I AM DAVE EXCLAMATION MARK YOGNAUGHT AND I HAVE FINALLY BOUGHT THIS GAME!!!

Dear Reader.

I actually bought and download a copy of the game Minecraft recently. If you've been reading recently I did a post where I talked about my obsession with watching people play Minecraft (the Yogscast mostly) and never actually doing it myself. But now I have it! Which might explain why haven't been bogging as much recently because all I'd have to say about my day would be "I did some farming today, I built a wall, then I finally finished getting the bits together that I needed for that nether portal I've been trying make", which would be rather dull, "a gaming blog" isn't really what I'm going for. but I will talk about it in relation to something my dad asked me the other day. I was playing Mine-Craft and he looked over my shoulder (not exactly used to me being a gamer) and he asked me what I saw in such an old fashioned looking game. I shall have this post as my answer.

1. Despite it's pixelated look and cubic stile its huge. In fact its infinite. The more you walk the more that the world randomly generates (while still remembering where you've been,) so that just drives you to explore more and more both up in the sky and underground and of to other universes and that just plays to human nature.
2. Like real life, you can almost play it however you want. You can spend your time farming wheat and animals or you can spend your time building houses and forts and art or you can spend your time digging down into the earth or you can spend your time hunting and killing monsters. The only rule of Minecraft (for survival mode at least) you have to survive. Beyond that there is a point where you begin to understand what it means to live and use your time efficiently in this Minecraft world (Minecraftia is the most common word I think).
3. It's scary. Surprisingly so. In fact it really plays very hard on childhood fears. The monsters only spawn in darkness meaning that often they jump out from the darkness. This game teaches you to be afraid of the dark. Its also a little bit scary because the whole idea of the thing is in the game you are the only person in the entire world (except the villagers who just seem to stare), and yet there are some structures (aside from the Mob villages) which spawn all by themselves. There's something slightly creepy about mining around and then suddenly coming across another mineshaft complete with roof supports and broken mine cart tracks (who put them there?).

Aside from the dangerous ones like the Creepers who's attack involves blowing itself up, some of the monsters are actually pretty scary in themselves. There's this one called an Enderman (based on the indie game "Slender" which is also fucking terrifying in itself) who will remain docile and passive until you look directly into is eyes it will run at you screaming. If you attack it, it will teleport (usually behind you) and will continue to attack you and hunt you down until either you or it dies. Just because you looked at it. Frankly monsters are partly scary in this game because every time you're killed you loose all the items you're carrying and you invest allot of time on that.
4. Its very Indie this is good because;
A. It encourages universe hacking. By that I mean because its an indie game there are some useful glitches still keep in that make life considerably easier which are in no way realistic however the creators still keep them in.
B. it encourages an insane number of mobs that often attract the owners attention and actually end up in the main game.
5. Herobrine.

There are hundreds of theroies around this character (or mob or monster or myth). Some think that he was a miner in the game before the game was released who now roams the land either as ghost or demon searching for his usurper to get his revenge. Some think Herobrine was the name of the game creator's brother who died tragically and now lives on as a ghost in his brother's game. Some think the entire game is actually all a dream created by prisoner who is being tortured and Herobrine is actually the character's subconscious and when arrives he will call on the player to "wake up".

But here's the thing Herobrine is entirely a myth! Entirely made up by fans of the game even down to the way he looks. there has never ever been a confirmed sighting of Herobrine and the creators of the game deny ever putting him in any of the game patches. Here's a kind of creepy quote from the creator Notch.

The Herobrine stuff is awesome and kind of scary at the same time. It really shows how little control a content producer has over the content.

I've publicly told people there's never been any such thing as Herobrine, and that I don't have any dead brothers, and that letting too many animals die in lava is a fool proof way to summon him but that you don't need to be afraid of him. He only means well, he's looking out for you, trying to warn you of the dangers you can't see. There certainly are NO physical manifestations of Herobrine that will sneak out of your computer if you leave Minecraft running at night, looming over you as you sleep with his pale eyes inches away from your face, as he tries to shout at you to wake up. Sometimes you wake up with a jolt, and he's gone, and all that lingers is the memory and faint echo of his wordless screaming. Of course it was just a dream. There's no way a morally dubious ghost with a god complex could at any point decide to haunt the children who play my game "for their own good", as there is NO SUCH THING. etc etc

Now you may be wondering why I put this last one in because isn't part of the game but a game has to be really big and scary and challenging and real if, out of the control of the creators, an entire ghost story myth can be created by its players.