Minecraft, again and again

Minecraft has over 5 million players who have purchased the license. That means tens of millions of potential single-player worlds. And all the multiplayer worlds hosted on the net.

In just over a year, this game has become impossible to explore exhaustively. No one on earth will ever be able to view a complete panorama of the constructions of all the players of this game. It's become a universe within a universe. An infinity within an infinity. Those who are not troubled by this thought are animals.

Second Life is dead, discredited, in any case almost from its birth, suffocated by the consumerism that reigns there, by its ugliness too – as photorealism is no guarantee of beauty – but above all by the fact that all stakes are absent. All stakes, all effort, all danger, all problems.

I wrote about this almost a year ago:

"Second Life is not a game, nor does it have any of the characteristics that make a game fundamental. Nothing in particular happens, and you're 'free'; except that you're only free to do nothing fundamental. And that nothing happens is the worst option imaginable: in real life, there are trials and tribulations to go through, which fall from the sky; things happen that you can't do anything about. Choices are limited. And games, which reflect these trials and tribulations, allow us to prepare for them, or to sublimate them, or to free ourselves. Second Life is not a game, it's even the anti-game par excellence; and it's not life, even second, or even virtual; it's not life, it's its opposite."

Minecraft, on the other hand, is life – with its fundamental solitude, the indifference of nature, the absurdity of the difficulties and adversity that befall us – but also, the possibility of building something, for oneself. The possibility of finding meaning after all.

I've often dreamed of a virtual space where I could meet up with friends and build a little corner of my own. It's done. It's now possible. But whereas I used to use the verb "to build" without weighing up the implications, Minecraft has gone one step further: anything you want to have there, you'll have to earn by the sweat of your brow (or index finger, rather) – but the satisfaction is even greater. The feeling of being there. The desire to make it last.

There's something at play in Minecraft – something to do with what's fundamental in life.