BACK TO THE MINES

It's like heroin.  I can't pull myself away no matter how hard I try.  I might go clean for a little while, and I think I'm free.  But sooner or later, I get sucked back in and I'm hooked.  My life is consumed.  It permeates my thoughts and dreams.

I speak of course, of Minecraft.


I started a year ago.  Back in 1.2 when the only biomes were desert, plains, and trees, and people were freaking out because Notch had just added squids.   I remember when wolves were revealed, and the community went apeshit.  I waited fervently with a huge throbbing gamer boner waiting for the enormously hyped up 1.8 "Adventure Update", and was utterly broken on release (mostly fixed by 1.9).

I played rabidly up to the official release in November.  I was excited for Mojang, but since Skyrim had just come out (and was consuming my soul at that moment), it was my time to finally put the game back down.  I popped on once or twice since then, but never really played much.  I had so much more to play, as I had just bought almost 100 games for my brand new computer off of Steam...Minecraft was old news. 

And predictably, I've forgotten all about those shiny new games, as Jeb added not only a brand new biome, but a new mob to go with it.  I couldn't resist that pull.  I had to see the lush Minecraftian jungles with the enormous vine covered trees, and the sneaky ocelot mob, which turns into a random breed of house cat when tamed.  And I have to admit, the jungles are absolutely beautiful!  The game has come such an incredibly long way from when I started.

However, it reminded me of one thing that really pisses me off with Minecraft -  Every time they add new big stuff like this, you pretty much have to start a new world.  They say that new content will generate in old worlds, in chunks that haven't been created yet.  You just have to explore out further.  This is a serious pain in the ass for someone like me, who likes to explore their whole world in every direction, venturing several days' walk just to find new stuff.

I guess I don't know how else they could do it, but it's incredibly frustrating.  I put a LOT of work into my creations, playing only single-player survival.  I mine for all of my materials.  I build everything by hand.  I don't use MCEdit or mods or even texture packs.  I take great pride in my work.  Having to start a whole new world does not mean that I have to destroy or lose my projects in any way, but it's still that feeling of having to start all over again, and it kills me, especially when I'm not finished with a project, like my large villager-populated town with accompanying farm.

And yet, it's also kind of what keeps me playing, as I've spent the past week working on my most masochistic project ever....an underground city that is essentially me carving a 40x40 shaft straight down to bedrock, with stairs and branching rooms.   40x40.    That's 1600 blocks horizontal for every one block down.  Not counting branching rooms.   Fuck me.