The Minecraft cult game

Gameplay Videos

A major part of Minecraft's success can be attributed the numerous videos on various websites, especially YouTube. Most of these videos show a gameplay, which is more entertaining than it sounds. Many players and their teams are quite humorous and know how to stage exciting game situations or put together the "best of" from their games.

Players such as GommeHD [4], ZeronikHD [5], and Ungespielt [6], are all very entertaining players. The occasional slips of the tongue, pauses, repetitions, and similar technical errors give the videos an authentic charm, similar to professionally produced reality TV.

The videos also provide a kind of handbook. Some of the videos aimed at sharing experiences include breathtaking tricks. A player named Salaja built a 16-bit computer into his game world with help from five simple electrical elements of Minecraft. Salaja maintains a whole list of such installations in the Minecraft forum [7].

A few filmmakers use the game to make animated films. These range from "movies" of all genres created directly in the game, where live actors take on the roles as characters and monsters, to rather surrealist animations that play with the square aesthetics of Minecraft. Some of the small underground productions include astounding special effects in addition to being witty and original.

The works of CorridorDigital [8] include actors in grotesque papier mache costumes fighting zombies and hell monsters in some five-minute video clips.

The filmmakers incorporate 3D animations of Minecraft elements into the real world: Explosions tearing holes in the ground merge with the typical Minecraft blocks.

Open Landscapes

Multi-player mode provides the option to merge the actions and game statuses of multiple players in a virtual world on one server. On the download page of CraftBukkit, you can find a JAR file [9] that you simply start. In the wizard to the game, you enter the name or IP address of the server to which Minecraft automatically connects.

A prerequisite, however, is that all versions match exactly. If you operate a server, every Minecraft upgrade also includes an update for Bukkit, which may lock out older versions of the game.