Minecraft

Minecraft is an introduction to a blocky sandbox game. It is a game made up of blocks, creatures, and community. You can survive the night or build a work of art – the choice is all yours. But if the thought of exploring a vast new world all on your own feels overwhelming, then fear not! Let’s explore what Minecraft is all about! ^[1]

Minecraft has been popular with players since its launch in 2011.

Game Mode

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Survival Mode:

• Objective: The player has to gather resources, manage health, hunger, and face enemies like mobs. The goal is to survive in the world and progress by crafting, building, and exploring.
• Features:
  • Health and hunger bars are active.
  • Resources must be collected to craft tools, weapons, and blocks.
  • Players can die and respawn, but death will result in the loss of items unless retrieved.
  • Hostile mobs spawn and pose threats.

Creative Mode:

• Objective: Players have unlimited resources and the ability to fly, enabling them to focus on building and creativity without any survival elements (like hunger or health).
• Features:
  • Infinite health and hunger (the player cannot die).
  • Free access to all blocks and items.
  • The ability to fly and quickly move around the world.
  • No hostile mobs spawn naturally, although they can be spawned manually using commands.

Adventure Mode:

• Objective: This mode is designed for custom maps where players can experience different adventures. It has restrictions compared to survival mode to make it more challenging.
• Features:
  • Players can interact with blocks only if they have the correct tools for breaking them (e.g., using a pickaxe to break stone).
  • Health and hunger are present, and the player must survive.
  • Typically used for custom-built worlds or adventure maps created by others.

Spectator Mode:

• Objective: This mode allows players to freely observe the world without interacting with it. It is often used to explore the world or to view gameplay in multiplayer mode.
• Features:
  • Players can fly through blocks and observe the world without being noticed by mobs or other players.
  • You cannot interact with the world (e.g., break or place blocks).
  • Players can switch to different perspectives, like those of other players or mobs.

Hardcore Mode (A variant of Survival Mode):

• Objective: Essentially the same as survival mode but with a much higher difficulty and permanent death. If you die, you cannot respawn, and the world is deleted.
• Features:
  • The game is set to the hardest difficulty level.
  • The player only gets one life. Upon death, the world is deleted or becomes read-only.

Creative Mode (with Commands):

• While regular Creative mode offers freedom, you can also use commands (in Creative mode) to manipulate the world further, teleport, summon mobs, and change time or weather.

Versions

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1. Minecraft Alpha (2009 – 2010): The initial public release, where the game started gaining popularity. It featured basic gameplay elements like mining and crafting.
2. Minecraft Beta (2010 – 2011): Introduced new mechanics and features such as multiplayer, new blocks, and biomes. The game became more polished and playable.
3. Minecraft 1.0 (2011) : The official full release of Minecraft. The game featured more stable performance, new game modes (Creative and Survival), and additional content.
4. Minecraft 1.1 – 1.7.10 (2012 – 2014): These updates added new features such as new mobs, biomes, and blocks, along with various bug fixes and performance improvements.
5. Minecraft 1.8 (2014): Also known as the “Bountiful Update,” it introduced new blocks, mobs (like rabbits), and features like the world generation changes and new combat mechanics.
6. Minecraft 1.9 (2016): Known as the “Combat Update,” it introduced new combat mechanics, shields, and the End City.
7. Minecraft 1.12 (2017) : The “World of Color Update” added new colorful blocks, parrots, and the ability to add more detailed resource packs.
8. Minecraft 1.13 (2018) : The “Update Aquatic” added new underwater biomes, blocks, mobs (like dolphins), and a massive overhaul of underwater gameplay.
9. Minecraft 1.14 (2019) : Known as the “Village & Pillage Update,” this version introduced villages with new trading systems, pillagers, and crossbows.
10. Minecraft 1.16 (2020) : The “Nether Update” significantly overhauled the Nether dimension, adding new biomes, mobs, and blocks.
11. Minecraft 1.17 – 1.18 (2021 – 2022) : These updates introduced major new features like the “Caves & Cliffs” update, which revamped cave generation and added new mobs (such as goats and axolotls).
12. Minecraft 1.19 (2022) : Known as the “Wild Update,” this version introduced the Deep Dark biome, the Warden mob, and new structures.
13. Minecraft 1.20 (2023) : The “Trails & Tales” update added new mobs like camels, new blocks, and new storytelling features, as well as improvements to player creativity.
14. Minecraft 1.21 (2024) : Added a new underground structure called the Trial Chambers, 2 new mobs, a new weapon,  new enchantments, following blocks, following items etc… [link]

History

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1. In September 2014, after selling 15 million copies of Minecraft across gaming consoles, Persson sold out to Microsoft in a $2.5 billion cash deal.

Source

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1. Minecraft Official Website [Link]