Playing Minecraft and Surviving Day 1

For years I looked at Minecraft and thought that is was just too blocky and uninteresting. I couldn’t understand why people made such a big fuss over it. Finally, one day I bought a copy and when I played my first game, it just ‘clicked’.

It’s such a creative game and the various spawned worlds are so interesting, I’ve spent hours just trying out different seeds (a unique number used to spawn worlds) and flying around exploring. Strangely enough, the best part for me is starting a new game and surviving my first few nights.  I’m not really and end-game player, I prefer the journey.

There’s a lot of hype about this game, and for good reason. The single player aspect leaves you to carve out the world you envision. Explore what seems like endless terrain, build structures galore, mine resources and create your utopia. The multi-player aspect is just as fun. Play locally with friends or join an existing server and play with strangers. Co-operate to create huge towns and settlements and even some strange structures like Egyptian pyramid replicas, the Eifel tower or anything you can imagine.

There are different modes to play in. The most common is ‘Survival Mode’ wherein you have to stay alive by avoiding or slaying monsters while finding food and shelter. Other modes include ‘Creative Mode’ which is a god-like mode and allows you to fly around, build anything and not have to worry about monsters, food or shelter. This mode is great for getting creative with some building or map designs.

Yes, you can create your own custom maps. There are several sites dedicated to this by offering how-to guides and downloadable maps made by other users. You can also find custom skins for your avatar such as this Lara Croft skin I’m using which I found on this site: http://www.minecraftskins.net

You can even get custom texture packs to make the game look and feel to whatever works for you.  I’ve found some realistic looking texture packs but they are heavy on system resources. Also, I found that a clean texture is better than a busy realistic one, but that’s just my preference. You can find free downloadable texture packs and guides on how to install them from various sites. I’m using the Soartex Fanver Pack. Also try this site for a start: minecrafttexturepacks.com

Don’t want to give away too much. Part of the fun is discovering things for yourself. I highly recommend that, if you haven’t already, go and get this game!

If you are new to the game, check out my ‘Surviving Day 1’ video which covers the basics of what you need to make it through your first night.

Let me know what you think of this game and if you’d like to see a follow-up video.

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- Writer: NinJaForge