I began playing Minecraft in November of 2010. It was just after the Halloween update I suppose. I started after reading a post about Minecraft on Fark.com. I saw a link to X's Let's Play series, and after watching the first twenty episodes or so I bought the game. Getting the thing to work at home where I'm on dial-up was quite a chore, but I finally borrowed some broadband long enough to get the Java update to work and let Minecraft itself update.

I started a new world on Normal (I had no idea that Peaceful mode existed at the time) and was immediately surprised that so many things could go wrong. Skeletons and creepers seemed to overrun me every time I stepped out of my cave door. That being the case, I built an extensive (or so it seemed at the time) structure underground. I finally made an aboveground presence by carefully building a bridge over a valley between the two ends of my underground domain. Mining was rudimentary. I had no idea about block distribution. I did what X did, which was to dig a large pit as far down as I could go. I never used a lot of armor as I stayed away from confrontations with monsters as much as possible.

After a few days my son started playing as well, and he actually mentioned there was an option for a peaceful mode. I abandoned my world in favor of an above ground abode on a brand new world.