This Week In Retro: Minecraft (Patreon)

May 17, 2009: Punch Block…Punch Block

by Diamond Feit

When I started this series of columns looking back at anniversaries, I took inspiration from the Retronauts rule that once a piece of media turns 10 years old, it's fair game for discussion. For reasons I cannot understand, some people on the internet continue to express anger over this standard, insisting that a decade isn't a long enough time period to classify anything as "retro," especially now that consoles such as the PlayStation 4 have passed the mark. While I hold no ill will towards strangers who genuinely seek to have an intellectual discussion about this matter, I personally feel no conclusion could possibly satisfy all parties. We just use "retro" to focus our attention on less-than-recent media and we figured a 10-year gap would suffice.

However, in selecting a topic this week, I must recognize that some video games age differently than others. 21st-century audiences can now enjoy games which perpetually evolve over time as developers edit code and create new material for their software in the wild, allowing them to continuously update and transform the files sitting on players' PCs and consoles via the internet. If a video game launches in 2009 but, 15 years later, it merely resembles its original state, how can anyone label it "retro"?

We can table that query for now as we recognize and celebrate the 15th anniversary of a video game that almost needs no introduction. Adults my age tend to overinflate the importance of media from our childhood, presuming that any hit from the 80s or 90s remains hyper-influential and relevant today decades after its debut. Yet I feel like I can state, without exaggeration, that Minecraft has reached more people from more corners of the globe in its lifetime than any one game Nintendo, Sega, or Sony ever produced.

While I am confident that anyone reading this text has at least a passing familiarity with Minecraft, I also fear its public image as a children's pastime may have prevented some video game enthusiasts from actually sitting down and playing it for themselves. I felt great reluctance to investigate it firsthand for years after its release, instead relying solely on podcast scuttlebutt and the occasional viral headline of "famous location remade in Minecraft." I struggled with these two disparate ideas in my head: How can one video game centered on foraging in the wilderness also allow for such meticulous creative expression?

Beginning a fresh Minecraft playthrough certainly opens with zero fanfare. The player spawns in a lush environment surrounded by nature, typically a forest although the starting biome is always randomly generated. Your in-game avatar has no possessions or provisions beyond basic clothing; the game also lacks waypoints, quest markers, or any built-in system to urge the player towards any one destination. The only guaranteed landmark in Minecraft is the sun, appearing high in the sky but slowly descending towards the horizon.

While players can elect to explore the environment at length, their lack of inventory limits their interactivity. Beyond basic movement—running, jumping, swimming—the primary method of altering the world of Minecraft is punching. Unlike real life, pummeling objects breaks and transforms them into a portable resource: Punch the ground to get a block of dirt. Punch a tree to get a block of wood. Punch an animal and, depending on your target, you might get meat, fur, feathers, or just one angry critter.

English speakers use the expression "you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs." In Minecraft, you can't make anything without breaking something first, and relying solely on your fists will only take you so far. Players need tools to dig deep into the game, but they don't grow on trees. Tools require crafting, and crafting requires a crafting table. Again, nothing in game will impart this information to the player, although modern versions will display a list of everything you can possibly make whenever you open your inventory.

By the time a Minecraft player secures the proper tools, daylight will be in short supply, bumping shelter to the top of the to-do list. While most animals have a laissez-faire attitude towards humans, the creatures who appear at night are far more aggressive. Fortunately, enemies in Minecraft lack curiosity and do not thirst for violence; so long as you can stay out of sight, nothing will hunt you down.

This looming threat makes housing after dark a must, though the flexibility of Minecraft means a home can take many forms. Obviously, with enough wood or stone on hand, players may erect four walls and a roof within minutes. Yet if resources are sparse, digging a hole in the dirt or even sand will suffice. Climbing a tree and building a loft amongst the leaves is also a viable option, as none of Minecraft's wildlife have the know-how to piece together or scale a ladder.

