Minecraft Nostalgia - What a beautiful game Minecraft is

Discussion in 'Gaming Discussion' started by Heatdude Da Waffle, Mar 23, 2018.

  1. Heatdude Da Waffle

    Heatdude Da Waffle Admin | Builds Things Staff Member Administrator

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    Today I played survival minecraft for the first time in almost 2 years and it was wonderful. While playing I went out of my way to try to collect all of the music discs (in case you don't know to get one you have to get a skeleton to kill a creeper and the creeper will drop a disc). I don't know why, I just did. Like a lot of people who play minecraft I play with the natural music turned off so the only time I hear music in minecraft is from a jukebox, and man oh man did it bring me back. Let's take a little trip into the past, shall we? And might I warn you this is going to be quite a long story, so if you're not interested maybe you should just skip to the question at the end of the thread. For those of you who are, let's begin.

    Oh, and if you REALLY want to feel the full nostalgic feeling listen to this in the background while reading the thread.

    Almost 6 years ago now a little 12 year old version of myself laid eyes on minecraft for the first time. My friends had been trying to get me to play it for months but I kept saying "The moment I start playing it all of you will stop!" as that's what had happened with games in the past. It wasn't that my friends hated me or were trying to mess with me, but rather it was poor timing of something new grabbing their attention when I'd finally started playing the game they liked. When I finally caved in I found myself enthralled in what I found- an endless world that was all mine to mess with, how fun! I've always been a creative person- I love writing, drawing, singing, writing music, cutting snowflakes (I know that seems oddly specific but I have always loved cutting snowflakes and I've gotten quite good at it too), whatever it is, I've always loved creating things. My first two minecraft worlds were exactly that- in my first world I played survival and enjoyed trying to improve upon my tiny house that I'd made in the side of a mountain. My second world, a super flat world, featured my first builds. A "museum" as I called it, which was really just a giant L shaped wooden house with no roof, housed paintings that I spammed along the walls. When mobs started spawning inside my museum I didn't really know what to do to stop it, so I just let them be. I watched a video online about how to make a piston elevator and I did just that- I made an elevator from the first floor of my museum to, well, to nothing. As I said, there was no roof and along with there being no roof there was no second floor or anything above the walls to be spoken of- except for the elevator, but I didn't care. I was just excited that I'd built an elevator.

    A little bit away from my mob-filled-roofless museum I built a castle out of nether bricks. The walls of the castle would be the first time I built a ceiling for a build (hooray!) and just past said walls there was a moat of lava because why not. Nothing of significance resided inside the walls, in face all that was there were stairs to get on top of the walls. It was a solid netherbrick castle and I couldn't have cared less. I was just excited that I'd built a castle.

    The third and final building in my first ever creative minecraft world is my first ever house. My little hole that I called home in survival was a thought of the past, I was on to bigger things now.
    As nothing but a wooden house with two floors and- you guessed it- a pistol elevator to get between them, my first house was complete. It was a humble beginning. Red flowers surrounded the outside of the oak house with windows- solid glass blocks, not panes (for the first couple years that I built things I hated panes and always thought solid glass blocks looked better)- on opposite sides of the house. On one side the painting of a creeper peeking through a window was next to the glass and on the other side the same painting but without the creeper. Oh, and did I mention that because the way from the first to second floor was a piston elevator that there was no way back down to the first floor? I made a little awning on the second floor so you could fly out and fall back onto the ground outside the front doors. I had a lot to learn, but I wanted to learn and I would spend years doing so. This was just the beginning.
    Oh, and just so you know, I don't have the file for this world- I just remember it. The game left such an impression on me from the moment I started playing that I can remember this world clear as day without having seen it in over half a decade.

