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You can always look and see. When I went looking after my daughter got into Lego I was impressed with the level of detail that is out there on lego sets.
For that specific set I seen only a few parts that are unique.
Here is a list if you want,,, https://brickset.com/sets/4114... and click on the parts tab.

Pros:
+ Players and creatures (such as horses) don't look like blocky
+ Have sloped roofs -- 45 degree #3039, 25 degree #3298 and 73 degree #98560
+ Have "smooth" flat tiles #3068
+ Initial support for airplanes, and mining vehicles
* Misc. decorations

Cons:
- Single player only
- Windows only (MineCraft runs on OSX, Linux, Android, consoles)
- Cost $15 while MineTest, Terasology, etc. are free.

Anyone have an idea of what the world height and size is limited to?

Pros:
+ Players and creatures (such as horses) don't look like blocky
+ Have sloped roofs -- 45 degree #3039, 25 degree #3298 and 73 degree #98560
+ Have "smooth" flat tiles #3068
+ Initial support for airplanes, and mining vehicles
* Misc. decorations

Cons:
- Single player only
- Windows only (MineCraft runs on OSX, Linux, Android, consoles)
- Cost $15 while MineTest, Terasology, etc. are free.

Anyone have an idea of what the world height and size is limited to?

Pros:
+ Players and creatures (such as horses) don't look like blocky
+ Have sloped roofs -- 45 degree #3039, 25 degree #3298 and 73 degree #98560
+ Have "smooth" flat tiles #3068
+ Initial support for airplanes, and mining vehicles
* Misc. decorations

Cons:
- Single player only
- Windows only (MineCraft runs on OSX, Linux, Android, consoles)
- Cost $15 while MineTest, Terasology, etc. are free.

Anyone have an idea of what the world height and size is limited to?

LEGO faced a decision whether they would keep their mediocre sales figures

Actually, LEGO faced a decision whether they would go bankrupt or do tie-ins. The BI BI linked in another comment is excellent in showing what happened to Lego and their comeback.

All the crying about crappy tie-in Lego sets is hysterical hand-wringing. Yes, those occupy the majority of retail store shelf-space, but that only reflects the reteail store's decision. The key thing is that those tie-ins have not replaced other "pure" Lego sets in Lego's catalog. It's 2015, search online: there are many online shops and alternatives. Even better, there's Brickset, an amazing database of sets, which not only will show you the wide variety of still-in-production sets but also useful tools to help you find the cheapest set for cost-per-brick.

Yes Lego was very bad with that during the later parts of the 90's and 2000's and they lost a lot of customers because of it. That said they learned and have gotten a lot better about the special pieces of late. While some of the detail pieces they now have are very detailed and special purpose (looking at you lego frogs and your ilk) there are other pieces that have been been added that are very generic, especially in the studs not on top category. Lego has done a good job in recent years of making more generic parts but using them in interesting ways. Also they have been more willing to use pieces from other themes in other ones so there is a lot more Technic parts in sets that would have never seen them previously.

A great example of this is the recently released Lego Ghostbusters Ecto-1 there are only a few pieces that didn't exist when I was younger (the wheels, slanted grates, some studs not not top ones, and a few others I can't remember) but even at that most of it is made from very generic pieces. It is mostly the reuse of things like pneumatic hose, whips, light saber handles, roof tiles, etc in interesting ways that makes the set. If you would prefer there is this little guy which is also similar in that it has some pieces that didn't exist when I was little but is made from very generic pieces that probably should have been out when I was younger. It does however seem that the style of building has changed a lot from when I was a kid. Now when building vehicles there are a lot fewer bricks used and instead lots of plates and tiles which were fairly rare when I was younger. Or are you implying that if it isn't composed of bricks that are entirely made with right angles it isn't a proper lego set?

It's true but, nevertheless, SW has been one of the best selling lines since it's introduction and, personally, while I don't like every license, I'm glad they licensed sets - I think a lot of them are absolutely awesome.

In fact, one of my favorites was this fairly simple steam engine from The Lone Ranger: Constituion., I put the figures away, I just liked the train. I never even saw the movie.

They still do! That's the problem... you probably just don't know they're out there because LEGO is largely off your radar these days.

Examples:

Forest Animals (new this year)

Bike Shop and Cafe (new this year)

Twin Rotor Helicopter

Palace Cinema

Horizon Express

The Emerald Night (the most beautiful train set LEGO has ever made)

Green Grocer

Haunted House

None of these are licensed, and they are all awesome LEGO sets. Yes, it'd different from when we were kids, but it's certainly not worse. On top of all that, look at the parts you wished you had as a kid... I've been able to make remote control cars and tanks, among other things:

Power Functions

Is that sparking any creative ideas?

They still do! That's the problem... you probably just don't know they're out there because LEGO is largely off your radar these days.

Examples:

Forest Animals (new this year)

Bike Shop and Cafe (new this year)

Twin Rotor Helicopter

Palace Cinema

Horizon Express

The Emerald Night (the most beautiful train set LEGO has ever made)

Green Grocer

Haunted House

None of these are licensed, and they are all awesome LEGO sets. Yes, it'd different from when we were kids, but it's certainly not worse. On top of all that, look at the parts you wished you had as a kid... I've been able to make remote control cars and tanks, among other things:

Power Functions

Is that sparking any creative ideas?

