Interview With Experienced Players

I asked a couple of experienced players some questions about their gameplay on Minecraft.  All three of them decided to remain anonymous with their answers.  Here’s what they had to say.

 

What attracted you to Minecraft?

Person 1:  My friends were playing it and one of my friends had a server so we could play on multiplayer, and so I joined that, and I found out about it on Facebook.

Person 2:  My friend told me to get it.

Person 3:  Yeah, my friends told me to buy the game.

What was it that kept you playing/why did you keep playing?

Person 1:  The fact that I could play with my friends and the game constantly updated with more things to do.

Person 2: I like killing my friends [in game]

Person 3: Creativity.

What is something that you have taken from playing Minecraft?

Person 1:  Creativity, I guess, and..yeah I guess just creativity.

Person 2:  Don’t waste your diamonds on a hoe. 

Person 3:  Grow a lot of netherwarts.

What did you think of the game before you played it?

Person 1:  I didn’t know anything about it until I played it.

Person 2:  I thought it was stupid.

Person 3:  Stupid.

Do you have any advice for new players?

Person 1:  My advice is to read the Wikipedia- the Minecraft wiki before playing.

Person 2:  Don’t get addicted.

Person 3:  Don’t trust [other players on servers].

Surviving the First Night

So you’re a first time player, logging into the game for your first time and have no idea what to do and where to start.  We’ve all been in the same boat before.  Thankfully, there are loads of youtube videos teaching you the basics of how to survive the dreaded first night on Minecraft.  This, however, is my tutorial, and I hope it explains everything you need.

Step one: GET WOOD.  You can never have too much wood on Minecraft, and the material is the basis for basic crafting.  To do this, just hold down your mouse on a wood block (or, punching the block, as it’s commonly referred to).  There are multiple types of wood, and for your first night, it doesn’t matter what type it is.  Also, you don’t need an entire stack to help you go through the night, but it’s still a good idea to get plenty.

Step Two: CRAFT PLANKS AND STICKS.  To achieve this, simply press “E” on your keyboard, which brings up your Inventory.  Take the wood and place it in ONE of the four squares at the top.  Over to the right of it, an item labeled “planks” with a number 4 by it will appear.   Click on this until you have turned all of the wood into planks.  Take two planks and put them one on top of the other in that set of four squares, and “sticks” will appear on the right.  Click on those until you have a sufficient number of sticks (about 16).

Step Three: CRAFTING TABLES AND CRAFTING TOOLS.  This is one of the most important parts for surviving the first night.  First, you’ll need to make a crafting table.  To make one, you need to put one wood plank in every one of the four squares at the top.  On the right, an item labeled “crafting table” will appear.  Click on it and drag it down to your main inventory.  Place the crafting table on the ground by right clicking a block or earth while holding the crafting table.  Right click the crafting table, and an extended version of the four crafting squares in your inventory will appear.  A 3×3 crafting center will allow you to make everything you need to craft in the game, but for now, you need it to craft your tools.  The two main tools I suggest you make first are a pickaxe and a sword.  To make a pickaxe, place three planks on the top three squares with two sticks underneath the middle.  

Like this.
To create a sword, put one stick on the bottom middle square and two planks above it.

Like this.  

Step Four: FIND COAL AND CRAFT TORCHES.  Coal is an abundant resource found mostly in caves or in mountain sides.  The only way to mine it is with a pick, so you must do what you did with the wood, but holding your pick instead.  When you have what you think is enough, craft a torch by putting coal on top of sticks, which will give you four.  Torches are essential for having in any shelter, since they prevent monsters from spawning.  

