My 7yo kid came back from a friend asked to to DL this.
From a quick look I really can't understand what it's all about, aside from whacking some animals (?).
So why has this been a huge hit for a couple of years now?
It is all about the freedom you can build anything, some basic to advanced electronics using red stone. But I think for us was building huge projects together. And helping each other out. Also exploration ask oldie about that.
Biggest selling pc game I do believe
It's fun yet educational.
It's not violent in the sense of other games and teaches quite well about various things - farming, mining, building, engineering as well as the more social aspects of collaborative working etc.
It has been used in schools.
These two links can explain better than I
http://minecraftedu.com/
http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Minecraft_in_education
Sounds like some sort a cult to me. They keep chanting "join us, join us".
minecraft is actually used by a incredible amount of people for other things then playing around.
Example the danish national mapping service, has created a full blown map of denmark inside minecraft (yeah i did find my house :D )