Minecraft blogging/documentation

A struggle: The past couple of days I have played Minecraft I have been VERY lost. I went exploring and kept traveling farther away from my house. Eventually I forgot which way I had to go to find my way back and guessed. After a while I decided to climb a mountain to see if I could find a familiar area by looking down on the word. Unfortunately I could not and decided to let myself drown so I could respawn near my house and get back to the part of the world we have created. 

An accomplishment: I built a second level to my house and figured out how to make stairs. I still feel like I am in the early stages of figuring out Minecraft and after seeing other people's house and the public farming areas I want to figure out how to make plants. 

An Observation: I love that there are public areas now. It makes it feel like more of a community within the Minecraft world and seeing how much people are progressing in the game has been really interesting to watch. Each time I log on it seems like there is something different that was not there before. 

just spent a while catching up on everyone else's postings ... wow, i am so humbled by everyone's insights and collaboration!!! this is an amazing thing we're part of and creating ... love how reflective people are being. feeling very inspired and excited to keep going with my own minecraft development, even though i have a long ways to go. thanks to everyone!

i wasnt able to write up my reflections immediately after playing for the last few days, so i'm going to mush them all together in this post for today ...

accomplishments - I BUILT A HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! well, kind of ... but i'm still super excited and proud .... im still in singleplayer, so i feel awesome about myself that i survived long enough to do so ... i kept getting confused about how/where to get stone, and tonight i was mining some random dirt and then fell through the earth into this underground cave/mine. id seen other people in these spaces but didn't know how to get to them, myself. trial and error, yay learning process ... so then i mined the heck out of a bunch of stone, etc which was actually really empowering feeling ... i built lots of axes and shovels, etc. I spent my first night there, avoiding death .. the next day, i made some bowls but am one mushroom short of making stew ... then as night approached the second time, i panicked, feeling very protective of my hard won progress, so i quickly built a wooden enclave into the side of a mountain. this really consisted of me walling myself into the side of the cliff so that to get out i hard to hack my way through the wooden blocks and re-mine them ... but it kept me alive! i get bored at night, though, i just had to stand there until day broke. at first, though, i didn't understand how to actually place blocks to build things but then realized it must be like placing anything else, like a crafting table. so in a more meta learning sense, i was able to make connections between an unknown/question and what i already knew and had practiced. i used the 'how to build a house in MC' website i found last week for step by step instructions (mine wood, build a wood pickaxe, mine stone, build a stone pickaxe, etc ..) - so i've been liking this combination of guided and at times explicit instruction and then my own free exploration. i also didnt understand how to build a roof at first but just kept clicking frantically to place blocks until it seemed like i was safe enough. so i know im still 'behind' the general curve of the rest of us in terms of my building skills/expertise, but i wanted to celebrate my own accomplishment haha .. i hope to re-join the class server soon so that i can actually contribute to larger/communal projects, but maybe its good that im developing my skills individually before joining the larger group, who knows... 

observations - i've had 3 experiences in which i've been able to connect my 'life' in MC to my life outsisde of it (or to use thomas' lingo, which i like, my analogue to my digital life) - or in another sense, MC has helepd me strengthen my relationships in the analogue world, which is something i never would have expected and have strongly thought the opposite until very recently.

• one of the guys with whom i live (we lived together first year and have been close ever since) is a MC master and has spent a lot of time playing over the last few years. when he heard about our project, he became very excited and interested. i began talking with him about it several weeks ago, before we actually started the unit. since then, we've been talking about the game here and there, and on friday i reached out to him and 2 other guy friends who also play to see if they wanted to play together/help me learn. they were totally excited about it and agreed to do so. i make frequent use of the wiki and other internet sites, but now i also pop my head out the door and ask for his advice on any random question or problem that crops up. although we've been friends for all these years of college, we have never had all that much in common to discuss, but now MC is changing that in our relationship - !! it is definitely bringing us closer in some ways. i can tell that he gets a lot of satisfaction out of being able to help me. and i feel similarly because it gives us something to connect through. i would like to actually play in real time with him.
• the second interaction happened just tonight when i saw robert in the DC .. as we walked past each other, he called out and asked if i had seen the new house he had built in the class server. (i said i hadn't because i cant get back on the server ..) - but it was really cool and validating to talk about this other 'world' in which we interact in our daily analog space. although he and i would always acknolwedge each other and say hi upon seeing each other, this interaction had a new level of excitement as he shared of his recent building accomplishment. he was with 2 friends, and i wondered how it appeared to them and if they asked him what he was talking about as they walked away. 
• and third - also just tonight, i was waiting in line for food at the DC while talking with one of my first years .. she was saying how she hadn't gotten anything done today because she'd spent the whole time playing video games .. at first this didnt register with me at all, and then i thought to ask which games, 1/2 wondering if it could be MC ... indeed it was! she couldnt believe that i was doing it for a school project, and she agreed to teach me what she could when i asked for her help. we talked about it a bit more over dinner, which included her making fun of me for dying so frequently (in singleplayer!). this quickly turned into a running banter between us. it was ncie because she is someone i havent gotten to speak with a lot so far, and just like with my guy friend, the game gave us something in common that acted as an entry point to a deeper and more connected relatioship. very interesting in all 3 situations. 

