doofus rambles about a block game: beta edition
like many of my generation born in the early to mid-2000s, I grew up playing Minecraft. actually, grew up is a bit of an understatement, I was almost completely obsessed with it as a kid, having played through the limited early versions of Pocket Edition Lite when it wasn't Bedrock Edition, as well as countless runs of the legacy console tutorial worlds on a hand-me-down Xbox 360 from my older brother until my parents realized that this would be a problem that would last longer than a year or two and decided to get me the full edition for Christmas (which I was understandably over the goddamn moon and off into the far reaches of space about). Then, years later when that poor Xbox finally shat the bed and overheated enough times to nearly melt the casing, I was lucky enough to get my own Minecraft account in sixth grade, around when 1.10.2 was the latest release, which I played on another hand-me-down piece of tech from my dad this time, a 2015 MacBook Pro that I'd keep on a little rolling desk in my room that would overheat whenever I even thought about playing anything more intense than Garry's Mod on it.
overly lengthy preamble aside, the point I'm trying to make is that Minecraft has had a significant presence in my life since I first got access to a device capable of connecting to the internet, from watching old survival series and mod showcases from channels like The Yogscast and GameChap, to late nights spent with friends long forgotten, mucking about on personal servers I'd try and run in tandem on the same laptop I used to play the game (horrible idea in retrospect). though now, in the modern age of Microsoft-owned, feature-bloated (at least in my opinion), microtransaction-riddled (Bedrock Edition. 'nuff said) Minecraft, I'd grown malcontent with the state of a game I once obsessed over, one where you were left to your own devices in a foreign world, where the only traces of life are the undead horrors you must stave off in the dark, and you are truly alone.
then, a couple days ago I remembered you can just download and play the older versions of Minecraft, and that Better Than Adventure exists.
for some context, Better Than Adventure is a mod for beta 1.7.3 that fixes a bunch of issues with that version specifically while also retaining a lot of the features that made it fun and enjoyable to play and adding some other cool stuff on top of that to break up the monotony. Some standout features that are also mentioned on their main site are a new endgame material tier that acts as a sidegrade to Diamond, being significantly more durable but slower, a reworked armor system that gives each tier its own uses and purposes (ex. leather armor is now useful for fall damage resistance, and leather boots specifically let you walk on farmland without trampling it), and rotating seasons that changes what weather events happen, the look of the world, while also affecting things like crop and tree growth.
in the past five days I've disappeared about thirteen hours of my time into this mod, and have enjoyed every second of it.
the thing I love most about older versions of Minecraft is actually how little you're meant and intended to do. sure, you could argue that modern Minecraft doesn't actually obligate the player to interact with its myriad systems, explore its many biomes, or even "beat" the game in any regard, but for me at least, it's the presence of those things that instills a sense of foreboding in me, that despite how the game itself doesn't encourage me to go do things at all, it's their presence, knowing that those things are there that really messes with my head and demotivates me to pursue things further, at least on my own (I am of the opinion that multiplayer Minecraft is a completely different experience, so for the record, I am discussing solo only).
meanwhile, the simple and rudimentary nature of beta Minecraft does well to lift that metaphorical weight off my shoulders, and let me interact with the game on my own terms, rather than its own. normally, I only play the game solo in hour-long bursts, and despite that, I'm able to enjoy experiencing the game's core fundamentals and dictate what I want to do in the moment whenever something comes to mind. sometimes, I want to spend some time spelunking for precious metals and diamonds to add to my ever-growing hoard of resources. sometimes, I want to build a house, a wall, a watchtower, a terrace overlooking the sea. sometimes I want to just chill out for a little while, admiring my progress and taking stock of all that I have gathered since I first started my world.
don't get me wrong, I do think there's a lot of good to be found in the modern versions of Minecraft (see 1.13 revamping the ocean and making water travel less tedious and 1.16 completely overhauling the Nether and also letting Lena Raine cook on the OST), but for me at least, I think I just needed less from the game itself to help reel my focus back in. when I'm playing b1.7.3 with BTA, I feel like I'm experiencing the sandbox for what it is, rather than it dictating what I should feel.
I feel content in its mundanity, for I am the one raising castles from the sand.