The Unfulfilled Potential of Minecraft - Assuming a Different Perspective 

I hope you enjoyed this new video. I know I generally don't offer analyses that focus on what isn't there instead of what is, but as stated in the video, I really do love this game and I thought it would be a fun way to talk about frame analysis, which is a pretty useful tool regardless of what you apply it to.

I swear to god the youtube algorithm knows that when it's 4am

I never asked myself, how would Bob Ross play Minecraft. I guess I know now.

> "There's gravity. Sort of." I cackled.

Everyone: You need to play Minecraft without thinking LSOO: Hold my master's degree

Never thought I'd see a critique of neo-liberalism using Minecraft - love it lmao

The combination of your accent and music creates such a soothing experience.

"cruel farms" me, sweating, looking at my one block big farms in which i stuff animals in until the chunk limit suffocates them; haha... yeah...

You should make a Kickstarter for a mod that implements this. Nothing too crazy but just "environmental vannila". I would back that in a heartbeat

15:22 "But above all, the thing I really want is to experience Minecraft like I did when I first started playing it." There's the truth. Don't we all.

Don't tell him about the Scicraft server or his mind will collapse...

5:24 Actually there is,you get EXP for minining,smelting and pretty much killing any living creature,EXCEPT Villagers and Golems(EDIT:And baby animals too as it turns out),since they are your allies,so I suppose that counts as some kind of moral system.

In a certain way, Minecraft is already reactive to player actions, although unintentionally. When industry is expanded too far, the world reacts by creating lag. This slows down farms and hurts gameplay, so it needs to be avoided. This can be seen most clearly in the most advanced and industrial server in Minecraft, Scicraft. Scicraft has exploited their world almost to the max, creating farms for hundreds of items and building enormous quarries to gather resources. However, Scicraft has had to develop the Minecraft equivalent of environmentalism to stop their world from dying of lag. Because of this, they limit the size of their machines, use less laggy components, and prevent all unnecessary processing, sometimes by mining out massive perimeters down to bedrock. So, while Minecraft does encourage industry and resource gathering, too much of this can negatively affect the world. In the extreme endgame of Minecraft, players must find a balance between industry and nature, as industry cannot expand indefinitely. Thank you for listening to my Ted Talk

Great video, as always! I think a big reason that Minecraft is the way it is and not as you've shown is simply because the complexity involved is staggering and possibly unstable. What I mean is--"the world is unreactive" is a simple paradigm. A more complex one might make the world impossible to understand, especially for beginners. For instance, you've assumed the world is inhabitable. But if the world reacts to you, the world must necessarily also react to itself: tree types and predators will cross biomes, some random lava pool might start a forest fire, the world might render itself uninhabitable, in a way that a new player would not understand, and which may really sour his/her experience. An interesting game to be sure, but not Minecraft. Also one where the developers would box themselves in, because the system would need to be majorly retuned to stabilize itself, and anything added afterward must not risk this stability. "The world is made out of blocks" is unrealistic. So, perhaps it's fine if the rules of the world are a bit unrealistic too.

Minecraft and Like Stories of Old = ❤

"Man is not an empire within an empire." - Baruch Spinoza

With this video you've articulated something I have felt unconsciously in extreme similarity since I first started playing this game back in 2012. Thank you! I would love to see Minecraft explore the themes you've brought up. The exploration of Minecraft's natural world and finding place in it are the elements I enjoy most in the game. Would love to see more of that too. :)

The idea that nature is man's playground isn't unique to neoliberalism. Almost every society with developed agriculture also held that view, since they could manipulate it more, wheras in northern european, and native american socities, we see a cult of nature since they depended on it more. The view that ecology surpasses humanity, only has a reaurgance due to concerns of environmental devastion harming humans in the long run.

The intro of the sponsor feels like God is telling me to buy his product

minecraft and like stories of old. My day is made

His voice is so smooth and quite. So relaxing, like Minecraft should be, definitely have my sub

"That wouldn't make a lot of sense as in Minecraft it's just you, or you 'with a small number of other players'." RTGame: Am I a joke to you?

Minecraft and Like Stories of Old? A surprise to be sure,but a welcome one.

