Since Minecraft got popular, people started using 'voxels' for any stylized game that builds objects out of cubes, even if it's still a 100% polygonal rendering and there aren't any algorithms like marching cubes or raytracing going on.

There's nothing about "voxels" that implies raytracing has to be used.

And marching cubes is actually a method to get rid of voxels, in a sense. You don't use marching cubes if you want that ridged low-res voxel effect.

Yep, MC is just polygons. Classic ace of spades was made with a voxel engine (voxlap) from Ken Silverman which is pretty cool.

> Is Minecraft a voxel engine? I had the impression the blocks are just polygons.

No and yes. The minecraft engine is polygon-based, and the polygons are just making voxels.