the best video of this channel. I've watched it once, but I'll rewatch it way more to properly unpack the mere density of content packed in this one.
Either way, AMAZING work, I've never seen anyone hit the mark so incredibly well as you here man.
Thank you very much! I consider it my magnum opus (so far).
@@MinecraftIdeasAcademy it's so good. You are right to be proud.
Would love to get more grains in a food update. Just cuz having only wheat is weird to me. Also they would make grass in different biomes look more unique, instead of just wheat everywhere.
Yeah, I'd be keen for some more staple crops like rice and corn.
@@MinecraftIdeasAcademy Farmer’s Delight:
I'd rather them find more unique reasons for the different foods we have first, before adding in even more that end up all being the same.
This is a brilliant video, and it perfectly showcases how one of my favorite games as a middle schooler has slowly lost my attention.
A game needs some sort of extrinsic motivation in order to truly be called a “game.” Otherwise it’s simply a simulation of a ruleset without a goal. A ton of game developers seemed to have forgotten this. I truly hope that Mojang sees this video because some of these ideas are what the game truly needs to win me back over.
I'm not sure if games need to have an external goal. It's a very common feature of them, but I'm not sure if it's always necessary. Either way, my point is that the existing goal - get the best equipment and kill the Dragon - is pushing people away from reaching their own goals.
@@MinecraftIdeasAcademy most game design textbooks I’ve read say that a game needs a goal of some sort, and I can’t think of a single game that doesn’t off the top of my head. Well right, Minecrafts own goals distract from that. Making your own goals should be a mechanic in and of itself, and that’s something that should be encouraged before the end goal. I think the best way to do that is to increase the pushback involved with these mechanics. Not necessarily making them more difficult, but rather more complicated in ways that require creative building.
A game design professor I've had always refers to minecraft as a toy, not a game. You can play a game _with_ it (kill the ender dragon) just like you can with a ball, but a ball itself isnt a game. This is what minecraft _should_ be in my opinion; it's a place where you can build whatever you can imagine solely for the intrinsic pleasure of doing so. Minecraft was never designed to be a game, even if that's the word most people use to describe it, and I think that works really well for what minecraft is
@@zmitter4844 I disagree. I think that the simple fact that there is an extrinsic goal is enough to call it a game.
@@theplinko9840 If you're refering to the dragon, then I wouldn't really call that an extrinsic goal considering most players don't ever even attempt it; it's more of an option for players who'd like to overcome the challenge, just like the deep dark. The only difference is that it rolls credits. Many people use minecraft as a toy, perfectly content just building homes or protecting villages or making minigames or digging a hole to the bottom of the world. Just consider the huge number of people who only play in creative mode - is that a game? I personally wouldn't say so. What about people who only play in servers? Yeah, servers have games, but like the ball example in my previous reply they're made _with_ minecraft, they themselves are not minecraft.
There is definitely a game within minecraft for those who want to play it, but a large majority of players just kind of do their own thing which is exactly what minecraft was designed for.
Congrats on finally getting this video out! You brought up some very good points, and though I already agreed with you on most of these, it still provided a new perspective to me on why I just can't get into Minecraft at the moment.
I was so pumped to start building on the Discord's SMP, but then I placed down some glass. Glass that should've been stained. Glass that would not give me anything back, not even shards, without interacting with *the enchanting system*.
So I made the trek back to spawn, found where the xp/enchanting setup was, and started grinding. It took me four attempts to get Silk Touch, the last of which required me to grind to level 30. For just Silk Touch. On an Iron Pickaxe.
Yeah, something needs to change.
On a lighter note, thanks for the shoutout! I honestly don't quite remember what I did, but then again, this video's taken two years, it could've just been my ramblings about transportation and adding a Grappling Hook for all I know :P
To you, and to all, have a great day, and happy Minecraft Live Day!
If only wooden tools had silk touch...
This was very inspiring to me. I've always looked up tutorials for the best xp grinders, storage systems, etc. This makes me to play Minecraft without the help of outside strategies so that I can discover my own fun strategies and maybe actually learn how redstone works so that I can start to build my own stuff
Glad to have inspired you!
Great job identifying the problems! This is a good summary, but I think when discussing solutions, it's important to note that with the umbrella terms of intrinsically and extrinsically motivated players, Minecraft has 4 primary types of players: builders and Redstone designers (intrinsic), and explorers and adventures (extrinsic). The latter two are the ones that suffer from current design the most.
The game design of a sandbox environment like Minecraft seems to want to cater to all of these groups, so features added or changed shouldn't hinder any of them. Like you noted, Minecraft is currently catered more towards the intrinsic players. For example, many builder players don't mind grinding as much because it gets them closer to their mega-build goals. But Minecraft currently locks a lot of potential exploration and boss combat behind grinding, such as the enchanting system grind you mentioned, getting full netherite or diamond gear, farming wither skulls for the wither fight, or getting enough ender pearls to enter the end. This is why most players I know who enjoy that adventuring spectacle and combat part of the gameplay in servers usually rely on other players for gathering the materials for progression and quit after these bosses are beaten.