questions - id like to talk with some of these friends i've mentioned who play/have played MC on their own. id like to ask them similar questions to those that we raised in our talk with thomas. id like to know more about their own experiences with it. especially because my one friend said she had 'wasted' the day playing it, i wonder if she could think of it as an educational tool or something that can so benefit your personal development .. 

struggles - i had paused the game to do something else, and all of a sudden once i rejoined the whole imagery was totally pixelated (more so than usual :) and very blurry .. things still worked ok, but it all felt like slow motion as i tried to move around and do things. it was very hard to look at. i asked my resident MC expert, and he said that it was probably because the game itself is such a large file and that my computer might be overloaded .. he fiddled with some of the game settings for the graphics and other things, but it didnt help .. i suggested i close out of the game and maybe even restart my computer, which he agreed with, but i havent done so yet .. anyone else experience this?? another struggle is that i still can't seem to get back on the class server! i had  forgotten the code, but after i ran into robert in the DC he reminded me of it, but when i entered it i still was not able to connect ... i will bring this up in class tuesday and hope someone can help me straighten it out .. 

(Minecraft) Social equality, foundations for "Project Library", and eventually... enchantment book/table

A Struggle

I think the struggle right now is no longer a personal one because I have learned how to be self-sustainable. The struggle right now is more of a collective one in terms of community building. How do we come together to form a whole? Like Professor Lesnick said, how do we transition from playing as soloists to playing in an orchestra? I currently see 2 main challenges to collaboration and minecraft world development:

1. The differences in minecraft skill levels within the class (inequality)

2. The analogue world preventing us from being on the server at the same time when we’re not in class. (although I don't know if this problem can be solved)

I attempted to help solve problem one during my last day on minecraft. 

An Accomplishment

It all started yesterday when I had my first minecraft play date with Isabelle and Veronica and together we built a community farm. After that, I was inspired to become a business philanthropist. As a result, I built a homeless shelter (near the HI sign) with a treasure chest supplied with bread and pumpkin pie. My placement group and I thought it’d be good to start a library project on minecraft. I think I have set the foundations for this to happen. I have transported a few cows from my farm and created an animal pen next to the homeless shelter so they can be bred with wheat then slaughtered for leather/steak. I have set aside a specific treasure chest for storing paper that can be made from the sugar cane growing in the community farm as well as my personal farm. I have also put up several signs to try to make up for the lack of instructions within the game.

We need this library because there is such a thing called an enchantment book in minecraft. This enchantment book is enhanced when surrounded by 15 bookshelves and when placed on an enchantment table it can enchant swords, armor, pickaxes etc. And probably make zombie killing be as easy as swatting flies ~ sounds pretty magical

More info about the "enchantment book" from this site:
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-Enchantment-Table-in-Minecraft

An observation

Not to sound patronizing in anyway, but there is a big disparity within our class in terms of who is “well-off” on minecraft world and who is still trying to survive one day at a time. This disparity is stunting our collective development because there are still some people who are trying to fulfill basic needs. These people are untapped sources of labor for community building. You could identify it as the income disparity between the “wealthy” and the “poor” in the analogue world.

