[cole-k]

I've played a lot of Minecraft and I still remember beta 1.7.3 very fondly -- albeit for different reasons -- but I want to offer a differing perspective.

I have always struggled with balancing my desire to create with my capability to create, in and out of Minecraft. I would get so inspired by all the awesome things people built, that I could never graduate from my barebones cave-with-chests because my desire to make something great made any attempt feel crummy in comparison. The most I would accomplish was making redstone contraptions because -- to be a little reductionist -- those either work or they don't.

I hope you will pardon my digression, but the point I'm getting to is that in beta 1.7.3, the goals you set for yourself, and therefore the reasons for you to keep playing, were largely creative in nature, like building a cool house. Updates past this point gave players the opportunity to make simpler, game-directed goals. It used to be that you reach resource satiation quickly, but now it will take hours to obtain a fully enchanted set of diamond armor, kill the ender dragon, explore all the new generated structures, etc. In later years they've codified these goals in achievements, including crazy ones like getting every positive and negative effect at the same time or exploring every biome. With these updates, the people who enjoy building cool things also got more cool things to build with, but this has in my opinion been a little more secondary.

I understand why people might be disappointed, or at least confused, by Minecraft's updates now pushing it toward "pesudo-RPG" status, but I have at least welcomed these changes because they gave me and my friends a reason to reboot our server every few years to try out the new stuff.

Although I will add that if your gripe is regarding combat/pvp changes (e.g. shields) then yeah I have nothing to add to that discussion.

EDIT: I also agree with sibling comments about more content = more enjoyment, at least for me. I enjoy playing games where there are just a lot of things to learn and know.

[jfoutz]

I don't remember the specific version (s) I played. I remember being kinda depressed and burned out.

Although I didn't discover them, water ladders and cart boosters were so much fun. That feeling of almost cheating, using the bugs in the system to do magic things was so much fun.

I'd definitely credit Minecraft for rekindling some love for hacking, in the classic, non crack sense, but, matrix like, bending the rules to do NEAT stuff.

Then mods, pipes and auto crafting, bigger stuff.

I remember when tool damage was introduced. I was annoyed, but it was ok. I think around the time of food/hunger it started losing its luster. grow potatoes or butcher cows and pigs. it was ok. But that's the time I started drifting away.

Just an amazing game that brought me joy. good stuff.

[cole-k]

I agree, it's crazy to think how much content has been added to the game since beta 1.7.3 because I remember thinking at that time that there already was so much. Like you imply, there were all sorts of unintentional tricks to add to your bag: cart boosters, all manner of BUDs, placing a water source beneath your feet to prevent fall damage. But I think part of that feeling of wonder is nostalgia, since playing now I am not really bothered by powered rails, observers, and feather falling -- nor do I think I would be if they had been introduced from the get-go.

And of course redstone. What a lovely idea in retrospect.

Thank you for helping me revisit these memories.

[256_]

Well put.

> It used to be that you reach resource satiation quickly, but now it will take hours to [do so...]

I think this may actually be the most important point. It is also not true, but also is at the same time, I feel.

If "resource satiation" refers to the ability of the player to build/do whatever they want, then it is true. If "resource satiation" means "having enough resources", then for some people it is impossible by nature. There's always a temptation to do more and build more.

For me, I think this temptation was independent of the game itself. Looking back at my childhood, I don't feel like there was any sharp distinction between my creations in Minecraft and any of my other creative pursuits, including programming; it all sort of blended together. The game was less a game, more like yet another creative medium.

[cole-k]

> If "resource satiation" refers to the ability of the player to build/do whatever they want, then it is true. If "resource satiation" means "having enough resources", then for some people it is impossible by nature. There's always a temptation to do more and build more.

Just to clarify my point, when I refer to satiation I mean it in the same way one might feel about MMOs. OK, let me be honest here, I don't play any MMOs but my understanding is that after you "beat" the game and max your level, one thing that might bring you back outside of new content is obtaining all the best gear, different skins, whatever you might want to collect. In the same vein, in Minecraft you could imagine wanting to obtain the best armor, weapons, food, etc. In some of the servers I played on, there were players who lived in a ramshackle hut and spent most of their time mining to get enough diamonds for gear -- and after a certain point they ran out of things to improve upon for their player character so they started looking for rare items in dungeons (remember when mossy cobble was a rare item?). At some point, they had gotten enough, and saw no further reason to keep playing. An extreme case, but not completely dissimilar to my own.