Similarly, explorers have very little to do in the Nether and the End after finding each of only 6 nether biomes for exclusive blocks and an end city/ship or two. All the while wanting to get out of environments as soon as possible, since they are much so more barren and continuously uncomfortable than the many different overworld features (a discussion on good game design using ebb and flow of stress and relief in exploration is another conversation to have). This is despite the promise of these areas being entirely new dimensions to explore, which we've up feeling more like big empty areas with a few oases to find. They're just not as feature rich as the overworld, so these players feel they have much less they can enjoy, and quit much sooner.
All this is to say that weening players off of extrinsic goals and nudging then towards intrinsic ones is a good long term design goal, but it still wouldn't serve as enough, because there still isn't enough extrinsic content in the game to give players enough time to be weaned off of extrinsic goals, regardless. I'm of the opinion that removing a lot of the grind necessary for the few extrinsic progressions that Minecraft has would improve the experience of casual players who don't have a lot of time to play and grind (or who don't enjoy the grind), as well as make a lot of the tedium that builders and designers go through for their creations more achievable. A degree of it should remain to preserve the spirit of mining, but with systems like Redstone being one of the only ways to cut down on grind but currently being too unintuitive to self-teach, resulting in the mentioned design-copying, it's evidence of there being too much grind in the current game state. To serve the purpose of a transition from extrinsic to intrinsic, each additional stage of the game (overworld -> nether -> end, etc) should have centralized extrinsic tasks but introduce new mechanics that are increasingly rewarding of player creativity. I think banner patterns for shields and armor trims are a step in the right direction here, because it rewards players' creativity with applying items they find and craft in the world, but they aren't consequential enough currently to fit into the progression of early to late game; they're just a side objective for aesthetics. If they were easier to find in the world and replaced or fueled enchantments or something like that, it would be a huge step in the right direction. Just my 2 cents.
Also as a side note: even in alpha days, a lot of the appeal for extrinsically motivated players was the novelty, not the core design differences. Minecraft still suffered from a lack of direction for extrinsic players to move in after "survive as long and as well as possible" got boring. So a return to alpha-like design forcing the player to build safety would still not be a solution even if it didn't hinder intrinsic players.
I'm not sure if there's enough extrinsic content to wean them off, but I think a good start is to introduce more intrinsic stuff to them and not push them into trying to get god gear. Adding more extrinsic content could make that worse if the existing content isn't changed first.
personally, my brain is just like. make cave, have fun, be goblin. i usually take things as they become available to me, but my bases are always dug into the ground, without fail. i guess i just yearn for the caverns lol. everyone has their own preference, and that's a good thing to encourage!
chiseled bookshelves are the answer to the enchanting issue.
if you have enchanted books in a chiseled bookshelf, it should noticeably increase the chance of you getting that enchantment
i was thinking of some other ideas with lecterns & stuff, but i think this would be a super intuitive mechanic that could be used to incentivize exploration.
it would also be neat if you were able to then read the enchantments that you have access to nearby
Probably complicated
I love this idea. Like all enchantment books have to be "found". This would have to go together with a villager trading rework, but would go a long way to rebalance the game.
I like to think Mojang adds these features with future updates planned to make things more complicated (esp since the netherite changes) and we just have to wait for them and/or have modders flesh out the systems for them.
Really great video summing up a lot of stuff about Minecraft's overall design direction. Personally, if I could give Mojang one top priority, it would be an enchanting overhaul, along these lines:
1. Remove level XP scaling, just make every level a static amount of XP, balanced so reaching level ~50 or so takes about the same amount of XP as it already does. Minecraft doesn't have a good reason to use an XP scaling system IMO and I don't see any problem with players running around at Level 10,000 if that's what makes them happy
2. Overhaul Anvil enchantment level calculations to remove Too Expensive, level costs increasing with repeat uses on the same item, and generally make the costs intuitive and simple. (eg. it costs 3 levels base + 2 per each separate enchantment in the items being combined, only 1 level if you are renaming something)
3. Change the Enchantment Table GUI to remove the minimum level requirements as they're obviously redundant, replacing with something like 1 level for a simple enchant, 5 for a strong enchant, 10 for rare enchants and/or random bonus enchants
4. Mending is no longer a treasure only enchant, though probably still very rare/expensive in the enchantment table
5. Bonus suggestion that I just think would be cool; Putting enchanted books in Chiseled Bookshelves in the table's range will increase the odds of getting that enchantment in the Table, and can even add treasure enchants/curses to the table's pool of enchants
I feel like enchanting should be a part of the progression system that any player should be able to get through comfortably without guides, just XP they've accumulated from the natural course of play. It's an extremely bumpy ride at the moment that derails lots of players unnecessarily IMO
Big fan of integrating chiseled bookshelves like that. It's so weird how they don't even act like regular bookshelves for the enchanting table
I think Minecraft could benefit from a "build your own town" style update. Where wandering traders may be more frequent if you place a multi block structure, like a sort of beacon that says "this site is friendly and you are welcome to stay. That can atract both villagers and illagers, Imagine gaining the "scourge of the village" effect if you allied and even helpt illagers. Begining a raid where you are accompanied by illagers, ravagers, witches and alike to destroy a village.