Minecraft has combat but I wouldn't describe it as an action game. Whether the player arms themselves or not, fighting involves little more than rushing towards a target and rapidly clicking the punch/attack button. Killing monsters nets little in the way of spoils; you might get lucky and slay a zombie who drops a weapon or armor, but anything in their possession will invariably be in poor condition. Giant spiders make better prey, as they can leave string behind—a key ingredient in both bows and fishing rods.

Minecraft's most famous antagonist, the Creeper, poses the biggest risk. While they only spawn in dark places, Creepers can safely parade about in the sun, so waiting for the dawn to come will grant no reprieve from their presence. Worse still, Creepers have but one attack: They explode, dealing heavy damage to players and structures alike. Death in Minecraft doesn't mean much, since you can respawn immediately and reclaim any items you dropped, but one surprise visit from a Creeper can ruin hours of hard work.

When the alpha version of Minecraft first hit the internet in 2009, I soon heard about it from podcast hosts mesmerized by its true open-world gameplay. I know that phrase has been a buzzword in the media for over two decades now, but Minecraft embodies the concept better than any big-budget production by dropping the player into a unique landscape that exists solely for them to experience. Not only can you climb any mountain you might see in the distance, you can also tunnel through that mountain to see if anything of value lies waiting in its base. Alternatively, build your own mountain and fill it with treasure chests; you can even invite friends to come by and explore it for themselves.

Minecraft also stands as the poster child for the much-ballyhooed emergent gameplay. The game may not offer any guidance towards completing any objectives or fighting the last boss yet it includes all of those traditional trappings should players pursue an ending. However, as someone who has played Minecraft for hundreds of hours, I assure you I’ve never come close to reaching that point. I prefer to spend my time trying to build new structures like glass underwater domes.

As a matter of fact, Minecraft has so much potential for making your own fun, it’s almost a platform unto itself rather than a single game at this point. I spent two years using Minecraft as a virtual classroom for teaching English to Japanese children. To facilitate this, I designed my own custom world with rigid boundaries and instructions to send students on a scavenger hunt in order to unlock the exit. I can’t promise they learned anything but I know my method held their attention longer than any textbook could.

The only reason I could accomplish such a feat is Minecraft’s robust options menu, as players have near-total control of the in-game rules. If the day-night cycle proves too cumbersome to manage you can lock the sun in place. If you’d rather not worry about finding and eating food to maintain your strength, you can disable hunger. There’s even a Creative Mode that grants total invincibility and offers players infinite access to all materials on-demand. Build yourself a diamond suit and sit on a golden throne, if that’s your thing!

Minecraft didn't remain a computer exclusive for long, gradually expanding to smartphones before going fully multiplatform. Its continued success means that I cannot imagine a new console could possibly launch without supporting it. Thousands of video games now include a crafting mechanic, even ones that otherwise focus on linear action; I believe Link's cooking system in the more recent Legend of Zelda games took inspiration from Minecraft and its material-gathering nature. I also have no doubt that Fortnite—another game driven by constant updates—owes a huge debt to Minecraft, especially following Epic's addition of a Lego-branded survival mode in 2023.

Regardless of how often developer Mojang fine-tunes Minecraft, I'll always view it as a little bit "retro" given its distinctly boxy appearance. Its entire world is made of cubes, including the player characters and animals. Designing a structure requires plotting out space on an invisible grid, carefully counting units to ensure all aspects properly align. In fact, given Minecraft's booming popularity among young children, I'd argue it played a major role in pixel graphics coming back into fashion post-3D-polygons, as its blocky aesthetic continues to sell well on merchandise to this day.

Above all else, I appreciate Minecraft for welcoming players to just boot up the game and relax. The persistent advancement of time and the need to feed offer just enough friction to make its world feel alive, but players maintain total authority over how fast or slow the game progresses. It's an experience driven by curiosity, for no matter how much time you commit to any one play session, a sense of mystery will always lurk beneath the surface. What's under that rock? What's behind that tree? What's at the bottom of that ocean? Minecraft asks these questions forever and I'll never stop seeking the answers. 

Writer/podcaster/performer Diamond Feit lives in Osaka, Japan but xer work and opinions exist across the internet.