Minecraft

Hello fellow Minecraftians! haha I used to play Minecraft quite a bit. I was part of a 24 hour streaming channel called Minecraft 24/7 and I had the night shift. There were good and bad things about playing so much of it and having the night shift. I will get to that after I talk about the game for a bit.

Minecraft at its basic form was a block building game. It starts with classic where people could build crazy intense structures with many different kinds of blocks. My first experience with it was a classic server (this was back when the game was in Alpha) and I loved it. I carved myself a home out of the side of a mountain and one entire face of the home was glass so I could see outside. It was a wonderful experience that reminded me of a virtual Lego building game (I love Legos).

Adventure came out and it was really fun! You could build things but it wouldn't be an endless supply like in classic (you had to gather the resources yourself). Also... if you didn't have a shelter or weapon by nightfall... good luck. Monsters would spawn and it could be terrifying if you didn't have the right equipment. The Monsters (at first) included Zombies (melee), Skeletons (archers), Spiders (my most hated), and creepers (suicide bombers), which don't die when the sun comes up... they will stalk you forever. The creeper quickly became the face of minecraft. They were silent (hence the name) until they got close and all the player heard was "Sssssssssssssssss" followed by an explosion. If you didn't die from it you were lucky.

There is a lot to do in the adventure: mining, farming, building, and even working with redstone (which is an electricity of sorts). There is even more now that the official game is out. In Alpha and Beta the game was open ended but then they created things to make it so it was a game with an ending. You could actually "win" Minecraft. For those who fell in love with the game when it was in early stages thought it was odd. I, especially, didn't realize that Minecraft needed an ending. The developers added a lot of interesting things, one being alchemy. I stopped playing for a while and now I feel overwhelmed by all the changes. It's a completely different game now, than when I was playing it a lot. The alchemy part of it is really confusing for me and I just don't deal with it but I'm probably missing out on something. I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of the new features because I just don't play it that way, but that's my choice.

Some bad stuff...

Ssssssssssssssss.... BOOM!

The game, honestly, is not friendly to new players. If you haven't done your research and you start playing then you could very well be lost. The game has a very extensive crafting system and if you don't put the materials on the crafting bench, just so, then you won't make an item or you won't make the right item. This is a game that requires lots of knowledge and a wiki page up right next to it. The alchemy system is also confusing if you don't know much about it (which I don't). The game can often be frustrating and/or scary based on what you're doing in the game. You can build a nice house and during the day (when you should be safe) you walk outside and a creeper is hiding there next to your door. Your house blows up and you die. When you get back to your house you have to rebuild and you don't get all the materials back from the explosion so you have to go gather more. The last thing I will say about it is unless you're doing specific things the game gets boring after playing on it for a long time. The more popular a game gets the more griefers you will find. Be careful who you play with and be careful where you play (servers).

Some good stuff...
Minecraft has lots of options now so you can play however you want. There are many multiplayer servers out there to play with your friends and there are lots of modes so you don't even have to play with monsters. It makes it nice for those of us who just love to build. There are lots of complex things to figure out and build (even a rollercoaster) which make the game exciting. The monsters each have their own unique abilities which makes for quite an adrenaline rush! Exploring in a cave and mining a stone to see a Creeper's face on the other side could very well startle a person into screaming. The game can be very relaxing based on how you play and can be great stress relief. Honestly I had quite a lot of fun playing and I would recommend the game to anybody who might be interested.

My experience...
I was in charge of the night shift. I was usually on from 6pm to 6am and it took a lot out of me. The good part about it was that I was hanging out with (on the stream) a bunch of fellow insomniacs and a loyal group of people who would keep me company for the long haul. A 12 hour shift is not only long but bad for the health. By the end of my streaming time I had quite a few health problems and I looked like a zombie (it scared me). To all of you out there who might consider doing something like that I have to say make sure you get sleep and manage to eat a balanced diet if you can. I didn't and it was rough. The worst part about the night shift (besides being tired) was it being dark in my room (I was in college housing and had a roommate) and running into a creeper or other monster. It was terrifyingly startling. It was wonderful to meet new people and to feel like I was part of a community. I was the most social then, than I have been in years. It can be a very fun place to be and if you are interested then I would recommend it. Thankfully for me, my streaming for hours at a time days are over.

Minecraft is a fun game and many new people are joining the ranks all the time. I would highly recommend it to anybody. If you already play it then let me know if you play on a server and I might just hop on there for a while.

Have fun gaming,
Skye