In my humble opinion, Minecraft is one of the greatest games ever created. However, since it is hardly fair to compare something like Tetris to Minecraft - because these were created under completely different circumstances - I’d limit this discussion to the past ten years.

Minecraft was of course first started as a project by Notch in 2009. Since we are in that same year, it has almost been a full ten years since Minecraft was first released. There are several reasons why I would like to suggest Minecraft as deserving of this title. These are: Its cultural significance, which has allowed Minecraft to stay relevant for the past decade of its existence, Its open sandbox nature and two wildly different styles of gameplay available, and the various different sub-communities that have sprung out of the game, such as the modding, creative sculpting, and server minigame communities.

Firstly, its cultural significance. Minecraft has an interesting relationship with meme culture. While most other video games may obtain some, if any, meme culture significance - not a single game created has held onto their meme potential for so long. Perhaps this is helped by the simplistic nature of the game, or the less than perfect reputation some sections of the community have, or simply just because it does not require a justification for meme significance. Regardless, Minecraft memes have remained relevant, funny, and epic for the past ten years.

Second, its open sandbox nature. While most video games attempt to tell an engaging story through level-design in a guided environment, Minecraft takes the complete opposite of this approach by providing the player with no rules to follow whatsoever. For the first several years of its development, Minecraft did not even have a set goal or endgame. This has enabled many who would otherwise go bored of the game after one or two playthroughs to enjoy new and exciting experiences every time they boot up the game.

Thirdly, the duality of the game. While I touched in the previous point upon the survival mode of Minecraft, one cannot forget its other spectacular option for gameplay, creative. Everyone likes LEGO, right? So imagine unlimited LEGO, and throw in multiplayer over LAN or the internet. This creates an opportunity for some of the most remarkable sculptures, maps, and architecture one could possibly download a world download for and play on their own computer at home.

Of course, Minecraft’s community stretches far beyond creative mode, with several hundreds of active minigame, pvp, and survival servers available to play on. The chance for anyone to download the server file and created their own to play with friends and family has given even more reasons to expand beyond the two single-player game-modes.

In conclusion, Minecraft is one of the most important, fun, culturally significant games that has ever come out. And in my mind, the best of the past decade.