Should I play Minecraft?

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I've been looking for a game that I can do when I am stressed and want to unwind; Minecraft seems like a good choice. Is it worth it/a good way to relieve anxiety?

It's a blast, but it's certainly not for everyone. It has near infinite replayability for something to always fall back on, but it's not something I play daily.

I'm currently finding Guns of Icarus to be a blast, regardless of the fact that it's highly cooperative in nature. (Lots of voice chat.)

If you have Steam, it's on sale for 5$ right now - but it goes back to 15$ sometime on the 2nd.

If you're stressed, then stick to creative mode. Survival can be a infuriating. I think it would be good though. It's a great game.

Hmm, I have to disagree on the infuriating bit, since you can just drop the difficulty to Easy, which is indeed very easy. Very good for learning the game. But it depends on your taste.

Creative is.... JUST building. There isnt really anything else to it whatsoever. It'd put me to sleep, really, and I'm a huge fan of the game.

Survival mode seriously isnt that hard. Typically, for players that want to get some real challenge out of it, mods are necessary, as even on Hard mode, Survival really isnt that hard at all. Particularly once you have armor of any sort (and it does not take long to get your first piece of iron armor, as iron is an extremely common ore).

You could start on Easy, if you want to have some monsters around to bash; I find that smashing some of them can sorta be a way to vent if I'm feeling irritable. It's pretty tough to die on Easy so long as you dont fall into lava and such, which can kill you quickly regardless of difficulty. And when you dont feel like dealing with them, you can simply use a bed to skip the night. Enemies do not spawn during the day, or in brightly lit areas. You can change difficulty levels at any time from the menu, which includes the ability to switch to passive mode, which lacks any danger whatsoever. Switch between them as you see fit!

If you do play survival though, you may want to look for a beginner's guide, as the game does NOT teach you anything whatsoever. There's no tutorial. Fortunately, the game is structured so that if you do have a guide that explains some of the basics and has a recipe list, it's not at all tough to get the hang of.


One way or another though, it really is a superb game. I play it very frequently, and one of the best things about it is the sheer number of ways to play it, and a ridiculous amount of things to do.... particularly when you consider mods, or online play. Online play can be simple Survival mode with friends (or on a hosted server that has lots of players on it), or Creative, or you can play one of the bazillions of minigames that clever players have come up with. Many of those are all sorts of hilarious, and great for when you just wanna have some wacky action. Like Egg Spleef: Everyone fights on a series of large, 1 block thin platforms, and has an infinite supply of eggs. You cant damage players directly, but instead you try to hit the blocks under them, as the eggs in this particular minigame destroy the blocks that they hit. Which is another thing about playing online, the maps and servers themselves can alter the rules of the game to fit the different minigame concepts. Egg Spleef still remains one of my favorites for the sheer humor of it and the fun of blowing holes in platforms and watching people walk into them. But there's TONS of these.

There's also "Adventure" maps, which are essentially maps/levels that players have made for you to go through and complete. There's tons of THESE too.

And it just keeps going from there. I really cant fit a full description of all of the various ways to play it in one post, or even 20. There's THAT much to it. Though, as Zodai said, it's not for everyone. Have a look at some videos of it, there's tons of them, covering all sorts of ways to play the game. There's good tutorial vids of all sorts, too.

And feel free to ask questions on here if you'd like! Just.... dont try using the main Minecraft forums. Just dont. Horrid place.


All in all, this game remains probably my absolute favorite, period, for about a bazillion different reasons. And all the different ways to play keep me from ever really burning out on it. Bloody amazing game with incredible potential..... just lacking an in-game tutorial.

Hopefully this post helps you to get a bit of an idea as to what the game's like.


Oh, and if you do try Survival, a couple of quick tips that can help:

1. Build SOME sort of structure, even a really craptastic one made of dirt, that you can hide in at night for the first couple of nights, when you dont have much in the way of defenses. You dont HAVE to do this, you could still run around and clobber things if you should happen to feel like it, but it's usually a good idea. You can dig around underground for ore while waiting out the night, which takes about 7 minutes.

2. Never, ever dig straight down underneath you. This is sort of the number 1 rule of Minecraft. If you do this, you'll run into the nasty reason why you shouldnt, probably sooner rather than later.

3. Your very first thing that you craft (after the crafting table) should be a wooden axe. Alot of players dont do this and just keep punching the trees instead of chopping them, and it really does slow you down. A wooden pick can come next, and then it takes hardly any time at all to get the stone versions of each, and a stone sword and shovel.

4. Attack pigs/chickens/cows to get meat that you can cook for food. They're super easy to find. Later on you can make a farm with wheat and stuff, but meat will do you well for quite some time.

5. Keep important items in chests. Dont carry them unless you're going to use them soon.

And that's it! From there, you can really get going and start making decisions and trying things out on your own. Or follow a guide, or whatever! Just do whatever you happen to feel like doing, and dont be afraid to explore and try things out! And there's a good wiki available for the game as well that has info on absolutely everything.

I find a good Minecraft session is great for relieving tension, so long as you aren't playing survival mode. Sometimes when I need to unwind, I'll go into creative or passive mode and just create things. Some people don't get Minecraft, and that's fine, but I can always go back and have a good time with it.

