What Minecraft Is Like For Someone Who Doesn't Play Games

As you may know, my wife, better known as the lady I live with, recently made the mistake of showing interest in one of my hobbies, so of course, instead of just sitting and enjoying some time together, I recorded her. experience of

play

ing several titles of the time and transmitted it to the Internet. After watching her

play

, I began to view video

games

through a new lens: one that was unfamiliar with typical game mechanics and conventions. There are a lot of things about the language of video

games

that people who play them often take for granted, and witnessing the attempt to learn that language has taught me a lot about games and made me think about them in new ways.

So, to continue her video game education, and in turn mine, I decide to continue this informal experiment by having her play possibly the most important game of the decade: Minecraft. Much of Minecraft's success is because it appeals to a wide audience. It gives players a massive set of tools and then gives them the space to decide

what

they want to do with those tools. There's no one right way to play Minecraft: some people enjoy building a house in a cool place and others like making working computers; It is the pinnacle of player freedom. Given my wife's positive experience playing Breath of the Wild, I was curious to see how she would approach a game with even more freedom for the player.

As she is a human living on Earth, she had heard of Minecraft before this, but other than recognizing the blocky art style of it, she didn't really know anything about it. For this experiment, I considered playing one of the beta versions, since that's

what

I'm most familiar with the Java edition of Minecraft offers, but I ended up choosing the current Java edition of the game, since it offers some aids that help players. players to better understand the game's systems, especially the recipe. Book that shows players how to make certain items. She started with survival mode, then moved on to creative mode, and finally we played co-op together.

This helped her get a broader idea of ​​the core elements of Minecraft while also giving her some room to discover things on her own. So, that's how it was. At first, I decided not to tell him anything about the game beyond the basic controls; He wanted to see what she would do if he just let her in. And as soon as I set foot in its first world, it was immediately clear to me that, even though Minecraft is a game that appeals to people of all ages, I don't do much to try to help players who are new to this. .

At a basic level, the randomness of each world means that a player's first experience can vary greatly. A player starting in the middle of a desert will have a harder time getting started than one in a lush forest. And that's because the core elements of the game are easier to learn in certain types of environments. Unfortunately for my wife, she spawned on a small island with no trees or other landforms in sight and understandably had no idea what to do. "WHAT'S THE POINT OF THE GAME!" Every other game she's played so far had a relatively clear goal;

Even if it was not directly stated, there was often at least one intended path to follow. Since she is not familiar with the idea of ​​a sandbox game, she assumed that there must be some kind of intended goal. Since the only thing notable on the island was a group of pigs, she figured they must be the key to progress. "Well..." "I need to kill a piglet." She didn't. Not having any clear goals was quite frustrating for her because she had no idea how to evaluate how well she was doing. Obviously, Minecraft is a game where players set their own goals, but being trapped on an island, it was difficult to even set any of them because she had no idea what she could do.

There are many things in Minecraft that are not explained in the game itself, and most players will not discover everything simply through trial and error. However, some of Minecraft's core ideas become clearer when the player finds wood. Getting wood unlocks recipes that show how to build some of the important things in the game, such as the crafting table, tools, and weapons. Being stranded on an island with no wood made it virtually impossible for her to discover anything on her own. She arrived at night and since she had no structure to hide in or weapons to fight with, she spent the entire time getting shot at by skeletons and blasted by vines.

So, I asked him to create a new world. This time she had a better starting location, and because of her experience in the last one, an immediate goal: find some kind of shelter before it gets dark. By getting some wood and a little extra help from me, she started to figure out some of the basics of the game. Now armed with useful supplies, she found a spot next to a pretty cliff and built a small cabin as the sun began to set. While the experience of her first night on the island was frustrating, she taught him an important lesson about how the game works, leading her to fall into the core loop of survival mode: accumulating resources to create a structure during the process. day and hide in it at night.

Despite her valiant efforts, the house she built had some obvious structural defects and she was once again overwhelmed by monsters. When the sun came out again, she built a more viable hiding place and, from that point on, she was able to survive through the night with little to no problems. While she personally enjoyed Minecraft's core gameplay loop, her experience highlighted one problem: nighttime sucks. *exasperated breathing* Raz: "How's it going?" Lady: "It's not good." The tension of what's coming puts more importance on being productive during the day, but failing to build something in the dark leads to almost ten minutes of guaranteed frustration, and even if the player manages to build a structure in time, they don't.

