I wonder how it holds onto it's user base, or was it just dumb blind luck that it hit big with the youtube boom
Furthermore, the gameplay effectively can go on forever. Especially with mods on PC, there are very few limits to what can be done. Entire separate games (e.g. Hunger Games mod) have been implemented.
Also, it's one of the best-selling games of all time. That helps. No one bats an eye when, say, Puyo Puyo Tetris gets released and ported. (Yes, I just compared Minecraft to Tetris.)
Absolutely, but I would take it one step farther. Minecraft has introduced them to concepts beyond only video games: architecture, circuit design, and people management, to name a few.
Reminds me of why I was hooked to Star Craft / SC Brood War in my youth, same thing with Counter-Strike. Video game modding is probably the best part of any video game, at least for me. There's a group of people redoing the Morrowind engine so they can allow the game to live on in other OS' for those who have the disk.
I have to wonder if GTA had never had online PC game mods if Rockstar would of ever made it an online game as soon as they did.
I wonder what the story is around LEGO and not having to make their product obsolete over time. Could you imagine if they changed the scale just a little bit every 5 or so years?
The irony of that is that most LEGO brick sets are now pre-cut and specially made so that they're hard to use beyond their specific design. Kids don't really buy giant sets of generic, inter-compatible LEGO anymore. They buy licensed LEGO that allow them to rebuild a single figure (potentially with minor customizations), and it seems completely powered by imitating the characters and properties they enjoy, and not the joy of construction.
First row of results on Offical LEGO Google Shopping page is 6 pre-cuts: Mercedes AMG GT3, "Expert Assembly Square", Cinderella Castle, VW Bug, Ferrari SF16-H, and "Winter Toy Shop". Screenshot at https://i.imgur.com/c0tP7b4.jpg . Notice all of these are pre-cuts, and only two are non-licensed (Toy Shop/Assembly Square).
Minecraft is different in that to this point, licensing has made only minimal excursions (the Mario packs probably being the most prominent example).
fwiw as a kid my parents bought me mostly sets with things like pirate ships and castles and stuff, a specific goal. They were no less fun than the big boxes--in fact, sometimes they were more fun because I had all the pieces I needed to make whatever it was, rather than trying to make something out of the generic boxes and running out of a certain unit.
I'm not really sure where this complaint comes from, Legos today interlock exactly as they did 30 years ago, so what if they come with a cute guidebook that shows you how to make an X-wing?
I would say that the original designs primed my imagination.
In most games, you are consuming an experience created by the developers. In Minecraft, you are creating your own experience in an environment created by the developers. There's no end to what you can do in the game.
Funny that other games with this traction is also *craft.
You compared games that have a definitive start and end to a sandbox experience that doesn't have an end. It's like asking why people still playing with Legos but aren't watching Annie Hall every week.
Edit: I own Fez, Braid, etc also, but I don't play them much.
The game doesn't follow any real story so it doesn't have that limiting factor.