Damn you Penny Arcade. Damn you. 
  
If you hadn't have done your latest comic about Minecraft I may have actually been able to do something remotely productive with my entire Saturday. Instead my day comprised of punching trees, building pick-axes and and digging under mountains to find ore. I mean, sure, I found a totally awesome underground lava cave and built a super sweet mountain top glass house complete with a sunset veranda, but that's beside the point! I had stuff to do that day! 
 
But seriously, this game is awesome. Don't be put off by the looks, in fact it may even kindle the nostalgic side of you. I recommend grabbing it now before the price goes up.

Damn you Penny Arcade. Damn you. 
  
If you hadn't have done your latest comic about Minecraft I may have actually been able to do something remotely productive with my entire Saturday. Instead my day comprised of punching trees, building pick-axes and and digging under mountains to find ore. I mean, sure, I found a totally awesome underground lava cave and built a super sweet mountain top glass house complete with a sunset veranda, but that's beside the point! I had stuff to do that day! 
 
But seriously, this game is awesome. Don't be put off by the looks, in fact it may even kindle the nostalgic side of you. I recommend grabbing it now before the price goes up.

I'd consider that a Saturday well spent! Who ever said virtual spelunking wasn't productive?

They need to add prospecting or something to this game so it isn't so ridiculously hard to find ore better than iron.

I downloaded the game at about 9am this morning, I've been playing it all day. It's so addictive, I love it!

I've made it a personal goal to not get into Minecraft. A game like that can only do harm.

" They need to add prospecting or something to this game so it isn't so ridiculously hard to find ore better than iron. "

" @jams said:

" They need to add prospecting or something to this game so it isn't so ridiculously hard to find ore better than iron. "

There's a reason diamond isn't easy to find.  If it was easy to find you'd have no real reason to go spelunking. "

...why isn't it on Steam?

I tend to avoid any games with "craft" in the name. Star, War, Mine, they're all evil.

" Damn you Penny Arcade. Damn you. 
  
If you hadn't have done your latest comic about Minecraft I may have actually been able to do something remotely productive with my entire Saturday. Instead my day comprised of punching trees, building pick-axes and and digging under mountains to find ore. I mean, sure, I found a totally awesome underground lava cave and built a super sweet mountain top glass house complete with a sunset veranda, but that's beside the point! I had stuff to do that day!  But seriously, this game is awesome. Don't be put off by the looks, in fact it may even kindle the nostalgic side of you. I recommend grabbing it now before the price goes up. "

" @jams said:

" They need to add prospecting or something to this game so it isn't so ridiculously hard to find ore better than iron. "

There's a reason diamond isn't easy to find.  If it was easy to find you'd have no real reason to go spelunking. "

Last night: 
 
4 AM - begin in a great map. Nearby an already-carved giant cave, which quickly leads to lava, iron, and red dust. 
 
5 AM - I have been collecting endless amounts of ore. I have a minecart, several ingots, and am now on my way back up. 
 
~5:30 AM - I misstep and fall through a hole. I land in lava. I die. I lose everything. 
 
~5:31 AM - I'm realizing that I should use storage chests from now on. 
 
 
That was my first real expedition in Minecraft. 
 
And with that, I'm off to go play some more. Peace!

" ...why isn't it on Steam? "

" @jams said:

" They need to add prospecting or something to this game so it isn't so ridiculously hard to find ore better than iron. "

There's a reason diamond isn't easy to find.  If it was easy to find you'd have no real reason to go spelunking. "

I'm in the middle of construction of a castle in the sky. I have my initial house (which has a glass floor and is connected to a garden consisting of multiple trees), and then a branching walkway in three different directions, leading to two towers (one of which was a mountain before I DESTROYED THE ENTIRE THING AHAHAHAHHA), and another garden filled with trees and flowers. Also, I have lava pouring out of the floor at periodic intervals. 
 
It is awesome.

Minecraft is exactly the kind of sandbox game that I should enjoy. After recently trying it out, I got hooked and played a single session for multiple hours. I built a decent house, and had a pretty massive supply of resources and tools. Hours into the game, I waited until sunrise and left to gather some more materials, and began hacking away at a tree. What I didn't notice was one of those crazy exploding monsters coming up behind me. Without warning, it blew up in my face, and I lost absolutely everything. It was at that moment that I decided Minecraft isn't for me.

My minecraft won't open because its missing some file after the whole server debacle and subsquent free weekend.
 
But i too have lost days to Minecraft.

" Minecraft is exactly the kind of sandbox game that I should enjoy. After recently trying it out, I got hooked and played a single session for multiple hours. I built a decent house, and had a pretty massive supply of resources and tools. Hours into the game, I waited until sunrise and left to gather some more materials, and began hacking away at a tree. What I didn't notice was one of those crazy exploding monsters coming up behind me. Without warning, it blew up in my face, and I lost absolutely everything. It was at that moment that I decided Minecraft isn't for me. "

" My minecraft won't open because its missing some file after the whole server debacle and subsquent free weekend. But i too have lost days to Minecraft. "

" @Mikemcn said:

" My minecraft won't open because its missing some file after the whole server debacle and subsquent free weekend. But i too have lost days to Minecraft. "

Does it say something about a fatal error? Just redownload the launcher from the website and it should work. "

I've been playing it for the day, and i was doing fine... till baddies spawned in the little base I made.

" @Rehehelly said:

" @jams said:

" They need to add prospecting or something to this game so it isn't so ridiculously hard to find ore better than iron. "

There's a reason diamond isn't easy to find.  If it was easy to find you'd have no real reason to go spelunking. "

there's a difference between hard to find and never finding diamond. I haven't even found silver or gold, I am lucky just to get iron. I just found lava for the first time and that's only because I kept starting new games and getting new worlds generated. That last one finally felt like the world generated properly, because there were natural caves around and everything was around unlike most of the time where its just all barren water, trees and cobblestone. "

" @jams said:

" @Rehehelly said:

" @jams said:

" They need to add prospecting or something to this game so it isn't so ridiculously hard to find ore better than iron. "

There's a reason diamond isn't easy to find.  If it was easy to find you'd have no real reason to go spelunking. "

there's a difference between hard to find and never finding diamond. I haven't even found silver or gold, I am lucky just to get iron. I just found lava for the first time and that's only because I kept starting new games and getting new worlds generated. That last one finally felt like the world generated properly, because there were natural caves around and everything was around unlike most of the time where its just all barren water, trees and cobblestone. "

..silver?  I don't mean to tell you how to play, but you need to go fairly deep down to find diamond, like 10 blocks up from adminium. There are natural caves everywhere, but it's not like every save is going to have a load of huge cave systems near your spawn. Go out hunting for them :P "

I just spent most of Sunday building my mountain-top home. A good 3 hours spent making glass and collecting wood and everything was looking beautiful. I then decide to start digging and find a brilliant network of caves within the mountain I'm on. Now I'm a sucker for exploring so I keep going deeper and deeper. I start carving out some cool rivers from the internal waterfalls I found until the point I'm so far underneath the mountain, down a river and I've run out of torches and pickaxes. 
 
Bummer.

Modern game designers need to take note. Putting players in a world they genuinely feel like they can influence is empowering beyond belief. Minecraft in it's alpha state has stirred more emotion and enjoyment in me than 99% of current games and it exists as an example of why the industry needs the indie scene.

We need more of this. Because this? This is brilliance. MineCraft is brilliance in such a simple, raw form that developers the world over should be smashing their heads on desks with a force usually reserved for heading footballs, simply because they didn’t do this first.