Do you think all games that are similar to Minecraft one that pops into my head is Oort Online are trying to feed of Minecrafts success in this genre and would you go as far to say that we would not be seeing these style of games if Minecraft never took off
Added (1). in case of confusion i mean like breaking apart blocks and placing them or a game world that is made up of cubes
There will probably be games similar to Minecraft, because Minecraft is a part of the sandbox genre. So if Minecraft never did take off, I believe there would still be similar styles of that game, because there were older games created in that perspective.
Not all, but certainly a lot
Terraria and Roblox are what I know. You can look for more alternatives here: http://reviews.squidoo.com/games-that-are-like-minecraft#module156169325