If they don't have torches, they will most likely just sit around waiting for dawn, which is boring. What's worse is that torches are one of the few items that aren't added to the recipe book by simply collecting the materials. To add it, the player must first create a stone pickaxe. Many players will most likely create a stone pickaxe from the start, but given the importance of torches for exploration and survival, it would be more beneficial for new players if the recipe book made it clear how to craft them after collecting wood. , there is always the option of creating things through trial and error, and while I understand that creating a torch seems intuitive to those familiar with how Minecraft works, for a new player, it really isn't.

So during the day, she would gather and build, and at night, she would just wait there. More experienced players would probably use the night to dig a hole and explore underground, but since it took him a while to get torches, he didn't want to go too low, especially since he didn't know if anything of value would appear. even be down there. Around this point, he started to get that feeling again of not knowing what the game wanted him to do next. Except this time, he didn't really care to know what he was supposed to do next and, instead, he decided to do what he enjoyed the most. "Look... you want me to play this game..." "But the reality is..." "I'm going to build a house all the time." Without realizing it, he described Minecraft pretty perfectly.

While not having a goal definitely made things a little more difficult from the start, he ended up appreciating that Minecraft didn't have one because it gave him the space to do what he wanted. In the previous experiments, he stayed as close to the main path as possible, only occasionally deviating from it, either by accident or to complete a related task. Here, instead of simply following instructions, she actually chose how she wanted to play the game, regardless of any notion of what she thought she was “supposed” to do. Minecraft gave her the freedom to do what she liked most;

It's a game with a lot of content of varying levels of complexity, meaning there are things for both experienced and inexperienced players to latch onto. And of course, the biggest draw of the game is... While the actual act of building structures came quite naturally to her, there were some mechanics that took some getting used to, such as the need to place blocks on each other. blocks and not just in the space she wanted it to be. Additionally, while she now uses the mouse much better than in previous efforts, she repeatedly confused left and right clicking, which led her to place many blocks that she had no intention of placing. "God...

You'll have a whole clip going, 'This is how many times my wife tried to take something from me but instead she built it up.'" Also, since my wife had never played any games before where she could directly interact and manipulate the environment, it took her a while to realize that she could even break and move blocks, but once she did, she immediately recognized him. the potential of the game. After a while, I asked her to switch to creative mode so she could have a little more freedom with what she built, and that's when she went from thinking the game was fine to wanting to play more actively.

Her time with creative mode made me look at it in a completely different way. In the past, I've always thought of it as the mode you use when you get tired of collecting blocks and just want to build something quickly, but now I see it as a mode meant to make the game more accessible to certain players. . Creative mode

doesn

't explain all of its mechanics, particularly how to fly, but Minecraft's core aspect of choosing and placing blocks

doesn

't need much explanation. And without having to worry about mobs or deal with gathering specific supplies, she could just focus on building.

She mentioned that in all the other games she played for these experiments, she had to constantly juggle different activities and ideas, and that often left her overwhelmed. But with Creative mode, she was able to do something she didn't do much while she was playing video games: relax. She looked at the beautiful blocky environments and made decisions based solely on what she thought would be the most fun. It's also worth mentioning that Creative Mode doesn't have any sort of fail state, and this ended up being a big help for her. Throughout these experiments, her least favorite part has been the need to repeat sections of a level over and over again after dying.

Losing progress can be discouraging for anyone, but it's especially difficult for players who aren't sure they'll be able to complete the section again. She would often get frustrated when things increased in difficulty and she would ask something like: Lady: "How many times are you going to make me do this?" Raz: "Until you get over it." Lady: "Beat him?!" but with Minecraft hours passed and she barely noticed. Her progression was never fully reset and that helped her enjoy the game a lot more. Even Survival mode handles her failure states in a way that is less frustrating than other games.

Dying interrupted her progression, but she didn't erase it completely, as she could always get her items back and the things she built remained intact; Dying was annoying, but much more manageable. Obviously, traditional failed states aren't going anywhere, and they shouldn't, as they can offer a good source of tension in certain games, but they can definitely take their toll on inexperienced players. She also believes that having multiple modes that only focus on a specific mechanic can go a long way toward helping new players adapt. A mode like creative that removes some of the more playful elements that exist in survival can give new players the space they need to figure things out.

And that definitely led her to enjoy the game much more. After she built things in creative mode for 2 hours longer than she expected, she wanted to try one last thing and let us both play together. And as she did that, I realized that, at its core, it's a game. After starting a world, we jump straight into the typical survival game cycle: find shelter, don't die. Things were much less daunting with my help, leading to a night cycle that wasn't entirely frustrating. Together we were able to gather a lot of supplies to create a proper base and also explore during the night.

