[2023] Tweets by Kingbdogz on 09 Jun

I think there is a balance that has to be struck with Minecraft, and it could use more extrinsic motivation in some places. But a large amount of feedback is usually about how "useful" something is, which makes no sense in the context of a sandbox game. There's no goal.

Noticing a trend of critiques about Minecraft are from people who want the game to be a different game than it is. A lot of comparisons to Terraria, or mods adding extrinsic motivation. Minecraft is a sandbox game, and while it can have more extrinsic goals, that's not its core.

It's like complaining about The Sims adding a new furniture set and wondering why it isn't "useful" mechanically or make the sims in your house more powerful. The Sims doesn't need to make their furniture useful - it's about curating a sandbox experience for players to toy with.

@RatheartzGaming There really is no such thing as "one and done" content in Minecraft, at least I can't think of anything we've done recently that is like that. Armor trims can be endlessly tinkered with by players on a server - different styles, creating wardrobes, etc. Billions of combinations.

@boskatoska But you are talking exactly about what I'm saying. Whether it's the game for you or not, building was never meant to be useful in Minecraft. At one stage it may have been more of a survival-focused game, but it's just not that anymore. There is no "use", and that's okay.

@boskatoska The goals for playing in a sandbox are entirely up to you. You create a castle because you want to, and you created that goal for yourself. The game isn't telling you to do that. And that's what Minecraft is all about. You want the game to be something it is not.

@RatheartzGaming Even Archaeology isn't really one and done. Technically you can make plenty of combinations of pots, even just as a trophy reward to show on servers. And the fact that they are non-renewable means that having them is impressive on a big server.

@PlanetFnRandom I really question what you think is considered "little" amount of content. I've been around Minecraft since the Infdev days. Trust me, the past 4-5 updates have been absolutely gigantic compared to what we used to get in terms of sheer amount of content.

@PlanetFnRandom I say that as a player, not a developer. I know what type of content we got in the past as a player. And I know what Mojang delivers now working as a developer. The quality has gone up, the game is less buggy, and there is more content added than ever before.

@kuzzamc Any goal that is delivered to the player by the game or forced on the player, instead of a goal that is made by the player themselves. Even a boss in Minecraft can be intrinsic, but it depends on how closely tied it is to progression.

@minaxaArt I never said people's points are invalid. I said that I think the criticism comes from a misguided place. People DO want the game to be something it is not, whether we respond to that or not. Changing the core of the game is not something us as designers should do lightly.

@minaxaArt As soon as we make the game more forceful in giving players goals, we suddenly can lose a lot of people who enjoy the sandbox aspect of the game. It is a much more complicated challenge than you try to paint it.

@HeyJay2000 Purpose and "usefulness" are two entirely different things. One is about it's grander purpose in the vision of the game, and one is about mechanical application.

@PlanetFnRandom Trails & Tales has added almost just as much content as 1.16. Whether you like that content or not has nothing to do with quantity. You are conflating "what I like" with "this is a small amount". I think people forget that the Nether Update added biomes with no terrain changes.

@PlanetFnRandom Like the biomes themselves were just a coat of paint on top of existing Nether generation. There was no world gen tech changes at all. Compared to 1.20 which adds entirely new systems, 1.16 was far less technically challenging.

@boskatoska Sure but I very much doubt that players buy new furniture DLC for that. They buy it to create new experiences and visuals for their houses.

@Saifi_33 Didn't make a sign and try the ability to edit on either side? Didn't go to one structure? Regardless, when we add new features, the requirement for a good update should not be "are the new features in your face as soon as you start the game".

@grimitix You are playing the wrong game if you want meaningful, long progression. I'd suggest Diablo.

@Tomularity Before? did you play Minecraft before 1.0? It literally had a progression loop that lasted an hour max in terms of pure things to do. The entire rest of the game was making your own goals.

@EdepolFox We did not over promise at ALL with Trails & Tales. We specifically only showed what will be in the update and showed less at Live as a result.

@LosFreddos Huge congrats on the release. I've been playing past 2 days and am absolutely floored by the masterclass in horror design on display here. It really is a great step and I'm very excited for what you all learn from this project and continue to do next.

RT @eckoxsoldier: Go to https://armortrims.com/ hit randomise! that's the first challenge for you to get in Minecraft 1.20! show me your…

@TheMisterEpicYT 1.20 included a rewrite of the lighting engine with performance almost as good as Starlight. Do you think it is really a good idea to retweet content that actively promotes harassing developers? I think this is a bit low.

RT @MandaLin2000: Another info graphic! 💜 Here is your materials guide to duplicating your favorite new Minecraft smithing templates! All…

@CygnusGD @minaxaArt Oh they absolutely can, I'm just saying that they shouldn't be the core focus of the game. It's not the game's design principles to curate goals for the player. We will absolutely continue to add more content that is more extrinsic in nature.

Interacting with the community is what gives me a lot of joy in this role. It's a unique thing to have one on one interactions with fans as a developer. It's at times disappointing that this can't happen without some toxicity in small groups.

Sometimes I forget that social media is crafted to encourage controversy and conflict. Anecdotally, it feels like Twitter has become a bit worse at this in the past year. All I've wanted to do as a developer on this platform is share my learnings/process and give insight.

Just remember that the devs do care and work hard, and it's important to not attack them directly. There are plenty of avenues for giving feedback in constructive ways that we can actually act on.

It's a small minority, however, and there are absolutely countless numbers of players who love the game who don't engage on social media. I do hope we can continue to have constructive conversations and be kind to each other while developing this wonderful game together.

@Demilogic This is awesome. Trust me, I've been there - before I worked on Mojang I made the Aether mod which was an extensively exstrinically-motivated game with dungeons and high progression (for vanilla, at least). But Minecraft has its design principles and sticking to them is important

@Demilogic For the record, I absolutely adore Terraria. It was one of those "oh sh*t" moments for me after playing Minecraft for such a long time - it was exactly what I wanted from Minecraft as a player who was so motivated by those type of goals.

@Demilogic But I've come to realize that Minecraft is it's own thing, and it's special and worth preserving. It's a type of game that people seem to like, and as a designer I need to keep that in mind with every step I take. It doesn't mean that more extrinsic content cannot be added.

@Demilogic I love all the work you do and I am absolutely inspired and share your passion for becoming inspired by Minecraft itself. It's what got me to learn programming to begin with.

@SimpleSack Except devs are absolutely being harassed over this and you cannot deny that.

@mister_quasi Yeah but there's a big difference between critiquing an update and calling developers lazy and that they only work 30 minutes a day.

@JagexAsh @GenesisModding God Ash, I love Runescape. Let's talk. DM?