The story of Minecraft is the story of its players. Without their endless creativity, it wouldn’t have become one of the most popular games ever made – and certainly would never have evolved into what it is today.
It’s a game, yes, but also a flexible creative tool that’s used in educational and academic spaces too. It’s such an open-ended playground, in fact, that one player’s experience with the game will likely be very different to the next’s, because Minecraft differs so wildly depending on how you play.
Survival mode is the most “game-like” option, in which you gather resources from the world and craft them to build shelter from the monsters that come out at night. Creative mode gives you most of those lovely resources upfront, and invites you to build whatever you fancy without having to worry about survival at all.
And then there’s Minecraft’s many different servers, which are effectively themed playgrounds that contain a multitude of player-made games and tournaments. These range from battle-royale stand-offs to parkour runs, kart races and beyond. There’s a colossal library of even more player-made modes, games and worlds to explore in the game’s Marketplace, too.
So, for players who haven’t jumped into the world of Minecraft for a while, it’s more than worth a return – there’s always that never-ending stream of new stuff to see and do, all made by the community. But there have also been some neat new additions to the game’s core features.
The most recent expansion added a ton of new toys to discover in the game’s hot, hostile Nether world – new biomes, new mobs, dangerous bastion structures, respawn anchors, new blocks, new ores and more. Extra character-creator options, bees and honey blocks, foxes, revamped village systems and pillager outposts have also provided new possibilities to play around with.
The thing about Minecraft is that, with or without new features, its players ensure there will always be new worlds to check out and fresh games to play. All you’ve got to do is jump in and explore.