More Than Mining And Crafting

For a long time Minecraft has been one of the top games on a list I keep of games I want to get into. The reason why I haven't started to play the game yet even though it has been out for years is because I knew it would be a time consumer.

At the first glance after which I had just decided I would buy the game I knew instantly it was something just down my alley. The old school graphics, adorable cute player characters and the fact of spawning in a world limited by so few to non-existent things was enough reasons to tell why I would love the game. And boy, I was right.

I spawned in as this blue shirted player which apparently loads of people call Steve. Markus "Notch" Persson (the creator) on the other hand has in interviews insisted that the game is genderless so I'll stick to what Notch says. As this blocky little character I explored the world of Minecraft. It was much fun to build a shelter and decorate it with summery flowers and blocks of happy colors but the loneliness got to me a little bit too quickly.

Mine, Craft & Multiplay

Ever since I can remember games have been very important to me. I love the fact of being able to share happiness together with other people. Shooting a bot in a singleplayer game or defeating a terrifying dragon is no fun to me if it's done in complete isolation.

As in the real world we want social recognition for our actions. A pat on the back or someone shouting hurray in the other end of the Skype call is enough at least to make me feel satisfied.

I don't think I'm alone thinking like this but I'm also not ignorant enough to believe this is the only truth. Obviously other people enjoy singleplayer games but it's just not me. I desire human connection, it's only then I think things actually can be fun in front of a computer.

Understanding the Possibilities

As I got the game for my iPhone I knew that the possibilities would be limited. For one it's not as easy to type things on the iPhone as it is on an ordinary keyboard. And then Minecraft Pocket Edition doesn't yet support all the same multiplayer features as Minecraft on PC does.

If you have purchased the game on an iPhone or Android device you are not given automatically the possibility to create a server through the app. As mentioned before Mojang, the developers of Minecraft, doesn't yet support an in-house feature of this kind yet.

As a far from a tech savvy person you can come close to I know nothing about setting up servers. My lack of knowledge shouldn't be the reason not to mention the possible options to create a server in Minecraft Pocket Edition. So here you go: PocketMine. It's a program (I think?) and an iPhone app which people can use to create servers. So either you can download a program for free from their website or get their iPhone app (linked to both accordingly).

As I don't want to create a server on my own I decided to join somebody else's server. At MCPE Index (as linked to most recently) you can find all different kind of servers. One server which I had heard actually some through a friend of mine was iMCPE. It's like the most popular server on MCPE for factions, survival mode and those community type of people. Currently I'm actually a part of a big faction there, lots of fun and always fun meeting new people.

Then we also got the most recent offer (not yet available for Pocket Edition I think) called Pocket Realms from Mojang themselves. Truly interesting but only if you are already a set of people and want your own playground. Not anything for me as I was looking for something more open and with more people.

Minecraft Deserves its Attention

In three words: I love Minecraft. For what you get from so little money you put in always makes me feel like I should give them more. The attention they get everyday from news outlets all over the world did surprise me a little bit before I had played the game. But now when I have I'm not surprised anymore, I'm just happy that the word is kept being spread about this fun and popular game.