What is Minecraft?
Minecraft is another online game that I have given time and have a lot of fun playing. It is game that puts a player in a randomly generated world and it’s up to the player what he/she wants to do within the world of minecraft.
Basically, one can build houses, farms, treehouse, building and the creativity is the limit. In a normal single player game, the sun would rise and when the sun would set, hostile mobs like zombies, skeletons and spiders would start spawning in which they would attack the player within a certain radius.
How I Came to Know About Minecraft
The first time I heard about Minecraft was from my friends. It seemed to be a popular game among kids like me, and I became interested. I would later find out that there were two versions of the game. One for the computer and one for the tablet also called pocket edition. So I tried the tablet version and started playing.
Interesting Mechanics
One of the mechanics in minecraft that was so cool to me was the ability to craft things. For example, I can collect oak wood and craft it into oak planks and craft sticks and use the sticks and the oak planks to create a wooden pickaxe! I remember the first thing I did was digging into a mountain to create a cave for me to stay especially because I needed a place safe from the mobs. After hours of fun, I got interested in the PC version because it had a multiplayer game mode, which could allow me to play with real players all over the world.
Note: tablet version has multi-player now but not when I started playing on the tablet
Playing with fellow players
Soon, I got the pc version and immediately searched for servers I could join in. At first I didn’t understand what is happening in the servers, but later on I would find out that some servers let’s players play in the same world together and some provides various of custom made games that partner with plug-ins. One of the first games I played in a server was called Prisons. Basically, you are a prisoner and you have to earn your way from the lowest rank to the highest rank by collecting resources in the mines and you would sell them. Once a player reaches a certain amount of money, one can go up a rank.
Discovery of Survival Games
After more hours of playing, I discovered a gamemode that features PVP (Player vs Player). That means I could fight other people in gamemode. The first PVP game I played in a server was called Hunger Games or Survival Games which was like how the games in Hunger Games the movie worked. 16 Players would join and there would be chests scattered all over the map for the players to collect. Some items in the chest would give the player food, weapons and armor. The final player that survives wins! I had a lot of fun playing this game because of the competitiveness that was involved in it and I would be so happy when I win!
Playing Factions
After a few months of playing survival games and other gamemodes on other servers I came across a gamemode called Factions. Basically, In the Minecraft Factions I played, it is a custom made game where you can choose to go solo or team up with friends and create your very own group or " Faction ". You can attempt to raid other factions’ bases and loot whatever stuff they would have.
At first I started off with leather armor and a stone sword and I noticed that other people having such strong items like enchanted diamond armor and enchanted diamond sword. Later on, I would find out that there were kits given for different ranks and you would have to save up a certain sum of ingame money to level up to the next rank and acquire the kit with it. A player can acquire money by auctioning stuff, selling things in the shop like iron, diamond and other minecraft items. So I decided to ask around if anyone is recruiting for a faction because I knew if I get into a faction with some decent to epic stuff, I won’t have to sell things; instead, I could just use what my fellow faction members’ strong items.
After playing and playing and playing, I reached the highest rank possible in the server and I got access to all the kits and I had a lot of money because of auctioning my good items. And I was able to get TNT, which is used for raiding and I raided people and got more really good stuff! Sometimes I would go to the arena to fight other players and sometimes I would win and lose but when I win I would be so happy because I would be able to get the good stuff they had on them.
Closing Down my Minecraft Account
After several hours of playing, raiding, fighting, I was already playing for 4-8 hours and I was even not sleeping just to keep raiding and fighting. It got so far where I had to close my account because of how addicted I was.
Months later, I decided to recall and think what got me addicted to playing that gamemode out of the dozens of gamemodes.
3 Reasons for My Game Addiction
Firstly, during fighting a 1v1 or even a 1v2, I would sometimes get adrenaline rush, which possibly made me feel alive and hyped up, and if I would win, I would feel very happy and maybe there was a reward hormone that was released. I realized that I kept coming back just to feel that excitement and hype.
Secondly, raiding other bases is like a gamble. When I raided other bases especially the big ones, I was using resources like tnt to raid and hoping that I would be able to get resources that would compensate the stuff I used to raid. And whenever I would get so much good stuff, I would feel extremely happy as well!
Thirdly, I think the mechanic that I can come back to the progress I have done is another contributing factor because it made me keep coming back knowing that all of the things I had would be still there.
Even though everything I had done there would be saved, my dad told me that if he just unplugs the computer all of the things I had done would be gone. And he was right!
It was a fictional world all just 1s and 0s in a computer which can be gone in a second.
In the end, although I played so much of the game, I know I had a LOT of FUN! And it was a big part of my childhood.😃