"the villagers....you can breed them, with impunity " pewdiepie has left the chat.

makin me feel bad about those villager goulogs that I made

Makes me wonder how the game would be different with frames that weren't discussed in the video

it's a good thing those virtual pigs have plenty of living space lol but this was a really interesting perspective

I play like him Never beat the ender dragon Only go to the Nether when necessary Etc

Wow I always felt bad for putting animals in tight spaces with fences all around, and burning forests down, but this video took it to a whole other level, thanks Like Stories of Old for your analysis of Minecraft and it’s implications for how we view nature

I am an Environmental Studies Major with a focus is Sociology and I just want you to know that the discussion in this video is very relevant and related to what I've been hearing in classes and through conversations with peers. Thank you for this!

I think you really hit the nail on the head on the feeling I get in Minecraft. Like, I would get snappy at my friends for taking villager workstations. Or how one friend in particular sets fire to jungles on principle. How we'd walk through unclaimed land and they'd just kill the passive mobs.

During this past year, I have been asking myself these questions and have been starting to make a change for myself rather than letting people tell me what I should/shouldn't change. my natural progression of asking these questions led me to start focusing on how the world is impacted by my decisions and how "nature's decisions" impact the way I live within the present. As a result, I have started to feel more in tune with an ecosystem(the world as a whole) rather than being outside of it. It has seriously been life-changing and I have been much happier because of it. Im glad, we as a group of people, can make some change for good. this was a really really really excellent video, I most definitely will watch this again when I catch myself in a different mood. Good job :)

There are a few points that I have to rectify: - Animals do not replicate anymore other than the usual initial spawn. So you have to look after the population so that you do not extinct species in your area. - Villagers keep track diligently of the good/bad you do to them with a points system. That will then affect how you can trade with them. Also the iron golem attack you if you are not doing the morally right thing. These are elements that certainly are some kind of moral instrument. However other than that, I agree, Minecraft is very neutral in what it allows you to do.

That intro was the most serene and peaceful Minecraft video I’ve seen I loved it

I hate explosion holes in the ground and floating trees and missing sand I took to make windows. But seeing the way Minecraft is coded with block updates and stuff, and the fact that it already doesn't even run that well on a semi-decent computer, I can see why most of these changes are _not_ in the game.

Like Stories of Old, I have really enjoyed watching all your videos. They are well done, and explain concepts in realtivily simple terms with great examples. Keep up the amazing work. I look forward to seeing future videos.

Most of the things you mentioned are in Eco. I've never personally played the game, but I did watch gameplays. You have a fully interactive environment, where every move you make matters. However I think the game has an end point. To say that putting those kind of changes in Minecraft is unfeasible, would be an understatement. In order for your actions to matter, the world would need to be finite. (which is not the case in Minecraft) Every new change of that scale would increase the lag immensely. At most what they could do is something on the lines of, changing the Biomes based on Temperature and Irrigation. But putting toxins in the ground and having them transported over an unspecified distance, or having trees take out other competing trees, just doesn't seem doable.

minecraft is basically life trying to repeating itself in a voxel format

This is such a beautiful video. Fantastic job with this. Looking forward to future videos. :)

I love Minecraft, I mostly play on creative mode, Love the Video , your videos are so insightful and well thought out, def an underated youtuber, Keep up the awesome work and thank you.

I think that adding enough simple interactions could result in what you're looking for. Examples: All animals eat grass and will breed on their own if they eat enough. Animals attempting to eat while on a dirt block trample that block into a dry dirt block which cannot grow grass. Monsters actively seek out light sources to put them out. Add a new block, sour water, which forms based on proximity to large numbers of farm animals. Changes like this can cause the environment to change because of player input without being one to one reactions and being fairly intuitive.

For me, 1.13, 1.14, and 1.15 in Java brought back the thrill of figuring out new environments and behaviors. Having villagers that are more interactive with more complex behaviors opened new opportunities to place moral strictures on oneself. Thought provoking topic- thank you!

this is a wonderful video! such a calming voice, and such a creative way to explain different sociological concepts (like with the bedrock, stone and dirt for different layers of frames). i had a great time all the way through. thank you so much for making this!!

