This has been the year(s?) of absolutely craptastic releases. I’ve been incredibly busy in college for quite a while, only half-assedly following most of them, but following them close enough to see just about everyone gripe about the terrible state of polish things are being released in for both consoles and PC.
But y’know what? Screw all that. Screw shooters and AAA “masterpieces” and microtransactions and all that fast-paced hoopla.
I’m just gonna go back to playing Minecraft all summer, like it’s 2014 again. Probably mostly a vanilla server with a few close friends and my long-distance GF. Maybe mix in a little modded tech packs for some excitement that isn’t quite as hardcore as Factorio is. Maybe get on some public servers and play some minigames while getting drunk.
Minecraft, or at least the java edition, has largely escaped the massive commercialization push of the gaming industry. And being in a game where there’s no stress, no ‘grind’, no dopamine button pushers… just a game where you’re living life how you want it, when you want it, is something I desperately, desperately need right now.
Who’s with me?
My “peak” time in minecraft was somewhere around 2011/12 when a small server with friends evolved into a somewhat bigger (~100 players daily) fun server that I mantained for a year. Fond memories. Nowadays everytime I try to get back into it, I feel like I have to learn everything again. So much has changed. Still love it, playing for a while with my wife has become a yearly occurence, although I don’t get invested in it like I used to back then.
Hey, modern Minecraft is definitely a lot different than it used to be. Even I’ve only been out of it for a year or two and still feel like there’s so much I can’t catch up on.
But; all the old versions dating all the way back to Alpha are available in the launcher. If you very well wanted to, you could stick to the “old” minecraft with it’s gentle simplicity, and it’d be perfectly OK.