#Minecraft is 15

[jetra4ivor]

I saw a video talking about why Minecraft seems to have stagnated a bit lately and doesn’t have the same appeal as it once did. It talked about the usual complaints, such as inventory bloat, new blocks, structures, quality of life advancements… but the one aspect I didn’t see them talking about was ABSTRACTION.

I think that as Minecraft has been pushed closer towards reality, we’ve lost the inherent FEAR that comes from the abstract in the old video games Minecraft was emulating its style from.

Maybe it’s because I grew up with Atari as my first console, but there was a level of unnerving fear that was created through the hardware limitations and graphics during that era. Because everything was so abstracted, you let your imagination fill in the blanks. This blocky room with goofy eyeballs became a darkly lit haunted house where monsters could appear around every corner.

And Minecraft is clearly going for this level of abstraction. The entire world is just low resolution pixelated blocks, but there’s JUST enough definition that if you squint your eyes the world seems to mimic our own. It produces an uncanny valley effect that, coupled with survival elements, makes the game absolutely TERRIFYING at times.

And a perfect example of this is the creeper. What a horrifying monster! But the details of what it actually is are obscured through abstraction and pixel limitations. What exactly IS the creeper made of? Some people have interpreted the green blotches to be leaves, others see a wrinkly leather-like texture, others see fur. How do you interpret that grimace? Is is a permanent scowl? A sad mourning? There’s JUST enough detail to make the creature recognizable, but not enough detail to make it perfectly clear to everyone what it’s made of. That’s terrifying!

That so many artists can have such wildly different interpretations of the creeper is a testament to its intentionally unnerving design.

But over the years those terrifying edges have been smoothed out. Textures have been refined to be less garish and harsh. New more recognizable animals have been added. A parrot, for example, looks like a parrot. And just with the colors alone you can tell what kind of parrot it’s meant to be. There no ambiguity. No unsettling interpretation.

And even the enviroment has been smoothed out and changed to reflect reality.

So I think that the reason Minecraft today doesn’t feel like Minecraft of 10 years ago is because too much emphasis has been placed on mimicking reality. Even in the more recent additions these things have real world equivalence which reduce the inherent terror and unease that abstracted environments would evoke. The Nether today is far less scary than the Nether of 10 years ago, even if it’s still as dangerous.

There’s just something really unsettling about a perfectly square house in high contrast mossy cobblestone that you won’t get from a village of friendly NPC’s bathed in soft ambient lighting, you know?

I genuinely believe that Minecraft has leaned too far into realism. If they want people to keep playing longer, it’s not to add MORE structures, it’s to add back in some of the abstracted nature of the original game. Don’t make things inherently clear what they are. Allow people to interpret things in different ways. Stop trying to emulate realistic environments when the trees you cut down don’t even fall over. This is Minecraft! Minecraft is meant to be WEIRD and CREEPY almost like an alien’s failed interpretation of our word.

[dryya-doesnt]

Heirloom and Honor:

In which we feel the weight of our history and bear the burdens of our responsibilities.

This took… way too long… here’s the background only version w all the little Easter eggs and such.

Some progress images! From layout to finish.

This is my most ambitious piece to date…maybe my last fanart for a while haha 😞😞

Some lore thoughts going into this illustration — feel free to ignore:

I was thinking this takes place in S2 in the Zianna Ro’Meave rescue arc, where Garroth returns to O’Khasis after many years to rescue his mother…He comes across their oldest (historically, the first in Ru’aun) cathedral and finds it in a wrecked and pillaged state.

The pious folk have pretty much abandoned the cathedral following Zane’s disappearance for 15 years and the Tu’la invasion was the nail on the coffin. The cathedral is completely barren of life except for the few intact stained glass windows that recount the history of the Divine Warriors.

Around this time it’s revealed that Garroth is the current holder of Esmund’s relic— is he anxious? Lost? Jumpstarting his quarter-life existential crisis?

I hope that everything here in this illustration captures my vision and conveys it to you. This is pretty much a love letter MCD HAHAHAHA

[popcornsupernova]

You ever stumble into a fandom that’s being held up by like 3 people and some sticks

[sunnymarbles]

aphmau dump hi guys ^_^ ignore the gross disgusting old 2016-2019 time period art in the corner of redraws

[vyladromeave]

I PROMISED AN IVY AND I AIM TO DELIVER!!!!!

[hermitcraft-alignment-charts]

i wasn’t gonna post today but then i met philza minecraft on the mcci server so i made this post just to tell you guys that i met philza minecraft on the mcci server

[sleepingjunimo]

i put the cottage in cottage cheese

[professionalchaoticdumbass]

minecraft projects in 2018: i'm going to turn this cave into a hideout with wood floors and platforms! :D

minecraft projects in 2019: i'm gonna build a big town on this island and it's gonna have a custom cavern too. we have to remove this medium sized sandbar first though

minecraft projects in 2020: alright, the city's walls are finished and i'm gonna reset my server soon so we can all dig a giant hole in the middle of the ocean

minecraft projects in 2021: hey guys did yall finish the giant gold farm yet? i need to repair my pickaxes so i can dig more of that hole. also we're updating soon to 1.17, we're building an even bigger island city

minecraft projects in 2022: oh for fuck's sake i've gone through four double chests of andesite already building this thing, i need to go mining again. is the nether hub tunnel built? i need a chest of packed ice.

minecraft projects in 2023: did you guys finish the sliced portal farm? i need slime for the world eater. can you grab me another stack of diamond blocks to fill up the double chest some more. i need to go caving for half a chest of lapis blocks, this gradient is so annoying to make. here's 17,000 rockets. can you compact this deep-storage unit to a 4x4 area. just crafted a box of hoppers btw :3

[phantomrose96]

With the whole Trump and Musk fiascos going on it makes me wonder just how many highly powerful institutions in history were in fact run by man-children. It’s gotta be a lot more than we realize. I think historically it was just easier for this kind of thing to go unnoticed because for most of human history these people could not live-tweet their every stupid action to the masses

[mcd-brainrot-hours]

castor gets to be relevant in my rewrite because i love him and his character is more than just a chicken shaman to me

like he is a powerful potion maker and magician who was sasha’s mentor whose death affected him greatly. in mcd there’s a few moments where we get to see the real castor shine through the silly chicken persona and i love those moments and guess what? he gets to have more of those in my rewrite i want to explore who he was before everything

he’s more than just a silly chicken guy to me :(

[colliewolfdraws]

Please consider helping out! If you’re interested please reach out to me through tumblr dm or discord friend request at colliewolf

COMMISSION TERMS OF SERVICE.

This includes what I will and will not draw. If you have any questions again please feel free to reach out.

(If sending a discord friend request please send me a message and tell me you’re interested in a commission or else your request will be ignored.)

[erebus-xvii]

all I'm gonna say about the hermit setup debate is that Cleo's build sounds pretty damn comfy and Etho just has a 2010 first-time streamer setup that he never got around to updating.

and it sounds like Cleo's setup might lead to them having better posture overall, why hunch over the keyboard when it's right in your lap?

[elbiotipo]

"Survival" game: Press X to destroy that tree bare-handed. Now you have Wood, press Enter to access your inventory and turn Wood into a Crafting Table. Now press E on your Crafting Table and use Coal and Iron to make a Steam Engine.

[strawberri-draws]

Me when assassins r in a classroom (and are all in middle school)

[whereismythicalsausage]

aww.. today, sausage has unfortunately had a ₦ł₲Ⱨ₮₥₳ⱤɆ..!

I hope he’s okay !

[fuzzypuppybuddie]

Get off your phone dude stoppp