So happy you made this video. I could never really get into playing Minecraft myself, but I recognize how much potential it has and am constantly thinking about what directions it could be taken in.

This is the problem I had with Skyrim. The choices you make with NPC'S have a degree of impact on the world of course. However, the obvious disconnect between the world and the player were all too apparent in other areas. If I attack the Jarl of Whiterun for example my only option to move forward in the world without going back to a previous save is too just spend time in prison and everyone treats you the exact same like nothing happened. NPC's not interacting with each other that feel like they should. Like being a Kajit and having Kajit fallowers in city's Kajit aren't supposed to be able to even enter! I know their are limits to video games but it's still annoying.

I love your channel bro, keep up the good work!

I love this channel. Your voice, sound choices, and especially your thoughts, makes it seem that I'm drifting unto different worlds, like an adventurer, learning many things as I visit every video you make.

As always, great job! I am always so excited when you post your videos.

Your videos are so inspiring I've been recommending them to my sister and friends! Keep up the good work!

One of my favorites RU-vidrs and Minecraft, this is wonderful.

Excellent video! The stuff you explained in the normative & ontological layer was what was running into my mind from the last few months since I started playing Minecraft - I just didn't know how to analyze it structurally. Thankful that someone said this & that too in a detailed way.

This one was so good

The narrator's "has gravity, sort of' cracked me up🥂🥂😂

"Is essentially a sandbox..." Haven't everyone realized that yet? I mean the first versions of Minecraft didnt even had a survival mode. A sandbox is what MS identity stands on. Now addding too many things to up the complexity may not be as good as you think. Think about having 12 different bars like hunger, but now its water, temperature, immunity, age, toilet "necessities", etc. Thats a bother, right? Yeah thats what I thought after those suggestions. Some things do need to keep certain simplicity to work. Complexity can hurt the overall design sometimes.

I can tell the amount of effort you put in this video. From the deep analysis (but presented in an interesting, simple way), to the visual style (how you manufactured the transitions, and specially those clips about frames were you showed a square of grass). We appreciate the work, really good job. I loved the video.

I watch all your video's multiple times. A couple of times to listen to what you have to say, and a couple of times listening to how it is said. Your soothing voice with the music creates a feeling of "all is okay", even when talking about problems in the world.

It's strange that humans have developed to become so far apart from nature that we no longer consider ourselves as nature even though like animals and plants, we are just another species that exist and inhabit the Earth.

Man i love your soothing, meditating videos. As a with anxiety and depression plagued person this really brings me back down to earth, i want to cry. It feels like home i guess.

I get genuinely happy when you upload a video. This is one is great! I personally couldn't get enough of the Magician, Warrior, King, Lover series. Thank you for making these!

You cannot even imagine how often i watched this video! This video made me think, question things and reflect so hard! It is one of my most favorite videos on RU-vid! I already watched it so often and always come back to it again and again! Extremely inspiring! Thank you!

It's called a 'systemic game' in game design. Wonderful example: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

I usually play in creative and I’ve had this world from March 2019 to today October 2019 and its about 950mb and my gameplay is simple really, conquer villages to improve their standard of living and protect them from zombies with Villager Guard Mod.

This is really inspiring. I'm going to look into modding those ideas you have into the game.

absolutely banging video, well played!

15:19 God, I really didn't need the mental image of tearing apart the world to make a huge base, only to walk into the next biome and find out that you've completely destroyed what was once a beautiful environment and desolated entire villages without even realising... If minecraft ever did something like that, I would legitimately end up crying at my computer screen...

This seems modable, I'd think.

His voice makes it seem so peaceful, as if I’m in a meadow with the beaming sun beading on my shoulders. The beautiful flowers all around me and every thing is ok. He’s given me a new perspective on playing now.

Loved every second of this video! Thanks!

Zero Punctuation addressed the Lego analogy and said that it was actually more like a model train set that someone spends years meticulously arranging.

I’d love to see a mod which could do something like this

Really well made video. Excellent analysis as well

Amazing video, needs to get more recognition!

Yes, I always liked those minecraft mods that added more consequence in general environmental or otherwise.

