Minecraft

I decided my first entry to be about the game Minecraft, since it's something that has impacted my entire childhood drastically. Many people don't believe that a game can change the way of thinking of a person, improve their problem solving skills, connect people or even something as simple as boost creativity. However they are far from the truth and might be overlooking some things.

The first time I have ever played Minecraft was around 2016, I was around 9 years old and I was thankfully allowed to have a smartphone which was a Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) and I had lots of memories with that phone but a major one was playing a free knockoff version of Minecraft that I found on the Google Play Store, it was the first glimpse of Minecraft that I was exposed to and honestly the game was pretty similar to the original Vanilla Minecraft so I had no complaints. The game also supported Local Multiplayer which was one of the biggest pros to it, at the time I had 2 close friends only and one of them was my neighbour upstairs and we would frequently visit each other to play the knockoff Minecraft on our phones. It was so fun and it got me really hooked on the game at the time, however they unfortunately removed the knockoff from the Google Play Store.

A year later I was on YouTube and I found this Minecraft channel called "Unspeakable" it was a guy named Nathan that did Minecraft videos based on either mods, hardcore or playing multiplayer with his friends which they were also Minecraft YouTubers. I started watching his videos and I quickly got hooked on them because they were just so fun, it was the first time that I couldn't wait to get home from school just to watch his videos no matter if I was sad, unhappy or bored, his videos would bring me comfort and honestly Nathan was pretty funny so his videos were very entertaining, especially the try-not-to-laugh videos that he made with his friends where they would go behind a cover of blocks and select a very funny looking Minecraft skin, those videos were my absolute favourite. I also really enjoyed his vlogs since he had a vlogging channel as well and he would post content about either his life or being with his friends along with things like building something major (like a PC) and I also vividly remember when he was vlogging the release of the iPhone X (to be fair it was all the talk so everyone was vlogging about it) and many other vlogs of his. There were also other YouTubers that I would watch like ExplodingTNT, DanTDM and more, they were also offering different Minecraft content that was very entertaining. Basically, Minecraft YouTube videos were my first glimpse of Minecraft Java Edition.

I remember really wanting to play Minecraft Java Edition however all that I had was a Sony Vaio laptop from 2011 and it was not a bad laptop at the time but for 2017 standards it was a little weak, I basically couldn't run Minecraft on it without lagging or crashing. However that was when I discovered OptiFine, it was the most ideal option to make Minecraft run smoother so I installed the latest version which was 1.12.2 at the time and after putting the settings all to the lowest I was playing Minecraft at 60+ FPS! I was so proud of myself because not only was I able to play Minecraft 1.12.2 on an Intel Core i3-2330M processor but also have lots of fun, it was my standard way of playing for a long time and the only cons of it were the lack of online multiplayer (because I was using a cracked launcher) and also not being able to customize my skin, but none of that mattered enough to stop me from playing and having the most fun! I do remember really wanting to play skyblock, bedwars and PVP but I couldn't, I remember making a flat world and going really high in the sky to recreate the skyblock island and then I would put my game mode to survival and try to replicate the skyblock experience as close as possible. This was basically my setup for Minecraft and it was like this for a few years.

I always knew that my laptop was very underpowered so I started saving any sort of money I had and would try to save up for a new PC since my laptop could barely run Minecraft 1.14, Roblox or even something as simple as Geometry Dash, the only thing it could run well was GTA San Andreas and FNAF 1/2. Fast forward to like 2021 I had saved a pretty reasonable amount and I also knew that my parents would pitch in to help a little with the budget, I really wanted to join the PC Master Race and build my own desktop computer. Unfortunately due to Ethereum Mining and Covid-19 the prices for PC parts were astronomically high, so to get my price to performance value I had to settle with a Ryzen 7-5800H Laptop that had a Discrete GPU. Even though it was a 2021 HP Laptop it was still a MASSIVE upgrade from my previous 2011 Sony Vaio, I could finally play my favourite games without turning down the graphics and whilst achieving 120+ FPS. Along with that I was also able to play games that I really liked from watching a few YouTubers play them since many were not supported on my previous laptop like Raft, Thief Simulator, PVZ Garden Warfare 2 and more. Along with personal games that I've always wanted to play, like GTA IV/V, Valorant and more, basically I could finally play anything without lag or crashes which I was very grateful for.

Few years later is when I met these wonderful friends which I love dearly and we would constantly play Minecraft whenever we were bored enough and had free time, the sad part is that it wasn't consistent due to the game just not giving us the same vibes like old times, we might just be blinded by nostalgia and longing for simpler times but it was still so impactful to us. Very often it was 2-week Minecraft phases where we would gather around and actually play together and I even made a server on Aternos which is still alive till this day and there are so many structures and a lot of progress made in that server so I do really treat it like an important asset and always join on it even if it's just me, with a duo or a whole squad. Of course we do also sometimes join on Hypixel servers to play bedwars or anything interesting, I also do have plans on running my own Minecraft Server in the future mostly because these Server Hosting Clients are a bit inconvenient but it's a project that's left in the back of my mind, won't be forgotten, thankfully. Every day I hope for a day where all of my friends have computers with a Minecraft account so we can all play on my future server.

And this was my story with Minecraft, it is without a doubt my favourite game of all time since no matter what happens it will never become boring to me. The ability to build whatever you want, the relaxing part of the game, the combat part and everything else is so amazing. It's a game that was built to last and the updates do an amazing job at adding new content each year while still remaining the same game with the same rules and concepts that we all love. Thank you Mojang but mainly thank you Notch.

-Daniel