The Legos Have Been Up To No Good
You know those old legos up in your parent’s attic? I’m sure you know the ones, they’re in the big plastic bins. Do you remember when you were just a wee little you and you’d sit for hours digging through the pile to find just the right piece to make your creation perfect?
Do you remember the sound? The kshhhhh kshhhhh of the little plastic pieces tumbling over each other. Remember how raw your fingers would get when trying to pry apart the thin blocks (the ones without the notches on the sides) when they just didn’t want to come apart. Remember how you broke a nail and it hurt and how mad your mom got when you went for a knife to lever the two pieces apart? Do you remember the massive cities you built, or the huge, unwieldily machines that tended to fall apart under their own weight?
But then you grew up. Your childhood room was cleaned and the legos put up in bins. Maybe you sold them or donated them, or maybe they still hang out up in the attic, hoarded against the possibility that any future progeny might get as much enjoyment out of them as you did.
It’s a comforting thought.
But I’m afraid that your legos have not been sitting idly in the attic, patiently awaiting attention. Like Toy Story gone bad, your legos have been busy. To support themselves they’ve had to resort to prostitution with the ancient IBM pc (also doing time in the attic). They may have picked up some unsavory pixels from the illicit relations. The Ken dolls have all left Barbie at home with the Cabbage Patch Kids and become drug dealers.
The Legos are buying.
Hopped up on Ken-peddled steroids and getting who-knows-what kinds of diseases from the broken electronics, your old Legos have become something new.
Behold, the almighty block
This is minecraft. This is your legos on steroids.
In the absence of Guild Wars (I’m looking at you all you Relics folks having fun behind my back!), I’ve dabbled in new things. Over the weekend I finally decided to see what this whole Minecraft thing was about.
Addicting?
Oh my goodness yes.
Now, I’ve only been playing the free (Classic) version so far. I’ve made my own compound and I’ve started putting down roots in a server called Crocodile’s -somethingorother (I go by Tigerfeet, if you can find me come say hi). It’s a nice place with very strong anti-greifing (vandalism, basically) moderators. It’s got city streets and a millennium falcon in the basement. All you need to get started is to find some open landscape. So far I’ve made a cabin. It has a porch and a lawn. To find it you’ll want to head left down the street, past the pink arrow and past the gigantic building. It’s on the right after a nice bath-house and across the street from some swanky chinese pagodas. There’s a chess-board in the lot behind it.
Hooligans will please stay off my lawn.
Hunter tells me that I’ve been terribly spoiled. He tells me that in Alpha mode (the mode you pay for, that has crafting and fun things like mine carts) you don’t get unlimited blocks. (I get unlimited blocks, and can place lava and water.) He tells me you actually have to collect resources. He tells me this probably thinking that I’m not going to like it.
I think I will. Even knowing that the Alpha mode is not as free and unlimited as Classic, I’m still very excited to get the full game. I can’t wait to fight zombies, make swords, make doors (oh my lord what I wouldn’t give for a door in Classic mode).
Even more, though, I’m looking forward to playing a game with friends. These weeks without access to my various means of socializing (Facebook, twitter, Guild Wars, Blogging) has left me feeling very lonely and not a little paranoid. (I see you Relics folks, having fun behind my back!)
Minecraft has been a pleasant diversion. Just please don’t trample my flowers.
