The Story Of Minecraft’s Enchanting Language

This is the minecraft enchanting table it’s been long thought that symbols surrounding the table were nothing but nonsense but what if i told you there was a lot more behind these symbols than what meets the eye and that the enchanting language carries a story of its own

It’s the first of october 2011 and we just received a tweet from notch which revealed an image of the enchanting menu featuring three lines of text that would later lead on to the main purpose of the enchanting language but how could we decipher it that was to be left

Unanswered a month later update 1.0.0 was released including the enchanting table but one thing stuck out more than the enchantments you see not just previous tweet which revealed mysterious symbols within a screenshot had finally made its way in game this time not just in text but now seen floating and

Surrounding the newly added block with the closest resemblance being of what looked like floating hieroglyphics but as players looked more into these floating symbols that surrounded the newly added block it raised more mystery than answers around what they truly meant which begged the questions what was the enchantment language where was

It from did mojang create it themselves was it an actual language hidden and resurfaced purely for the creation of minecraft or was there more than we could even imagine how deep did this really go before we dive into the rabbit hole full of questions if the enchanting language was one that could be

Translated it would be wise to compare it with pre-existing video game languages i mean think about it i’m sure it wouldn’t be the first or the last time a video game used a made-up language such as animal crossing with animal ease and zelda with hylian unlike the enchanting language the chance of

Translating these other fictional languages was almost instant and easy with translation tables and other simple methods being provided upon release however the minecraft enchanting language included no such thing as it had seemingly appeared out of nowhere presenting itself only as an update in addition to the game or so we thought

You see the minecraft community were quick and worked tirelessly on their attempts of translating this new and mysterious language that had fallen into their game with users posting online and on forums claiming to have successfully figured the translation but struggling to find a middle ground when it came to

Agreeing on how the translation was meant to be carried out or better yet where it originated from players like you and i were lost but this would soon change as the minecraft community finally made a discovery the unknown language was standard galactic alphabet or sga for short suddenly the minecraft community

Had just opened a whole new box of mysteries any doubt about the enchanting language being created by mojang or purely for minecraft was completely shut down the first image that notch had originally tweeted on the first of october finally made sense and it read well-played internets you are good

The second line these names will be random and confusing and the third line each spell cost experience levels it’s all landed up but one line stuck out more than the others these names will be random and confusing now what did this mean would the enchants be completely impossible to translate maybe even

Confusing and misleading to start answering these questions the community knew where to start after all we had just figured out where the language originated from it was only a matter of investigating this is tom hall the creator of standard galactic alphabet or better known now to you as the creator of the enchanting

Language you probably noticed some recognizable faces within this photo and that’s because that’s jeb and to the right of him is notch the creator of minecraft before the enchanting language came to be tom was already responsible for creating video games such as wolfenstein 3d and doom when i had the opportunity

To talk to tom about how the enchanting language made its way into minecraft he simply told me notch wanted to have a font for the enchanting table and reached out to ask if he could just use sga i said of course yes i thought it

Was cool of him to have the idea and love the fact that the sga would gain new life maybe younger gamers might find commander keen from it and that’s what we move on to next see the enchanting language originated from tom hall’s 90s sidescrolling game would command the

King and was made purposely to be translated with its main use being to lead players towards better loot in game and to add a futuristic touch but did the same rules apply to minecraft and was the enchanting language now a part of the fictional language family in short no those that attempted to

Translate the enchanting table only got out with gibberish or a list of three to five random words that were then thought to hint or vaguely describe the enchantments that were displayed on screen translated words such as fire free and ignite were believed to be linked to fire resistance and flaming

Chance but other random words really didn’t make sense closing the debate on whether translating the table was even accurate in the first place but this is where it takes a turn despite the solid evidence that minecraft’s enchanting language was purely for appearance and with no real functionality this didn’t stop players

From creating conspiracies and reasonings behind the untranslatable language or at least tested methods on gaining the best enchantments one forum user wrote when you enchant anything the bottom enchantment slot is nearly always the biggest number and the top enchantment slot is always the lowest anyone else think this is weird maybe

The low enchantment slot gives you a worse enchantability rating and the higher one gives you a better one i have no idea but one thing is for sure there is an odd distribution going on here these types of conspiracy theories floated around the internet until they were debunked by a minecraft update

Where a potential preview of the enchantment you about to receive would appear on screen by just hovering over the enchanting menu giving no reason for players to attempt translation or even speculate on techniques and so with the community finally discovering the history and uncovering the great answer of whether the enchanting language was

Translatable but only leaves us in the now in the present of the enchanting table being a core part of minecraft and a core part of gaming history forever so the next time you approach an enchanting table and the book slowly opens up the symbol will start dancing

Around the table as you walk to it remember that there is a lot more behind this useful block than what meets the eye thank you for watching this video if you enjoyed it you should check out the other one that is on screen right now subscribe and be sure to like

And i’ll see you in the next one