After spending this week playing minecraft, my experiences seem to elucidate the idea of access and social inequality in my mind. In the begining we were all a bunch of wild cave men and women behaving out of self-interest. I remember NapoleonBonaparte (Robert) asked me for diamonds and wool during day 2 of minecraft and I told him "sorry, need to take care of myself first." Now, alot of us have homes, farms, advanced mines but others are still helplessly lost. I think I am probably in upper-middle/upper-class position in minecraft world as are several other people who are in similar, if not even better positions.

There seems to be a certain saturation point when more cows/more food/more “stuff” is not going to help you advance any further in the game. Things become less exciting when all you're doing is mining. That is a time when one should behave less out of self-interest and consider a project that helps the collective good. Therefore I am trying to “pay taxes” by feeding the hungry and equal out the playing field by ameliorating some of the differences in skill level that are preventing development. The purposes of the community shelter are to provide for the “homeless and struggling” and help them fulfill their basic needs. That way we can start working towards our collective goal- sooner.

At this moment, i think the trajectory of our community development should be as follows:
1. Improve poverty in minecraft world 
2. Build a library
2. Make enchantment table/books
3. Pimp out weapons
4. Turn off peaceful mode & kill some monsters 

A question

How do we improve inequality in minecraft world?
How do we build solidarity, construct a library and eventually acquire an enchanted book? 

Thought I would blog while I wait for the rain to pass :-)

Struggle: I am trying to find the giant "HI" sign and the place where Robert's house is so that I can get back into a place where I can interact with other players since, as of now, I have been pretty anti-social up in the mountains. However, I am having a REALLY hard time! I have absolutely no idea where I am or which direction I came from or even if I am heading in the right direction at all....

Accomplishment: I realized why my blog posts have been appearing on the front screen even thought I have been clicking "create post" while I am in the post for our whole-class thread.... I have to add a comment instead! Duh! Although this isn't really a Minecraft success, it was still pretty exciting :-)

 Observation/question: I could REALLY use a map. It's pretty impossible to navigate any world without knowing where you are in relation to the other things around you. I understand the idea of having to explore it for yourself, but it's pretty frustrating when you get lost! I wonder if there is anyway to make one?

I'm still exploring the Creative mode on my own (single player mode) since I am kinda scared of the thought of going out there being killed by the zombies or starving to death - I might eventually when I feel more confident with my navigation and crafting skills. I built a house with double door, and made a bed and a wardrobe inside too but by the time I was able to lie down on the bed it was morning again. I was really glad that whenever I came up with something I thought I might need then I could find it in the inventory (ladder, door trap, glass pieces for my garden) - so the way it works in MC is very similar to how things are normally solved outside of the game. I started with making foods too. Some one mentioned in class this morning that sometimes it's hard to figure out why certain recipes were set up as such - and I totally agree. I think I am 99$ dependent on the wiki right now but I hope as I get familiar with the game I can start thinking about certain ways that it works too and try things on my own.

Question: Can we "craft" a friend? I am kinda lonely.

I finally tried the Creative mode today, still as a Single Player. This is probably not surprising for everyone, but I learned that in this mode we have almost everything in our inventory and we could build everything we want. That's exciting news for me because when I look up on Wiki and see all these cool recipes for crafting but I could never find enough ingredients or actually know how to get them. So having everything handy was very useful and it motivated me a lot. There was not much to worry about in this mode so I just went through several crafting recipe and was delighted that they actually worked!

Observation/Question I really like out talk with Thomas on Tuesday - there were so many things wonderful about the game that I never knew until he mentioned it. When one of us asked about the possibility of being addicted to the game, he said "if it has to be a thing - if it has to be a game, then this is the game" - there were so many implications in it that got me thinking for a while. But at the same time, knowing that there are so many potentials to it, I have this feeling that I would need to learn a lot more about it - such as coding, or spend much more time on it - to be able to have the same experiences. This is more like a question: Does technology, in general, allow us to enjoy it even if we're not fully aware of what it does to us or how it works? I guess the answer is yes, but is there any limitations to that? 

I had a had day in Minecraft today. I had managed to find coal and iron, which was awesome. I even figured out how to build a furnace. I had made myself a lot of new tools then decided to explore the world. Almost immediately I fell down a massive whole and died, losing a lot of the materials I had collected. Very disappointing. 

Despite this being a rather disappointing day, I was successful in figuring out how to make some new tools and have become much more efficient within the game. 

