I know I said things in previous posts and I really need to start writing more stuff but I need some help. Please take 10 seconds to vote for what you would like me to do in Minecraft!
Tag / Mojang
Birdwatching: Minecraft vs. Lego
Birdwatching is a column by Eddie King. Views expressed are not necessarily those of Digixav.
Many moons ago, before the red ball of fury was angry and consumed with rage at the idiots who run the world, he spent his time building the most tremendous Lego structures the world has ever seen, and spent hours planning the most complicated battle plans in an attempt to outwit the little yellow men on the other team. Now, I play Minecraft whenever I have an urge to see an insane idea of mine on a screen and soon my little brother will too. The problem is he has never spent hours on some incredibly complex technological project that will rock the world of your own innocent dreams and never feel that awesome feeling of success. The real question is, despite my nostalgia, is this really a bad thing?
There is a little thing called evolution that I am rather fond of and I consider it the ultimate succession of life. Up until now, each generation has thought of something new and old people have complained about how much easier life was or how much worse it has become. The problem is that in the last hundred years we have made technological progress at a rate which is beyond comprehension. People are getting worried because every stereotype or old wives tale which we feel comfortable in is being rewritten thanks to computers. They are attacked and teams of individuals have made it their lives’ work to prove they are bad. But are they? I think that any change society makes on a mass scale must, by definition, be positive, otherwise that change would not happen on such a large scale. Take smoking – thirty years ago it was the pinnacle of cool and advertised at or sponsoring almost every major event. Seventy years ago it was just one of the things you did like breathing. It has however been clinically proven to kill you, so they stopped the advertising and sponsorships and today smokers are shunned. People still smoke, but the ones that do know how they could be compromised. The technological revolution is a compromise and one that I have not really made. For instance, how many people – especially teenagers – who are reading this post know how to skin a rabbit? On the down side, I am a terrible zob and I can’t touch type, but I am happy with that compromise.
My point is this – the technological revolution has not yet completed revolving and the more we fight it the longer it will take. I think we should sit back and let it take its course. If it works out then great, but if not then people will change because I think one of the biggest problems today is people don’t trust themselves. There is no confidence. People have been adapting for quite a long time now and they’ve got quite good at the whole survival thing.
My brother won’t have those great memories and I might feel bad for him, but he will have other memories and other experiences that I shall not have, and so we have come to the end of this sermon. I think that people should sit back and let this period of social evolution take its course.
Minecraft mod of the month: Mo’ Creatures
Recently I have been playing a fair amount of Minecraft as it is a great game (and unfortunately extremely addictive), so I have decided to take a break from building my castle and write about some of the many thousands of mods that are out there to improve this already superb game.
The first Minecraft mod of the month is Mo’ Creatures. This is by far the best mod that I have personally installed. This mod introduces a vast number of new mobs, including creatures such as snakes, birds, bears and even dolphins, but my personal favourite thing about this mod is the addition of werewolves. 
These mobs are incredibly hard to kill and thus simultaneously the best and the worst part of the Mo’ Creatures experience. The fact that they are almost impossible to kill with anything other than a golden sword is incredibly aggravating, meaning that they are the one thing that you do not want to meet on a dark night away from your castle/tower/hole in the side of a mountain. But, no matter how annoying they can get, killing you the second you go outside, it is impossible to hate them, due to the fact that during the daytime they turn into normal humans, screaming ‘OUCH YOUR HURTING ME!!!!!’ when you hit them. This makes up for the fact that the second the moon comes out they are out to kill you.
If you play Minecraft, I highly recommend that you download this fantastic mod, created by DrZhark. If you don’t play Minecraft, go and buy it as it is scientifically proven to be awesome.
April Fools: Mojang confirms new game Mars Effect
Mojang, the Swedish studio best known for Minecraft, has today unveiled its new game, entitled Mars Effect. In a post on the game’s website, Notch explains how the company came up with the name:
After several weeks of trying to come up with a good name for the game, we finally decided not to learn from previous experiences and pick a name that’s already kind of in use by a huge existing franchise. After playing around with names like “Elight”, “Wind Commander”, and “Steve Online”, we finally settled on the very catchy name “Mars Effect”.