The vanilla game gets boring after a while; what you're really buying is the mod scene -- in particular I'm a fan of:

ComputerCraft (adds Lua-capable computers and peripherals, including robots and networking API's),
Applied Energistics (adds the ability to store items as data on a hard drive-like system and import/export items to/from a network for processing and automated crafting),
and IndustrialCraft with GregTech (IndustrialCraft adds automated machinery and a simple energy storage system, and GregTech changes IC recipes to up the difficulty; while adding complex chemical processes, such as using electrolysis to separate iron and sulfur from pyrite, or hydrogen from water (the hydrogen can later be bonded with carbon to make methane) for use in a gas turbine for power generation.

Thank you all, these long and detailed answers tell me it is worth a shot!

Minecraft is something I play from time to time. It's addictive if you like building intricate things and houses. If you like the Sims you might like minecraft.

yes, If you like'd lego's you'll like minecraft.
It's also one of the most modded games out there, over 300 mods to extend the fun.

I will give one more warning though, now that I think about it: Dont expect extreme performance from this one even on a powerful machine. As much as I love the game, it is, well..... let's just call it "badly optimized" for now. I have a lot of respect for Mojang as a developer, when it comes to game design, and also when it comes to post-release support, BUT..... their actual programming skills leave alot to be desired. Expect bugs. Nothing game-breaking right now, but.... yeah.

If the game isnt running very well for you for whatever reason, look up a mod called Optifine, and see about installing it. All that mod does is essentially optimize the hell outta the game and add more graphical options as well, such as longer view range. I mention this mostly because there are a few players out there who find that the game is nigh-unplayable on their machines without this. If you do end up getting this, or ANY mod, make sure to very carefully read the instructions on how to install and use it, and back up your world saves first.

Though you should really back those up every now and then anyway.... just in case. Nothing more frustrating than losing a world due to derp.

Glad to find this thread. I got an Xbox 360 for Christmas and was more than thrilled to finally get Minecraft. I've played lots of video games, love games, but haven't done the type like this where you're immersed in the game (until now). I think this game is so awesome and so spectacular - with so many surprises and SO many cool different things that you can do. I absolutely LOVE it.

THAT SAID ...

I got motion sick when I started playing it. Couldn't make it longer than 15 minutes - serious sickness. I read online about it and tried turning off "head bob" in Options and that helped quite alot. I've played since and if I'm inside building or mining the queasiness is minimal, but outside I don't last long and have to get off it.

After the problem was pretty much solved I learned how to join someone else's game and I joined my daughters (she's in another town) and we played for 3 hours - mostly mining (in 'peaceful' mode so no monsters to fight) It was a full out BLAST! Never had so much fun but toward the end of that session I felt more and more ill. After getting off the game I had chest pains and felt really lousy.

The next night I tried it on my own game with head bob off, in peaceful mode, just mining. I seem to get so hyperfocused and so drawn in that I really feel it's me in there. Even with auto save set to 10 minutes, which forces a break (and I look around the room or stand and stretch when that break comes) I STILL am super absorbed. Way too much. Far more than you're supposed to be. After an hour and a half last night of what was actually very non-eventful, peaceful, non scary, not super stimulating play, I had even stronger chest pains.

I had a heart attack last April that was stress caused (no blockage in the arteries) and I tend to be very hyper-sensitive and wound a bit too tight I guess. I got a clean bill of health from the doctor in August - had a treadmill stress test and everything and they said I was "normalized" and needed no further treatment or meds, no restrictions. I jog several days a week and I haven't had chest pains in 8 months (since the attack) so the fact that this game brings them on is more than surprising and it's also really upsetting to me, because of course I wish I could continue to play.

I want to know if anyone else gets too immersed in these type of games? Do you have trouble separating yourself from what's happening to your game character? Anyone get sick from them?

You want too relieve me?

Certain 3D games make me motion sick, especially older FPS, I think it might have something to do with the refresh rate being so high...but I'm not certain.

If I kind of slowly ween myself into them, I can play them again without any problems, it just takes a while.

I've had it since December of 2011, I love it, its a beautiful game but it ain't for everyone.

Basically it also depends what computer You have, if You have a sluggish old computer, FORGET trying to play it, I can only really play it on creative mode since of my low video card settings, heres a good website to find out if You can run it.
http://systemrequirementslab.com/cyri

Anyway creative mode is a good way to release stress, You can literally build anything You desire, be it a tall office skyscraper or a simple little house.

Survival can be frustrating if You are inexperienced, I suggest looking up for a few tutorials first before You play it, anyway I didn't know it was now on Steam, I bought it for about £15, that was when 1.0 had just come out, the price has probably gone up a bit now, but the cool thing is You really do get Your value for money, every update is like a new Minecraft, and even better You never have to pay for an update.

Anyway hope I helped.

I'd go as far as to say there's over 3000 mods if You include every version of the game.

If Creating stuff is your thing, then try out Roblox and find studio mode.
it takes some learning but you can create anything, unlike Minecraft you are limited too what the game provides you unless you use mods.

Roblox is created for Unlimited possibilitys for the users that Minecraft cannot provide.