Minecraft

Minecraft is a sandbox construction game created by Markus Persson / Notch, the manager of Mojang Specifications. Minecraft is currently in pre-release alpha, available to players currently for €9.95, (roughly $14 USD) but will cost €20.00 when finished. Alpha's singleplayer and multiplayer, when purchased, can be both played in either the user's web browser, or using the downloadable client. Minecraft classic (Version 0.30) is available at minecraft.net for free, as well as a test version of survival mode here. Minecraft development started around the 10th of May 2009, pre-orders for the full game started being accepted on the 13th of June. It was inspired by Infiniminer.

The game involves players creating and destroying various types of blocks in a three dimensional environment. The player takes an avatar that can destroy or create blocks, forming fantastic structures, creations and artwork across the various multiplayer servers in multiple game modes.

Difficulty
In survival modes of minecraft, at one point the options for difficulty setting included or include: Peaceful, Easy, Normal, and Hard.

Peaceful Mode: Player regains health over time.No hostile mobs spawn. This is with the exception of the smallest size Slime which will attack but cannot deal damage. The Slime pushes you back a little like a neutral mob, instead of the huge push of a hostile mob when you get hit.

Easy Mode: Hostile mobs spawn. Enemies have less health and deal less damage than on normal difficulty. Creepers will cancel their explosions after moving only a short distance away.

Normal Mode: Hostile mobs spawn. Enemies deal standard damage and have standard health.

Hard Mode: Hostile mobs spawn. Enemies deal much greater damage than in Normal Mode, and Creepers will not cancel their attack unless a big distance is between them and the player, making the explosion much harder to avoid.

Notch has made a tweet on October 23rd where he states that "I'm changing "difficulty" to "realism". Lowest setting = creative. Highest setting = starve"