Minecraft, a sandbox game with prim-based creation tools, now has nearly 20.2 million registered users, of which almost 4.7 million have bought the game. That's over 20 million registrations in under 2 years. For comparison's sake, Second Life, which has many strong similarities to Minecraft, including a strong user-created content community, took about 8 years to exceed 20 million registrations. (It's at some 27 million now.) This is one reason why I think SL creator Linden Lab should create a new game with prim-based building evocative of both worlds.
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Mojang listens to its customers, Linden Lab thinks they know better than its customers. Both are great products for creativity and fun etc. Its the companies that are complete polar opposites.
Posted by: Metacam Oh | Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 12:17 PM
Correction: minecraft does NOT have prim-based tools. What you have is just block-by-block construction.
With prim-based construction, you have a selection of basic shapes to create objects with (cubes, cylinders, spheres, arches, pyramids, etc.), and you're able to twist and stretch and contort them. Minecraft doesn't have any of that. Everything is manually created, block by block. No twisting, stretching, or contortion.
Posted by: Zauber Paracelsus | Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 12:20 PM
just enough creativity yet fairly rigid parameters make for an easy game to participate in versus tenth of a millimetre precision in Second Life or OpenSim
5 million paid accounts! dang!
Posted by: Ener Hax | Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 12:22 PM
Exactly what Ener says.
Thank you Hamlet - I didn't consider Minecraft 'prim-based' but you are absolutely right. The minecraft prim has one shape and one size, and it triggers the hell of creativity.
Who would've thunk!
(certainly not me)
Posted by: Dirk Krause | Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 12:43 PM
There is no reason a gaming continent (PG) cannot be created which allows for games with a MMORPG bend to them. Games which allow people to play hundreds at a time in the same arena, against the monsters and against each other as well.
You could even have some people who would like to have homes in said areas and would pay the same tier as everyone else. Why? So we can watch the gamers getting beat up by the monsters and laugh. Or provide extra firepower rentals for a fee.
Posted by: shockwave yareach | Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 12:47 PM
What Metacam said. I have seen Notch commenting in /r/minecraft on reddit on the good versus bad in user ideas, and implementing changes when people show that it would be beneficial. On the flip side of the coin, I have seen SL users scream at the top of their lungs from every available medium, without a single linden even blinking, or acknowledging that there is a problem.
Mojang knows who butters their bread...but I sometimes wonder if LL has forgotten.
Posted by: Zarkinfrood M. | Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 12:55 PM
I still need to get into Minecraft, but their success shows how some gamers want to MAKE THINGS.
Even if they cannot make breedable Gorean Vampire Bunnies.
Posted by: Ignatius Onomatopoeia | Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 01:00 PM
Minecraft gives you a building area that's something like 7x the surface area of the planet Earth for an one-time fee of about 12 bucks. The blocks are graphically simple, but they're functionally diverse enough that you can make some sophisticated installations.
I think there's an opportunity for a melding of Second Life's relatively sophisticated building tools, customization and multi-user functionality with Minecraft's wide-open spaces and out-of-the-box ease of use.
Notch's previous project, Wurm Online, is also worth consideration. There is a LOT about that world that could be... borrowed, let's say, by a company with deep pockets and an interest in community building.
Posted by: Arcadia Codesmith | Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 02:15 PM
most ppl i know who play on minecraft, me as well, have wireless laptops. is easy to take to ur friends house and school or college even and just turn on and play
is quite a few who now coming from minecraft to sl to have a look, but sl not play as well as minecraft that way for most of them. so not stay. i have to plug in a cable to make sl work for me
Posted by: elizabeth (16) | Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 09:25 PM
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/01/study-of-the-day-humble-leaders-are-better-liked-and-more-effective/250687/
Posted by: qarl | Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 04:52 AM