Step Five: KILL ANIMALS.  Okay, morbid way to to title the step, but its essential to survival.  Use your sword (or don’t, but that would take longer) to kill a pig, cow, or chicken, and gain food to eat.  Don’t worry about cooking it on your first night, but if you want, get 8 cobblestone, craft it into a furnace, put wood or coal into the bottom of the furnace and put the food in the top.  That’ll give you cooked food, which will raise your health bar faster.  *fact: you can;t raise your health without having a full food bar*

Step Six: MAKE SHELTER.  You should do this earlier, but it doesn’t matter when you make it, just that you make it in general.  Make some sort of shelter that can hold you in for the night and can block off any monsters from spawning in.  A tiny house, if you want.  Do whatever you want with this shelter, just make it impermeable for the night.  Place torches in your shelter to light it up and prevent monsters from spawning.  If you want, craft a bed with wool and planks and sleep for the night so that it goes by faster.

Make sure to do all of this before nightfall.  A helpful tip is to continuously look up at the sky and notice the placement of the sun in the sky to figure out what time it is.  When it’s directly overhead, that’s midday.  There are clocks you can craft, but don’t get ahead of yourself on your first night trying to make one.  I’ve played for 3 years without even crafting one, and I’ve got on fine.  

Anyways, I hope this helped you withy our first night on Minecraft!  If it didn’t there are many videos on Youtube that could aid you as well.  

Mobs Explained

One of the well-known features of Minecraft are the mobs.  Mobs are living entities in the game which add to your gameplay.  Some mobs you will commonly encounter such as pigs, sheep, chicken, and cows.  These mobs are friendly, and killing some will cause them to drop items like food or leather or wool, and you will need them to survive.

However, Minecraft is commonly known for its unfriendlier mobs, or monsters.  Now, these creatures can alter your gameplay in another way.  Monsters spawn where there is no light and generally appear at night.  The list of monsters includes zombies, skeletons who shoot arrows, giant spiders, tall and frightening endermen, and exploding green creatures known as creepers.  These mobs have the ability to kill you if you don’t kill them first.  Killing these mobs will make them drop items like rotten flesh, bows and arrows, teleportation orbs, string and eyes, gunpowder, carrots, or even the occasional head.

Basic Passive Mobs

 

 

Chicken: Once killed, chickens do not give as much XP as other animals due to their small amount of health and size (possess only 2 hearts of health, 4 health points).  They will drop raw chicken which you will need to cook to raise your food bar, and feathers which you can use to craft arrows and book+quill.  When not killed, they will drop eggs which can be used for cake and spawning other chicken on command.  They follow you when you hold seeds and mate when two nearby have eaten them.

Pigs: These creatures, like chicken, are harmless and do not drop as much XP as a monster would, but drops more than the little mob.  They possess only 5 hearts of health (10 health points) and drop pork which may be eaten raw or cooked, which the latter would add more to your health bar.  To get them to follow you, you need only hold carrots, and when you feed two in the vicinity of each other these carrots, they will mate and make an offspring.  Unlike chickens, you can put a saddle on pigs and ride them.  To control where they go, you must be holding a crafted carrot on a stick.

Cows:  When you kill a cow, a cow may drop raw beef and/or leather (5 hearts of health, 10 health points).  The rule for beef is like chicken and pork-you can eat it raw, but to get more regeneration on your food bar, you should cook it.  Leather can be used to craft leather armor (the least effective armor, but better than nothing) or books which can be used for crafting bookshelves and enchantment tables, or used to store enchantments for items.  Right clicking a cow when holding a bucket is the equivalent of milking it, and the bucket will fill up with milk.  Milk can be drunk or used to make cake and cannot be placed on the ground like lava or water.  To make a cow follow you, you must hold wheat and to make two mate, you must feed them both wheat as well, which will make them produce a baby cow.  A special variation of cows is the Mooshroom, which is found in a mushroom biome and produces beef, mushrooms, and milk.

Sheep: These friendly creatures possess only 4 hearts of health (8 health points).  Killing them will make them drop one wool block, whereas shearing them with shears will give you 1-3 blocks.  Some sheep are different colors like white, gray, and black, or many other colors which can manually be altered with dyes.  You may also dye white wool blocks to be any of 16 different colors .  Wool is used to craft beds, which can be slept on to pass through the night quickly.  To make a sheep follow you, you must hold wheat and, like cows, feed two wheat to have them mate and produce a lamb.