The bell should be that beacon. But maybe adding requirements for what is considered a "village" wouldnt be a bad idea. However, I dont think Mojang like to add too many features that break the world builds unless they fundamentally break the game.
the new hunger system idea is actually GENIUS, someone seriously needs to turn this into a mod
Yea but you can't starve
I think this could be linked back to the mob votes, a large amount of players who voted for the iceologer probably had the idea that this mob had some extrinsic value to it. There must be some interesting gameplay/rewards for beating it thus possibly linking it to progression by posing a challenge which the player has to overcome in some way?
Another amazing video! I honestly love your videos because unlike a lot of other Minecraft ideas you actually think through what you say and whether it is actually a balanced and good addition! This is very rare now, so I'm happy to find people who think the same way as me. Thank you!
Something that I've thought about which is very minor, and not super related is the grindstone. It gives back so little exp when used. I was thinking it would be very cool if we could add an enchanted item and a book to transfer the enchantment to the book.
I guess that would make exploration potentially a dominant strategy for obtaining mending. Which on one hand could be a desires outcome as it will provide a viable alternative for players not wanting to bother with moving villagers.
On the other hand it could risk mending becoming something a player can obtain basically day one if they have a lucky spawn.
@@Kronos_LordofTitans players already get mending day one if they're fast enough
That would make it easier but at the same time far too trivial imo. Tool almost broken? Grindstone it onto another tool.
@@MinecraftIdeasAcademy maybe the lower the durability a tool has, the lower the chance it can have enchantments removed?
@@smolbrendan5978 If they implement the new villager trades; getting mending on day one is gonna be purely based on luck and even then, it'd be much slower-- because you're required to transport a villager to a swamp.
Well I don't know if you'll ever see this but we share a lot of similar feelings relative to the design of Minecraft. The past year has been a game design journey for me as I went from 'getting into modded Minecraft for the first time in the 14 years of playing this game' to 'a slow decent into madness as I tried to perfect, tweak, and understand what makes the game tick.' I am lucky to know a few game designers in my life that have kept me constructive. It's been fun in itself and your videos have definitely helped me on that journey.
I personally feel like the food system is the biggest flaw and missed opportunity in the game's over all design. So much of it's mid game systems could have been resolved through it. So much of the game's origins were forged in the fires of 'survival' and yet it seems to be more of an inconvenience even when it causes death or a bad event. It's too binary and yet given the games structure it has so much potential to be something more. So I've personally been working on my own design document to that effect. If you'd ever like to have a conversation I'd love to chat. But over all, thanks for the food. Haha.
Feel free to join the discord, you'll find plenty more like minded people there!
Great video, lots of interesting ideas i can attest to! :) i'm a developer for a "vanilla+" mc server and i've been trying to "solve" this problem for 3 years. First thing to note is we have a lot of success with the idea of cities - builds with function and ownership. With lots more depth to many more of the builds and mechanics too, that often keeps players around for much longer.
That being said, the main problem that players find is simply burnout from self imposed pressure - when you make plans to build so much you are excited about, and players around you are successfully doing so - when you get busy or lack motivation that presure builds until you don't want to log on anymore.
We still do seasons because of the natural inflation of mc anyway, and this helps reset that pressure too - and every season i redevelop the mechanics more to try and soften that pressure, and we do surveys every season to find what has been most successful. We're in the development gap right now before next year, and i'm excited for what new ideas that may help the issue again!
Cool to hear your perspective! A large part of the pressure does come from comparison with others, I'd imagine. Glad to see you're working on it there
Your ideas are so aligned with my thinking. I definitely want these in the game. Great video!
I love how within the first 30 seconds that you somehow manageto show a high level of game development knowledge so swiftly
Thanks! I've been cooking
I really like the new ideas for brewing and food, but it is important not to make things too complicated or overwhelming. This is especially true for players who may have come back to the game after a while, finding a ton of fundamental systems have changed to have more complex interactions with the world.
Tbh, the current Brewing System only really needs a recipe book to be more intuitive
I think a way to balance elytra in the progression tree is to provide the player a middle point between flight and non-flight that's not as good as elytra but it would let the player be content with not rushing the end as much because they have this one thing that helps them in building 3 dimensionally but doesn't replace a horse in early game long distance travel. It's like how some players don't feel the need to rush to netherite because diamond is good enough, making the treacherous trip to strip mine the nether less required in the early game. I think a good middle ground feature for the elytra was already introduced but in an April fools update. There was a feature where grabbing a chicken and using the space bar would cause the player to float in the air and you float higher and higher as you press space kinda like the old mobile game flappy birds. I think adding something like this to the mid game can fill the hole of not having elytra yet, and force the player to stay in the mid game just a little bit more.
I've heard it's really useful for flying around while building. So maybe there could be a variant that can propel itself for a while before needing to recharge on the ground. Kinda like now Terraria's wings work
That still doesn't solve the issue of Minecarts and Horses being largely obsolete though, if anything; a mid-game elytra only makes them even more obsolete.
The main reason why Elytras are so much more preferred over others is that it allows you to *Fly Fast*, so an item that just allows you to fly but in a janky way wouldn't be anything other than novelty that fizzles out quickly, really; speed is the main desirable property of elytras if we're talking strictly transportation with flight allowing you to avoid any obstacle contributing to more speed.