While not much is currently known about the game, Mojang has released a list of features:
- Hard science fiction
- Lots of engineering
- Fully working computer system
- Space battles against the AI or other players
- A game ending that makes sense
- Abandoned ships full of loot
- Waist high walls
- Seamlessly landing on planets
- Advanced economy system
- Mining, trading, and looting
More information about the game can be found on its website, and with the hashtag #marseffect on Twitter.
Why Minecraft is awesome
If you haven’t heard what Minecraft is yet, then please go away and look it up on YouTube. The game, made by indie Swedish studio Mojang, has taken over the world in recent years. The reason that I do this is because whenever I am sitting around and just playing Minecraft, many people will come up to me and say things like:
Why are you playing Minecraft? Its gay and it has really bad graphics.
What’s the aim of the game anyway?
If I had enough time to explain to them without them still saying it’s ‘gay’ then they would get the answers they desired.
Anyway, on with the argument, however one-sided it may be.
Many people, who haven’t played, will give reasons for Minecraft being a bad game like:
- It has really bad graphics, so pixelated.
- What can you actually do? There’s no aim to the game.
- It’s boring.
- It’s childish.
- It gets really repetitive.
- It’s outdated.
- It’s gay.
And for people that have played:
- It gets really laggy (slow) sometimes.
- You can’t ever find diamonds. Why not?
- I always get killed by a creeper.
- A creeper always blows up my house.
- I always die.
- Whenever I “get” diamonds I have to say I fell in lava to make people think that I actually got some.
- Even when I don’t have diamonds I still fall in lava.
- When you do finally get to the credits they take so long!
But the game is still absolutely amazing. Let me explain why, by dismissing the most common arguments that I have come across that are against it.
It has really bad graphics, so pixelated.
Seeing as the game is made by a few Swedes and is based around blocks, it is only right for the game to be all blocky. How would it ever work if you were continuously taking out spheres out of the Minecraft ‘world’? I mean, I think the designers of the game would have thought about graphics if it wasn’t part of the game. There is actually something you can do about this. You can design you own or get someone else’s texture pack which will give the game of Minecraft a completely different look, and in some cases make it HD quality.
What can you actually do? There’s no aim to the game.
If you had decided to pay attention, the game has been updated and now has a start to the aim of the game. It will take you a while to do, and a lot of preparation, but when you finally find the portal to get to the “end” then you can kill the only (at the moment) boss. Again, that might take you a while if you haven’t prepared properly, but it is still achievable.
It’s boring. It’s childish. It gets really repetitive.
That’s your problem. If you get bored of computer games then don’t play them. I personally have been playing Minecraft for two years, for the plain reason that it is being continuously updated. If you really think its childish then, I’m sorry that you have grown up so fast. Seriously, did your guardians just not let you have a childhood? Did they just deprive you of games and instead make you read books all the time? If they did, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, then I feel for you. It gets really repetitive. This is stupid. There is so much you can do. You can make potions, build massive houses, build a farmhouse for all of your sheep and pigs, go and find a dungeon, get a saddle and go and fly a pig off of a mountain! There’s even an achievement for that.
It’s outdated.
You may say this because you don’t like indie games (refer to above) or you may say it because it is never updated. Well, Minecraft is updated so often that you have to read Twitter every day to check that there isn’t an update coming out with new features. I managed, within a week, to download a new Minecraft three times because of bug fixes and general updates.
IT’S GAY!
I know you are, but what am I?
It gets really laggy (slow) sometimes.
Get a better laptop. Or, you could even use the functions that have been implemented into the game to make it better/worse.
You can’t ever find diamonds. Why not? I always get killed by a creeper. A creeper always blows up my house. I always die. Whenever I “get” diamonds I have to say I fell in lava to make people think that I actually got some. Even when I don’t have diamonds I still fall in lava.
The simple answer is get better. The more complex answer is on the way.
When you do finally get to the credits they take so long!
Try the escape button. It does wonders for the impatient.
Conclusion
Minecraft is a really good game and there is always a valid reason why something is the way it is. There is always a forum, mod, texture pack or even multiplayer server that can answer all your prayers. If you have any questions or qualms then feel free to express yourself in the comments section below and I will be happy to reply, when I’m not digging for diamonds, of course.
Digixav 