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Mining Minecraft: Journal Entry 1

Mining Minecraft: Journal Entry 1

Mining Minecraft: Journal Entry 1

Part 1: In the Beginning…

When I first heard of Minecraft, I wasn’t sure quite what it was. After viewing a couple YouTube videos, I dismissed the whole thing, assuming it was an old niche game from the 1990s that had somehow retained a cult following.

But then I started hearing more about the game. Suddenly, it was everywhere. I avoided it for as long as I could, thinking it was merely a flash-in-the-pan indie hit that would soon disappear.

But Minecraft pressed on.

Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. I broke down and bought my very own copy to see what all the fuss was about.

And I jumped right in…

Initially, logging in was a bit disappointing. The first thing I saw was a blocky-yet-beautiful landscape covered in a layer of snow, dotted with red and yellow flowers. I was impressed by the emotional impact that such weak graphics could instill in me, but I was unsatisfied. To be honest, I live in Minnesota and am quite tired of snow. It was even snowing in real life that day.

So I started over. The second attempt yielded a much more satisfying result: a tropical paradise. I was ready to leave the snowy winter behind and get lost in the hills and beaches that sprawled before me. I was on a gigantic U-shaped island, with a smaller island inside the U. I began daydreaming about the crazy structures I would start building once I had some materials.

Mining Minecraft: Journal Entry 1

I remembered briefly hearing something about punching trees, so I figured that was probably the best place to start. I would need wood, after all, to begin construction of my new island home.

I found some trees nearby and tried to punch them down. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do it. I tried clicking my mouse as rapidly as I could, but I still could not get anything to happen.

And then, to my dismay, the sun began to set. I had heard stories about the Minecraft nights being full of zombies and spiders, and I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. Suddenly I heard a deep groaning sound. I turned around, and there was a zombie heading straight toward me.

In my panic, I found a cave in which I could seek shelter. This turned out to be a terrible decision. Immediately upon entering this cave I fell off the edge of a cliff to an underground lake far below, losing a good portion of my health bar in the process. It was dark, I was completely surrounded by solid stone walls that stretched upward for further than I could see in the darkness, and I did not have a single tool to dig myself out. I decided it would be best to just start over.

My third attempt opened to another tropical scene, not quite as impressive as the previous one, but still satisfactory. There were beaches, hilltops covered in trees, and an endless ocean in front of me.

Mining Minecraft: Journal Entry 1

Once again, I set out to do some resource gathering. My further attempts at tree-punching were still failing, resulting in more panicked rapid-fire mouse clicking.

And then I made a discovery. By holding down the left mouse button instead of franticly clicking it, I could knock though trees. Oh, the glorious wood I was able to gather once I learned that simple trick! Of course, by this time the day was drawing to an end.

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