Boom. Still alive.
What with ‘live service’ games being all the rage right now, you might have mistaken the title for a reference to the ways developers have turned updates into less of a means of, you know, updating the product, and instead as a means of fixing their own mistakes. Unfortunately, as much as I have just realized that would be a far more interesting topic, that’s not why I’m here. As with all things, I strive to talk about that topic about a decade after it’s relevant.
So, why have I invited you here? Well, there’s this little indie game that made the rounds a few years ago that gained a small cult following before disappearing into obscurity. You might have heard of it. Minecraft. For any potential readers who aren’t yet of drinking age, you might not be familiar with the game it used to be before what I like to call ‘the dark times.’
In the ancient past year of 2011, beta update 1.8 (colloquially known as the ‘Adventure Update’) was released unto the world, cementing the new path that the game was taking. This update added numerous new mechanics, items, mobs and spawnable locations, at the center of which were the new survival mechanics. Gone were the days of simply eating food to fill a health bar, replaced by eating food to fill a hunger bar. The end was nigh.
From the moment I first encountered this new mechanic, I hated it. I hated how it worked, I hated what it stood for, and most importantly, I hated how it interacted with the rest of the mechanics. I felt the hunger bar stood in direct opposition to what Minecraft had been about. It was a mechanic that would require active engagement to deal with, something that the game had previously kept very structured. Before the update, enemy mobs were the only active interference in the game, which was perfect. Minecraft was a sandbox that you occasionally had to protect from spiders and exploding plushies, not a survival game with sandbox elements.
comparing pre and post 1.8 Minecraft is little like comparing the difference between Portal 1 and Portal 2. Whereas the original is a game with a story, the sequel is a story with a game. Perhaps a difficult distinction to make when looking from a distance, but when you step closer the variation becomes quite palpable indeed. The difference between Portal and Minecraft is that when Portal 2 came out, my copy of Portal 1 didn’t deepthroat the barrel of a shotgun. If all 1.8 had done was introduce new blocks and perhaps some new friendly or enemy mobs I’d have been singing its praises from the rooftops, but the simple addition of the hunger bar derailed the fun.
As I alluded to earlier, the hunger bar was more or less an active mechanic. You can’t just ignore it. You actively have to eat in order to not only regain health, but also prevent your character from almost starving to death. In this way it actively requires attention. Enemy mobs also required a level of active attention, and whilst this rings of double standards, to my mind they had originally been implemented perfectly (‘originally’ being something we’ll talk about in a bit). Enemy mobs acted as a means of motivating the player to seek shelter and safety, perhaps by building a house. An empty hunger bar is designed to motivate players to seek out food to eat. If I were to ask a player what one of the main draws of Minecraft is, they would probably answer with some variant of ‘the ability to build a house.’ They’re not going to say ‘the ability to cook breakfast.’
What saddens me the most about this, and the thing that probably has the most irony to it, is that I really like it when games have optional survival elements. Let me just say that last bit again. Optional survival elements. ‘But TCOB,’ I hear you cry, ‘Hunger is optional. If you dislike it, you can just play on easy mode, or even in creative mode.’ But I don’t want to play on easy or in creative. I want to have actually gather the resources needed to erect my monolith dedicated to the values of anti-centrism. I want to have a sense of trepidation and worry when venturing out at night. The only way I can now have these challenges is to play the game on normal or higher difficulty in survival mode.
A similar problem comes from the more recent update that added enemy mob raids. You can be minding your business at which point a scouting party of enemies turns up to aggressively inform you that your day is about to be ruined. Again, it’s a mechanic that requires an active level of reaction from the player to deal with. This is why earlier I said that enemy mobs had originally been implemented perfectly. In the days of yore, enemies were obstacles to overcome. This update made enemy mobs an obstacle that chased you down and stole your lunch money. Usually only way to deal with them is to actively engage them.
As I’ve said, I really like optional survival elements. I briefly stop feeling my deep seated hatred of humanity every time a developer announces that their game is going to add the option to have manageable survival elements to their games. What often then reminds me of the hopelessness of our species and why Thanos was right is when I then realize the survival mode is only available when playing on the hardest difficulty. Thanks, ‘The Outer Worlds.’ Is it so hard to believe that I might want the immersion of light survival elements without getting curb-stomped by every enemy on the map?
Apparently so.
Y, Though? 