Scaffolding
@@catsdogswoof3968 Scaffolding allows you to bridge *small* gaps (good luck using its 6 block limit in the nether lol) and cliffs but it doesn't directly make you go that much faster from going from point A to point B.
Even a Speed I potion would be a more effective means of transportation coupled with blocks you will already have compared to Scaffolding.
@catsdogswoof3968 Scaffolding isn't a universally loved feature. You may not know this, but people are split between block scaffolding and actual scaffolding in building, especially since a lot of people are not used to how you climb and navigate through them. My suggestion would be somewhere better than scaffolding but mich worse that elytra in the tech tree.
The goal of Minecraft is like the goal of real life: finding stuff to do and not die while doing them
I think the modding community is what makes minecraft so amazing as a sandbox game, you can extend progression so much, nearly infinitely with some mods.
You spoke my words😔.
I think every features from before the ender dragon update is poorly designed, grindy, not fun and broken.
Enchanting, fishing, inventory, combat, tool durability, villagers, food system, ... i can't rember everything but you get it.
I require reworks alongside the yearly updates.
Great Video!
The Tinker // Trials update is a fantastic way to tackle these issues all at once.
Creating a more repeatable and Scaleable combat focused goal for players to engage with while they climb the progression laterally will give Mojang a new lens to look at horizontal progression while making room for the existing loop of Bed, Diamond Tools, Golden Carrots, Enchantment to be broken up and worked into worldspace through things like the Crafter and any other Tinker related mechanics that can take progression out of UI space and into World Space.
We are already seeing this being exercised with the new wind enemy that compliments the environmental challenge to survival in these spaces.
Your gonna sound sus when the name is revealed
hmm while i may not agree with all your ideas, (like food giving you potion effects, cause that'll result in people optimizing the fun out again) but im so glad, that unlike every other youtuber, you try to figure out solutions, understand why things are the way they are and provide insightful commentary on game design!
Yeah, I'm not sure if that'll work either. Some stuff can only be worked out through play testing
I really enjoy this channel. THESE are the conversations we should be having about improving Minecraft, not just slapping on a bunch of content mods and calling it a day.
THANK YOU, I've seen so many videos on the topic of "improving Minecraft" that base their suggestions purely on of the idea that Minecraft is/should be a linear rpg even though it's just never going to be that. I've been having such a hard time formulating my perspective on Minecraft's design philosophy and you've managed to do it so perfectly.
I'm an artist irl, I'm one of those people that plays this game and games like it to build and make stories. Your description of "treating the game like a canvas" is such a good way of explaining it. To me all of the different blocks are different colored pixels and so, seeing people discard the idea of "decorative" or "build-oriented" potentially being a genuine use for blocks has kinda been disheartening. Building is such a big part of the game imo and I'm glad that you pointed it out.
I feel like the aspect of intrinsic gameplay is so often discarded in those videos and every time I hear "more armor" and "more steps" as potential solutions I just feel like it would feel so.. forced? It's not a long lasting solution and I just know that it would be so insufferable for someone like me.
I usually try my best to speed though that supposed "game part" of the Minecraft as quickly as possible so that I can get my building tools, just like the Hermitcraft crowd that was mentioned. I can't imagine what the game would be like if I had to go through like 20 more steps to get there. 😭
You've also managed to explain my frustrations with the game, especially with the part about the it feeling so grindy and certain systems feeling so complicated at times. I love that you mentioned the fact that most people rely on copying pre-existing farm designs and the issues with transportation. I think that the ability for players to chose and the intersection between game mechanics should always remain the focus, but I do agree that the game should also find ways to cater to the more linear crowd.
Anyways this was a beautifully put together video I'm so happy I stumbled across it!! 🤍
Glad you enjoyed! There's so many people who just think more content is always better, and just apply stuff from what they know, like games with a longer progression. And they usually get angry when people say that's not the point of Minecraft lol
the only problem with catering to the more linear crowd is that its a never ending grind for the devs to move the "endgame". What happens then is that the middle gets left behind or things get too grindy or there are not multiple ways of doing the same thing.
The reason the game has been so successful is that it has kept away from the linear path as much as possible.
The way I think about it when designing content for my mods is: The goal of minecraft is to have fun building.
This doesn't mean that combat, or other aspects of minecraft's systems aren't also important, but ultimately my gauge for whether an idea is good for minecraft is asking the question "Does this inspire me to build?"
I find that the content Mojang usually adds to the game falls pretty short in this regard, but it doesn't have to. In your video you outline functional building, but I think that's just one way to inspire building. I think there are ways of designing content that creates an intrinsic desire to do something creative. A good example was the spore blossom, The second they showed that off the first question I had was "I wonder what I could build now that would be enhanced by the particle effects of a spore blossom". But the majority of the other content they've been adding in recent years fails the test in my eyes.
Yeah, adding stuff that inspires building instead of necessitates it is very important. It's a lot more subtle though, I think.
Love the video. It's great like a lot of your other videos, too! Brings great ideas and really does make me think about Minecraft and other games' design elements a lot more.
I will say honestly, at this point, I feel like Minecraft needs a huge overhaul to several of its mechanics, not unlike how it went through in its younger years. While I do enjoy getting new things added to the game, it always feels like the novelty is all it brings and then the shakey foundation underneath and the inevitable problems that were unaddressed (or addressed poorly) end up overwhelming things once the novelty fades.
