One Block at a Time: How Minecraft Lost Its Simplicity (Retrospective)

Minecraft has evolved and changed significantly since it's creation, going from a simple game filled with charm and potential, to a more complex game filled with stuff to do. This video will take a look into how Minecraft lost that simplistic sandbox feeling and took on a more linear style of gameplay through pre-classic, classic, indev, infdev, alpha, beta and the full release of the game. Just one block at a time.

Cameos (In order of appearance):
- @Kohana64
- @CrossVee
A huge thank you to each of these cameos for being a part of this project!
Another huge thank you to everybody else that played a part in this video including Charlie, Cal, 'Sigma Lean Fan Club', and Josh.

Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
02:45 - Pre Classic
04:38 - Classic
07:01 - Indev
08:46 - Infdev
10:15 - Alpha
12:32 - Beta
14:34 - Full release
18:29 - Simplicity
22:18 - Purpose
24:17 - The Need to Evolve
26:30 - Mods!
28:08 - Personal Experiences
31:23 - Cameos
33:31 - Conclusion and Ending

Music used:
- Subwoofer Lullaby - Minecraft
- Stal - Minecraft
- Door - Minecraft
- Living Mice - Minecraft
- Excuse - Minecraft
- Cat - Minecraft
- Sweden - Minecraft
- Strad - Minecraft
- Minecraft - Minecraft
- Firebugs - Minecraft
- Moog City - Minecraft
- Haggstrom - Minecraft
- Droopy Likes Your Face - Minecraft
- Aerie - Minecraft
- Labyrinthine - Minecraft
- Only Human (Minecraft Trailer Music)

[electronkaleidoscope]

You mentioning that the modern style of development has conditioned players to be very content oriented, and that this leads to the dissatisfaction over limited content, was such a eureka moment. I've watched a bunch of these videos on beta trying to make sense of why the new game feels like some kind imposter of the "real" game and I think this is exactly it.

[Diggon]

For me, simplicity is a double-edged sword. I often find myself getting overwhelmed in the modern versions of Minecraft, but when returning to older versions, I ultimately miss a few of the features that contributed to my overwhelm…ness.

[ForgotMyPasswd]

Interesting POV, but I think it goes deeper than a loss of simplicity. I think people moreso miss the experimentation of updates, with stuff that doesnt make much logical sense but works in a game where some green thing sneaks up on you and blows up. People love the experimental updates that werent necessarily scared of changing the core of the game like the caves and cliffs update or the nether update, as well as updates that strengthen the core of the game. Nowadays updates dont do either, with the sniffer being reduced to overly situational uses that the average player may not bother with more than once which doesnt feel sufficiently experimental enough, but also doesnt build on the core of the game. Thats just my thoughts though.

[qfurgie]

your statement about how Minecraft has become more progression based and strayed away from a sandbox game was really a “damn” moment for me

[crescent.venusss]

Minecraft evolving reminds me of our personal lives evolving. Everything goes from so simplistic and carefree to much more linear and exhausting.

[sirrivle]

Reason I don't enjoy it much anymore is a very simple one. I have played it enough to satisfy myself a very long time to come. It's just what happens when you've had your fun with something, you just put it away and let the memories age like wine

[kice]

modding minecraft actually takes away the linear feeling of the game rather than add to it. It adds lots of extrinsic goals yes, but it adds so many that it's up to you to discover different ways to play the game. Often times when I play modded Minecraft with friends we spend most of our time discovering the possibilities and eventually we evolve into our own individual playstyles. Someone's a mage, another person is a whole cyborg, and then someone else is an industrialist making a whole factory. This style of gameplay actually reinforces the freedom aspect that the game used to have before the ender dragon was added.

[Ratigan]

My main beef with newer versions of the game is that a lot of it feels like I'm playing a mod. Like the old updates would add 1 item or block that would change 100 aspects of the game; something that would change the core mechanics of the game. This was great too because it allowed modders to thrive and add the little things of their own and share them with the community. The game as it is now seems to no longer be going for "simple yet multifunctional" but more of "what can we add that will cause a spur of excitement".

