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Thursday, 16 May 2013

Why People Love Minecraft Tournaments

By Jennie Sandoval


When most people think of video games, they think of something that has a definite goal. Whether it is to save a princess or to take down all of the bad guys, there is always an ending in sight. Minecraft is a game that does not follow that particular structure, which is why Minecraft tournaments are something of an odd idea.

Literally the only things that you will find in Minecraft are blocks. They may be arranged into any number of different combinations, and may make up an amazing variety of things, but they are all blocks. This is a huge departure from many other modern video games, which often focus on their graphics being extremely detailed and realistic.

There is no specific objective given to a player when beginning a game. You are simply presented with a landscape constructed of blocks and set free among them to do whatever you like. By experimenting, you soon find that the blocks can be broken and collected, then used to build entirely new structures, like houses, work benches, tools, railways, and much more.

The absence of any sort of defined goals remains consistent through the whole course of play. The game never tells you where to go or what to do, and it never provides any numbers that state how well or how poorly you are doing. You must set your own goals and gauge your own success.

This does not seem to fit very well with the concept of a tournament. If there is no metric built in by which a player may be judged against others, then coming up with a way to rank them could be quite difficult. Fans of the game, however, work around this limitation by making up their own rules, as the game encourages from the beginning.

Because Minecraft has no official ending, players cannot race towards that. However, they can race towards mutually agreed-upon milestones, which is a popular way to structure tournaments. Goals chosen by the players can be quite demanding, and provide a challenging way for competitors to test their skill as individuals or teams.

For example, some tournaments challenge their competitors to be the first to find gold or diamonds, both of which are relatively rare types of blocks in the game. This tests the skill and strategy of players, although there can be a fair amount of luck involved. Since everyone starts out with the same materials and the same chances, however, it is mostly about how they go about accomplishing the task given using the relatively minimal initial tools provided by the game itself.

Even though it might not conform to what many people might think of as a normal video game, Minecraft still has a fascinating premise and a degree of freedom that is largely unmatched. The fact that fans have managed to make Minecraft tournaments as popular as they are despite an inherent competitive structure speaks volumes about their dedication. Not many games have this type of popularity, and it is sure to continue to entrance players for many years to come.




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