Minecraft Archive

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The Saturday Shaft: Random Thoughts

By
Adam Shaftoe
– August 4, 2012Posted in: Books, Criticism, Movies, The Daily Shaft

On Art,

Minecraft is a fantastic tool for having fun while creating digital art. But creating art with unlimited resources can diminish the experience. Minecraft builders, save for those undertaking “super” projects, would do well to play in survival mode from time to time. For one, there’s a unique satisfaction in creating a piece of digital art when you’ve had to scrounge for materials. For second, defending one’s project from creepers, zombies, and skeletons is much like defending one’s non-digital art. There are always going to be philistines who want to destroy, dismantle, or piss on the things that you care about. Accept that as a reality to be managed, rather than a thing to be avoided, and the experience will be that much more rewarding.

On Criticism,

Every writer a critic, and every critic a writer; that’s my solution to what Jacob Silverman calls an “an epidemic of niceness in online book culture”. Within the academic world, peer review is an essential part of the writing process. The creative sphere needs a little more of that. Granted getting published, save for writing a blog, self publication, or hooking up with a vanity press, is not easy. Once a writer has climbed that mountain the last thing they might want to hear from a colleague is that their work is wanting. But if we maintain that “critic” is the root of “critical thought” rather than simply “criticism”, we should welcome the feedback of our peers even if it’s not quite what we want to hear. In doing so, everybody grows as a creator and consumer.

Every writer a critic, and every critic a writer.

On Film,

The story of Pygmalion and Galatea is terrible; stop making movies that use it as the central conceit. I’ve met/talked to a lot of writers/artists over the last couple of years, and 96% of them are well adjusted and generally pleasant people. They can also be laser focused, incredibly determined, and passionate in ways that some folk might find surprising. This does not make them misanthropic narcissists who are incapable of holding down relationships with anybody who they have not created – I’m talking to you, Ruby Sparks and to a lesser extent Stranger than Fiction.

On America,

There are a lot of things that America does well. There is one thing America does very poorly: leaving issues of civil rights up to individual states and then a popular vote therein. Civil rights should never be a question of popular opinion, that’s why we call them rights. If they are not universal to all, then they are not worth the paper upon which they are printed. Who thinks that the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the US Constitution would have been better left to regional/state opinion? Such is the stupidity of putting marriage equity in a similar light.


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The Daily Shaft: Mars Effect gives way to 0x10C, Notch’s New Project.

By
Adam Shaftoe
– April 4, 2012Posted in: The Daily Shaft, Video Games

Like seemingly everybody else on the internet, Markus “Notch” Persson, best known for the building game/creativity engine Minecraft, decided to have a little fun on April Fools Day. The gaming guru announced that his next project would be a space based resource trading game in the fashion of Elite. The title of this game, wait for it, Mars Effect. Notch even went so far as to make up a fake website for his homage to BioWare’s Mass Effect.

But behind the joke lay a real game.

PC Gamer broke the news on Notch’s new project back in March. Back then, the Swedish game designer hinted at “…a game that’s more like Firefly. I want to run around on my ship and have to put out a fire. Like, oh crap, the cooling system failed, I have to put out the fire here.”

Now, in the wake of the Mars Effect prank, the true name and nature of Notch’s summer project has emerged. It’s called 0x10C. Here’s the back story straight from the project’s website.

In a parallel universe where the space race never ended, space travel was gaining popularity amongst corporations and rich individuals.

In 1988, a brand new deep sleep cell was released, compatible with all popular 16 bit computers. Unfortunately, it used big endian, whereas the DCPU-16 specifications called for little endian. This led to a severe bug in the included drivers, causing a requested sleep of 0×0000 0000 0000 0001 years to last for 0×0001 0000 0000 0000 years.

It’s now the year 281 474 976 712 644 AD, and the first lost people are starting to wake up to a universe on the brink of extinction, with all remote galaxies forever lost to red shift, star formation long since ended, and massive black holes dominating the galaxy.

As you may have guessed from the presence of big and little endians in the game description, Notch is going for a hard sci-fi theme with this project. Although he’s already admitted to some level of hand waving being necessary with respect to the game’s FTL travel mechanic. Notwithstanding that one aspect, 0x10C’s is promising a game whose science has a “plausible theoretical basis”. Anybody for Newtonian physics based starship combat?

Although the title is in the early development stages, some of its features seem quite promising. In addition to all the usual tropes of space adventure games (mining, piracy, salvaging, combat), starships within 0x10C are going to include actual computers.

