Introduction:

Looking back through my life, I can remember Minecraft, a remarkable and memorable game, always creating and innovating through simple yet intricate designs... From wooden boxes, built in hopes to shelter from the night, to extravagant castles, Minecraft has never failed to deliver to the audience. And that is why I was instantaneously engrossed when I started to watch Youtubers play this fantastic game!

Enter, Minecraft Console!

Since the year 2012, when Minecraft for the Xbox came out, I always cherished the moments where I was free to sculpt the land around me however I saw fit, with no restrictions. The freedom to be able to make or break anything I wanted made me feel immensely powerful, it felt like I had control over everything! And then I met a dear friend of mine, the Hunger Bar... at first I thought I was able to run aroundforever until I reached the farthest land away. Little did I know that I had to scavenge the land for resources I before discounted as being useless. Not many times did I ever use seeds in Peaceful, I thought they were to feed the birds (don't blame me, I was used to watching SkyDoesMinecraft being devoured by a Kraken in Crazy Craft so... yeah...) soon to realise that it would be my ally as I dared to be bold.

I went into... Easy mode... that was a vivid memory of mine from when I transitioned from the free and empty landscape into the constant duel between Steve and the Creepy Creatures that were cluttered all over the landscape. Whenever it was night, I would retreat into my cramped box of wood, the dimensions being a miniature 4 wide, 4 long, and only 3 tall. The house would always save me from the hordes of Zombies, Creepers and Skeletons that circled around my house every night. I realised quickly that I would have to start sleeping through the night so mob's didn't have the chance to attack me. Those next 30 minutes were spent looking for wool, just enough to create a luxurious bed so I could avoid the moon's deadly prowess. Soon after that there was nothing to really be worried about, meaning I was able to continue my quest to become the almighty ruler. I decided to create myself a bigger box, as I felt claustrophobic inside the other one. I kept playing Minecraft until I felt experienced enough that I would be able to survive throughout any situation, unless of course it involved a creeper scaring me from behind!

A New Quest!

Later that year, 4JStudios announced a new update for the console version which was to be released during August. My heart was racing and my mind pondered on the thought of a new update. I was excited for anything new that came my way (my Dad got really annoyed during this waiting period because I would always ask him if it would be released anytime soon... bless him).

When the update arrived, I could hardly believe what I saw; a new gamemode had been added, named 'Creative' which puzzled me at first. My original thoughts lead me to believe that the landscape would be more unique, as if someone created a custom and unique terraformed spawn each world, but when I created my first Creative game, I was perplexed to see that the health bar and the hunger bar had completely vanished from above my fresh inventory. I thought that this must have been a fault within the game, so I decided to consult Twitter about my new findings. When I asked people why the most valuable information from my HUD had completely vanished, they explained that the Creative gamemode wanted to give players even more capability within the game. When I thought at the start that I had all the power, they decided to design something which granted me unlimited capabilities and I relished the challenge: I was going to create the world's best Minecraft town ever, but I needed some help to get ahead of the millions of players I was competing against... I decided what any 13 year old would do in that situation and recruited my close friends to aid my advance against the competition and we all pledged an oath to build to the best of our abilities!

From Controller to Keyboard!

The first time I connected to Minecraft PC was in 2014, and I wasn't at all surprised to feel similar to how I normally would whenever I played Minecraft, as it was just a different version of the same spectacular game. My first personal errand, when I finally figured how to find %appdata% on a computer, was to play a custom mini-game. There were a few that I had in mind and that I had been fixated to as I watched the Minecraft Youtubers commentate over a vast variety of challenging gamemodes, from the infamous Dropper maps, to the chilling thrillers such as Herobrine's Mansion. There was a diverse range of games to play, but my first exploration was a parkour map created by Bodil40 named "Ultimate Trolling!" I felt I would try something that not many players are always capable of doing, and maybe even becoming good at Minecraft parkour. From jump to jump of that map, I was always scared of the creepers within that game, because in Bodil40's texture pack, they all turned... pink. To me, that was revolutionary, being able to change the colour of the creeper was something I was not able to experience before. This simple change became a mind-blowing experience. Even that superficial change was enough to leave me bewildered.

And then it happened...


My friend, Cynder_Craft, introduced me to a server in August 2015. it was a Pixelmon server, which changed my life and has been with me since the moment I logged on. Upon entering, I spawned into the world to see the server hub, which was a sight for my eyes to behold, I saw a large detailed bridge expand over a vast body of water and small, arbitrary islands which conveyed no specific meaning or purpose. There were also substantially huge figures which resembled pokemon, including a Mew and an Aerodactyl. When I entered through the server portal, the players on the server greeted me with immense warmth and kindness, which meant a lot to me; on other servers before then, I had never experienced a server in which the community was so closely linked together and so welcoming to new players, instead I would regularly receive the classical "noob" tag from most of the experienced players on said servers. Fortunately for me, my friend had been on the server long before I arrived, meaning it wasn't long before I shared the same gear as most of the other players on the server. Within a month of me playing the server, I soon realised that I was engrossed in playing it all the time, and decided to purchase my first rank relating to Minecraft. This wasn't an easy feat, and I was anxious about giving certain details, but nearly a year later and everything is fine. The rank was named "Lifetime VIP" meaning that I would be a Very Important Player on their server, and I felt so privileged to be seen by others as a VIP. As I continued playing the server, I began to talk to some of the staff on the server closely, and soon enough we were always on Skype to each other for hours on end.

It was now January 2016, and I was playing a server which is connected via the same staff and Owner, ChooChoosGAMING, who was always so kindhearted and caring for his players, giving away free gifts to all players on the server just to show his extensive appreciation for all of his players. Once, quite a few of the staff members and the Owner were wondering around in hub, when suddenly this line was put in chat: "Who do you think would be a good crew member here?" The chat became an uproar of people who were desperate to become one of the crew members, whilst me and Cynder_Craft were casually in a call observing the mayhem that erupted in the chat at the time. Out of nowhere, the Head Moderator asked me if I wanted to be the Crew Member, and I nearly fainted in the call (100% factual). I responded with an ecstatic and overwhelming "YES! <3" And before I knew it, I became a full-time moderator for the server. In actual fact, I still am a moderator on there, so if you ever see me lingering around in hub, just say my name and I will be there!


And that's it! My minecraft journey, and my quests which lead me to become a Minecrafter. Love this community, and will always remember what it has done for me <3 See you all soon, MyGingerLife!