What is the point of Minecraft?

What is the point of Minecraft?
What is the point of Minecraft? What is its primary objective? (Image via Mojang)

Minecraft is one of the most popular video games in recent memory, sporting millions of daily players in every part of the world and across several platforms. However, gamers who haven't dove into it might be wondering what the point of the game is. What is the overall goal of Minecraft? Although there's a standard answer (defeating the Ender Dragon), the real answer is much more open than that.

Despite being a survival crafting game at its core, there's much more to Minecraft than an outside observer might notice. The true motive or point of the game is different depending on what the player wants to get out of their time, and it doesn't hurt to examine the primarily accepted objective as well as the broader drive that keeps players coming back to Mojang's voxel world over and over again.


What is the goal of Minecraft?

Defeating the Ender Dragon is considered one primary objective in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)
Defeating the Ender Dragon is considered one primary objective in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

Minecraft's early days saw it as a pure sandbox game, allowing players to harvest blocks in their world, build structures, and survive the danger of nightfall and the hostile creatures that come with it. However, the game has evolved leaps and bounds since then, and the point of the game has shifted somewhat in the perception of the community and the gaming industry at large.

For some players, the prime objective is "completing" Survival Mode by reaching the End dimension and defeating the Ender Dragon in Minecraft. This causes the credits to roll, leaving many to assume that it stands as the "endpoint" of the game since the sandbox title doesn't have a conventional story with a beginning, middle, and end. However, this is simply scratching the surface of the real objective of the game.

As a sandbox game, the real point of Minecraft is whatever players make of it. That may sound cliche, but the game's vast open worlds, thriving multiplayer community, and massive amounts of customization introduce countless ways to play. Some players may want to build breathtaking creations, while others want to be the best at PvP, and some simply want to unwind alongside a few friends.

A PvP diagram in Mojang's "The Survivor's Book of Secrets" book (Image via Mojang)
A PvP diagram in Mojang's "The Survivor's Book of Secrets" book (Image via Mojang)

From speedrunning and beating the Ender Dragon in the shortest amount of time to being a competitive Factions PvP fighter, Minecraft is a game of near-limitless possibilities. Simply diving in and thinking that completing Minecraft Survival Mode's limited "story" is the only way to play is misguided, as the game exists to suit the player and what they want to do in their world.

None of this is to say that you have to have a plan when starting up the game for the first time. Sometimes simply roaming a new world and exploring it is enough to give you an idea of what you want to do next. While the game might have what is considered an "end" by some, there are thousands of hours of gameplay to be enjoyed well after the End Credit Poem has finished scrolling.

The best way to find the real point of Minecraft is for the player to ask themself what provides them the most fulfilling experience. No matter if you want to build, fight, or just play some minigames, the game provides a roadmap to do so. The ultimate point of Mojang's massively popular sandbox game is up to you; everything else is simply a collection of suggestions.


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