    Although I joined a few multiplayer server for a couple minutes trying to figure out what was going on the first server I settled on was Uberminecraft. I haven't played on the server in years now but looking at their website they now host 24 different minigames, but when I played there was only one game- Minecraft Build. Oh man do I remember this server well. It was the first server I ever donated to- I donated for the [Enhanced] rank and later a friend would buy me the [Sub-VIP] rank- and would also be where I first started building. I made quite a few different things during my time on Uberminecraft but the build I remember the clearest and the one I was best known for on the server was my water park. My water park had glass tunnels on the surface of the ocean that lead to an inside beach, half a dozen water slides, boat races, and more. I loved my water park, and I remember there being 20+ people hanging out at a place that I built. I was so proud of myself.
    One consistency in every build I made on Uberminecraft was that I had a jukebox- I loved the music discs, and my favorite disc was always ward. I liked far and chirp as well but I'd sometimes play ward so many times in a row that somebody else would come over, knock ward out of the jukebox, and put a different song in (sometimes once they walked away I'd knock theirs out and put ward back in). I didn't use the jukebox very much for the five years that followed, and that might be why ward really took me back today. Maybe that silly 4 minute song from 5 years ago really found a place inside me along with the rest of this game.

    Uberminecraft wouldn't just be the first place I started building things for other people to see but it would also be the first time that I saw other people's builds. I bought a mansion from another player with in-game money and was amazed at how stunning it was. Looking back, the mansion was a big house but maybe only 40-60 blocks wide if memory serves, nothing astronomical. Either way I loved it. Now you might be asking yourself "why is he mentioning a building that he didn't even make?" and that's a good question, so here's my answer; nostalgia.
    Of anything in my life I can't say that anything hits me harder with nostalgia than the default minecraft music. (If you want to full effect when reading this go to 16:14 in the video which is Mice on Venus) I listen to Subwoofer Lullaby or Living Mice or Haggstrom or Mice on Venus or Clark or any of the minecraft songs and I remember back when little Jasper, not even 14, was playing with his new friends on a game he saw as the most wonderful thing ever. Look, I just placed that block! Yes it's just one block but look, I did that! Everything was exciting and I was just bubbling with joy. And what visual comes along with all these memories? My mansion on Uberminecraft, it's oak floor and birch walls and stonebrick roof and fireplace that I made and, well, the memories just come flooding in after that. It really almost brings to me to tears, I can still see my little self so excited for everything that Minecraft and the world had to offer. I loved Minecraft because I felt free, I felt like I could do anything. I remember that feeling, and even writing this right now is getting me a bit emotional. Laugh if you want, this game meant a lot to me- and it still does.
    I apologize, I should get back on track.
    I'd meet a friend on Uberminecraft that would eventually lead me to this very server, but more on that part in a minute. Minnosh was his name and from Uberminecraft I went to his private server- home to me, him, and a few other players from time to time. It was on his server that I'd first use worldedit and although I was bad at it I was loving it and found that minecraft had a whole new layer to it where building wasn't something that was out of reach but rather something that, with time and dedication, I could do too. I wonder what little me would think of my buildings today. Back then I didn't know //hsphere was a thing so I'd use //sphere and then select the entire thing and use //hollow. Today I build giant structures too big to be loaded with max render distance and FOV- and I do that just for fun, not even to push my limits. Oh little me, how far you've come.

    One day after watching a very by ItsJerryAndHarry I told Minnosh about it and he said "Oh, they have a server you know!" That one little sentence would change my life.
    Once I joined the J&H server everything changed for me- I was a part of a community again, something I'd lacked since Uberminecraft. People knew my name when I talked to them and I had people who wanted to join a faction and work with me- imagine that! People wanted to join my faction! I'd eventually buy myself the [Super] rank that I still flaunt today and I'd do my best to make a name for myself in the community. I also applied for helper back the, but I was 13 and still quite young.
    I have a few memories of J&H from those early days: games of SG where everybody would spam "Vroom vroom" in the chat because J&H had done it in a video once, games of Simon Says with NocturnKing on top of spawn, me screaming in chat "SKY ARMY JOIN RED TEAM IN PAINTBALL" because I was still young and really didn't understand what maturity was (and btw calling sky army worked, a good dozen people joined the team), creepers spawning in the paintball map and blowing it up- I could go on, I really could. I could tell you about how my faction's base was a cobble cube off the shore of the mainland that you'd reach if you ran straight forward from spawn and how we had a tree farm on the right side and at the back of the base we had a staircase leading underwater and into a mine- but really nobody wants to hear all that. I'm here to talk about nostalgia and why minecraft is wonderful. But then again, all those things that I just mentioned are what make minecraft amazing- I chose to do all of those things (well except for the creepers blowing up the map, nobody really chose to do that), and by choosing them I got a real taste of freedom. I wanted more.

