Minecraft is Popular, But is it Accessible?

{sidebar id=1}Let me begin by saying that the game Minecraft is still in its alpha stage and is not complete. However, the developer, Notch, allows anyone to buy it now for a discounted price and play the game as it evolves.

What is Minecraft?

At its core it is the ultimate sandbox game, allowing you to literally reshape the world in any way you see fit. When you first start the game you are placed in a world that is, according to Notch, eight times the size of our Earth. You are alone and without any tools. It is your job to create these tools along with shelter to survive in your world.

Every world is different and procedurally generated as you traverse its surface. Every block that makes up the world is something you can remove and collect, whether it is a block of dirt, stone, iron, gold, or plenty of others.

Without getting too much into it, the crafting system is rather simple. The only way you'll know what to craft is either by having the Minecraft Wiki open or a lot of guessing. Basic tools like shovels and pickaxes are the most important but swords and armor shouldn't be neglected either.

Other items like torches, boats, ladders, and even railways are each unique and useful in their own ways. Smelting is a similar system that can turn the ore you mine into usable materials like iron or gold. The workbench for crafting and the furnace for smelting will soon turn into your best friends in this big world.

Your biggest opposition is the monsters that hang out in caves and come out at night. If you're not prepared with some shelter, be it a self-built house, cave, or sword, you better get ready to run! Other than these monsters, the game is entirely about exploration. You'd be surprised how wonderful it can be exploring a system of caves that no one else has ever seen before you. Recently Notch has added biomes to the world so as you go along the surface you'll go over deserts, forests, and swampland just to name a few.

The Halloween update that was released saw the incarnation of a new world called the "Nether." In order to get there, the player must harvest 10 blocks of the material obsidian, which is only found deep underground or where water and lava collide. They can then create a portal by lighting a fire in a 4x3 hollow block of obsidian.

In the Nether world, there are flying enemies that shoot fireballs as well as plenty of lava. The area is dark and created by many reddish and brownish blocks and is especially frantic, posing problems to both colorblind people and mobility impaired gamers.

There is no end goal in Minecraft. You cannot "win" the game. It is your job to simply survive over time and live in the world as you see fit. Whether that's becoming the best spelunker the world has ever seen or living calmly in a two story brick house is completely up to you. Even if you die, all of your things drop and you just respawn where you started when you first loaded the world.

But how accessible is Minecraft?

Minecraft game accessibility

If you're red/green colorblind like me, you won't have any problems. The colors are very vibrant, and red and brown are sparingly used, with one exception. Then new Nether area of the world, which is completely unnecessary and difficult to even get to, does use brown and red hues as its building blocks.  The only other time that it's hard to see is, naturally, when the sun goes down at night or in caves but that's intended (make some torches!).

The hearing impaired will be at a disadvantage while playing this game. Every monster has a distinct sound that you can hear when you get close to them (or they get close to you) and there are no subtitles for these noises.

The controls can be mapped to whatever keys you like though it currently does not innately support gamepads. There are some third party applications, like joy2key that may be able to assist in gamepad usage. The default controls are similar to a first person shooter on the PC, with WASD being used to move, the mouse aiming, and clicking is used to do actions like dig or attack.

One handed gamers will likely run into trouble playing this game since the controls are quite similar to a traditional FPS. In terms of precision, the game fluctuates back and forth between calm and hectic. Outside during the day you are free to do things at your own pace however you like but if you're deep inside a cave or outside at night the game does require some reflexes in order to either run away or fight back against the monsters.

Remember, this game isn't even in its beta stage yet so this isn't a full review but more of a preview for those who are interested. Hopefully some of these problems will be fixed in the future.

At a Glance:

Visual: Red/green colorblind gamers should have little problem playing this game. If by chance you decide to enter the Nether world you may encounter some difficulty judging the terrain and at times you may mistake gold for iron or vice versa, but that's the extent of it so far.

Hearing: Deaf gamers will have the disadvantage of not being able to hear the monster noises before the monsters themselves are actually visible. There are currently no subtitles for these noises. Other than that there are no sounds that impact gameplay.

Mobility: During the day players can play as slow or fast as they wish. However, during nighttime or cave exploring if the player needs to fight a monster, keyboard and mouse precision will be required in order to defeat it. Slight quick clicking required.

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0 #7 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Minecraft is Popular, But is it Accessible? — Fobok 2011-02-28 04:00

Just started playing this game. So, totally, addicting. Graphics can be improved with texture mods. (Everything is still blocky, of course, but the textures can look better that way.)

Beds were added a few days ago which makes it even easier to avoid things at night. Make sure you're secure in your house, sleep in the bed and it skips right to morning.

 

 

0 #6 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Minecraft is Popular, But is it Accessible? — puckett101 2010-11-16 03:00

http://www.nuklearpower.com/2010/11/16/more-minecraftiness/

This hits my love for Minecraft AND comics. Woot!

 

 

0 #5 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Minecraft is Popular, But is it Accessible? — puckett101 2010-11-10 23:47

Dude, you can TOTALLY pretend you're CHILEAN!!! It's WICKED AWESOME!!!

But seriously, 8-bit sandbox isn't inaccurate, if the graphics are even that good, but consider this - in the article about bugs that I've been tinkering with, I was going to use Minecraft as a counter-example - it's an alpha version done by, to the best of my knowledge, one person, and in my experience, it's been INCREDIBLY stable.

Besides, there's tons of stuff you can do. Like the dude who build the Enterprise framework in Minecraft.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn2-d5a3r94

 

 

0 #4 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Minecraft is Popular, But is it Accessible? — Mark 2010-11-10 04:25

Just reading the comments I must say I had dismissed this game as little more than a giant 8-bit sandbox... but now that I know I would have to toil away in some mine shaft, MAN I AM SO THERE!!!

 

 

0 #3 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Minecraft is Popular, But is it Accessible? — puckett101 2010-11-10 04:12

Peaceful mode is awesome, although it appears that certain resources don't spawn in certain game modes, although it also seems to be the case that those resources aren't needed as much.

As one example, diamond seems to spawn even more rarely in peaceful mode, but you don't need to make diamond armor or weapons.

I have to say though, the game is awesome, even if the graphics are VERY old-school

 

 

0 #2 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Minecraft is Popular, But is it Accessible? — P-Dude 2010-11-10 01:27

That's a good point and in fact, one thing I forgot to mention is the "Peaceful" mode. At any time the player can change the difficulty to Peaceful and no monsters will spawn along with the player regenerating HP. Just something to note!

 

 

0 #1 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Minecraft is Popular, But is it Accessible? — puckett101 2010-11-09 22:31

Having played Minecraft pretty extensively (I purchased the alpha version), I suspect it's actually more accessible than this review indicates PROVIDED players follow the intended course of action - don't go outside at night. Craft. Decorate your cave, house or castle. Make stuff. Dig in a secured mineshaft. The sounds are a bit less important provided players are being cautious and paying attention to when the sun starts to go down - in other words, the visual cues the game provides.

As far as controls go, again, don't go outside at night and be careful in caves. Minecraft is not a fighting game and even equipped with the best gear on easy difficulty, combat is difficult. If players are careful, the only concern they'll have is digging into an underground river or lava flow.

 

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