The other day I heard one of my Facebook acquaintances complaining about their kid’s obsession with Minecraft, and how they just don’t understand it. I can relate, but maybe not in the way they might expect. In my household, I’m the one obsessed with Minecraft – although I do have a pretty good handle on why it appeals to me. Though, at almost 38 years old, I might be a little bit of an anomaly, or at least outside the “average.”
I’ve been playing the game off and on since 2011, when the first full release of the game appeared. I was aware of it prior to that, but around that time some friends of mine set up a private server and I felt comfortable that they weren’t going to trash my builds. My goals back then were pretty simple – mine for diamonds, build a house and a farm, and build roller-coasters and other novelties. I knew there were actual goals in the game even at that time, but I wasn’t particularly interested in accomplishing them.
Below are some “highlights” from some of my earlier worlds and builds.
I revisited the game once around 2016 in single-player mode and played for a while, though I don’t recall anything in particular about that iteration of my Minecraft world. It wasn’t until more recently this year that I jumped back in wholeheartedly after learning about some of the recent updates (new biomes, ocean temples, village raids, etc.). Back when I used to play, villages were mostly just passive locations with nothing to do; now they’re major trade hubs and locations where you can really beef up your items and armor.
My current world is a bit odd in that my spawn point wasn’t near any convenient villages, but one thing I kind of found out by accident (and have since confirmed as being one of the basic aspects of the current Minecraft environment) is that villages can be created from scratch – all you need is a villager, a place for them to sleep, and a job block if you want them to have a particular job. I built up the area around my home with a bunch of houses and different job blocks, and started off by curing some zombie villagers; since then I’ve mostly just had my villagers breed when I need to add to my population. It’s convenient, as well as something I had no idea would be possible or helpful until recently.
A baby zombie pigman riding a chicken! 
The afternoon meeting place. 
My villagers like creating iron golems. 
More chatting. 
Love is in the air! 
The flower forest – one of my favorite biomes. 
Got my Halloween decorations out! 
Happy Halloween! 
A new set of row houses. 
My cat. 
Some new mushroom homes. 
Seen from above (poorly). 
Enchanting table. 
Partying all night long.
I like video games, but sometimes games with concrete goals and narrow, focused narratives lose my interest. I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that my gaming skills will never be top-tier, both due to my aging reflexes and my general lack of time to devote to video game practice (I’d rather be watching anime!). Sandbox games give me the satisfaction of setting my own goals (I think I’ll build some new houses today) and the freedom to chip away at them on my own timetable (I’ve got an hour on Saturday afternoon to kill, let’s do this!). It’s probably why I play Animal Crossing Pocket Camp on the daily, why I keep coming back to Skyrim, and why I can check back into Minecraft every once-in-a-while to add to my personally-created civilization and feel as though I never really left.
Perhaps someday I’ll put together a private server again and invite other people into my world, but for now it’s nice to have a private refuge where I can build the world in the image that I prefer.
If you’re interested in Minecraft, but don’t know where to start, I recommend checking out Pixlriff’s let’s play videos. He’s probably the least-annoying YouTube gaming personality and I enjoy his tutorials.