This gave her the opportunity to focus primarily on her favorite aspect while she continued to deal with some of the tense and exciting elements of Survival. It was kind of the best of both worlds. I gave her information as things became relevant, helped her fight the various threats, and introduced her to other aspects of the game that she might find interesting. I shared the knowledge I had gained through my experiences, and I believe that this is how Minecraft should be played; it is meant to be learned from

someone

else. When I first got into Minecraft back in the days ofbeta version, I didn't figure out most things on my own.

Before I even bought it, I watched a few videos from a series called X's Adventures in Minecraft, where I learned a lot of the basics. I knew what to expect because

someone

I don't even know taught me. Once I started playing it myself, I dove deep into the Minecraft Wiki and tried to learn everything I could. Back then there were even fewer systems in the game to help players figure things out, so it was the natural path to learning the game. And I want to make it clear that I have nothing against Mojang for having designed their game this way.

Minecraft started out as a small indie title that gained traction due to its unique ideas. The developers weren't trying to engineer a blockbuster; They were just trying to make an interesting game. And they did it. At the time, games like Minecraft didn't really exist; It put all players in the position of being inexperienced, and for people who are used to fully understanding games, that feeling is kind of exciting. In a strange way, the fact that the main mode was not so accessible at first meant that Minecraft had to be a shared game. I know certain versions have a tutorial world meant to teach players the basics of crafting, but that's not how most people learned about the inner workings of Minecraft.

Most people learned through friends, videos, or discussion forums. Gaming became about sharing experiences and knowledge, and grew to be something people liked to talk about almost as much as they liked to play. A player's fort inside a hollowed-out tree isn't truly complete until it's shown to at least one other person. Minecraft came out at a time when people had more places than ever to share their experiences, and that has led it to become one of the most popular games ever created. Of all the titles my wife has played for these informal experiments, Minecraft is the first she has actively wanted to continue playing.

We've even had conversations outside of the game about what to build next time we enter it, which is new territory for her, since usually, once she's done playing, she never mentions it again. It definitely took her a while to overcome some of the barriers of the game, like not having a goal, but once she did, she found the joy of having the freedom to set her own goals. Through these experiments, I discovered that high-pressure situations often lead to a bit of frustration in her, so by being involved in a game with relatively low stakes and a lot of time and space to figure things out, she was able relax while you play.

Plus, she's always loved the idea of ​​designing her own house, so it gave him the opportunity to incorporate her personal interests into the game itself, and that made the whole thing more appealing to her. In these videos, I've talked a lot about how important it is for those familiar with games to be willing to teach those who aren't familiar with how to approach them, and Minecraft seems to be a title designed expressly around that philosophy. I don't think survival mode is the most complicated thing in the world, but many aspects are left unexplained, so having someone around as a guide helps a lot.

Of course, designers shouldn't intentionally make their games confusing so that players have to rely on external sources, but it's part of why Minecraft became the behemoth it is today. It is a game that is improved by sharing experiences and information with others. As corny as it is to say, it has brought people together. When I think about Minecraft, my memories are not tied to playing it alone. They're tied to the countless videos I've watched of other people's adventures and creations, they're tied to the hours and hours my college roommate and I spent building everything from a castle to a flying ship, and now they're linked to show I showed the game to my wife for the first time and watched her go from being completely confused with what she was supposed to do to engaging in a game like she never had before.

Lady: "I want to build down here, man." Raz: "Okay. Let's go!" Lady: "Like... I mean... wait, are we into the kind of thing that..." Raz: "Yeah, we're into the kind of thing that's going to kill us." Lady: "Oh. But I don't want to ruin these trees..." Raz: "Okay-" Lady: "Can I fly?" Raz: "No, you can't fly on this one." Hey! Thanks for watching. This video is sponsored by NordVPN. There are many reasons to get a VPN, from protecting your privacy and information to being able to connect to servers in France to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix.

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The link I mentioned before is in the description. Thanks to NordVPN for sponsoring this video. Anyway, thank you all so much for watching. I'm excited to post more content this year. I have a lot of big ideas and ambitions for the channel, none of which I'm going to say out loud in case I change my mind, it doesn't happen, or it happens differently. If you like what I do and you like the content I put out, I hope it's an exciting time for all of you because I know it's a very exciting time for me. So yes.

Have a good day and/or night and we'll see you next time. Raz: "I brought you something." Lady: "What?" Raz: "I brought you something! Lady: "Where are you?" Raz: "Hey, look, turn around. Look." Lady: "Awwwwwww" Raz: "Here you go. Here's a flower." Lady: "Did you just throw it on the ground?" Raz: "No! I gave it to you." Raz: "Okay. What do you want to do? We have to build something." Lady: "That was so sweet." Raz: "Yes. I know. "I'm a great husband."