My first Minecraft experience was in 2010 on a friend’s crappy laptop. I’d seen a few people talk about it - one of my Facebook friends kept sharing YouTube videos about this bizarre, blocky game, and while my curiosity had been sparked, I had no idea what the appeal was. Nor could I ever have guessed how much it would grow and evolve, and the community with it.
That year I played it a couple of times, struggling to build a crappy shelter for the night with vague instructions from another new player. I built a basic wood block house in the only game mode available at the time - Survival Mode. It was also pretty surprising to me that even in that time, a few updates had been added. It was oddly exciting to boot it up and not know what change I might get, and to discuss those changes with the few other people I knew who played it.
Only a year after the game had become playable, the first MineCon was held in 2010. This indie game that, to me, seemed small, had its own dedicated convention. Its immediate success has a lot to do with YouTube - there are Minecraft YouTubers and streamers who have gone from making videos in their spare time, to working full-time as content creators. And as Minecraft creator Notch has said, it’s unlikely Minecraft will die so long as those creators keep making content. With each update new content came from the game and the community alike, and that appealing sense of discovery I’ve always really loved Minecraft for seemed like it was constantly being stoked. It’s an awesome feeling to discover or craft something I didn’t even know existed, or had only briefly seen in groups or videos
Around the launch of Beta 1.8, servers and factions became another way I connected with Minecraft. There were people I hung out with in Minecraft servers whose usernames I still remember to this day, even if I have absolutely no contact with them anymore. I learned the ins and outs of PVP modes, and Hunger Games maps and mods - all things that the community had created, using the expansive game world that is Minecraft. Even the people who weren’t creating the video content I was consuming were so creatively inspired by the game that they were making actual game modes, with rules and restrictions, just to share with other players.
1.8 bled into the official release of Minecraft (or Minecraft 1.0) and Minecraft: Pocket Edition, the mobile version, in 2011. Both angered some players, and added new ones. The introduction of the hunger meter in 1.8 was divisive - some members of the community felt like it took the simple appeal of a crafting game and turned it into more of a survival-adventure, and some players still stick to older versions for that reason. But Minecraft 1.0 also added The End, which created hype and drew a lot of people in. This alluring idea that you could ‘finish’ Minecraft went against what I played the game for, but at launch, it was so mysterious that I couldn’t help but try with my dedicated group of online friends.
Though update after update added new textures, items, sounds, particle effects and combat variety, The Redstone Update is notable for adding a bigger sense of actual engineering to Minecraft, and some of the most unimaginable inventions as a result. Forget my attempt at fancy train stations - people have built actual, functioning computers inside the game. They have calculators, and accurate clocks. It’s crazy. This spawned a separate part of the community, too, with Redstone-heavy builds, differentiating the engineering-style content creation to that of interior design, or more entertainment-based PVP.
PC has had 5 more major updates since then too, even after Microsoft bought Minecraft and Mojang in 2014. The Update That Changed The World (that’s the actual title) added several new biomes and variations, expanding the already massive list of visual upgrades we’ve seen since launch. The Combat Update overhauled the combat system, and was discovered by the community itself - users on Reddit found a QR code hidden in the falling snow pattern in the April Fools update which, when scanned, said “Minecraft 1.9: The Combat Update.” Minecraft retained its indie spirit.
In 2012 Minecraft launched on consoles. The game is now playable on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, PSVita and Wii U, with a simpler crafting system, tutorials, and split-screen multiplayer, making the game dramatically more kid-friendly. All combined, the game has sold over 100 million copies, with 40 million unique players per month. Minecraft is owned in every territory and country on the planet - even Antarctica - and if everyone who owned Minecraft formed a nation, it would be the 12th most populated on Earth.
Minecraft owes a lot of its success to the passionate, dedicated community who have their hands on some of the best creative tools we’ve ever seen in games, and Mojang’s commitment to continue surprising that community. It’s the ultimate sandbox, with no rules or restrictions, meaning there’s no limit and reason to stop playing. Through every Minecraft update, that core freedom has never been taken away.
Alanah Pearce is an editor at IGN, who put a really old build of an underwater Minecraft house on her YouTube Channel. You can also find her on Twitter @Charalanahzard.
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