They still do! That's the problem... you probably just don't know they're out there because LEGO is largely off your radar these days.

Examples:

Forest Animals (new this year)

Bike Shop and Cafe (new this year)

Twin Rotor Helicopter

Palace Cinema

Horizon Express

The Emerald Night (the most beautiful train set LEGO has ever made)

Green Grocer

Haunted House

None of these are licensed, and they are all awesome LEGO sets. Yes, it'd different from when we were kids, but it's certainly not worse. On top of all that, look at the parts you wished you had as a kid... I've been able to make remote control cars and tanks, among other things:

Power Functions

Is that sparking any creative ideas?

They still do! That's the problem... you probably just don't know they're out there because LEGO is largely off your radar these days.

Examples:

Forest Animals (new this year)

Bike Shop and Cafe (new this year)

Twin Rotor Helicopter

Palace Cinema

Horizon Express

The Emerald Night (the most beautiful train set LEGO has ever made)

Green Grocer

Haunted House

None of these are licensed, and they are all awesome LEGO sets. Yes, it'd different from when we were kids, but it's certainly not worse. On top of all that, look at the parts you wished you had as a kid... I've been able to make remote control cars and tanks, among other things:

Power Functions

Is that sparking any creative ideas?

They still do! That's the problem... you probably just don't know they're out there because LEGO is largely off your radar these days.

Examples:

Forest Animals (new this year)

Bike Shop and Cafe (new this year)

Twin Rotor Helicopter

Palace Cinema

Horizon Express

The Emerald Night (the most beautiful train set LEGO has ever made)

Green Grocer

Haunted House

None of these are licensed, and they are all awesome LEGO sets. Yes, it'd different from when we were kids, but it's certainly not worse. On top of all that, look at the parts you wished you had as a kid... I've been able to make remote control cars and tanks, among other things:

Power Functions

Is that sparking any creative ideas?

They still do! That's the problem... you probably just don't know they're out there because LEGO is largely off your radar these days.

Examples:

Forest Animals (new this year)

Bike Shop and Cafe (new this year)

Twin Rotor Helicopter

Palace Cinema

Horizon Express

The Emerald Night (the most beautiful train set LEGO has ever made)

Green Grocer

Haunted House

None of these are licensed, and they are all awesome LEGO sets. Yes, it'd different from when we were kids, but it's certainly not worse. On top of all that, look at the parts you wished you had as a kid... I've been able to make remote control cars and tanks, among other things:

Power Functions

Is that sparking any creative ideas?

They still do! That's the problem... you probably just don't know they're out there because LEGO is largely off your radar these days.

Examples:

Forest Animals (new this year)

Bike Shop and Cafe (new this year)

Twin Rotor Helicopter

Palace Cinema

Horizon Express

The Emerald Night (the most beautiful train set LEGO has ever made)

Green Grocer

Haunted House

None of these are licensed, and they are all awesome LEGO sets. Yes, it'd different from when we were kids, but it's certainly not worse. On top of all that, look at the parts you wished you had as a kid... I've been able to make remote control cars and tanks, among other things:

Power Functions

Is that sparking any creative ideas?

They still do! That's the problem... you probably just don't know they're out there because LEGO is largely off your radar these days.

Examples:

Forest Animals (new this year)

Bike Shop and Cafe (new this year)

Twin Rotor Helicopter

Palace Cinema

Horizon Express

The Emerald Night (the most beautiful train set LEGO has ever made)

Green Grocer

Haunted House

None of these are licensed, and they are all awesome LEGO sets. Yes, it'd different from when we were kids, but it's certainly not worse. On top of all that, look at the parts you wished you had as a kid... I've been able to make remote control cars and tanks, among other things:

Power Functions

Is that sparking any creative ideas?

They still do! That's the problem... you probably just don't know they're out there because LEGO is largely off your radar these days.

Examples:

Forest Animals (new this year)

Bike Shop and Cafe (new this year)

Twin Rotor Helicopter

Palace Cinema

Horizon Express

The Emerald Night (the most beautiful train set LEGO has ever made)

Green Grocer

Haunted House

None of these are licensed, and they are all awesome LEGO sets. Yes, it'd different from when we were kids, but it's certainly not worse. On top of all that, look at the parts you wished you had as a kid... I've been able to make remote control cars and tanks, among other things:

Power Functions

Is that sparking any creative ideas?

Here is a stand-alone Lego Motor block from 1976:
http://www.toysperiod.com/lego-set-reference/universal-building-set/supplemental/lego-107-1-4-5v-motor-set/

Here is a page full of Lego Technics sets from 1977:
http://www.brickset.com/browse/themes/?theme=technic

I remember wanting that motor block and those shiny new Technics sets when they first came out, I wanted them so bad...

1974: http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=725-2

LEGO is expensive now, ...

