Throwback Thursday: Back to the roots of the game

Originally written October 2023. Found and published now.

Today I indulged myself in a rare instance of survival Minecraft. Partly to see the Halloween pumpkin mobs. But partly for the “Nostalgia”. It was a peaceful, beautiful experience. It was raw and pure…

I created a brand new world and hopped in without worry. Left that tree floating? Check. Turned up the music and sound effects? Check. Explored and looted? Check. No pressure to do X in Y way in Z order, no outside interference. Just the base game, as intended – I was taken aback to a simpler time, when I had first discovered the game. Just another survival world to throw away – wandering in the lone mystery of the procedurally generated landscape. Finding a village. Raiding a desert temple. Passing an ocean monument.

Half broken wooden tools upgraded to stone. Some (surprisingly over-powered, in my opinion) loot from chests. Dirt hut built, cave explored – the familiar hiss of a Creeper. Dying to creeper… I’m not making this up. The beauty of day, the hell of night.. The hell as you step into the Nether. The “controversial” features of the recent updates lost and unimposing among the base game. Was this really the Ship of Theseus some make it out to be? Are we taking things too seriously? Sometimes, it’s well-deserved to slow down and play. It’s one price for countless hours of fun, after all.

Until my game crashed, anyway – the performance suffers when you forget to turn down 30 render distance!

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