The computer in the game is a fully functioning emulated 16 bit CPU that can be used to control your entire ship, or just to play games on while waiting for a large mining operation to finish.

And here I thought setting up a delay circuit that would make the glass centre of my Minecraft TARDIS go up and down was complicated. Now Notch is going to let people code games within a game? This may give cause for a greater interest in coding. Or it might alienate potential buyers who don’t want to be tricked into learning.

Speaking of alienating people, Notch hasn’t ruled out launching this game with a monthly subscription. While single player action would be free, access to 0X10C’s persistent metaverse would come at a cost.

All of a sudden I have a vision of the future. There’s a headline that reads “Notch launches potential EVE Online killer.”

Notch has stated that he will likely opt for a gradual release of 0x10C, just as he did with Minecraft. If this is the case, then it might not be long before gamers get a chance to dirty their hands with an Alpha release. Head over to 0x10C’s website for additional details and production updates.

UPDATE: Notch just tweeted the following on 0x10C’s nature as hard science fiction.

I’m starting to regret the decision to go with hard science fiction. A lot of interesting gameplay elements are hard to explain well..


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Podcast #10 – Minecraft: This time with video

By
Adam Shaftoe
– June 28, 2011Posted in: Podcasts

Featuring the voice of Adam Shaftoe

The below podcast represents my first foray into the world of screencasting.   In that light, it is very much a test piece.  When all is said and done, I think my hardware, software and voice did a fairly decent job.  Naturally there is room for improvement.  The next goal is going to be producing video game reviews in screencast format.   Criticism, constructive or otherwise, is most welcome.

Feel free to expand the video for full screen HD viewing.  It’s nothing but the best in slow as molasses uploading to youtube for my readers.

 

 


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Geek News: March 4, 2011

By
Adam Shaftoe
– March 4, 2011Posted in: Geek News

 

Today in geek news:  Conan O’Brien validates time wasting with a live action rendition Angry Birds, PlayStation 3 users take another kick to the bollocks with a HD relaunch of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus and we, the people, want to see a Minecraft documentary.

Last night, Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter gave everybody a free pass for all the hours they have spent playing Angry Birds.  In a nod to Finland, a country that has no access to O’Brien’s new show, Conan spent the week celebrating the Fins while mocking the nation’s arch-rival, Sweden.  In what may come to be known as the Ginger Bird Affair, America’s proudest Harvard graduate spent a few minutes lobbing exercise ball birds at balloon pigs who hid under the flimsy protection of Ikea furniture.  The bit also worked as an exercise in collective catharsis for anybody who has ever spent a night trying to build a book case with an allen key.  Seriously, Ikea, a rubber chicken stuffed with frozen meatballs is a more useful construction tool.

Among PS2 gamers, there’s no greater benchmark for “games as art” than Fumito Ueda’s Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Both games pushed the limits of the PS2’s capabilities while offering experiences that were fantastically unique.  But will you pay to play them in HD?  Sony recently announced that both games will be re-released with HD graphics and, sigh, 3D compatibility.  There’s really two discussions here, one discussion about updating art and another about consumerism.  While part of me wants to play the game on my Dad’s 60 inch flat screen, yeah my Dad is awesome, another part of me thinks that a masterpiece of art, even if game art, should be respected as originally created.  A third, more snarky, part says, “What’s the matter Sony, can’t come up with anything new to release?  It’s bad enough we live in a world of sequels and reboots but to debase legendary games with prettied up graphics and “trophy support” screams of creative bankruptcy.”

What’s better than Minecraft? Perhaps a documentary about the creation of Minecraft? While it seems a little odd to make a movie about a game that is still technically in beta, Minecraft: The Story of Mojang already has more than 2000 financial backers who have pledged nearly $120,000 to support the documentary.  Given that my therapist told me my compulsion to build in Minecraft is a manifestation of my otherwise unsatisfying life I support indie games, I might as well go for the double win by supporting an indie movie about an indie game.  Head over to Kickstarter.com if you’d like to learn more about the Minecraft doc and grass roots movie making.

And that, hobbits, elves and dwarves, is your geek news for March 4, 2011.  Force be with you.


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Game Review: Minecraft

By
Adam Shaftoe
– October 7, 2010Posted in: Game Reviews

Developed by: Markus Persson

Summary Judgement:  Minecraft is like Lego meets Survivorman.  Those who enjoy the simple pleasure of building things for the sake of building them, will really get a kick out of this game.  Besides, you’ll feel good about supporting an indie game developer.  Granted the game is still in pre-release and some people might have problems about spending money on a game not yet finished.  But its only 9 Euros (about 13 Canadian or US).  Let me put it this way, if you’ve ever bought a lap dance then you’ve paid way more for a lot less.

