racketboy.com

yeah, Minecraft is totally just a zen garden relaxation game for me. There's not real "point" in playing - at least the way that I play. I don't actually enjoy the survival of Creepers or having to eat food. I just want to build stuff and zone out. I played for like two hours last night just working on building a two-floor dirt house. I made some glass for windows, a chest to store stuff in, but ultimately I'm doing the video game equivalent of "busy work." Which is kind of what I'm in the mood for. There's no goal here. I'm just relaxing.

I did fire up the Mario Bros template just to check it out. It seemed 'neat,' but ultimately not something I'd spend much time with. Seems more like a fun fan-service thing to explore really.

Once my son is another year or so older, I'm looking forward to him giving it a try.
I've actually never played, but I know he's interested (he's heard of it and sees promotional stuff)
But he loves games and LEGO, so seems like a natural fit.

There's nothing wrong with digital busy work, that's what Sim City Classic is to tons of people too.

I never quite understood Minecraft anyway. A few tries into it I couldn't figure out how to make anything which forced me to use the internet for a few very general basics to start which I wasn't comfortable with but felt it was forced, same again later when I wanted something a little nicer like glass windows. Eating I never got at first either, I ended up starving or eating raw stuff at least but when I figured out the whole smelting process it kind of fit to that.

It's not bad, but honestly I enjoyed the equally large but flat world of Terraria, felt less nasty trying to accomplish making things.