Some games lure you in with so many distractions that you never finish them. MyMMO author Paul Kutzner knows this too.
There are games where you can sink in for hundreds of hours without tackling the tasks the game offers. This happened to me, for example, in Skyrim, where I spent endless hours in the vast open world, or also Fallout 4, where I unexpectedly spent a lot of time expanding the settlements. However, I eventually managed to finish both games successfully.
Another game keeps drawing me in and captivating me for many hours. It offers so many possibilities that I have never defeated the final boss of the game to this day – let alone even seen it in the game.
4 Corners and Endless Possibilities
What game is it about? It is Minecraft. When a friend showed me the game in 2011, I was immediately interested. The possibilities the game hinted at were overwhelming. While I may not be the most creative builder in Minecraft, it captivated me immediately.
I really enjoy coming up with concepts for farms or getting inspired by others who continually simplify the gameplay and make it easier for me to obtain masses of items. Whether it’s about wheat, iron, or EXP farms.
But that is both a curse and a blessing.
Why is this a problem? In Minecraft, there is fundamentally a fairly concrete goal that you receive in survival mode: to defeat the Ender Dragon. However, due to the countless possibilities the game offers, I have never managed to reach this goal, now 14 years after discovering the game.
Every few months or years there is a phase where I log into my old account, create a new world, and start playing. Often this happens because I see what new content has found its way to Minecraft (I’m looking at you, Copper Golem).
And here we go again: a big warehouse to stash all items in good old hoarder fashion. A wheat farm to easily breed animals and secure experience points and important drops from the animals in mass. A trading hall with villagers? Of course! And of course, countless enchantments must be available here; otherwise, it wouldn’t be a proper trading hall.
All these projects ultimately require many hours of gameplay again. And while my equipment and my base get better and larger, there comes a point where I gradually lose interest in the game. Until I don’t touch it for several months or even years.
Eventually, the desire returns. And of course, then a new save with a new world is created. And the misery starts over.
Who knows, maybe someday I will finally manage to encounter the Ender Dragon. I should be experienced enough for the fight by now. But no matter how often I create new saves and don’t encounter the dragon: I’m having a lot of fun with it. And that’s what it should be about in the end, right?
While Minecraft is seen by many as a pioneer of its genre, there are also other games that aim to compete with it. One of them is Hytale, which promises some features that Minecraft fans should be excited about: Developers of Hytale showcase 27 minutes of features that Minecraft fans have been waiting for years.