    I'd eventually get bored of J&H and take a long break, during which I'd discover a build team by the name of Team Quadrate and I'd join their ranks for a few months, during which I finally found my true passion in minecraft- building.
    Sure, I'd spent time building before, but up until that point I'd never really dedicated myself to any one thing in the game. TQ changed everything for me, even if the team wasn't very good. I helped build quite a few scavenger hunt maps but eventually the team disbanded and two members- Minecrafting001 (legendary username btw) and myself would leave to join a Cops N Robbers server that would peak at around 50 players on at a time. I would eventually become an admin on the server- my first time being staff on a public server- and 001 would become a programmer for the server, helping add out own little twists on the game. I'd add a few custom rooms to the map as well just for good measure.
    001 and I would also play The Walls on Hypixel, but after I left Hypixel and the Prison server we lost contact for the most part.
    I can still remember Biome Fest playing in the background while I mined away on The Walls or while I ran around in the Cops N Robbers maps. I still was only 14, and my constant server-hopping habits of my first two years of minecraft were about to come to an end.

    After that I played on a few more servers- I was a builder on a Greek roleplay server, builder on a couple private servers, but eventually I found my final destination- the ItsJerryAndHarry server.

    Before I carry on I realize in this thread I've gotten a bit off track and given more of a minecraft life story so to speak more so than I've talked about nostalgia. Or, maybe it's not so different- remembering your past is what gives you nostalgia, no? I remember the Greek server and how the other main builder built with a weird style where they'd use stairs and slabs to leave holes in the walls of buildings for "design" and how I made a giant temple to Zeus that would eventually become the server spawn and how Blind Spots played in the background while I spammed away the Quartz that I was just getting used to. 14 year old me hunched over a Windows XP laptop that burned my legs as it overheated and, less than 2 years after building my first house, I was building a temple. Now how's that for improvement.


    ItsJerryAndHarry, summer 2014. Name a more iconic duo, I'll wait. Survival came back, we got the lobby we have today, the helper rank was brought back and waves of staff were hired, and most of all the server flourished. When I look back on summer 2014 I don't say "man, the server was so much better than, what went wrong?" but instead I smile and remember the friends and memories I made because no matter what happens to this server, nothing can ever take away everything that happened for me in summer of 2014.
    June 19th, 2014. Honestly that might very well be one of the most important days of my life. If you asked me to pinpoint three of the most important dates of my life it would be these:
    December 21st 1999 - My birthday
    April ? 2005 - I move to Illinois from New Jersey and live the next 13 years of my life there
    June 19th 2014 - I get Helper on the ItsJerryAndHarry server
    Nostalgia. Nostalgia is powerful, it really is. I remember how little me would spend all day in a skype call with my friends and jump around in the lobby on the leaves. I felt like here, in this community, I was truly accepted. I felt at home here. When I got Helper it kept me here because I had a chance to really make myself into something- sure, I knew I wouldn't ever be owner or something but just look!- it's a 2000 player server and I have a chance to make a difference. Well, the 2 years after that are history. I spent a year as helper and after getting mod I got mod+ faster than anybody else before me had. That record would be broken after me but at the time I was so proud of myself.
    During my time as a staff member I matured in a way that I might not have had I never come back to the server. I had to be mature, after all- I was a staff member. I tried to still be chill and friendly but suddenly there was a reason in my life for me to be mature and sometimes it feels like being staff shaped me more as a person than anything else I've done, as silly as that might sound.

