It's the antithesis of the tightly scripted goal based game. Players are tired of the 'do this' , 'now go do this', 'now go do this' type games. Even so called 'sandbox games' like grand theft auto/skyrim, have highly scripted/predefined gameplay. Where a game like minecraft or scribblenauts, or crayon physics deluxe, says: Here's an engine with really fun toys, go play with them. Interestingly enough, that's all you really need to have a good game, million dollar cinematics optional.
I would argue that it isn't that the players are tired of the goal based games, but that a majority of gamers really like building stuff and playing around.
Personally, I'm one of the goal oriented ones, so it is hard for me to really get into minecraft. I usually set goals, try to achieve them, and move on to another game. I did get my money's worth with minecraft though.
I honestly think it would be better to not be so goal-oriented in my gaming, but I just can't let it go. I miss being a kid.
Actually it's a minority of gamers who like to create. The majority are goal based. Even games like Little Big Planet, which are all about creation, the number of players who actually create are relatively small, most people just play.
Minecraft's strength is that it appeals to both creators and non-creators.
Good point. Although internally MediaMolecule (and Sony) will probably have very accurate stats on this via telemetry, you can get a rough idea by looking at what percentage of players have achieved which trophies.
In a game such as Little Big Planet, where it could be argued that the whole point is creating levels, less than 50% have got the "Creator" trophy, but most players have the trophies you get when you complete ready-made levels.
You can repeat the exercise with other creative games on console. Here's Minecraft XBLA (unfortunately the achievements chosen for this title are less enlightening).
It's true that tracking sites like Exophase and Raptr only track achievements from people who sign up. These sites cater to players who really care about achievements, so the results would be skewed in that direction (and which I would say is the opposite direction to creativity, which has intrinsic fun).
