Are You Afraid of the Dark - Pt. 2

As I mentioned in the last column, some of the only actual gameplay in Minecraft is surviving the nightly spawning of zombies, spiders, skeleton archers and hissing bomb-snakes called Creepers.  Eventually (or way too damn soon, depending on how you look at it) the sun-cube will set, and monsters will spawn in the darkness.  If you're well-equipped and skilled you could try fending them off long enough to survive until morning, or you can build yourself a safe hidey-hole and wait for the sun to come back up.  This single mechanism, the need to survive, does an incredible job of prodding the player to build better and more effective structures as they play the game.

My first Minecraft character wasted no time building a fort and staying behind its wood-and-stone walls until daylight roasted everything that was still slithering outside, but that just wouldn't do for Captain Reynolds.  He'd want to grab the darkness by its jimmy-jams and ride it like it was a steel beast forged in the depths of Hades until it bleated for mercy.

But he'd also want to be smart about being foolhardy.  First, he'd need a weapon.

"Use of a s-what?"

The simple genius behind Minecraft's crafting is that there's little need to remember complicated diagrams: you just put materials in the rough shape of what you want, and you get your item instantly.  Swords are sword-shaped, picks are pick-shaped, you can even make books, food, forges and more later.

I decided to use the stone I'd gathered digging the Dugout (/rimshot) to make some stone tools and a stone sword before going adventuring.  The sword would be my trusty sidearm, while the stone tools would let me gather any really cool material I came across faster than my wooden tools.

After getting prepped and strapping on my steel I threw open the door, kissed Kaleigh and my caution goodnight, and went to have a fling with danger.

I quickly spotted something glowing in the distance, which was really unusual.  It's usually pitch-black outside, and I was playing on a single-player server, so I went to investigate.  Maybe it's a patch of...

...hey, why's that tree moving towards me?

AAAARG!  ZOMBIES!!

AAAAAAARG!  SKELETON SHOOTING ARROWS AT ME!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAARG!  GIANT EXPLODING SNAKE-THINGS!

Okay.  Maybe I didn't have so much a fling with danger as a horrible run-in with psychotic ex- danger.  Unlike the psycho ex, this time I was actually dead instead of wishing I was.

Respawning, I scurried  bravely ordered a tactical retreat back to the Dugout.   It's okay, I'll just use my wood to make another sw...

Aw, crap.  I dropped all my stuff when I died.  Everything.


However, this is a moment I had trained for.  A moment that separates men from n00bs.  A moment that would define Captain Reynolds' stay on this gorram rock he'd been marooned on.

A moment that became a blind run to my corpse while screaming at the top of my lungs the whole way out and back again.

Luckily, there weren't any monsters lingering around where I had died.  They must have been distracted by that shiny light I had seen earlier...

OH GOD THEY FOLLOWED ME BACK TO THE DUGOUT.

Having had my fling with danger I decided to go crawling back to it's now-better-looking sister, caution.  First:  a place to stash my stuff before I go monster hunting.

Once that was done, I heard the sweet sound of monsters screaming whilst en fuego.  I had survived my first night.

Indeed:  joy cometh in the morning.