Minecraft is not a game...it's a toy :)

Minecraft is not a game...it's a toy :)

It has been great seeing the EVO flourish this week and I'm excited for everyone to join the Minecraft server and start building. We may be the only EVO that gets to play with a toy! I got to thinking about this idea while on the server earlier today so I thought I'd post.

Minecraft isn't a game. It is digital software and in common parlance we call it a game or videogame but it's not. Game is a tricky word to define. After all it is a word that covers Chess and hide-and-go-seek. However most game designers and academics agree that games have four defining traits: voluntary participation, rules, a feedback system, and a goal. Past these characteristics it is challenging to define the word game.

Minecraft has none of these defining characteristics. In a theoretical way it has more in common with a rubber ball than Super Mario Bros. Toys, like Minecraft or a rubber ball, have no rules, goals, and a rudimentary feedback system if one at all. Wil Wright, who made The Sims and SimCity (also a toy!) defines something as a toy when the user determines the use and limitations of the object.

Minecraft captures Wil's idea beautifully. I think it is what makes it so captivating. Not only in-game with what we can build but outside the game via mods we can alter Minecraft in profound ways. In that toy sense what we can do as players and teachers is up to us.

So for those new to Minecraft don't be shy, you can't break our toy and who ever heard of making a mistake with a toy? It can't be done.

It's going to be fun!

#evomc16