An observation: I have started planting some trees to replenish the limited resources. I have also observed that the more willing I am to go farther from my house, the more animals I find. Although there must be a way to make a farm or something so that animals are not a limited resource right?

accomplishment - today before playing i looked up online how to build a house. i've been paying in singleplayer but have heard others talking about building houses in class + in their posts and had no idea how they are accomplishing so much .. i found a nice site - http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-House-in-Minecraft - that breaks down exactly how to go about this, everything from getting wood --> crafting table -> cobblestone --> stone axe --> mining building materials, etc. It also goes over the + and - of each building material, and i had no idea this existed. so i got all the way through building my tools (more complex than ever before), but then it turned night and i died. this is seriously frustrating. but still making progress overall.

question - how can i learn more from my classmates?? they seem to be wayyy more advanced than me, planting farms, reforesting, tending to their daily routines! could we all play together in class on thursday? i think it would be so much more productive than the first time when we were all figuring it out ...

struggle - im finding it very repetitive to have to start from scratch each time i die. i tried playing in creative mode to avoid dangers but couldnt seem to actually pick up the wood from trees i chopped no matter what i tried, so i got confused and switched back to survival mode because i was able to function there. as someone elese said, the wiki is very useful but moreso right now only when i know what im actually searching for .. othewise i would have no idea that things exist, like a bowl or different building materials or a furnace, etc. 

observation - i was so inspired and enthralled by thomas' talk today - wow! he is so eloquent and insightful, and his reflections on everything i found very deep and thoughtful. and thought provoking. i am so grateful that i/we have the opportunity to work with and loved the open discussion session today. now looking back i wish i had taken notes or recorded him so that i could go back over his points. 

Stuggle: As others have noted previously, resources are becoming rarer and rarer. I hadn't really noticed it until yesterday when my food stash ran out and I had to go in search for something to eat. My struggle, however, eventually became an accomplishment: my difficulty finding food and wood drove me to become a more environmentally conscientious player. 

Accomplishment: Because resources are dwindling and food is becoming increasingly scarce, I've started a small, self-sustainable farm by my home. Up until now, I was relying almost exclusively on meat to survive, but when animals became a lot harder to find, I needed to explore some new options.
Furthermore, I've begun a one man reforestation project. When many of the players cut down a tree, they only take the trunk, leaving behind saplings, which can be used to plant more trees. Consequently, I've been wandering around looking for floating clouds of foliage, cutting it all down, and replanting the trees. 

Observation: In my last post, I mentioned that I had fallen into what had initially struck me as a tedious, tiring routine. Tonight, I noticed that I rather enjoyed peacefully tending to my wheat and replanting trees. To some this may sound dull, but for me, it was an oasis of sorts from the stress of my "analogue" life. The immediate rewards of building new kinds of tools or discovering new materials are no longer as important as they once were. 

Question: In class today, Thomas mentioned that many servers have rules of conduct. Could our first project as a class be creating our server's rules of etiquette? 

accomplishment - i made a crafting table within a few minutes (ok, not that advanced for those of you who have alredy built houses and are starting farms, oh my! but an improvement for me, small steps..) I toggle back and forth between the game and the wiki to look up exactly what i can do with the new resources i'm encountering. like tonight i learned that the poppies and dandelions i had can be used for dye and that 3 wooden planks make a bowl which can hold mushroom stew, which i can make with the 'shrooms i also gathered! cool. 

question - what is dye useful for ... ? why can't you deconstruct objects into their constituent materials, like breaking a ladder or bowl back apart to get raw wood? i still can't figure out how to kill/pick up meat from animals .. i hit them several times and they turn red but then just run off ... my inner vegetarian refusing to conform, maybe? 

struggle - i'm getting a little bored and discouraged because i feel like im wandering with my main goal as just finding different resources and figuring out what to do with them. but where are people finding coal and all these other kinds of things?? trying to keep motivated and remind myself things usually get more fun as you advance more ... how does this work for other novice MC players, though (not in a class setting) - do they have a more commual aspect to their development? i'm really inspired by the examples of others in our class working together, so that is hopeful! 

