Now why haven’t I written about Minecraft yet? Perhaps because it’s more fun to be playing it? A deceptively simple game that just generates so many ways to play and be challenged, all of which can become a bit engrossing.

The first week (game-time) was genuinely fraught, most of it spent trying to assimilate the game mechanics, desperately hiding from prowling monsters and building some resources to survive. But once basic survival is achieved and better equipment obtained its time to start digging in deep and exploring widely to get to better resources.

Now I’ve established an extensive network of well stocked bases and villages, some elaborate superstructures and some tricky challenges met. And there is always more possible. The game is a textbook example of how simple ‘rules’ can generate significant variation and complexity.

I run the game locally on my own server (run in virtualmachine) so I dont have to deal with other players.

The Minecraft world can be huge [1], so a map is also helpful. I use a tool called overviewer to provide a zoomable map of the explored portion of my world.

[1] how big is a minecraft world. but (obviously?) the program only bothers to generate the bits you visit.