Subcreation and Minecraft: A Potential Infinite Regression of Subcreativity (On Faerie Stories)

 

This entry will either be slightly profound or equivalent to discovering “the Blue” with the latter being more likely than the former. J.R.R. Tolkein describes the role of artists as “subcreators” meaning that they create works inside of a world already created. Subcreators give life to the unreal with imagination inventing fantastical creatures as systems; however, few subcreations focus on the creation aspect as Minecraft does. In a normal work, we are not given the chance to directly interact with the sub-world and are forced to rely on imagination. Examples of this include imagining that you are in Hogwarts or Narnia. Video games allow for direct interaction with this world in manners such as stealing cars in GTA V or destroying pottery in Zelda titles; however, no game focuses more on creation than Minecraft. Minecraft is a game where you build stuff like houses, castle, weapons. There is some lore but it is arcane and unimportant to general gameplay, not acting to convey values like the myths lauded by Chesterton. The interesting bit comes from the fact that people have built working computers and emulators (a program that runs games from different systems) in Minecraft. This potentially leads to a sub-subcreation in which the subcreator can interact with. It is possible that this could work (almost) infinitely leading to sub-sub-sub….creations.