Really, despite the change in update numbers saying the game has been "Fully released", I sometimes feel like the game still hasnt left its Beta years. I often end up taking long breaks from the game because of this feeling.
Well that comment ended up being longer than I thought so pardon the rambling and thanks to anyone who read it lol
I think the biggest issue with repairing items with the anvil is the increase of price and the "too expensive" limit. If it didn't cost anything other than the material you're using to repair it, then it would be a lot more reasonable. Then instead of grinding for mending, you can just use resources you collect a lot of when mining.
The real problem though is Netherite... which requires an entire _ingot_ just to repair a tool a little bit. Netherite should at the very least use Netherite Scraps instead of full ingots, but at that point there's too much grind for netherite and its easier to just use mending.
I mean, while an entire ingot is needed just to repair a tool, that same once can be used ro make a second tool, which can be used on its own and used to repair the first tool
the issue with netherite i believe is a good example of the extreme cost of repairing at all.
Nuggets for each of the metal tools should be used for repairing. I think diamond should remain extremely expensive to repair material wise given its usefulness.. and to encourage spending the time to upgrade to netherite to make it easier to repair.
The too expensive thing.. and the increase costs of repairing the same item should get removed in general. It should cost the same amount of experience to repair an enchanted item as it was to create it. But no more.
Make a viable alternative to mending, not just make it harder.
Absolutely fantastic video, and very good insight into the game's design and philosophy (and areas where the design can hurt itself). An idea I've had to help with the enchanting system is requiring blocks besides bookshelves nearby to add to or increase the pool of available enchants. It's not an original idea (I know there are mods like Apotheosis and probably datapacks that do this) but I think it could be implemented well, especially if the table clearly shows that it is drawing power from nearby blocks. They way it shows drawing power is good, but sometimes unclear. Maybe it could be done in a way that gets players curious to experiment and see what blocks *do* add to the table. Maybe the UI lets the player know that they are benefiting from certain blocks nearby, or that an enchantment they could get is a result of that?
I've also had an idea about an item that requires the player find (or collect) blocks to draw from, like a gauntlet or jar. It would strip ores, amethyst crystals, and blocks like those to add to an internal reserve. Maybe this reserve can be deposited/distilled to make a batch of potions depending on what was stripped? Or maybe this is how certain ecnhants are obtained? It needs work, but I think it would be an interesting direction to follow.
This video perfectly explains how Minecraft, a game about intrinsic motivation, conditions it's playerbase to grind for extrinsic goals. When I initially saw the overwhelmingly negative reactions to the trading changes, I was shocked. I assumed most people thought of villager trading as an exploit. Simply too efficient when compared to other, more interesting types of gameplay. But now I understand.
People think this is the point of the game and it's not even their fault.
an enchantment mod i really like is enchancement, since it makes each piece of armour only able to have one enchant and makes each enchant unique from other ones, like shovels can have an enchant that buries mobs into soft materials and fishing rods can be enchanted into grappling hooks. ik its still in the enchantment table but its just generally nicer for when i wanna play tbh
Huh
Really well thought out video. I’m actually really interested in the new food system explored in the end. I’d love to have someone rework the gear progression system in the same manor, good ideas
For the idea of encouraging building with a motivation, I was considering a netherite becaon or some other build that can stop all monsters from spawning in a wide radius. By being able to stop the spawning of creepers, endermen, or even ghasts players can worry less about mobs griefing builds.
This brings out exactly what i want from minecraft. Like, why DONT artifical blocks stop mob spawning??? Making things like enchanting cooking and brewing more fun instead of just "drag then wait in a ui." I hope theres a modpack out there that follows your design style, cus almost everything you talk about and suggest sounds AWESOME!
Ngl if that was introduced rn it would break alotta farms
It's uhh very big and would take 10 updated
THANK YOU. I've been talking about ideas like this for a year or two now. I don't know anything about modding but I've wanted to make a mod that does several of the things you're talking about here. The other idea I've had is to change the mob wandering algorithm so that mobs "wander" towards light, player blocks, and then the player over time, making for a very light tower defense element, encouraging players to build defensively and changing mob spawns to make creatures feel like they are part of the world, with spiders spawning only on leaf or dirt blocks and undead spawning only on gravel and stone, then flowing out of their areas and towards players over time.
The return... This has actually been something that's been on my mind a lot recently in my own game development ventures, glad to see someone else thinks about this stuff too.
i fully believe The End was the biggest mistake Mojang made with Minecraft, but the second biggest is that most new features completely obsolete old ones.
Cows are objectively better than pigs now... so why add Sniffers when they could have made pigs sniff things out like truffles in real life?
Hunger is such a horrible mechanic. Infuriating at BEST. they could have made hunger and food interesting, but instead there is one single best option (... and why is saturation hidden?).