observation - i feel guilty in some ways playing this game. i felt too self conscious to do so while in the library and surrouned by others, so i wanted until i got home to my room. my friends just came in, though, and were in very low spirits about the state of their work, theses, stress, etc .. i share in all those same stressors! but i felt kind of odd when they asked what i was up to and responded that i'm playing MC/video games .. it's tricky to explain and help others to understand, just like i experiened when we were reading hunger games/with this course in general, like we discussed in the mid-course feedback. but then i just read some of the other posts and am reminded of what a cool and cutting edge thing we are doing here, building this community and knowledge base, so now i feel fine again :) every time i play i also always think of the hunger games! can't get it off my mind .. the aspects of physical survival, crafting, ingenuity, nature, building alliances ... it would lend itself so well to a HG lesson of some sort. i also really like the game's potential for exploring ethics and relationship skills, like some others were saying about cooperation, sharing, trading resources, etc. - it feels like an extremely resource if only we/educators (excuse the pun) know how to mine it! :) 

Struggle: I feel as though I'm beginning to stagnate. I spend much of my time on the server mining, breaking my tools, replacing them, and mining some more. It's become a very tedious cycle. 

Accomplishment: In my last Minecraft blog entry, I lamented our lack of cooperation. Tonight, however, I was able to collaborate with Veronica. I ran out of food and couldn't find any livestock, so she offered to trade some of her provisions in exchange for the coal I had mined. Although we probably would have eventually found what we needed, our ability to collaborate made life so much easier for the both of us. 

Observation: I would like to second Meron's observation that Minecraft can be a very lonely game at times. Most of the time I spend on the server is spent alone, and even when there are other people online, we don't interact much. Tonight, however, was very different because I not only interacted but collaborated with another player. 

Question: What can I do to overcome this roadblock and take my activities in Minecraft to the next level? 

A Struggle

Not knowing what to do. I found myself in the middle of 3 processes that I had no control over and so I got quite bored just walking around on the terrain.

Accomplishment

I was finally able to find a cow and retrieve leather and meat and then I harvested my crops and made bread.

An Observation

MineCraft is a lonely game. I'm not sure if anyone else has experienced this but although the life situations are qute realistic, the P2P connection was not there. It was a little creepy to have these "real world" experiences while baking bread or cooking the meat and yet lose what I think is the most important life experience, which s meeting and communicating with other people

A Question

Is there a way to communicate with the other players in the game?

P.S I found that I get major headaches and nausea when I play the game. I think it may be a motion sickness issue. Is anyone else experiencing this?

Struggle: Until about an hour ago, I was struggling to purchase the game because of some transactional problems. But I finally have access to the game thanks to Alice. After playing the game for a while, I am incredibly confused about the various functions and have no idea where to start, what to do next and/or what the fundamental goal(s) of the game is. At times, I find the game frustrating because the more I try to apprehend the game, the more I get confused. Also, another aspect of the game I am having trouble with is finding natural resource, esp. trees, to build a crafting table and basically everything else and food to survive. If I survive the zombie attacks, I end up dying due to starvation (how do you find food?!). And I think it is frustrating that we lose all our materials and crafts once we die,  which then means that we have to start from scratch.  Though I know I can't master the game in a single day, I wanna be able to play the game with ease and have full knowledge of the various functions.

Accomplishment: I have gotten better at handling the controls and am able to build myself a crafting table. Also, I now know how survive the zombie attacks in order to survive the game…I either find myself a shelter and hid there until sunrise or attack the zombies back and kill them before they kill me.

Observation: First, I love how we are able to resurrect after we die. Second, as mentioned by others in previous posts, Wiki, youtube, and google have proven to be amazing resources to understand/explore the basics of the game and its various functions for beginners like myself. Access to such informative sources make our struggles a lot easier. It was informative to have Thomas in class these past couple days to help us make sense of the game but it would have been annoying figuring out the game all by ourselves if it wasn't for wiki, youtube and google.

Question: What are the ultimate goals of the game? And does this game relate to our class, i.e. how does this game help us understand the concepts we cover in class?

Today, the main struggle was just staying alive for longer than an hour. I died twice because I kept starving. By the end of the day, I had learnt how to eat food and that the way to conserve life power [?] was to jump less. It was great how MC forces us to prepare our own food. In the game, raw meat is about as nutritious as an apple but when cooked its ability to replenish health is startling. Thomas said that if a player eats too much raw meat, they could get infected and die. Also, players can't consume vegetarian items such as mushrooms, eggs and wheat without cooking them first. 

