Minecraft!?!?

Last night, after some minor fretting, I decided that I wanted to buy a copy of Minecraft. :-D



I had three key reasons that helped me make the purchasing decision:

1. I've watched a lot of videos about Minecraft (usually linked to me by friends) and it looks like a lot of fun.
   .


2. A few of my friends play, or have played, Minecraft. They sometimes go on about it endlessly, and a couple even have their own servers where they hang out with other people I know.. and I feel left out of the fun.
   .


3. With all the political wrangling over the debt ceiling, and the announcement that Standard & Poors has reduced the United States soveriegn credit rating from AAA to AA+, and China's announcement that "Your days of borrowing your way out of troubles are over".. well I suspect things will be none-too-rosy for the US Dollar for the near future. Given that Minecraft is priced in Euros, well I figured I'd do it now, before the exchange rates react.

So I did it.

It seems like a lot of spending lately. Drawing tablet, then a videogame... especially in a time of economic upheaval. But that's really the point in this case. I could afford those items today, and not knowing what will happen with the economy, I DON'T know if I'd be able to afford those things later.

The tablet is a good tool to have, that increases my ability to do work, work that pays the bills.

Minecraft is an inexpensive "one time purchase" (not a subscription-based game) that has relatively relaxed graphics demands, meaning I can run it with ease on my desktop, and may even be able to run it on the netbook, in a pinch. While some games I have require an internet connection to play, Minecraft doesn't. So if push comes to shove and we have to do without internet for a while, well that's something to do besides drawing and watching movies and anime.

It also reminds me a LOT of an oooooold game I used to love playing on my Apple Macintosh SE/30 called Bolo.

In that game, you were a litle tank that could shoot down walls and enemy tanks and pillboxes, and you had a "little green man" that you could send out of your tank to go harvest trees. Trees you could use to build walls. It was a multi-player game, and it had a pretty decent UI as well. So playing online (via LAN) or offline, either way it was fun. You could build forts, and attack enemy forts, etc.

Anyways, so far I played Minecraft for a few hours. Survived the first night, and a few nights after.. built a few hidey caves, etc etc. Managed to make glass, find iron ore, make a variety of tools, etc. I watched a few tutorials first, just to acclimate myself to how the game works. Day cycles are very short, and nights are dangerous. You don't have a lot of time from starting the game the first time, to dealing with your first night, so getting started fast is important.



So far it has INDEED been a lot of fun, and at just $21 USD, it won't be hard to get my money's worth of entertainment out of it. :-)