What's up with Minecraft?

Too much, arguably.

Minecraft is one of the biggest games in the world, to such an extent that somewhat paradoxically you don't even really talk about it anymore. It's reached a height that publicity isn't even a requirement anymore. You don't need to seed into new potential user's headlines with proactive catch-alls or subversive decisions on the nature on the game- because Minecraft is just a way of life that everyone knows about. You're either involved with it or your not, there's not really that much of a need for expansion so long as you put in the effort to prevent it dropping off the face of the earth. Because there's still a bar of relevance that has to be met, nothing is self-perpetuating accept God and CSGO. Words to bind your scripture with, amen to that.

I think it's this very exclusive club which Minecraft has muscled it's way into that allows the juggernaut to get away with some honestly insane decisions that any other developer would found themselves deeply accountable for. But at this point who is really going to hold Mojang's feet to the fire for their design direction? Microsoft? They don't give a damn as long as the game generates a decent revenue! Their fans are too numerous and diverse to gain any actionable feedback, and the demographic that really needs to be heard just doesn't get involved with this sort of game anyway. But as someone who has played Minecraft on and off for nearly a decade now, I feel like I have the closeness and distance to repeat the one criticism I think this game loathes to hear: It's too complicated.

I know: kids game, what's complicated about that? The very idea is to do whatever you want, that's so intuitive it doesn't even require a tutorial! But of course there's so much more to the equation than simply 'doing whatever you want'. Minecraft is a game about architecture, adventure and survival- all fuelled by the near endless versatility of the tools each game update provides it's audience. But here's a little question for you all- what good is utility that you don't understand? Having endless ways to use a spell in an RPG game is an utterly useless boon when you either don't know that the spell exists or the way that it functions. I could liken this to the very clever elements system in Divinity Original Sin. Liquids and gases and fires all combine with each other in interesting and useful reactions, but you wouldn't know that if Larian didn't design their entire first act to introduce you to scenarios wherein you're likely to, accidentally or otherwise, mix two elements and witness the reaction firsthand! Minecraft forgot the tutorials.

Okay, perhaps that isn't entirely fair to say. What Minecraft did do a long time ago, and then just left it as though it's a flawless concept, is introduce the 'recipe menu' as an annoyingly irremovable feature that informs the player of everything they can create with the resources they currently have upon them. This was obviously done in order to circumvent the utterly hand-hold-free learn-by-word-of-mouth manner in which the early life of the game functioned. If you didn't have a Youtuber or a Wiki page open, you'd never learn how to craft the basics to survive your first few nights. It does kind of invalidate the need for a manual crafting table at all, with the exception of a few choice material-important recipes, but it was a sensible decision that streamlined the early learners process. It was a good system, it's just a shame that's the only one Mojang have ever thought to add.

Everytime there is a Minecraft event to reveal the next game changing update I can't help but cringe at the prospect of the next smattering of content thrown atop the pile, because like the throngs of zombies in a World War Z-style dogpile, the stack is reaching critical mass. Not because all of these updates are unwanted, mind you- I think it's fantastic that the game continues to receive content and just recently Minecraft crossed 300 Million in total sales- but how many of those players are ever going to get to the point where they can say they understand the majority of the game and it's systems? How many people can look at the creative block list and navigate themselves around it reliably without being struck with awe at it's seemingly unending scrolling potential? Is Minecraft past the point of comfortable return?

One of the most recent announcement is something that fans have been asking after for literally ever. I'm talking since the original Adventure update- since it became apparent that Redstone was here to stay people wanted to know how they could go about automating the crafting process. Why Minecraft never went that route is pretty apparent; automatic crafting would go some way to removing the spirit of hand-to-hand survival that Minecraft was born around. But at this point the game is so ungainly huge, and has such bizarre vertical expansion, there is no original vision. Minecraft kind of has to cater to all different walks of player, including those who just want to turn the game into their own version of Factorio. Which is probably why they've finally caved and we're getting an 'auto crafter' which provides another painfully complicated way to totally automate the act of crafting the means of our survival. And thus the problem compounds.

I actually don't think that what Minecraft needs is a simplification of it's parts. I actually think it is in need of something that a lot of modern games absolutely shirk- a tutorial. Back in the days of Bedrock, I always used to log into the new tutorial worlds that would debut with every update for the way they introduced everything new to the game in a sensible fashion- even though I was such a fan back then that I knew every coming update several months in advance. (Bedrock was years behind Java at that point- we were playing a joke of a port.) Bedrock's tutorials have reached the point where they're no longer a focus and have been outsourced to a community that cares more about functionality than style (they're not so useful anymore) and we're right back slap at square one.

Minecraft is not on the verge of some coming disastrous drop off- it's more successful now than anyone could have predicted and I don't think the trajectory is tapering off, especially coming into 'new event' season. But I do think Minecraft has a problem of diminishing returns for those that stick around. There is so much that a Minecraft player can do which they will never know about simply due to the nature of how the game is presented, and it's means they never quite get a chance to appreciate the insane level of work that has gone into this one game over the decade and a bit it's been in active development. Mojang is an intimate team, but adding one department for the sole purpose of inboarding new players would only be a boon for everyone involved. Not least of all the new staffers. (God knows developers these days need the extra jobs.)