Introduction
In my opinion, Minecraft is a 'one of a kind' game. It is considered a sandbox game meaning it gives the player creative freedom do to anything they desire at their own pace. It was developed by Swedish game studio -Mojang Studios. Minecraft officially launched on May 17, 2009 and initially gained popularity among 'nerdy' adults. However, it quickly blew up as children grew to discover this interesting blocky game. Since it's release, the game has made sales of 200 million units. (source)
Gameplay
You begin by spawning in a three-dimensional world of 'blocks'. The game is very much the player interacting with the environment and constructing something in the process, whether it's a structure or creative art piece. The game consists of various game-modes. I will however, gloss-over the main three:
Survival
This is the most common game-mode. The player spawns with no items and no levels. As the game-mode suggests the goal is to survive. The player has health and hunger bars as shown in the image. If the player dies, however, they can respawn but they will lose all items that were in their inventory. They must gather resources which are then stored in their inventory. Those resources display recipes to the player which can be used to craft items. Item recipes are not shown to the player until they interact with a block - usually by breaking it. I like this aspect because it really gives that sense of discovery and progression as you play along. If the recipes for all the items were to be immediately revealed, I feel like it would really spoil a lot about the 'adventure' and 'discovery' aspects of the game. The crafting table is the most important block in this game as only with will you be able to create your items. The general advice for when you first spawn in survival is to gather and craft a few items and build a den before dark. At night hostile mobs such as zombies or skeletons appears which will put you danger.
Creative
In this game mode, the player does not need to worry about the health and hunger bar - because there isn't one. Players in creative mode have infinite access to all the blocks in the game. They can also destroy blocks much faster than they would in survival mode without the need of tools such as a pickaxe. Another great feature is that players have the ability to fly. This allows them to get to a certain area much faster than would by walking. Overall, this game mode is generally used for the sole purpose of building - at a much faster rate without needing to gather resources or concern about staying alive as you would in survival. Some players like to test out their builds and contraptions in survival before going ahead with a project in survival mode. This helps save time in the long run.
Hardcore
For veteran players and those who like to be challenged. The hardcore mode functions very much the same as survival aside from one key feature: the player will not be able to respawn if they die. It is also restricted to hard difficulty. This can be frustrating and intense game-mode. One slip-up and everything you worked for could be lost. Be warned!
I joined the Minecraft party really late and I still consider myself a 'noob' - I have yet to learn the mind boggling machinations of red-stone. Yet I have chosen to write about this game because I'm currently immersed in it. I don't personally consider it a 'repetitive' game like many other games that anchors you to a strict levelling system or some other form of progression system. In Minecraft you manage your own progression system. If you have a specific project in mind, there's nothing really to stop you from having a kick at it right a away. 'Your limitation - it's only your imagination' as they say. There's always a new build or contraption to try out.
