http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/225643/Understanding_what...

http://www.polygon.com/2014/4/29/5665834/minecraft-sales-15m...

Maybe it's more accurate to say "most old players have moved on from vanilla Minecraft".

Frankly, Minecraft does not need mods. However, Mojang took too long to add content to the game. Heck, even Dwarf Fortress seems to add new features faster.

Today, vanilla feels... "bland". "Oh right, I have no fluid containers nor pipes, have to move stuff one bucket at a time". "Right, let me build this redstone flip-flop for the umpteenth time". "Oh yeah, there's no way I can automate crop replanting, just harvest". Every game start is grindy in the same way, the only thing that keeps it interesting is the random terrain generator.

But that's after playing for a while. New players still get the "discovery" experience, redstone learning curve and so on. That can take months to wear off.

Also, many people are using mods without even knowing, depending on which server they play on.

Then again, I also don't play on a server, watch people on Youtube, or really have a connection to any kind of community, so I don't really have the chance to get envious of what other players have available.

This comes from the fact that I run a server which used to have ~20 on at any given time and now has 0, along with the fact that I learned to play it alongside my ex-girlfriend.

I wish there was some way for me to get past the loneliness.

I've had other places that I'd go for companionship that cleared out over time, so while it wasn't Minecraft, I can imagine some of how you feel about it :-/

We certainly play Feed The Beast modpacks, but we spend most of our time on client-vanilla but modified servers.

Regarding your last statement, it does strike me as a strange thing as well, but also consider what Linux kernel you're running. For non-HN people, the chances are essentially zero that they're running a Linus kernel. I haven't run a Linus kernel in...I can't even remember.

Granted, the analogy has some weaknesses, starting with how one needs to essentially hack mods into Mojang's official releases, a rather different approach than 'modding' the Linux kernel.

Any child can download a "Feed the Beast Launcher" or somesuch that's able to install a modpack with a single click. For some packs, that amounts to hundreds of mods. Who cares if that requires hacking bytecode, that's all abstracted away. It's even abstracted away from developers, ever since Forge was released.

Do your kids frequently watch YouTube videos of the PC version and ask for Spongebob mod or this or that map?

My nephew is 8 and every time I visit he wants me to install some new minigame mod he has found on YouTube.

There are 1,320 users. Which is a very small portion of the Minecraft community, but we do exist.

Minetest is great, but ultimately will remain niche. Vanilla Minetest is just too sterile (no mobs, "dead-ish" world--big turn-off for kids), and installation+mods is just too hard for non-technical people.

I suppose my attitude is from the jaded viewpoint of Mojang not delivering on a modding API after years and years of promises. Even after they bought Bukkit and sat on it.