I haven’t played Minecraft, but I’m definitely getting into the spirit of it.

All the things that others have written about: the sense of power from manipulating the universe, the wealth of exploration opportunities, or the sheer beauty of the world -- I love it all.

And it’s not because seeing these things is making me want to join in the fun myself. (I’m too busy with school for such a gargantuan time-sink, and I don’t mean that pejoratively.) No, it’s because I’m having a great time watching what others are doing with the game.

As Devon N. Campbell said in his excellent article on the subject: “Minecraft is less a game and more an impressive toolset that throws players into a world and allows them to build (or destroy) wonderful things.” Well, for someone who hasn’t played it, watching others’ experiences is a great way to connect with them.

Because the “object of the game” (if we can even call it that) is essentially how each player experiences the freedom they’ve been given, there’s a vast range of experiences out there for others to see. I’m having a great time getting glimpses of the amazing things people are doing with it.

The correct word to describe this is “awesome.”

There are tons of examples, besides those I've already given you. There are ridiculous feats of engineering, like this one-to-one scale construction of the USS Enterprise-D, this recreation of the earth, or -- my favourite of the three -- this gigantic railway. On the other side of the coin, it was hilarious watching this guy accidentally burn his house down.

But my favourite so far has been something much simpler. Daniel Collotte posted a video tour of his Minecraft world on Bitmob recently. The video is nothing much -- all he does is show you what he’s built -- but that’s enough. The video is so great because it effectively communicates the sense of importance this world has to him, because it is an expression of himself. I got to connect with Daniel through his video -- through the world that he had created.

And I think it's a pretty amazing thing that a game can do that.

Have any of you had similar experiences?