[NintendoHero]

Me and Minecraft: Wii U Edition spent a lot of quality time together, and basically all of it was just me restarting my survival playthrough over and over again. For me Minecraft thrives when at it's most simple, and I have countless fond memories of playing the game alone and with friends. Great video, you really captured the spirit of what makes this game so legendary!

[ShockinglyBland]

i always found it funny when zombies dropped feathers instead of bones or some kind of meat

[Sbomb]

Honestly, I love how split the community is on this topic. You got videos like this that yearn for a simpler game, and then you have ones that argue the game is still too simple and needs crazier updates. It's fun to hear both sides of the argument as someone who loves the game the way it is.

While i don't think the minecraft community will ever agree as to what the game should be, i think that the current state of minecraft is really solid, and even if each update isn't crazy, i still enjoy the things they continue to add each year.

[bryceosborne]

My biggest gripes with all the updates is that much of it tries to add new but shallow content but dont really focus on the bones of the game. Hope that makes sense

[d-boi]

2011-2016 really was the golden age of Minecraft. It was just so simple and fun.

[Kohana]

This was really great! I liked the focus on the game’s simplicity, as that’s what I feel is sorely lacking nowadays and why I don’t play much anymore. The showcase of all the different versions brought back tons of memories I didn’t realize I still had. And thank you for including me in this project!

[ex-surge]

I remember so vividly, back on our homecomputer, an old mac pc. Playing creative on superflat worlds taking turns with my brother, he would play during the days, building things, going to villages and i would play during the night, killing monsters and blowing up things. I've since grown distant from him, but we both still share such a bond through minecraft. We also played on a survival minecraft server here in the netherlands, it was the best time. We used to have a huge plot on the survival multiplayer part, we built a castle together and everything.

This video made me realise I really should put more effort into getting closer to my brother again. I think I might schedule a couple hours on sundays to just play minecraft with my brother and friends. Thank you so much

[typhoonboom]

i had a friend in elementary school (age 4-12 in my country, at the time i was 10) who knew how to get minecraft for free on my phone. i really loved it, aside from the fact that closing my phone counted as going afk and i lost my items.
3 memories i have of the game were:
1. i was for a while obsessed over the idea of getting popular, so i made a creative world, made a house out of purpur blocks (luckily not diamond blocks) and showed it of to a few people. how this could get me popular, i have no idea. im also not sure if they believed me, but it was kinda funny nonetheless
2. my dad always used to put a screentime app on my phone. it was quite annoying (he also did this on my tablet, where i could get more time on if i practised multiplying with one of those math apps, and i hated doing it so much, that i went to extreme measures like setting my tablets time to close to 10 minutes and just laying my tablet down, and not doing it at all). but i found a way to get it of my phone, and while we were on vacation camping i "went for a walk", or in other words go to the hill behind the tent and play minecraft and enjoy the spruce biome and the village and the berry bushes.
3. i went for school to an place i dont remember. it was quite a long trip with the car, so me and 2 other kids did a base competition, who im not sure who won, but im pretty sure that it wasnt even close. also i pointed out that only a small percentage of people dont have a certain muscle in their arm, which all of us 3 had (i later found out its likely the other way around. most people have the muscle).
i dont think i ever got far, as well as it being very legit, but it was fun nontheless.
then i got it on switch and its still an enjoyable game i either dont play for months, or am hooked at for a while and constantly playing it. nothing in between.

[Kennephone]

I play on 1.12 basically exclusively with a bunch of small mods, but I only use a couple features from each. I love gathering as many resources as I can, like sand (compression mod is a blessing). The only reason I beat the ender dragon was so I could mine the pillars.

[jonusaguilar]

I wish they’d make tutorial worlds to teach people how to play the game, those were even fun to explore as seasoned players.

[woegarden]

every time i watch one of these videos i'm overcome by a strong sense of smallness. my mind retreats back to that run down middle school computer lab running an SMP in secret with my friends. this feels like coming back to my hometown and meeting all my old friends again. i can't go back to that point but it's nice to remember on it fondly. thank you for providing such a detailed windo into mine and many other people's childhoods.

[Supernova]

1.8 is my favorite version of the game. The og handbooks are still relevant and the game still feels simple and realistic. Im gonna see if i can get friends to join me on a nice survival world there someday.