The creator of Path of Exile shared his vision — he believes that the sandbox game Minecraft is more hardcore than his ARPG.
Chris Wilson talked about Minecraft in a recent video:
“Action RPGs are an interesting niche, but I needed to expand [my knowledge of other game types] and try something mainstream. Could this pixelated kids' game with cute characters, a Jack Black movie, and a trillion views on YouTube actually be a hardcore action RPG in disguise?”.
According to Chris, just like PoE, Minecraft is about skill and knowledge — a player needs to master and learn a lot to succeed, “which is why it can genuinely appeal to hardcore gamers, just like games such as Path of Exile.”
He also noted the existence of a hardcore mode in Minecraft: if you die near lava, your items will burn. In the developer's view, that is more hardcore than PoE in standard mode.
Video: https://youtu.be/Fe2CFfLaL38
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Cover art author: Mojang, Xbox. Image source: minecraft.net