2004, Runoff for Game of the Year

[HoloDust]

SvennoJ said:

HoloDust said:

It's not really about blocks (or quick attempts to cash in on the craze by copying it), it's about the sandbox, exploration, resources, building and crafting. The whole survival/building/crafting craze started with Minecraft, there are bajillions of games out there trying to do variations of it, and I don't see that loosing steam at all. This is what kids are raised on in the last decade, what devs are recognizing as to what those kids want to play the most, and what those kids as future devs will be bringing to the video game development table once they grow up.

Minecraft is once in a generation game changer - but let's not go too deep here in that analysis, there is so much written about it already out there.

You're right. I never really saw it as a survival game or exploration as I find those the weakest points of the game. But it did popularize the survival and crafting genre. So much so it has even led Zelda astray :/

I'm getting old, don't understand the appeal of the survival genre. However my oldest kid loves it, Ark and Rust in particular. Although you could make a case for Civilization being about crafting, building, exploration and survival, which I played non stop in the early 90s.

Well, as like to say (and my younger son has allergic reaction to that by now), it all started with original DnD. I order to play DnD, you were advised to buy Avalon Hills Outdoor Survival, which covered tracking through wilderness to reach dungeon (and then back to reach safety of the civilization). But that was only part of the game, not main focus. I still like that very much in my TTRPGs (I never wavehand travel and what it takes to get to somewhere), and in VG RPGs if it's done properly (I really like how Outward does it).

But I'm with you, pure survival games are not my forte, but kids just love them. I'm not saying there aren't any really good one (Subnautica comes to mind), but something like Frostpunk, which is about survival of community appeals more to me than "alone and lost in jungle/desert/whatever".