Videogames usually stay popular for a few years after which it is either forgotten, added to the list of iconic games, or revived via a sequel. Mojang developed and released Minecraft in 2009, and in 2021, twelve years after it first came out, it continues to be one of the most loved and played games globally.
The game’s graphics are incredibly blocky where everything from the trees and animals to the clouds and sand has well-defined edges. This is a far step away from most popular video games that rely on hyper-realistic graphics to make the game more appealing. In this article, we will see how Minecraft has managed to stay relevant and popular in the mainstream, even in 2021.
Minecraft: The game with endless potential
In its pre-release versions, most of which weren’t made public at the time, the things you could do in the game were pretty limited. Markus “Notch” Persson, the genius behind the game created the very first version inspired by several of his favourite games and others that he had made previously. Only a small fraction of the objects available today was present in this first edition. The first “mobs” of Minecraft were introduced in the second phase of development, called Alpha and later named “Minecraft Classic”.
While you can understand most of the mechanisms in the game as you play it, many new players enter the world of Minecraft equipped with at least some knowledge acquired from gameplays or articles. The survival mode in Minecraft begins with you entering a randomly generated world of a particular terrain. You might land in a thick forest in the hills, a sandy beach surrounded by trees, a seemingly barren island in the middle of the ocean or next to snow-capped mountains.
With its open-world game structure, you can move large distances away from where you first spawned and create your base at any location you deem ideal.
The first thing most Minecraft survival mode players do is chop down trees with their bare fists. The science in the game might seem a bit ridiculous. Still, Minecraft was intended to be a children’s game, and the unbelievable physics and the way substances interact with each other add to your experience. There are a few materials you can construct with the wooden blocks, including a crafting table required for more advanced constructions.
The game consists of day cycles where the square-shaped sun rises, moves across the sky and sets, plunging the world into darkness. Nights are perilous in Minecraft, especially if you do not have a shelter. Numerous hostile mobs such as zombies, creepers, spiders and skeletons spawn during the night and attack you if you are out in the open. You can kill these mobs with one of the first tools you build, a wooden sword, and collect the materials they drop.
Minecraft is a sandbox game that lets your imagination run free and wild when it comes to the things you want to create. With the numerous materials that can be mined or crafted, you can construct huge mansions, towers, farms, hidden trapdoors, and even roller coasters. Once you learn the basics of using certain materials such as Redstone dust and observers, you can become a skilled engineer constructing magnificent structures and devices in the game.
The Minecraft revival of 2019
After its release, Minecraft was played by many around the world. But, it was never one of those games popular on social media or YouTube with numerous memes and fan following. But in 2019, many creators took to YouTube with their long Minecraft videos that were extremely entertaining and unique to each creator. Unlike many games that followed a plotline or whose main objective was to defeat all the opponents, Minecraft gameplays varied from individual to individual. Each creator could decide what they wanted to do in the game.
Felix Kjellberg, popularly known as Pewdiepie, was one such creator who helped bring Minecraft to the mainstream. His Minecraft series which began in 2019 and continued till mid-2020 amassed several million views. His buildings and pets have also become well-known on social media and a part of the meme culture. Kjellberg restarted his Minecraft videos towards the end of 2020 with “Gaming month”, and he also started live streaming for up to 8 hours while playing Minecraft.
Many other YouTubers, including Jacksepticeye, Dream and Grandayy also helped establish the game as one of the most celebrated on the internet today.
The spin-offs and other versions
Gaming on the go is a big part of life today, and everyone from significant Videogame developers to online casinos was making products that could be used on mobile devices. MuchoVegas.com is the best online casino in Canada, and with players’ ability to gamble on their phones, online casinos have been gaining even much more popularity.
Minecraft released its Pocket edition which could be played on mobile phones back in 2011. It has undergone many version changes and upgrades until it reached the form it has today.
Minecraft Earth was released as an Augmented Reality mobile game in 2019. It enabled players to walk around and interact with the objects that popped up on their screens. The game was expected to be a staple in the world of AR games, but the development team has announced that it will be shut down in mid-2021.
Minecraft Dungeons came out in 2020, and it is an action-adventure game set in the familiar terrains of Minecraft.
Upgrading your Minecraft experience
The greatest and most innovative solution to the visual interface of Minecraft is Shaders. The community invented shaders to enhance the graphics and overall look of the game. It gives the players what was otherwise lost in the game – realistic by providing better graphics to which players are more accustomed. In addition, the look of the game’s environment and blocks are greatly improved with Shader’s visual effects. This improves players’ overall experience in a beautiful and fun way.
Installing Minecraft Shaders on your mobile device, android specifically, can be a bit tricky since they operate on different editions of Minecraft. You can find out how to install them in the game on this post HERE.
Summing up
Since its inception, the game has offered so much to its players. The game that provides players with endless possibilities for creation and construction can be played for hours on end. Those who played the game when it first came out have now grown up to be adults, but they too continue to enjoy this game in its various forms even in 2021.
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