[vgel]

Some people, yeah. But a lot of people only enjoy the game because of complex systems that were added later: redstone, slimeblock machines, building complex farms, gear progression via material and enchantment upgrades, exploring an infinite world, etc. You can go on Youtube and see people who only play those parts of the game. I think it's fair to say that they wouldn't have enjoyed, say, Indev, before those features were added. And Indev, before the infinite world, was already the culmination of 6 months of work on the game! That's pushing the definition of "small game" already, and a lot of people would still treat it as "a cool toy, but not a full game" (I played it back then and remember people talking about it as such).

[_c3ag]

redstones were introduced at the alpha version of the game. complex enough to people build small computers with it back in the days. as mob and food farms, with lots of ways to automate it with water buckets etc. enchantments are just grind. the 2 main weapons of the game, a sword and a bow were introduced at alpha stage too… and the infinite world is also an alpha thing.

sure nowadays you can build a lot of complex stuff. but i do not think Minecraft went through a metanoia. i remember tweaking with more complex systems of villagers with mods back in the alpha/beta days than when they were officially released…

maybe now Minecraft is ‘more popular’ as every kid that has access to a computer with internet probably will hear about it and play. but maybe this popularity is more about ‘we do not have much child friendly games’ than any other phenomena. + the masterpiece of gameplay which it has! after you learn how to open the inventory, hold the L.mouse to collect resources and R.mouse to place blocks… life just gets brighter *-*