Maybe this is just blowing my mind because I haven't played any games in the last 4 years, but I thought it was neat how MC tried just a little harder to simulate reality. The players don't have to prepare gourmet meals to ensure survival [or maybe they do at some point, egad] but they can't just walk through a mushroom and expect the game to automatically replenish their health. 

This points to the direction of applications of MC as a training software. If the combination of predators, natural dangers and starvation can give us a space to think critically about survival strategies, it can help us prepare for two things: 1. navigating wilderness with greater foresight 2. dealing with chaos in a logical manner.

Struggle: I was unable to connect to the multiplayer network because, as a Haverford student, I can only connect to the Bryn Mawr guest network and that does not connect with the Minecraft network, apparently. This was a prime example of how issues with wireless or insufficient connections can REALLY affect the access that people can have to various online tools or systems.

Accomplishment: Luckily one of my classmates was kind enough to let me work with her in exploring Minecraft because she was able to get into the class's network. It was really helpful to go through it with someone else because we were able to share ideas and figure things out together. It was also fun to get to know one of my classmates that I haven't really interacted with very much before that! :-)

Observation: It was pretty clear that some people were "naturals" at Minecraft and were learning how to do various things very quickly, while others were struggling pretty badly. Especially in the beginning of the period, before I had joined with my classmate, I found myself to be in the second group. As it seemed like my classmates were getting farther and farther ahead, I began to feel worse and worse about my Minecraft abilities. I can definitely understand how people who do not have access to technology or do not use technology feel as though they are outsiders to the exclusive club of the tech-saavy.

Question: I still have so many questions, I don't even know where to begin!

a struggle

A major struggle I experienced with Minecraft was trying to purchase the game from the website. The first time I attempted to purchase the game, the transaction was cancelled and there was a hold on my bank account. Today in class, we attempted to purchase the game and apparently it was not working for other students. Alice then decided to purchase gift codes so that people who were having trouble purchasing the game can be able to use the code to download it. I am waiting to receive an email from Alice with the code information so that I can be able to download the game.

In the mean time, I have been able to play the game using other student’s computer and have been able to understand the basics of playing the game. Although Thomas has been really helpful with providing us with assistance while we are in the process of trying to figure out how to play the game, I decided to look at the Minecraft Wiki online that also displays information on how to play the game. I’ve found it very helpful because it is a resource I can easily go to if I have any questions when I am playing the game outside of the classroom. The game involves a lot of knowledge and skill in order to be able to succeed throughout the game such as remembering what tools will help you the most in getting the best resources for survival. I am still in the process of trying to figure out this information and will eventually be able to get enough knowledge to play the game.

an accomplishment

I am still in the process of trying to download the game onto my computer but other student’s who were also experiencing similar issues have been able to download the game with the help of Alice. Therefore, I know I will be able to also download the game soon.

an observation

In the little time I have been able to play with Minecraft due to the problems I’ve experienced with downloading the game, I have tried to mentally immerse myself into the game, by thinking that the game is real life. Throughout this exploration, I’ve observed the frustration and anxiety of trying to survive with little skills I have in comparison to the skills I need in order to survive in the game. The game consists of several steps needed in order to accomplish the next step and the step after that, which will eventually allow you to proceed longer in the game. Minecraft is a game a survival that also challenges what you already know and forces you to think of more skills that will get you to the next level.  I am interested in seeing how the skills I attain as I continue to play the game show in what I develop as I play.

a question

Am I curious to see what kinds of skills other players will attain and how limitless the game can become?