    In November of 2016, after being inactive for months on end, I was demoted. It's been a year since then, and I can't say I regret leaving. Before I went inactive I'd let being staff take over my life, and in the end the demotion was for the better. Spending a year away helped me re-focus myself on school and life- my grades went up, my social life skyrocketed, and I felt really happy for the first time in a while. So now the question- why come back at all? Simple reason- friends.

    I don't need to talk about the last few months, none of that makes me feel nostalgic. But today, today was different. Today I played survival and played ward for the first time in over four years. I dusted off the book that is minecraft and found a little sticky note, half a decade old and in handwriting like my own but slightly messier saying "Have fun. Go have fun." That's all I wanted when I was a kid, I just wanted to have fun. I wanted to learn and create and go on grand adventures- in minecraft and in life. Well here we are, nearly 6 years after I bought minecraft and I'm a whole new person.

    Ward might not have been the first thing I heard in minecraft but it brings me all the way back to when I truly opened the doors to everything that the game had to offer. Putting that disc in the jukebox reminds me of a time when I wasn't stressed, wasn't worried, wasn't scared- I was just happy. I'll do my best to keep your dreams alive little me, I'll do my best.


    Was that too long? I hope not. Honestly I could have said more, I could have said so much more.
    For a game of blocks minecraft has shaped my life more than I ever would have imagined a game could. I'll stop talking about myself and leave you all with a question; what makes you nostalgic? What do you remember from when you started playing minecraft?

    Lastly, don't let your nostalgia bring you down, don't wish for the past to come back again- look back upon your past with happiness and look at your future with the same enthusiasm.
    And as always, I hope you have a great day c:
     
  2. Trisssy

    Trisssy Tris | Aussie | Donator

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    Wow, that was amazing to read. I read the whole thing while listening to the minecraft soundtrack you recommended. While reading yours it reminded me when i first started playing minecraft. I'll just tell you a lil bit c;

    Back when i was about 9-10 my older brother had minecraft on his computer, he let play it sometimes. And when he didn't let me play i'd beg to play, i'd even do anything to play minecraft. I cleaned his room and made his bed to play. The first ever thing i built was a pink wool tree house in the jungle. I was scared of zombies and every time i saw one i shut off the game (typical me) and when the time went on me and my brother made lots of lan worlds together and one day his big house he made got set on fire and he's never played minecraft ever again. He's 22 now. I use to thrive to play minecraft everyday after school with my friends. Over all, its been an amazing journey!
     
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  3. Smg

    Smg Retired | Also known as 'Phaithful' Donator

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    Great story Heat. I was able to read most of it and I don't regret one bit.
    The one thing that makes me feel nostalgia about Minecraft is the music from in-game, not the music disks. Whenever I hear specific songs, I remember back to a time where I enjoyed this game much more than I sadly do now. Playing minecraft for the first few times, joining my first multiplayer server, playing xbox 360 minecraft with my friends, and becoming a part of my first community which was SkyDoesMc's old server. There are so many others, but I don't feel that I can list them all.

    Minecraft to me is probably one of the best games ever made. You can truly do almost anything and explore your imagination to its fullest extent.
     
  4. hamnah

    hamnah Hannah Donator

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    Nice thread C: It was very nice to read and it reminded me of my first Minecraft world, especially with the music in the background :))
     
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  5. stempunk

    stempunk #1 Premium Donator

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    I love going back onto old worlds and seeing what everything I built used to look like, comparing it to new builds I have created. It is always fun going back to see what you used to be like.

    I must say I really enjoyed reading about your old builds and experiences on this server, especially the museum and red stone elevator.