Why I No Longer Enjoy Minecraft

2009. I was sitting around, scrolling through YouTube and looking for things to watch related to gaming. I was recommended SeaNanners and his 9-part playthrough of Minecraft. He survived the first day within an inch of his life and it was spectacular. But sadly, it was brief. It didn’t last long and I wanted more. So I moved onto the YogsCast. They had a Shadow of Israphel series and I watched from when they first started all the way up to the storyline. It was transitioned so well that I had assumed that Minecraft had a discoverable story.

The magic was there, but I had hit a wall. After binging their Minecraft series, I had hit their most recent upload and I was left waiting for weeks. I watched another series made by a vague YouTuber that I completely forgot the name of, and I loved it. He did what SeaNanners did, but also made it interesting without crafting a ridiculous story. By the time the Israphel series resumed, I had lost interest. I was instead watching CaptainSparklez and it was by far the best time ever. Not only was the illusion of Minecraft picked apart, but it was even more impressive, what with music videos, mod spotlights, level playthroughs, and his own survival series. Though most importantly, he highlighted updates to the game. Every time the game got a small update, he did (and still does I think) videos that described everything in great detail.

By the time 2011 came around, I still hadn’t gotten my hands on this wonder game, until one day, my Xbox-playing friends invited me over to play it. Except it wasn’t Minecraft. It was an Xbox Indie Game called something miner or something. Anyway, it wasn’t Minecraft. I could tell and it was blatantly obvious, though nonetheless, I was excited. I built a mud hut, then I was killed by a spider. Needless to say, I never played it again and I retreated to my YouTube, all the way up until it released on XBLA in March of 2012. I had gotten an Xbox 360 the preceding Christmas and it was literally the only game I was excited to finally experience. And I was an expert. My years of YouTube training paid off and I was a professional.

For the first year, we all waited for the game to update as we dealt with everything. I knew every addition by heart and I awaited them as I played. I was at the top of my game and my knowledge was only rivaled by friends, who I taught. Then it updated once more. And I was lost. By not following Minecraft to take time to play it, I was drowning in updates and no matter where I went, I could no longer find an easy answer. CaptainSparklez had kept running his videos, making it impossible to catch up. And the Wikis were run by butt-hurt 9 year olds. If I had friends to teach me, I might jump back in, but at this point in time, it’s past the point of learning naturally and the community is too full of ignorant children and complicated, nearly illegible tactics that I have simply given up. I don’t hate Minecraft as a game, and I don’t hate the community because I don’t HAVE to interact with it. But what gets me about Minecraft is that I just can’t keep up anymore.

With so much more to do and so many more games to play and learn about, there’s a reason the community is a bunch of kids… It’s because they don’t have responsibilities. They can stay home all day and play Minecraft and learn everything about it. These YouTubers that play it day in and day out don’t have to worry about anything but playing Minecraft. And 2009 me had the free time to learn everything about the game, but 2013/14/and 15 me can’t even afford to pay attention.