Lots of questions and observations today!! First, an accomplishment - I stayed alive for more than 5 minutes (ok, maybe mainly because Thomas turned off the monsters ...), but a great improvement from the first class, I've stayed alive for over an hour! I built my first crafting table. I mined some totally new things, mostly by accident - sandstone, wool, seeds, and doors and ladders from people's houses. I also made a wooden shovel! But totally by accident - I enjoy messing around in my inventory and putting things in the grid and seeing if anything happens. Then I figured I could use the wiki to actually learn these things - they're called recipes and ingredients - fascinating! I think the language the minecraft community (? that's who came up with this, i assume?) has chosen to use for these things is interesting. The wiki is incredible, wow!! So impressed. I enjoy looking up anything I can think of and seeing how it works in MC. A question - are resources limited?? As others have mentioned, too - but I can't seem to find any more wood, all the trees are trunk-less. Does this mean I have to go to another part of the world to find more resources? A struggle - I get bored when I can't keep making 'progress' - when I can't get the resources I need (like wood) and feeling like I am stuck and cant do anything else in the game. I'm sure I could solve that if I spent more time on the wiki or talking with my peers (shout out to Maddy, who teaches me a lot!) - so I'm learning that going it totally solo in this experinece is generative but also more slow-going in some ways than learning from my peers as resources, too. It's interesting to me that we are all absorbed in our own screens but also talking and teaching/learning with one another. Even though I stopped having as much fun when I felt I couldn't get more resources and keep moving forward, I still found it strangely addicting, in that I didn't want to stop roaming around. Interesting ... 

Frustration! frustration! My computer is very old and downloading the systems requirments was very difficult and tme consuming. Because, even if you make, one small error the game will not run. It took a lot of figuring out what to do. Finally I google minecraft game and matched the sydstem requirements for NVIDIA to what I had tto donload. That took an enormous amount of time. Finally I got to work. Now, navigating through and try to play thats an other big challenge  if you never played a computer video game in your whole life. I want to find a way to play both, the game and run a tutorial for step by step instructions. I wasn't able though. If anyone has a suggestion please let me know, otherwise I am not surving this game.

A struggle:  I think a major struggle I'm still having is that I still haven't fully immersed myself in the game.  Not that I'm not playing, I've probably been playing too much, but I haven't been back on the multiperson server since class, and I just started playing with the monsters at night again today (I already died once, oh well what can you do).  I think I'll try getting myself into multiplayer later on today, so I can be accustomed to it again before our extra meeting tomorrow!

An accomplishment:  I made a few today.  I've finally started getting a better handle on controls, which is one of the reasons I've been exploring singleplayer.  I'm starting to manipulate the world I created, I've built a small house, I started a small wheat farm, I've explored some of the naturally occuring mines, I've made some iron armor.  Another accomplishment is that I decided to turn back on the monster spawning, and even though I died the first night I tried to kill some, I didn't end up doing that horribly, and since I was right outside my house (and the bed I made!) I was able to recollect the items I lost as soon as the sun rose. 

An observation:  I've used the Minecraft wiki a lot during these first few days of exploration and it's kind of incredible how helpful it is.  It's this well rounded, completely informative source that I'm assuming was created by younger people who play the game.  How exciting is that?  All these people coming together to create this source to help orient newcomers into their environment!

A question:  Reading through some of the posts I'm hearing a lot about what's been going on in the multiplayer server.  I can't help but wonder if playing there is going to be harder?  I wonder if it's going to become a competition of sorts or if we're eventually going to manage to come together and create our own community in this world. 

a struggle:

Especially at the beginning since I felt so unsafe and didn't know what to do, I had a bad habit of punching any living thing I came in contact with. In fact, Wendy mentions that her and I were online at the same time and when I first saw her, I thought she was something that was going to attack me like the men with bows and arrows do. Therefore, since I know if you run they just chase you anyway, I punched her to see what would happen. She then responded very civilly, "Hello. Don't punch me." and I had to figure out again how to use the chat since I couldn't remember at that moment how to do it. This experience taught me how to be a little less reactionary and a little more apt to prepare ahead of time for possible dangers. 

an accomplishment:

I have had conversations with a couple of classmates regarding strategy and Isabel advised me 1) digging deep 2 by 1 holes is an effective way of avoiding monsters as well because they cannot fit inside with you and 2) that instead of putting in the extra time to start a house from scratch, it is quite effective to carve a little fixer up house in the side of a mountain to automatically have a roof and part of the walls built. I started this project today. However, I think I have boxed myself into the house and will have to ask someone about how to make a door so that this does not happen again! 

an observation:

I am noticing that the trees near the respawning site are disappearing and this means that eventually other materials will start going away as well. I suppose this means we will all have to start charting new territory in order to get what we need. I've noticed that a bunch of us have built our homes around the spawning site and this makes it easier to know where your home is. Once we get farther from this area, maybe we can build another set of houses together to have multiple, easily recognizable places to go for refuge.

