Xboxist

Minecraft Creeps Me Out

I should qualify this post first by saying that it's not just Minecraft that creeps me out, but procedurally generated games in general. You see, most video games take place in worlds - levels, stages, areas, whatever you want to call them - that have been lovingly crafted by a team of designers, artists and producers. As the settings in which all the action takes place, video game worlds are crucially important to set the mood and give impetus to the rest of the experience. \n\nThat's why I find procedurally generated worlds so weirdly unsettling. Devoid of any human touch, these game spaces sprawl out according to mathematical algorithms that assign random parameters to the appearance of features. Trees, hills, valleys and even dungeons can be generated at the flip of a switch with nothing more than some fancy mathematics. You'd be correct in thinking that it makes the whole game design process infinitely quicker, and that's why so many developers have flirted with procedurally generated landscapes in their games. And perhaps because he is practically a solo outfit, Swedish game developer Notch has used this approach in his debut creation, Minecraft.\n\n\n\n\n\nThe world of Minecraft goes on like this forever.\n\n\nMinecraft, in case you haven't heard, is the latest indie game to blow up on the PC platform. In it, players are given access to a near-infinite landscape of small LEGO-like blocks upon which to roam. Equipped with a shovel, the player can dig into the bedrock, occasionally unearthing resources that can then be crafted into better tools, weapons and items. The weapons are needed to fight off the occasional randomly-spawning enemies, but there is nothing in the game that will challenge experienced players. It's really all about the blocks, and what you can build with them.\n\nSo with all of the colored blocks and fanciful animals on display, why do I find Minecraft so creepy? For starters, the popular single-player mode is - with the exception of one popular ghost meme - rather lonely. There is nothing but haunting sound effects and the inexorable day/night cycle to keep the player company as they toil with Sisyphean determination to shape a landscape nobody will ever see. Like the empty streets of London during the opening sequence of 28 Days later, the Minecraft world feels curiously unhinged; is it the remnant of an apocalyptic cleansing, or a carefully crafted trap waiting to be sprung on the protagonist who has found his personal hell?\n\nUltimately though, it's not the zombies or the ghosts that give me the willies in Minecraft -- it's the randomly generated game world where everything takes place. Blocks stretch out infinitely in every direction, giving the illusion of absolute freedom. But the illusion is interrupted when one realizes that each block is identical, each new vein of minerals the same as the last. The effect is existentially nullifying. Gazing over the landscape looking for the touch of a supreme creator, one is met instead with the blank and uncaring stare of randomness. Like the idea of a godless universe, we naturally recoil from the notion that everything exists simply because of math, and nothing we do will ever matter to anyone but ourselves.\n\nNo wonder some players feel compelled to populate the Minecraft world with ghosts.\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\n\nThis in-game video created by YouTube user brt5470 took 2 months to create and uses a world map 54 MB in size. \n\n\n
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