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A Struggle:
I feel as if I am Tom Hanks from Cast Away where I am thrown on a deserted island left to die. I skimmed through the beginner’s guide and its recommended strategies are to find shelter, food and safety. I have trouble doing all of this because all the natural resources are not that easy to find and require mining/scavenging up in the mountains or obscure places in the map. Your tools don’t even last forever; your wooden pick-axe eventually breaks and you have to make a new one. You can’t eat trees or flowers; you actually have to eat real food. The only “food” I’ve managed to find so far are 2 mushrooms. I may try to eat some raw meat next time and take my chances. You become desperate when you're starving.

The “noises” of zombies and monsters and the immbolizing darkness at night is kind of scary. I can't wait to make fire and a bed. I feel very insecure.

An Accomplishment

To increase your chances of survival I have learned that when its dark out and you don’t have shelter it’s best to find a makeshift one. Find a cave on a mountain, or dig a hole somewhere- it’s safer that way. I climbed onto the top of a mountain and tried to build myself a dirt-house. I managed to build a crude barrier of some sort, I had some trouble putting the roof in too. Eventually, I heard a zombie coming and completely freaked out and started digging downward into the mountain to hide. I kept digging until I couldn't see anything and was trapped inside the mountain. I think I will probably starve to death now because I can't get out.  

An Observation:

In the beginning (like our cave-man era ancestors) you start with the most primitive world possible. You have to try to fulfill your basic needs such as food, water, shelter and (weirdly) human contact. I felt like I took comfort in the fact that I was in multiple player server and that I wasn’t completely alone. I was online with Cindy for a little while and it was kind of nice to have someone to talk to. (kind of like how Chuck Noland from Cast Away had Wilson the Volleyball for company). Comes to show us how we humans are truly social animals :P When you see predators and don’t have weapons, the smart thing to do is to RUN. Don’t step into burning fire and don’t drown in the water. These are all real life common sense things that for some reason didn’t seem to dawn on us college kids during class because we all kept dying hahaha.

The fact that I know gamers on minecraft have created entire cities and civilizations on this game shows how it has the ability to mirror the trajectories of our own human civilization and how we developed. 

In many ways, survival in this virtual world is highly realistic. 

A Question:

How does my 5 year old cousin and his friends play this game so effortlessly? It’s not that easy. 
Can minecraft be used in a simulated wilderness survival course?