At Play in the Fields of Creepers

My daughters recently discovered Minecraft’s creative mode. For some reason I just can’t understand, they prefer “building whatever you want with infinite resources” over the more traditional “digging and stacking while being stalked by zombies and creepers.” It might have something to do with the creative mode’s ability to fly.

Over the weekend, I set up a creative mode server on the local network for them to play on together.

They love it.

The only thing better than unleashing your inner LEGO maniac is doing so with someone else. Creating in a vacuum can be fun, but it’s exponentially better when you can tell someone, “Hey, come check out this thing I made!”

It’s interesting to observe my girls playing on the server world. They play much as they do in real life: each stakes out a section of territory, sets it up according to her tastes, then visits the other’s turf to see what’s going on. Only now, instead of using dolls or toy animals as visitors and characters, they use themselves… and their imaginations.

“Let’s say we’re pilgrims,” says the oldest, who was recently learning about the Plymouth Rock gang as part of the traditional Thanksgiving-tide history unit.

“Okay,” says the younger. “And I’m pretending that my character is a girl.”

(Mental Note: Download some skins for them, so they don’t both look like Minecraft Steve.)

(Second Mental Note: Don’t show them how to download skins themselves, or they’ll fill my hard drive with them.)

What I find most fascinating is that, while they’re playing in this new, imaginary universe of blocks and infinite chickens, they’re still playing in their usual world: the one of shared imagination. They aren’t worried about victory conditions, or even making up their own ways to “win.” They’re just playing.

They’re treating it as a toy, not a game.

And that’s all good. They’re kids, playing. They don’t need no steeenking victory conditions. All they need is fun.

I wonder if other, more ostensibly “social” games could take a cue from this. Could you have a purely fun, “creative” mode in, say, Farmville? Or maybe a mode in Starcraft in which the players take ten minutes to make the coolest-looking bases they design, then invite each other over to admire them. Yes, yes, at this point we’re giving up all pretense of these things being games, but by embracing a toy-like sandbox approach, could they reach a wider audience?

Play… without competition. I can see the appeal. But how would you monetize such a thing? If you have any ideas on the subject, please pass ’em along in the comments.