Figure:Articulated Animal Mobs Figures from Minecraft Overworld

The Minecraft electronic game presents a very simple and expansive objective: build in 3-D anything you can imagine. The game provides the tools to build iconic buildings and structure, large cities, farm houses and barnyards, desert islands, or gigantic glaciers. Players choose the mode they play from among survival, creative, hardcore, and spectator. The game supplies a number of different landscapes on which the games are played, but the representations of these terrains�as well as other features of the built world--appear as blurry, blocky structures made of stacked cubes. The game, thus, does not rely on realism for its appeal, rather, it forces kids to work out their game play, rationalizing how to gather resources if they want to build something; acquire food and provisions if they want to survive; and combat zombies, monsters, and ghouls, during the night if they want to secure the things they develop or build. The game requires kids to think through the steps of building, even consulting game forums and wikis to learn the process of constructing a dream house or digging a mineshaft to haul out minerals and ores for later use. Some of the play requires repetition. One game forum advises: This is a game where you have to do a lot of repetitive things to survive, and a LOT of repetitive things if you want to create anything interesting. Perhaps Benjamin Spock's observation about children's play explains Minecraft's appeal: A child loves his play not because it is easy but because it is hard. Minecraft, created by Swedish programmer Markus Persson and introduced by Mojang, first appeared in 2009. In about five years' time, it has been sold about 54 million times, making it the third most popular electronic game on the market. The amount of related handbooks, annuals, magazines, clothing, and toys suggests Minecraft's popularity will endure for some time.