Ok, I have to say this is simply flat out wrong. As a serious collector of Lego for over 30 years, I can authoritatively say that the price of Lego sets has held almost constant at ~ .10 per brick. Some of the newer licensed sets break that rule and go over that figure, but Lego has also introduced the Creator lines and similar sets with lots of basic bricks where the price falls well below the .10 a brick average.

But don't believe me. Go check out the prices on Brickset, a site that has a massive comprehensive catalog of old Lego sets and instructions. I looked up a few random set MSRPs from the early 80s to make sure I was remembering the prices right, and it looks like I was dead on. Holding steady at ~.10 per brick over 30 years is an amazing feat, doubly so if you adjust for inflation.

So, no Lego isn't expensive now. Its higher quality and less expensive than ever before. And Unlike 99% of the toys I had as a kid, it still works just fine.

What a load of rubbish, Lego sets have included detailed instructions to make the specific thing on the box for decades! The main difference now is that sets are tied to specific films like Starwars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter and so on rather than just generic themes like space, pirates, castles etc.

How is this pirate set from 1989 any worse than this Pirates of the Caribbean set from 2011?

It may be a movie tie-in but you've still got to build the thing yourself and you can take it apart and put it together again any way you like.

What a load of rubbish, Lego sets have included detailed instructions to make the specific thing on the box for decades! The main difference now is that sets are tied to specific films like Starwars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter and so on rather than just generic themes like space, pirates, castles etc.

How is this pirate set from 1989 any worse than this Pirates of the Caribbean set from 2011?

It may be a movie tie-in but you've still got to build the thing yourself and you can take it apart and put it together again any way you like.

It's cute and nicely done for that small a scale, but, yes, it's a bit small compared to the official LEGO set for the earlier MER Spirit/Opportunity rovers, and MSL is supposed to be a lot bigger. Obviously it would be too expensive to make an MSL to the same scale (probably thousands of $ :-)), but I wonder what people could come up with in the ~$100 range? I think that's what I paid for the MER LEGO set.

large rover

Rover, lancher and orbiter

large rover

Rover, lancher and orbiter

Not allow violence (i.e. real weapons)? Fort Legorado, 1996. Six shooters, rifles, swords, and cannons.

http://images.google.com/images?q=6980%20lego&hl=en

I wanted that thing since I first ever saw it in a catalogue, you could totally tell it was by far the most awesome battleship ever made.
I did have this baby http://www.brickset.com/detail.aspx?Set=6985-1 which was an awesome set (bloody heavy too) but it was clearly a science vessel and damnit if I didn't want 6980.

Oh the memories.

There's a few spots on the web where you can find PDFs of the instructions to make older Lego kits and indexes of pieces you need. Brickset: http://www.brickset.com/ and Brickley's Words: http://www.br-eng.info/words/index.php/search-lego-instructions/ are two of them, and I'm sure there's tons of others as well. Once you've purchased half a dozen kits or so, you've got more than enough pieces to create stuff from other kits.

My son and I play the Lego Star Wars video game together, and then make the "mini kits" you gather in the game in real life using the instructions online: http://www.brickset.com/search.aspx?subtheme=Mini%20Building%20Set .

Using your imagination is fun too of course, but every time I follow one of these "official" instructions for a kit, I learn a new way to put bricks and other pieces together to make cool stuff. We can then use these new techniques to make even cooler things on our own.

-Russ

There's a few spots on the web where you can find PDFs of the instructions to make older Lego kits and indexes of pieces you need. Brickset: http://www.brickset.com/ and Brickley's Words: http://www.br-eng.info/words/index.php/search-lego-instructions/ are two of them, and I'm sure there's tons of others as well. Once you've purchased half a dozen kits or so, you've got more than enough pieces to create stuff from other kits.

My son and I play the Lego Star Wars video game together, and then make the "mini kits" you gather in the game in real life using the instructions online: http://www.brickset.com/search.aspx?subtheme=Mini%20Building%20Set .

Using your imagination is fun too of course, but every time I follow one of these "official" instructions for a kit, I learn a new way to put bricks and other pieces together to make cool stuff. We can then use these new techniques to make even cooler things on our own.

-Russ

I am an AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego), and I think that they are the coolist thing ever. Check out some of the more interesting LEGO sites on the net:

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/recent.cgi A massive gallery of uber cool models made by AFOLs. There are some really amazing models posted here.

http://www.brickset.com/ A lego set refrence that has just about every lego set ever made. Want to get a list of every classic space set made in 1978? This is the place.

http://www.bricklink.com/ Want 150 tan 1x3 bricks? Buy them individually from fellow collectors all over the world.

http://www.lugnet.com/ LUGNET is the Lego User Group. It has an interface to all all of the Lego USENET groups, and is an easy way to keep on top of all the relevant lego news.

http://shop.lego.com/ Of course there is LEGOs homepage. Online shopping, and all sorts of other interesting stuff. They just released a program on the lego site that allows you to build virtual lego models. That isn't really amazing, since LEGO cad programs have existed for years. However, they seem to be ramping up to allow people to build virtual models, and then order the parts to build them online! Every lego fan's dream come true...

There is much more, but that is a quick rundown of some of the major sites. Indulge yourself, you know you want to....