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Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 19:29
by wziard
Migdyn meant the name *sounds* like it is that.

And maybe it does. But I personally think it's charming. A true Coder's name. For me, when I see a project with a name like that I associate it with enthusiastic communities.

And thats 100% correct in the case of Minetest \o/

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 20:06
by Mantar
You guys know "test" is also used to mean a challenge, right?

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 23:11
by MCL
I first found MT in 2014 however I didn't install it or try to read more about it because I simply thought it's a pile of crap and that it's a cheap and bs Mine$ Clone.

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 23:46
by v-rob
migdyn wrote:The problem with Minetest is its name. I don't think it should be changed, but it may be really confusing to some user as they may mistake it for a Minecraft testing tool / a crappy MC clone that's just a test and is extremely buggy and unstable.
Well, I'm probably unique here, but I knew about Minetest before I knew about Minecraft, and I never even thought about the name at all. I didn't think it was unstable/buggy, even back in 2012, but that's probably because the idea of voxel games like Minetest or Minecraft was still a new idea to me.

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 10:23
by Chibi ghost
Thomas-S wrote:I discovered Minetest a few years ago when I used Ubuntu. I opened the Software Center and Minetest was advertised on the first page there. At first, I thought Minetest was some development/testing tool for Minecraft ;)
thats how I found it too except I was mooching around for a game to mess around with
that wasn't too heavy on my computer at the time

I miss playing that really early version and my mt house skull mountain

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 12:19
by Pyrollo
TumeniNodes wrote:I was referring to the "extremely buggy and unstable" portion
Me too, this name is perfect for a buggy and unstable software :)

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 21:40
by PolySaken
I found one of those play store versions in 2014 and only found mt in 2015 after M$ made minecraft crappier.

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2019 02:00
by SuchTea
Pyrollo wrote:
TumeniNodes wrote:
migdyn wrote: a crappy MC clone that's just a test and is extremely buggy and unstable.
?? 0_o
I agree with migdyn, this name is sort of misleading.
Same for me; When I first came across Minetest I actually ignored it and closed the tab i had it open in because at a glance it seemed like an experimental Minecraft server where people tested bugs and mods. My only reason for turning back, actually realizing it was a standalone program and that my first impression was wrong, was because of how some of the forum posts were worded in the thread I glanced on.

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2019 14:50
by mini
Wikipedia in the alternatives section of the Minecraft Article. xD

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2019 22:35
by twoelk
The kids of my sister started playing mc around late 2011 or early 2012. Soon they asked me to play along and help with issues. So I got dragged into the worlds of voxely cubes by introducing the kids to tools and probably somewhat fishy launchers to play mc from portable devices. Then one of the test worlds I created sort of enchanted me and I lived there happily for a year or so. Until my castles started scratching the hight limit.

Somehow I also got bored of the limited variety in plants so by the end of 2012 I was searching for better plant mods and I came along the more-trees mod. When I realized that mod was for an other voxel based program that was even open source, I started to explore minetest. By early 2013 I had plunged in as deep as I could spend time to and some time in april 2013 I joined my first public gaming server ever: VanessaE's creative server. I never played mc in earnest again. Sure sometimes the kids show me their mc stuff but I'm all mt now. One of my longtime projects has been to import some of my old mc worlds into mt but it was only last year that I got somewhat acceptable results.

So in short:
While searching for plants mods for mc the more-trees mod by VE lured me into mt.

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2019 12:52
by orwell
While trying to find an alternative to Minecraft because you're poor
To be exact, I was looking for a voxel game back then to play on a private server with some friends, none of us had bought Minecra$. MT caught my attention by its Lua modding system, because I already knew Lua and Lua is great!
It was for this server I wrote my first mods for (esp. the denaid area management and derivates (tyrant), which i haven't continued since the rise of advtrains)

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 15:28
by Brian Gaucher
I used to love Minecraft. I wanted to play some Minecraft clone, or a Free copy of Minecraft. Then I found some article with "minecraft alternatives", there were C# clones, Java clones, Python clones, then Minetest showed up. The article said it was written in C++ (performance), meant for old hardware, started as a test, and has mod. So I Googled Minetest and followed the instructions to install it (apt-get install minetest). The rest is history. I actually found the name "Minetest" appealing, unlike everyone else.

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2019 18:51
by MCL
I know I should add an option that you were trying to find a free alternative to Minecraft but if I change it the votes will be reset.

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2019 15:31
by Adm_Nemo
Around four or five years ago, I heard from some other kids about this thing called "Minecraft." My dad is a programmer and likes Linux, and so of course our family computer ran Ubuntu. I searched "Minecraft" on the Linux appstore and found Minetest. And here I am.

Also, 30$ for minecraft was a lot of money for 12yo me and MT was free.

