Is the world ready for a Minecraft clone?

I have spent a few days playing minecraft, and i must say i really love this game, so i take my hat of for you Markus Persson akka 'Notch' :) *Bows*

Of course, its not totally unique as far as games go(in my opinion), it is more the way it is all put together, and just like Will wright(creator of SimCity,The Sims and Spore) found out years ago: people love user created stuff, and people love to be creative.

And its not only the gamer in me who feel inspired by minecraft, the programmer in me cant help feeling a bit excited about Minecraft as well, and it don't really help that i always have had a soft spot for destructible game worlds and user created content.

So now the questions pops up, is the world ready for a "remake" already?
after watching some of the Minecraft community going crazy and flaming the creator of "Manic Digger" I'm sure allot of people would go nuts on me for making any form of remake as well.

Still, i cant help feeling a strong urge to create something similar to the Minecraft classic online mode, but with some very important differences.

So what would i do different?

well, no doubt that people love the retro style on the graphics, and i don't think it was a mistake to make it like that and not modern, it make the game stand out more and it really do fit the style.

however, if i did a game like minecraft that worked like minecraft and looked like minecraft, it would feel like a total rip off, I want to go my own way, and since i have seen allot of people who wanted Minecraft in HD, i am considering doing exactly that, or at least... making it more "perty".

except for using shaders and nicer looking textures, i would also implement strict building control to ensure all creations are safe.

From what i have seen so far, the biggest problems with Minecraft classic online is "Greifing"( people who destroy what you build and then pretend to be innocent, or if possible blame others who then get banned)

There are however some things that can be done against this, and it would be my highest priority to solve this problem, having an online service with no control of the users using it is a very bad idea for any community.

So how do we solve it then? well here is what i have been thinking :)
i have considered 1 very strict security measure, and one help-full cleanup tool:

#1. Bubble Zone:
The idea is that a player declare a area where he will be building, the bubble is very much like a buffer zone from witch nothing can escape or enter(lava, water and so on), and from start, only the player who created the zone can build in it.
however, the player can manually chose to give a player building access to his bubble.
players are free to visit any bubble unless manually blocked from the owner.

#2. Block tracers (or layers)
I am considering some form of 'block tracing' or "layers" By making the engine/server mark a block with a player id, we can always tell who placed a block in your bubble, and hence, we can simply Undo any changes made from that player.
what a player has created, modified or destroyed, can then later be fixed very much the same way you can toggle layers in Photoshop.
As a nice side effect, no player can ever claim to be innocent, and nobody can ever be accused of being a Greifer wrongfully, admins and OPs will always know.

This later security measure lose allot of its strength from the Bubble zone, the bubble should solve most of the problems, but just in case you manage to screw up(invite someone with ill intension's) it can be a helpful tool to cleanup the mess.

admittedly, the Bubble zone might seem Harsh, and i can understand if people find it to limiting, but i am afraid that it might be a necessary limitation for an online game like this, and it would very much protect you 99% from any possible problem a player can give you.

I do have allot of other ideas i would like to implement, mostly graphical enchantments, but more about that in a later blogg post :)

Of course, there is a chance that Notch will add some form of security measures as well(seems very likely), his game is only in Beta, and if he do solve it like i do it, i guess my version would be more pointless... still, my fingers are itching... will i be able to resist?

time will tell ;)