1/4/24 daytime (Minecraft)

Easter, Trans day of visibility, a bank holiday and April Fools Day all at once? Hm!

I was yearning for the old Minecraft last night, so I played it for a while today (I still have my old Xbox 360). It reminded me that No, Minecraft is a great game actually, I just don't like modern Minecraft because it's so overwhelming. That does sound a little "old man yelling at cloud", but old Minecraft is so good because of the tranquility. The gameplay is deceptively simple while still giving you lots to do. The graphics and the environment are simple, and the world has a perfect middle ground between calming and exciting.

New Minecraft isn't calm, or tranquil, and it absolutely isn't simple. While I absolutely appreciate Mojang for giving such frequent updates to a 10+ year old game (very rare nowadays), I think they experience a powercreep where every update has to look more visually impressive than the last. As a result of that though, none of these new features FEEL like Minecraft; they feel like a mod that DanTDM would review and I would watch when I was 9. On top of that, a lot of these new features don't have much use at all, which is crazy in a game like Minecraft where the point is to get creative with the resources and all the crazy things you could do with them. Even the things I quite enjoy like the new caves, aren't the same as the creepy charm of getting lost in classic caves. Then of course there's a cosmetics shop, events, flashy menus, pop-ups, it's all too much. Modern Minecraft is so overwhelming and it fucks up my senses. I think my limit was reached when I saw that they added a fuckton of new default skin characters (of different races which is cool), but I couldn't find Steve and Alex anywhere because I couldn't figure out the menu.

I'm glad we didn't sell the 360 because playing classic is genuinely really soothing, and not just for nostalgia. That being said, the world I spawned in was pretty odd - I spawned right near a sand temple, village (no blacksmith u_u) and a woodland mansion!? Fortunate indeed. Maybe that was a surprise prank because I called the world "April Fools". I got 3 dogs, robbed the temple and mansion, and generally did basic early Minecraft stuff. Typically how I would play would be by getting lost in the world, setting up no base and instead carrying my bed around. It's that nomad grind and can be pretty fun, but then usually when I die and lose all my shit I just delete the world lol. This time I did start making a house though, because I intend to keep that world for a while.

I played as Steve, because I actually really like Steve. He's my little guy. It's funny because the point is that he has no personality, they intentionally avoid giving him any in the marketing, but that just means that I can imagine him however I want. Generally I like to imagine him as a really chill guy, stoick, friendy, but also kind of a weirdo (harnessing Laios Touden energy). While he's excited to meet new people like Alex and the villagers in this big empty world, he prefers his own company and doesn't do well in social situations despite his best efforts (not helped by his lack of speech). He approaches this new and mysterious world he woke up in with a cautious curiosity, and is obviously very creative and resourceful, but what he really wants is enough resources to comfortably settle down somewhere away from everywhere else.

He's also autistic, because every fictional character I like is decided by me to be autistic, lol.

I've pondered making a comic about Minecraft but I know I'll never finish it. I never finish any long term projects.