Glow Ink sacs could have been glowstone dust, lightning rod could've been iron, elytra makes every single intended transport mechanic completely obsolete, so why even add camels? they should focus on making outdated features useful again instead of feature-creeping the game into the epitome of choice paralysis
Great video MIA! The only thing I would argue over would be food. I think that the easier and more intuitive way for food to make more of a difference without changing the coremechanic too much would be to:
A. make regular food less saturating
B. use regular food in making meals to actually make saturating food that can or cannot give buffs based on what was used
Vintage Story, a game very similar to MC but far more immersive, does the very same thing. You can farm, hunt, butcher, all the same and cook meat all the same. They give you some saturation but not alot. This then leads to the introduction of the cookingpot, leading to players making better foods but in a limited inventory of its own to not just become a "drop it in and wait for 64 items to be done". It also depends highly on how saturating the foods are you put into the pot. Which in turn could lead to a rethinking of how foods are distributed in minecraft, with certain veggies being tied to specific biomes or perhaps they are far harder too obtain, making you trade for them instead of just being able to break the crops which now could simply drop no seeds when not placed by the player.
I would agree and disagree. I'd like to see them expand farming/food as a common alternative to potions/enchanting in some aspects. I think there is room in the "food" system to make each item unique, but balanced with the time commitment of potion making.
You should be able to take a farming path to victory... much like if you want to play very action-focused be able to kill your way to victory using monster-like parts in the potion system. You could explore your way to victory. By finding what you need. Maybe you want to build a civilization with villagers and trade your way to what you want and need.
So the idea of food giving some buffs wouldnt be too bad. Especially in the food that requires crafting to get, such as cakes, stews, pies, etc. Make there a reason to make those things instead of just carrying around a stack of fish.
The most powerful of which would combine different disciplines.. such as the golden apple.
Great video. Personally I dont use the enchantment table, I only use potions and books as i find this more enjoyable. My end game gear is usually scavanged from the end cities and upgraded with books from structures and i will rarely get mending if its for an afk farm or something that would be tedious to replace. It might not be the best possible gear but im more aware of what enchantments i have available when exploring and scouting for new books is a necessity that stops me losing interest in exploration. The experimental villager changes might make me get a villager trade hall as i prefer knowing what trades to find where but haven't played with it enough to know if it would get boring. Brewing potions in steps to me is fun and wouldnt change anything about the current setup. Enchanting would be more fun if you had to learn the spells to enchant, with some chance of failure or randomness thrown in which is higher at lower levels and with fewer bookshelves. The chiseled bookselves could actually be great for that. If they counted towards the enchantment tables levels they could add a mechanic to read what books are in the shelf to make it more likely to get that enchantment on your item. I think thatd be way more fun and interesting.
To expand on the enchanting table. I would say that a bookshelf would only get you a "basic" lvl1 enchantment. In order to get say, a max lvl 3, you could combine them in bookshelves (maybe an alternative to the anvil). You could also make it so the you could enchant more "rare" enchantments with the table, if you found them out in the world and brought them back. Some basic books could be learned from villagers, some found out in the world as super rare.
I think the villager system should be revamped to include a more social system for them to balance them out. Things such as needing interactions with others to either learn certain trades. Trading tables/levels rebalancing (no reason mending should be a lvl1 trade)
I think if they can balance enchanting so that it can be more controlled, but also a challenge, but different but equal ways to get there would be good.
Exploration/scavanging, village advancement, or self-made should be 3 paths that should be equal with time being the resource you use in trading for making the game easier.
Maybe the ability to make enchantment books from potions could be a thing.
I want to see more interconnectivity in the systems. I'm not too interested in just making things grindy. People make farms and "cheat" the system to avoid the grind.
The trick is to make the grind more fun to more people. The speedrunners will always find a way to break the game.
great video! i love the hunger system rework ideas!
the goal to Minecraft is to just have fun. thats it. there's no goal. there's the dragon but lets be honest, its harder to fight a skeleton. great viedo btw, love how professional it is.
edit: also we aint gonna skip over 4:06. your playing with my emotions
This is so well made, with so much thought put into it, you earned a sub
Great video, ur points make so much sense it’s weird to me other video essayists haven’t found them out. I don’t know how you would do this, but I would 100% watch any kind of follow-up video :)
Yeah idk what I'd follow up with, kinda put everything I had into this one lol
Your perspective is so refreshing, everyone seems to be complaining about the game as of late, but you actually took an in depth and real thoughtful approach with this. I really resonate with your claims, and I personally think I'm one of the intrinsic-motivated-whatever group of players you were talking about (or at least would like to believe so lol). Maybe its just nostalgia, but I still don't like the idea of throwing new, random things into the game because i think it would ruin the whole point and identity of what this game is; but many people in the community seem to want that now. I shouldn't be too pressed about this, but it really annoys me that everyone seems to be calling Mojang "lazy" as of late and comparing them to the modding scene. I also have annoyances with Mojang from the marketplace shitshow and the forced introduction of chat reporting when the system was fine to begin with, but Mojang has been anything but lazy these past few years and I feel like it's really unfair to the dev team. Thanks for the video, it was so cool seeing your viewpoints and ideas, and I really hope the Mojang dev team really DOES see this, your videos are so well done and your ideas are seriously well thought out. I know they have before, especially with that whole "fake" book thing on the poisonous potato a while back p_p. The best thing about minecraft's launcher is that, whether it is nostalgia induced or not, I can always roll back to 13 years ago when I started playing the game, and any point in between, so regardless of where the game goes, I think i'll be happy with this game for much longer. (Tho tbh I started on the lite pocket edition, and don't own an iphone anymore, but thats beside the point I can still pretend)
Thank you for the videos, I really mean it. I truly believe more people should be seeing them, but you seem motivated despite the view counts anyway and I'm grateful you're still here putting a lot of effort into each one of them. The many that ARE here really love them!