a question:

Day 1, October 24th, 2013-

I have not played a computer game for years, and it showed when I did Minecraft for an hour. I was thrust headfirst into zombies, and that did not make a good impression for me for the rest of the hour. I was sure that I was going to hate playing this game because I died a lot, I never got to do anything. 

a) I had no idea how to fight zombies, and I had no idea how to run away. By the time I figured out how to move my plain avatar, it was already too late. I died, and I kept dying at night. There was always this one zombie that was right behind me and kept attacking me even though I couldn't see it. I was only able to navigate freely during the day, but even that got boring in its own way. All I wanted to do was explore, but I was told that I had to make a table and tools. I could find nothing of value except an apple and mushrooms. I did not know how to create a table or an axe, and I never got to do so, because all the materials needed for that were already taken by many other players who had entered the game before me. It was like room draw last year where everyone before me had already taken all the good stuff and I was left with scraps. 

b)I was able to do two very small things (things that could not possibly be considered huge accomplishments, but I gotta aim low here because I'm so bad at this): I could jump out of water and off of blocks and I could hit enemies. I learned to swim upward by pressing a certain button (the space key) and jumping could help me escape (briefly) from enemies. If I kept pressing another key, I could kill a zombie at a time. However, a huge horde of them kept going at me, so I got hurt and died again. The point is, I could keep myself from dying from drowning and I could survive (for a few minutes longer) while in the company of zombies. 

c) I notice that there are a lot of cows and pigs here in this world, and I have no idea why. Why not cats or dogs? Did somebody create them? But who? And how?

d) Can I just do creative mode instead of survival from now on? I wonder if I can stick to creative mode from now on, since I hear that there is no dying or survival zombie mode in that area. I would rather stick to creative mode for the next four days of blogging, and I hope my professor/the leader of the game will let me. I just do not enjoy being thrust into a game that seems like it's for hardcore gamers and messing up due to a lack of years and years of experience. 

I'm not good at video games.  My brother has always been the one who could sit down and figure out a game in little to no time.  By the time I would even decide to give it a try he would practically be a pro.  That's not to say I don't enjoy them.  I love video games, and I love games like this, where the idea is based in creating instead of purely destroying.  That's not to say that my first day with the game today was by any means easy.  I struggled a lot (and am still struggling a lot) with the logistics of the game.  As mentioned by others, moving was hard and I still have trouble jumping.  I decided to play around in single player.  At first I started off playing on easy, where monsters and things still spawn.  I decided though that having to hide out at night to avoid dying wasn't really working out for me, so I eventually switched to peaceful mode.  I figure I'll try to grasp the basics before I start worrying about giant spiders and skeletons that shoot arrows.  I like the option of the game to play in "peaceful" mode.  I still have to worry about things like drowining and starving, but I'm not limited by whether or not the sun is up.  I plan on moving back up to "easy" or even "normal" mode once I have a better grasp of the game.  I've also spent a lot of time today exploring the Minecraft wiki.  I found it really interesting that so much information existed about a game that..doesn't really have rules or a plot (although there is a type of "Ending" which involves travelling to another dimension and slaying some dragon...which seems cool, but I don't know if that's much my style).  There are so many ways to play this game that I'm honestly beyond excited to explore it more.  Just during my first day I can see how the open format and freedom of gameplay could be useful in working with imagination.  I think the game allows for the development of authorship as well.  We could see in class today how a lot of people were looking to be told "what do I do?" (I was one of them at some points).  The game isn't about that though, it's about making it what you want, and I think that's a skill (the ability to explore and figure things out on your own) that isn't always focused on in schooling.  

I explored some youtube videos of people playing the game as well, and I was blown away by the additons and changes some people make to it.  I also was just flawed by how effortless building was for these people who made the changes as well.  I guess you can say I still have a lot of learning to do.  

As far as questions go, I can't help but wonder about the broader community of minecraft.  Once I understand the basics a little better I might be interested in exploring some other servers just to see how other people play.  Logistically questions I'm working on, I feel like this is a very "hands on" learning experience, and the wiki explains things when I just can't figure them out.  Basically, I'm exploring and learning as I go, and enjoying the process along the way.