Minecraft - A Comprehensive Guide

Minecraft is a sandbox game created by Markus Persson (Notch), it is currently in pre-release Alpha. Notch initially began developing Minecraft on the 10th May 2009, orders started being accepted on the 13th June.
The game mainly consists of you destroying and creating various types of blocks.
Game play is driven by Mobs (the games creatures, and monsters...) or just by the players sheer desire to create bigger and better areas.

Minecraft was originally going to be a Infiniminer clone, but Notch later chose to make it more like Dwarf Fortress .

Minecraft is at a unbelivable bargin right now. You can Buy Minecraft right now at a 50% discount. Be aware that this discount is only availible duing the Alpha! So, buy it now to save 50%!

So... finally bought Minecraft? Slightly scared of your first perilous night... don't know where to start?
Well, you've come to the right place!

So, you can either read this, or look at the video below. I recomend looking at the video. It explains things better than I do, and it's much easier to see how to play this game than to read it.
I've made the text version for people who have problems viewing YouTube videos, or who want to see a written version.

The first thing you need to do is get some Logs, just use WASD and move towards your nearest tree and left-click it! Don't worry, your arm -somehow- won't fall off, instead it'll chop right thru the tree trunk in a few seconds and give you a nifty pile of Logs.
You should collect a fair amount of wood (10+).

Now, press I to open up your inventory, click on your wood to select it then click on one of the four little boxes near the top right. Once you're done that you should see some "Wood" of wood appear to the right. Click those to create them.

Once you're changed all your wood into Wood, put them all in your Inventory. Now click them again and fill the four boxes with at least one Wood. Now you should see a little crafting bench appear to the in the box.

Create one of those, put it in your wield-able boxes (the ones to the bottom) and right click with it selected (Scroll to select, or use numbers 1-9).
Then right click to place it.

Now you've constructed your first Crafting Bench-thingy! Congratulations!

I've split this into two Parts to make it more manageable, click Here to go to the second part. Or just watch the Video below, actually... please, just watch the video below. It's much easier than reading my stuff =P

Runs the company "Mojang Specifications", he created Minecraft.
Notch lives somewhere in Stockholm, Sweden.

He used to work for Jalbum as a programmer/developer/code guru.

Before that, he worked for King.com as a game programmer. he wrote games like Funny Farm, Luxor, and Carnival Shootout.
Recently, he's been doing some work in C++.

He's also been making music under the name "Markus Alexei".

The Minecraft Community is ever expanding, just like Minecraft and it's sales. The Minecraft Forums are a Central Hub for Minecraft fans to join together, make Skins, Mods and Suggestions.

Daniel Rosenfeld (mainly known as C418) is the composer and creator of Minecraft's music.

His current job is to check dialysis machines for hospitals.

Some of his albums are "Life Changing Moments Seem Minor in Pictures" and "Circle".

Next step is to make some Sticks, right click the Crafting Bench to open up the crafting menu, put your Wood in there, now right click them to split the stack into two. Move your selected stack down below your original one.
Now in the creation box you should see some sticks. Create a few of those.

Once you have sticks you can start making weapons/tools!
OK. So, get your stick stack in the middle of the Creation screen (the Crafting bench one, it should be 3x3 squares, unlike your Inventory one that's 2x2) and split them. Move the Stack to the bottom box.
Use the rest of your Wood to create either a pickaxe, spade, seed-rake thingy or a hatchet.
A pickaxe is made using two piles of sticks in the middle with the whole top boxes being Wood, so it's like a T.
Hatchets are made a bit like a P, with the same sticks as the Pickaxe but instead of having the top 3 boxes filled in you should have two of them filled in, and one below.
Spades are like a I, with the two Sticks and one pile of Wood on top.

Now that you've made your first Pickaxe you should look for some Coal before it gets dark, start exploring and find some stoned with black parts in them, equip your might wooden Pickaxe and mine away at it!
Once you have some coal go into your inventory, put one pile of sticks at the bottom and the Coal on top. Now you can make Torches.

Torches are very important in Minecraft, they stop Mobs from spawning near you and give you light in a Cave or at night.

For a more comprehensive guide please look at the videos Here

Seecrete (not a typo) Friday's are Minecraft Patch/Update days.
Notch released the first Seecrete Friday update on June 18th, 2010.

The Friday parches are "Seecrete" because, along with the publicised patches/updates, there are a few secrete updates.
On the first Seecrete Friday Notch -secretly- released Minecarts, and a gravel physics fix.