Thank you so much! I don't see the point in complaining unless I have something new to add and maybe some potential solutions.
I actually hate copying automatic farms. But it helped me learn how to design my own farms. Also, understanding in-game mechanics utilized by the farm helped me understand how to decorate around them.
This is the only video I've ever seen that perfectly articulates why I've fallen out of love with Minecraft. Especially the lack of incentives if you aren't intrinsically motivated.
Making animals and mobs have basic requirements for you to get the most use out of them might be one of the better implementations for incentive I've seen. The one question I've always had on my mind with the game is "why?"
What point is there in spending countless hours building a cruise ship if it won't help me get from A to B faster, or with more benefits? What point is there in pouring my heart and soul into a build if the game won't reward me for it or acknowledge my accomplishment in any way? In truth, I imagine that recognizing and rewarding a player's efforts in such a broad and open game is hard, if not impossible. Unfortunately, that fact still leaves the game feeling lacking.
Minecraft's progression jarringly comes to a complete stop and tells you to figure out how to keep having fun on your own. But when you have nothing to strive towards that isn't an entirely intrinsic goal, the only way to have fun is to rely on something external, like mods, or multiplayer servers, which exist to give players more extrinsic motivations that the game lacks.
just finished watching! hi cam, congrats on getting this video done! i know it was a lotta work in every way, haha
I... thank you for the shoutout?? I kinda just repeatedly talk about the same old points to convince myself that I, myself, am not 100% of the reason that my mindset in minecraft kinda demotivates me from playing the game, but clearly they really do have some merit!
P.S based of you to ponder the addition of a grappling hook item, tbh
Thanks very much for your help! I really couldn't have figured out this whole conundrum by myself.
The rebalances to the Mid-Game just makes a whole lot of sense as all of these I have had issues with when I'm playing Minecraft as I do love End-Game and Early-Game but I dread Mid-Game I have that feeling that I have to set up all of these farms and stuff just to get enough XP to do anything with tools since I don't want to lose that Efficiency. I think you did a great job on this video and by extension all of the other ones you make. Great work :)
Something I really like that was added was smithing templates, it makes it so you can’t really rush netherite and instead have to explore first to find it. It makes more sense to me too for “Steve” to have to find templates to know how to make something. What I’m saying is, I think making sections of crafting something you have to find would be interesting. For example, all red stone crafting recipes would be locked until you find a “book of redstone” and now all crafting recipes are unlocked. These could be find in the new trial dungeons and stuff like that. I think it would make exploration more valuable and more entertaining when you find something.
I don't think too many things should be locked behind that, so that people can skip parts if they want to. But it could work with certain things
I came back to minecraft during lockdown to do a world with my buddy like when we were kids, got pretty far but we deleted the world by mistake and i quit for another 3 years. I started a realm for me and a few friends on halloween and ive been playing again since. Ive put hours and hours into this world its crazy. All the new things to do and farms to build and things to make is all really cool to figure out. Im having a great time building out my island village base and adding all the structures i definitley dont need but will make anyway for aesthetic
I've been trying to put these same exact thoughts into words for years and I'm very glad you've done exactly that. Personally I'm one of the less creative players that need a lot of extrinsic motivation to get enjoyment out of Minecraft, my friends are very intrinsically motivated by building and roleplay servers so I've always had a bit of a disconnect with them. I still fondly think of my long history with the game, but I can definitely tell it's shifting in a direction that doesn't suit me. I do have to wonder if the kind of player I am is worth re-catering towards, since I'd argue that the game does being a sandbox experience much better than it does being a survival game. Anyway, amazing video!
Thanks very much! I'm the same, and I've come to accept I prefer to express my creativity in other ways. Like making videos!
i absolutely love your video style, you earned a sub. Keep up your great content
your content is amazing yo, glad you are back
at 8:09 minecarts needs a whole overhaul update
theirs benefits over elytra/horses can also be automatic transport use the furnace minecart as the train: use chain block to couple minecarts together and be able to even give it a route and make sure they dont crash into each other too if more is running on a minecart rail network
also should be able to transport minecarts long away and have theirs own way(server friendly too) of chunk loading(just load themself but not the chunk or anything) so they can travel far without the player and be able to drop/get items from a hopper next to it atleast that
I don't like progressing in minecraft very much, I usually stay in the stone age for and really long time until I need a bucket. Even once I'm fully in the iron/diamond age it just feels like such a pain to make it to the end. All my friends are so quick to beat the enderdragon though
I really love the way you think about the game. The fact that you consider everyone's needs, the underlying philosophy of the game, and you give such great suggestions for how to improve upon features. I hope there's someone listening from the team, as enthusiastic as I am about this.
Thank you very much! It's fun to think about it all.
Great video! I especially like your idea of a food rework.