Basic Hostile Mobs (Monsters)

Spiders: One of the first monsters you’re sure to see is a spider, which is a little larger in size than a real life one (unless you live in Australia).  There are two kids of spiders: the generic spider and the cave spider.  Both kinds of spiders will drop spider eyes and string, but cave spiders can poison you, causing your health to deteriorate.  Spider eyes can be eaten (which you really shouldn’t do) or used for potions, and string can be used to craft wool, bows, fishing rods, or can be placed on the ground to make a tripwire.  Spiders have 8 hearts of health (16 health points) and have varying attack strengths depending on what difficulty level you’re playing on.  During the day, an un-angered spider will become neutral and will not attack you unless you attack it.  Skeletons can be seen riding spiders on occasions, which is referred to as a “Spider Jockey”.

Creeper: The staple of Minecraft is the face of a creeper, which is one of the most annoying things about the game in my opinion.  This monster is practically soundless, which makes it easy for it to sneak up on you.  Creepers blow up and are completely hostile. They will not attack you, per say, but they will blow up anything that isn’t bedrock or obsidian.  They are not easy to kill, due to their combustive tendencies, but when they are, they can drop gunpowder.  Gunpowder can be used to craft TNT, fire charges, firework stars, firework rockets, and can be brewed into potions to make them splash (throw-able).

Skeletons: These pesky monsters are another well-known part of the Minecraft experience.  Skeletons are hostile mobs who shoot arrows at equally hostile entities (usually you, the player).  Upon killing them, Skeletons may drop bones, arrows, and bows.  Bones can be used to tame wolves (a neutral entity that is found usually in packs in forests, and once tamed will follow you around) or can be crafted into bonemeal which can speed up the growth of crops.  Arrows can be fired using bows and can be crafted using feathers, sticks, and flint.  Skeletons can, on occasion, be seen riding spiders, which is referred to as a “Spider Jockey”.  A special kind of Skeleton is a Wither Skeleton, which is found within the Nether in a fortress.  A Wither Skeleton can deteriorate your health with a hit of their sword.

Slimes: Slimes are like a hydra-when you kill a large form of it, it will split into three more.  However, the smaller they get, the less damage they can do.  When you kill the smallest form of slimes, they will drop slimeballs which can be used to craft sticky pistons.

Zombies:  The last of the common monsters is a Zombie.  This mob makes a disgusting moaning and gurgling sound and can knock down a door with time.  Killing them will make them drop rotten flesh and, on occasion, a carrot.  If they kill you, they can take your armor and sword if you possess them when you die.

 

Those are the most common mobs in the game that you will encounter, though there are many more out there and a few more to come in future updates (i.e. horses, which I know practically nothing about except that there will be zombie horses and skeleton horses and they will drop leather when killed and can be saddled).  I hope this helped you in your gameplay, especially if you are a newer player!

 

 

 

 

 

Minecraft Cinematic Effects

People tend to think that Minecraft is merely a survival game and the most creative thing people make are wool pictures and small houses. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Minecraft allows for players to broadly explore their creative outlets. Some amazing players have the talent (and the patience) to create awe-striking pieces. This video is a display of some of the greatest creations I’ve seen in the game ever, and I’m sure it’ll change your opinion a little, too. (video not mine)

Minecraft Questionnaire

Minecraft Questionnaire

A simple five question survey to go along with Livcraft.  Try it out!

Purpose Statement

As nerdy as it may sound, Minecraft is one of my favorite games.  I’ve been playing since 2010, and the game has grown on me tremendously over the years.  As I’ve been playing for practically three years now, I’d say I’m an expert (though I use that term loosely); I’ve watched the game evolve, improve, and constantly be added to with every single update.  So, the choice to focus on Minecraft was an easy one, even if it was chosen mostly for the sole purpose of convenience and enjoyment.  The experience of the game is a wonderful one for me, and through this blog, I’d like to share my own experience with you.