Does anybody know any mod packs that do this?

I love these video essays that are popping all over minecraft :D it's so exciting XD

love the frames u started building. I'm very happy to have found ur channel

Damn reminds me of your older RU-vid channel. Realy enjoy this video like always !

The absolute madman, first Witcher, now the Craft???!

You have a really nice voice; I usually listen to youtube videos as opposed to watching them (even most play throughs), and your voice is very peaceful and calming

What a wonderful video, thank you so much for the amazing content :)

I would love it if you took a look at the FX show “Wilfred”. I would love to hear your take on it.

Interesting idea. I'd love too see dynamic environmental interaction too. Deforestation drives away animals but increases fertility perhaps. Did you watch my first video? Just sounds like it from the terminology you use haha.

I never thought about this, but your video made me feel good, not only for the asmr and nice edit aspects of it, but for the way i like to play minecraft with a friend, we respect the virtual nature, we made roads between villages, take care of our animals, and we dont make weird machines or automated farms, we just take what we need, and live the simple life, its wholesome

This idea is amazing !!! Slowly, over different updates, introducing different mechanichs to change the worldgeneration by terraforming. For example:) changing the bioms by planting or removing trees( slowly and influencing the regeneration of plants and animals, changing the weather amd the productivity of cropts, by doing so. Another simple but effective mechanich would be: lowering reproductive rates of animal if they are too close together and having them die(of desies). Thank you for this fresh view on the game. I think this can definetly somwhat influence coming generations to think a little more aboute the concequences of their actions, even a tiny bit, without changing the game too much!!!

Someone really needs to send this to Mojang. Insightful and beautiful, filled with great ideas like all LSOO videos. Thanks!

Like stories of old I agree that there's no sense of morality in Minecraft but does there have to be I mean I've played on servers where I made huge industrial farms to get lots of resources quickly but also to stop other players from taking the whole world apart. Is that so bad, harming the few for the good of the entire world? I've played Minecraft for years and the simplicity of it is one of the things that keeps me interested in the game. I built a city once where there used to be a village and filled it with villages and with the changes that you propose this would not be possible the area if not the world would become uninhabitable. Because this is Minecraft were talking about all these subtle changes would have to be accelerated and magnified, if could see the effects your actions have in a singleplayer world imagine what would happen to massive multiplayer servers and worlds that have been played for years. Your proposed changes are influential and a good learning device but unstable and impractical in a randomly generated Minecraft world. I mean imagine it some worlds would be uninhabitable from the start others could become uninhabitable in a matter on a few in game days because of a lava flow or pool generating near the spawn point, on the games large scale this is not sustainable. Protecting the environment is also a very large and important political issue and the fact that Minecrafts gameplay and mechanics have remained a chaotic neutral stance on the subject is actually one of the very reasons for its popularity and success .

Great video. I watched it all and learned new things.

Awesome content! Am showing my children this,thank you so much .x

Leave it to LSOO to analyze the crap out of Minecraft, amazing!

your voice makes me feel like its all gonna be okay

I really enjoy you're viewpoint man, it makes for great content.

This was fantastic thank you for sharing this. I have invested a large portion of my time into learning game development and virtual simulation of the real world, it was great to listen to someone asking these question. Even though I love gaming I am more often than not put off by the shallow nature of video game culture. Thanks for sharing it’s nice to hear these questions posed from another person and perspective.

I can tell by the accent this person is from The Netherlands

Hey Like Stories of Old! Could you do a video on the new Joker movie? Maybe in relation to empathy? What do you think about the movie? Love your videos! Best regards from Germany

what a nice video. just. so calm and kind.

Very interesting video... I like the thoughtporcess that went into this :)

LSAO: Here’s how you can improve Minecraft immensely without constantly adding new content. Mojang: *SCRIBBLES FURIOUSLY*

Now i feel bad about my cows in the cow farm and my wheat farm slave umm villager.

Ahh, wonderful. I typically tune into his videos when I’m playing Minecraft, having a serene time and just exploring the game. When playing Minecraft I often feel devoid of stress or tension, which is precisely why I watch his videos

A Very thought provoking and chill video. Keep up the good work!