I really like the perspective. Your videos are great as always and gets me thinking
Probably my favorite way to encourage building is terrarias npc housing system. It always encourages me to make use of all of the decoration items, but doesn’t force me to go overboard since its easy to just put a chair and table down.
Really great video, I feel like this covers most of my issues with the game. Hoping this video will reach out to the people who can make Minecraft achieve its full potential.
I recently played beta 1.7.3 up to the point i had full diamond kit and a base I was happy with, and upgraded my world all the way to 1.20.2. I realized there actually was a lot to love about old minecraft; the slow pace of movement made exploration away from home much more of a dangerous consideration, as any long trek would be difficult to get back to, and covering distance taking much longer means night time accommodations have to be considered a lot more thoroughly. Food scarcity (being non-stackable) also means that economizing inventory space to hold food is more critical, and no sprinting means you can't simply outpace mobs; you have to avoid them entirely, or be aware of what in your surroundings you can use to out-maneuver them. It was a more dangerous feeling game, and it made building something special feel all the more rewarding because you actually felt like you could escape real danger in comfort.
Modern minecraft is a lot of fun with a lot of great features and a good gameplay flow, but I really do miss that sense of tension. There's very little of it in modern minecraft, and brief challenges like boss fights don't re-introduce that tension into the core gameplay loop, they just add it on top as an option. I think the deep dark and ancient cities are actually a fantastic addition, because they really do re-introduce that tension and careful-mindedness you needed in old minecraft. You can't simply run away from your problems; in fact many of the additions that make minecraft easier since beta 1.8 (e.g. eating, sprinting) can be your downfall here due to the noise they produce. That's the sort of gameplay I want more of, and I hope they introduce more biome-specific challenges in the future that can accomplish similar goals.
It makes me think of the mushroom island biome, which is a very rare and cute gimmick biome, but basically only exists to be a rare safe place where players can get a lot of mushrooms and avoid mob spawns. Maybe something could be introduced there that would act as a unique gameplay threat that only has to be worried about inside the mushroom island. Or maybe more new biome ideas can be explored - particularly more in the underground.
Ive been feeling for a while how i would love if minecraft had an update that, instead of focusing on adding new content, went back to old systems and completely remade them from the ground up to be more fun or less grindy.
Very insightful comments and critiques of the game, as always! It's very satisfying to hear issues that I've had with Minecraft, that I couldn't put my finger on, put into words!
I found beta superior to the base game until the world gen was changed by cliffs and caves.
Turns out what was bugging me was not nostalgia, but a lack of world gen variety that facilitated building and encouraged creative thinking by having interesting places to build.
That said, i play with dynamic trees now, and i wouldn't love the game even half as much if it weren't for the appearance this mod gives the ground level of forests. Changing them from an ocean of haphazardly placed leaf blocks to an actual interesting and varied place.
My personal goal:
Creative: Make a massive building, house or village, make an entire song from noteblocks, make redstone/command block builds.
Survival: Obtain totem, elytra and maxed out gears before starting any project, make every farm possible, obtain every item & mob, try out new gamemode (like skyblock or superflat).
I absolutely love this video, so many good points!
Also, I'd love to play with that food/potion system
Very resonant with many of the thoughts and feelings I've been having with the game. Food, potions, enchanting, all big peeve points for me. Hopefully with Agnes' words at Minecraft Live, Mojang will start looking at these sore spots as well as pushing further with new ideas.
This is by far the most insightful video about Minecraft I have watched. Minecraft needs to find more ways for buildings to interact with the environment. Both you and simply sarc have always suggested features and mechanics that actually promote creativity and fix flawed parts of the game. I also think that Minecraft is going to have to make some nerfs if they really want to promote intrinsic building. I really loved the elytra rebalancing and I honestly think that was a moment the developers needed to put their foot down rather than bending to the community’s will
I don't trust sarc he dissed bundles
I've seen so many Terraria Minecraft progression comparisons and I feel like the small mention of it in this video is the only one that notices how they have a lot of the same problems. Both Minecraft and Terraria have a bunch of "side" content that while technically helpful are either inconvenient or inefficient to the point that most people ignore them (Think conduits in Minecraft or like any pre stardust dragon summoning weapon or the rod of discord in terraria) both even have endgame rewards that trivialize stuff to the point a lot of people stop playing at that point even if there's extra stuff.
this video is sooo amazing. i'm sure this is the type of video that i'll be constnatly revisiting in order to fully digest and think upon the ideas u presented. really good job on this video, the years you spent on it are evident in the absolutely quality of this. im really looking forward to the next video and whatever other topics this channel has in store, no matter how long those videos will take
Thanks very much! I'm glad it's a good resource, it was definitely intended that way.
Finally someone tackling the real foundational issues in minecraft.
I really hope a mod that takes these into account is made at some point. These are awesome ideas and I'd love to see them in the Game! I personally don't expect mojang to add features like these because I feel like they are slowly turning into valve...
Very good video, and amazing analysis! I rely a lot on extrinsic motivation, so I definitely have some struggles finding Minecraft fun to play after a certain point.
Not often i'm able to find someone who can objectively actually talk about Minecraft's game design (and not just talk on nostalgia or personal experience).
As an amateur game developer, I applaud you, this is really nice