I love falling down rabbit holes. There is quite an unique vibe in just finding something that looks interesting and then going deeper and deeper, until the point one gets bored, because the hole itself still seems bottomless.

While diving YouTube for something to watch, I encountered an interesting video titled “Minecraft’s Progression is Awful. Here’s Why”. That was the start of the descent, discussing core problems with the Vanilla version of the game. Minecraft is a lot about the side game modes, so that in itself is not that big of a crime, but it surely made me understand why me and my friends always end up making a new Minecraft server and then never renew the host for month 2.

Well, after that, I can say I was quite intrigued in going to see more about Minecraft. Is a game I grew up with, and one I haven’t seen any content about in a very long time. My content searches took me to a channel called “TheMisterEpic“, whom I am quite certain had another “Mister” as inspiration for their YouTube channel’s name. The documentaries on his channel are quite well researched as well as just straight up pleasant to watch. He still has a little bit of a children’s take on certain stuff, assuming a certain level of “smirk confidence”, but that does not translate into a bad viewing experience in any way

Initially, I looked at some videos about those games Minecraft released as part of their IP, which I knew basically nothing about except for some lore because of Matpat’s videos. The games, Dungeons and Legends, seem to have had quite tragic fates compared to their bigger and more successful inspiration. Well, suppose you win some and lose some. But they seemed to be very interesting takes on Minecraft, and, in the case of Dungeons, it was quite popular for a while, and had developed a dedicated community. Sadly the devs saw a complete package and decided to stop updating regardless. Always a both respectable and sad decision. All good things must come to an end. I might try that one sometime.

Then, I dove into some history. Initially, about old updates, to see how history now writes my memories (Herobrine will forever be the OG urban legend). I also looked at the history of previous updates when I wasn’t in touch with the game. Seems like the cave update was a very big controversy, having to release in waves and disappointing fans with delays over and over again. These history dives are really interesting, because they both can contain lessons about how certain groups of people can react and allow you to reflect to previous points in your life, asking a question of “Where was I when all of this transpired?”

Ultimately, I got caught on the treadmill of Minecraft servers. I think video games are unique above all else because of the way they allow the player to interact with whatever story or message they are trying to transmit. The ability that is required to craft your message in a way that can be interpreted no matter the way a player choose to interact with the game is truly wonderful to see, when pulled off successfully. But, because any video game is a viper’s nest of code and graphics and inputs, all of them taking each other out (and I can say that only by doing a website I managed to see how wrong can coding go), there will inevitably be holes players can poke. In multiplayer games those are drivers for amazing stories, as the discovery of an exploit is not only affecting one player’s experience , but impacts the economy or the enjoyment of all those around. And, whether a good or a bad thing, it puts people in unique scenarios.

Besides exploits, I also learned a thing or two about monetisation of Minecraft servers, and about what it really takes to have such a server. I think I was thinking when I was younger to open up one, so this was an unexpected continuation of a very lost thread of thinking in my mind.

In the end, I will leave here my favourite video from the Minecraft deep dive, which was the entire history of Hypixel Skyblock. I am looking forward to having the time to try out this mode, maybe it will even issue a YouTube video someday. Watching this video also filled in a question I had, about why Minecraft is such a good video game for content creation. Listening to the story line of this server, maybe you will figure it out as well. If not, sometime in the next…eternity, I will have a video out about why that is. Until then, the last link is below, and Arvi out!