I start a lot of Minecraft series… a lot of new worlds… I enjoy starting over. 

I like seeing where a new seed is going to spawn me into a new world. I like punching trees in a panic before nightfall begins, mostly because of all of the potential. The possibilities. The anticipation of wondering what I will do here. 

I find it exciting. 

It’s a real low risk way to get that ‘starting over’ rush.  

When I start a brand-new Minecraft world, it all feels so limitless. I haven’t started yet. I haven’t made any mistakes yet. The coolest finds might be just under my feet or just over the next hill. I don’t have any abandoned projects scattered around the land reminding me of all the things I meant to finish but I don’t want to anymore. It’s just me and a whole world I haven’t explored yet.

About a year ago, maybe longer, but anyway, there was a big trend to start your “forever world” and people who had been playing in the same world for years were showing off everything they had built. Their towns, their bases, their infrastructure, their farms, and communities. Worlds had become 3D journals of their Minecraft experience and areas and builds were chapters and you could walk through their growth in the game. 

I thought I wanted that. I tried to start one. It didn’t stick.

Maybe I like the concept more than the reality. Maybe it just wasn’t the right time for me to start a forever world. Maybe the seed I ended up on wasn’t the one. I don’t really know. But I know I’m not there yet.

There’s sometimes this idea that starting over means you’ve failed at something… failed to stick with it or succeed in some way. That maybe abandoning a world after a few months, to start a new one, a new series, instead of pushing a project all the way through to the finish, you’ve given up. Maybe that’s partially true. Maybe I’d be a better builder if I struggled through some projects. Or maybe it’s good to know when something is over even if it’s not finished.

Sometimes I start over because I’m bored, or because I’m stuck, or because I just get a new idea I can’t stop thinking about and I want to try it out. Sometimes I start over because the world just doesn’t seem to feel right. And sometimes I start over because starting over is the part I enjoy. 

Minecraft makes starting over very easy. Every new seed is an invitation to explore and grow. You get to see what’s over the next hill and what lies beneath your feet. You decide where your first house will go. You get to imagine what the world will become. That feeling of endless potential feels lovely. 

If a forever world is in my future, I don’t think I’ve found it yet. Maybe I just have to keep starting over until I find it. Maybe I never will. Maybe starting over is simply a part of how I play. And I think that’s okay.

There are so many times in Minecraft when I’m obsessively working on a project. Sometimes I’m digging through a hill, rerouting a river, building an automated farm, mining, fishing… always something that helps me get to my next goal.

But then there are the times when I don’t do anything productive at all. 

I just wander. I visit my animals. I walk through places I built weeks or months ago. I simply stop for a moment to watch a sunset in the blocky world. Depending upon what world I’m playing in or how much time I have, sometimes that can be my entire game session. 

No progression.

And that’s also okay. 

Even if I spent 100 hours building the best storage room ever, and then started a brand new Minecraft world the following week and never went back, I was just as productive as if I spent those 100 hours wandering around looking at bunnies and visiting villages. Because overall, the value isn’t in what I accomplished. It’s in how much I enjoyed the time spent. 

Sometimes wandering is what my brain needs. That’s beneficial even if it doesn’t look productive. There are people who argue any gaming isn’t productive. After all, there’s always something else I could be doing. 

But I think it is. I think not being productive is sometimes exactly what we need. Have you ever had a problem and you’re fixated on finding the answer only to have the solution hit you while you’re doing something completely unrelated? That happens to a lot of people. The composer for “Over the Rainbow” in The Wizard of Oz, Harold Arlen, had been struggling with the melody for days. He was frustrated. Then, while taking a car ride with his wife, it just started coming to him. He had to pull over so he could write it down. 

Gaming gives my brain permission to stop thinking about work, responsibilities, or whatever stress I’m carrying around at the time just for a few moments. Instead, I solve a game problem. I make an area better. I gather resources. I secure a space from mobs. Little by little, I improve something and shift my focus. And that gives my brain a little bit of accomplishment juice and a break from whatever it is in real life that just needs to sit a minute. 

Eventually I step back into the real world and tackle the things that need to get done, but giving my mind those moments makes that easier to do. 

So whether you’re spending your game time accomplishing absolutely nothing, or spending your evening gaming instead of checking another item off your real to-do list, maybe that’s productive in its own way. 

Source for the Wizard of Oz story… it’s a commonly told story I’ve heard a few times, but you can check it out in more detail here: https://www.npr.org/2015/11/07/455017504/remembering-harold-arlen-the-mystery-man-behind-over-the-rainbow 

In Minecraft, I am not much of a builder. Easily confirmed when you look around YouTube or Reddit for more than a minute. But I’m not building to be the best. I’m building to see what I can do. It’s like in running. You’re not trying to get someone else's PR… You’re working on your own best time. Don’t compare your progress to others. My Day 1 is not going to be the same as someone else's Day 500. And my Day 500 might not be the same as someone else’s Day 500. Like with most hobbies, I’m not competing with the incredible Minecraft builders out there. I’m just trying to build something that is a little better than I did last time.

And not every build is even about making something beautiful. Sometimes a good practical dirt house is what a situation needs. I’m okay with that. Sometimes those are the builds I remember most.

One of my very early Minecraft experiences on a multiplayer server, I was out exploring and got caught out. I built a dirt house that wasn’t supposed to exist for more than a night. I had wandered further from my home than I should have, and ran into my first witch. I didn’t want to respawn back at my base, because I had collected some cool stuff. I didn’t want to reset my spawn point to this place though. And this witch was just tossing crazy potions at me every time I tried to get out of the house. I didn’t have a bow. The witch never seemed to leave. I stayed there far longer than I intended. I don’t know why she didn’t despawn.

What started out as an emergency dirt box, slowly grew as I killed time inside… replacing blocks here and there. Digging out a little basement for supplies when I needed more blocks. I added a window. A roof. A porch… eventually it became a little cottage.

If I had video or a screenshot of it and you looked at it today, you wouldn’t think it was anything special. But that’s not why I remember it. I don’t remember the exact shape or block palette. I remember the feeling of being trapped, cautiously peeking outside, gathering just enough wood or stone to improve the place a little more before running back inside… I was determined to not just run away from her. I was fixated on defeating her, with my stone sword in hand.

Eventually I did. That cottage became a memory because of the story that happened there. And I’m sure people on that server wondered for a while, “Who built this cottage out here?” Back then, I was usually joining random public servers, hoping to find a community that fit me.

But anyway, when I look back, I don’t see structures. I don’t think, “Wow, look at that block palette!” Well maybe sometimes I do… but mostly I see chapters. I see the bridge that took forever because I kept falling into the river. I see a path that winds through a jungle that was absolutely a nightmare to chop through. The boardwalk that was built completely around not disturbing the turtles on the beach. The builds become souvenirs from the memories that happened around them.

That’s one of the reasons I enjoy sharing my gameplay now. The videos and screenshots are nice to have to preserve the moments and the growth. The excitement, the mistakes, the close calls, and the little victories that would otherwise fade with time. I’m not worried too much about whether my builds are the most impressive. I’m not really building structures. I'm working through my chapters. I’m building memories.