Minecraft

The book I read to research this post was Minecraft For Dummies by Jacob Cordeiro which is a very good book that I bought on kindle. This book is a For Dummies portable edition so is only around 150 pages but it is a very interesting book. It’s about a game called minecraft which is available as a retail game for both the computer and the xbox 360 and in addition can be played as an online game with both a free basic option and a premium paid option with more features. It can be played as both a LAN multiplayer on online multiplayer game where the various members can work together and build a town rather than just a settlement. To register for this game you must visit http://minecraft.net and normally you activate your account via e-mail. The aims of the game are to build a settlement with stone blocks which always measure 1 metre by 1 metre but can be chopped and shaped by things like a wooden axe. You have to collect various materials and have to keep your avatar alive by feeding him, providing shelter and repeling monsters. It is primarily a stategy with action elements and apparently there are 9 million players around the world. Part of the strategy is for example with various monsters something will work well on one type but not so well on another type. There are wolves in the game which can be a potential problem to you but which you can feed and tame. One of the most important things you can make in the game is gunpowder which can be thrown at things or creatures and explode. Your avatars health is signified by hearts which there can be up to 10 of them and the best way to replenish them is by eating and when these reach zero you die and have to start the game all over again. There are 3rd party sites with various resources but they aren’t covered in this book which assumes you know nothing about the game prior to reading it. I really enjoyed reading this book which was priced at a little under £5 so I think is good value. Finally if you play it as a multiplayer game one of you has to be an administrator of the game and you can enter cheats and commands with the / followed by a command. You can ban players who flout the rules by typing /ban followed by the player name and can give a reason for banning them and they can contact you via e-mail to discuss it.