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2019 16:19
by MCL

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2019 10:32
by bhree
I was looking for an alternative to first person shooter game which also give player freedom to alter environment. I knew MC and voxel games weren't interesting so MT wasn't interesting at first. I only know MT/MC is good for kids as it doesn't display violence and multiplayer games offer chance to virtual interaction. The reason I stay with MT is after I know modding using Lua is fun and give chance to learn programming in virtual 3D space. I think we can go further for scientific aspect of voxel games for teaching and learning activities like MC. Or may be even further as general purpose online virtual space instead of only as kids playground.

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 15:44
by aristotle
migdyn wrote:The problem with Minetest is its name. ...
I too do think it is.
This *Test word does not promise stability, nor playability... and then... testing what? building / survival skills? or just how the inner engine works?

I think that MineTest has been good enough for a while, but now a definitive name change with no temporary suggestions should be found: no matter what, just a different one.

The first I can now think of is Voxelator, but others and better ones might be proposed and thought.
Celeron55 and the other [core] developers should now vote a new name.

The sooner the better. :D

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 23:28
by v-rob
aristotle wrote:Celeron55 and the other [core] developers should now vote a new name.
And what about every single mod that uses mod apis that are prefixed with the word "minetest", like "minetest.register_node"? Every single post on the forums that contains the word Minetest? Every reference on the internet that refers to this as Minetest? Even the domain of the website is minetest.net. Changing the name would have enormous consequences no matter what anyone does.

Plus, I think that the name has a certain charm to it. "Test" makes it feel more centered around developing.

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 06:05
by ShadMOrdre
IMHO, a name is a name. And once you choose one, it can be difficult to change. Some names stick with an author because they somehow resonate. Some names just happen.....

Minetest probably came out of that. celeron55, up late one night, and an idea strikes. He fires up the old IDE, starts cobbling (pun intended) together some code, and when he hits the compile button, it makes up some mumbo jumbo about having to provide a name for a project. After some "inspired" thinking, ie, he probably is making direct reference to the "game of the moment" and its striking similarity to the genius code before him; in this moment, he simply types in Minetest, a test of some code that provides a far more rich foundation upon which to build the awesomeness that has become minetest, a welcome opensource alternative, and the forums here at minetest.net....errr yeah, that was all probably not going on, but hey... in the moment, you have to provide a name for a project.

And once a name is distributed, and contributed to, and beloved by the Cult of Celeron55, well, let's just go with it...

Shad

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 13:51
by MCL
Don't change the name! I didn't say that it should be changed. I like it but when you see the name at first it you may think it's a
A) Minecraft testing tool
B) Some shitty, proprietary Minecraft clone that's still under development
C) A minecraft modpack or mod

When I first installed MT and saw Minetest Game (I didn't know that other games exist) I was really dissapointed. I liked the apples on trees and some interesting nodes like vessel shelves but the game got boring after about 1 hour.
then noticed some mod packages which got me interested the name technic sounded interesting so I installed it.
I then enabled the Technic modpack(Which was outdated because I was using Debian at that time) in the world settings. I was really amazing and then I found MT forums and when I saw the amount of mods that exists I was highly impressed. I then found out that the modding API uses Lua and how easy it is to write mods. That's when I started quitting MC.

Re: [Poll] How did you find out about MT?

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 06:24
by aristotle
ShadMOrdre wrote:... celeron55, up late one night, ...
v-rob wrote:... Plus, I think that the name has a certain charm to it. "Test" makes it feel more centered around developing.
Eh eh eh eh! :D That is what I have been thinking too...
v-rob wrote: And what about every single mod that uses mod apis that are prefixed with the word "minetest", like "minetest.register_node"?...
There already is an alias: minetest == core and vice versa... domains redirects exist, ... but this was not the point.
Kodi is the new name of a previously existing program I currently do not remember anymore, WireShark is the new name of Ethereal (if memory serves me well)...
Name changes are not so massive for developers, (managing large amounts of stuff is already part of our job).
The existing users base would not loose track of it, nor would feel betrayed...

It is the same for the versioning system: 0.5.0 and 5.0.0 ... Going from 0.4.x to 5.0.x is not cheating, but simply going on. It is just part of a natural evolution and.. 5.0.x will better state that MineTest is not a child but a full grown application (referring to it as a game hurts me because to me MT is not a game but my very first marvellous 3D pencil).
ShadMOrdre wrote: ... And once a name is distributed, and contributed to, and beloved by the Cult of Celeron55, well, let's just go with it...
Oh... and what about the cult? ... a name change would simply add and be part of it... ;)

My suggestion comes / came from the fact that now MineTest is definitely mature and with its own personality and features, so different that any comparison may instead be detrimental and create wrong expectations.
In some way this is similar to Windows/OS X users expectations when trying GNU/Linux, PhotoShop users trying Gimp...

...and btw I have always been and will always be a provocateur... :D