And now for something completely different

Day 1

10:00am

How the hell did I get out here?  The last thing I remember is collapsing on my couch after a night of drinking that would have put Caligula to shame.  Now, I’m here.  These islands seem to stretch on forever.  After spending my whole life in the city, the environment here seems strange and different, almost as if it is governed by some different laws of physics.  I suppose I’ll have to get used to it until I can figure out a way to get home.  Also, I don’t have any cellular reception out here, big surprise there.  Maybe there’s a city or town around here where I can pick up some Wi-Fi access.

1:00pm

Three hours of wandering around and I haven’t seen another person on this damned island. Just cows, sheep, and chicken.  I think I’m actually going to have to kill one of these things if I want to eat.  What the shit do I know about killing an animal?  It’s too hot out.

3:00pm

I’ve found an outcropping in one of the rock faces.  Before I could get into the semi-cave I had to clear the dirt out with my bare hands.  I was never afraid to get my hands dirty when a friend needed help building a deck, but this is just absurd.  Good thing there’s a little pond near my new base camp.  Of course, if I get wet, I have no way to dry myself.  Right now I would trade my right arm for some Ikea furniture and a towel.  Douglas Adams wasn’t kidding when he said you should always bring a towel.

5:00pm

Thought it would be a good idea to get some wood, build a fire, all that sort of thing.  Had to harvest the wood with my bare hands.  It worked fairly well until my fingertips started bleeding.  I find it a little strange that I was able to tear wood apart with my bare hands to begin with. Perhaps I actually do have super powers?  Writing is starting to get painful and messy.

6:30pm

Climbed as high as I could to try and take my mind off the pain in my hands.  I don’t see any sign of civilization.  Saw a sheep on my way up.  The stupid animal stood there looking at me while I held a big rock in my hand.  The jagged stone dug into my tenderized fingertips.  I wanted to bash the sheep but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.  So hungry.

10:30pm

Settled into the outcropping for the night.  I have lots of wood but I couldn’t find anything that would start a fire.  It’s cold, I expect it to get colder.  I keep hearing things out in the night.  I can’t be going insane this quickly, can I?


Midnight

Barricaded the outcropping as best I could with dirt and sticks.  I know I see something moving around out there.  Going to bury myself in the dirt as well to try and keep warm, I think I saw the Survivorman do it once.  Tried to take a picture but the moon has moved overhead and it’s too dark.  I want to go home.

Day 2

7:30am

Been up since six.  The sun rose right into my little cave.  I think I managed to get a couple hours of sleep.  Everything hurts.  I’ve got a stick and I am inclined to kill and eat the first thing I see this morning.

10:00am

Bonanza!  Ruins!  Maybe, I’m not alone out here after all.  More importantly, I found a workbench inside the wreck.  I’m going to see if I can use the workbench to fashion some tools from all the wood I’ve been collecting.  Wood tools probably won’t last very long, but they are better than scraping away with my fingernails.



Noon

I really should have paid more attention when I read the Pillars of the Earth.  On the upside, I managed to make a hand axe and pick axe out of wood.  Nearly caught a splinter with my eye; note to self, no universal health care on this island.

3:00pm

Yeah, so I have no idea how the wood is staying up without any sort of arch work or a buttress.  It’s like I’m living in some sort of lego world.  If I survive the first week here I am going to have fun building a few monuments to my own greatness.  I’ll start with a pyramid, then perhaps move on to a few obelisks.  Once the insanity really starts to set in, I’ll build a collessum where the pigs and cows can fight each other for my amusement.  The brothel will follow shortly there after.   Too bad Rollen can’t be here to see this.

9:00pm

Holy shit, I built a cabin with my own two hands.  To think that Dad was proud of me that time we replaced the serpentine belt on my Cavalier.  If only he could see this thing.  Let’s hope it doesn’t collapse upon me while I sleep.

11:00pm

Sure is dark in here.  Tomorrow’s task: find something that will start a fire.  Maybe there is some flint or coal up in the mountains.

Day 3

11ish in the morning

This is my final entry.  I’m probably going to die soon as I fell about 150 feet while climbing the mountains in search of flint.  Oh the irony, I’ve lived more in two days here than I have arrghhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Overall Score: +4

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