At the Edge of a Minecraftian Universe

Something that amuses me is the very concept of Hardcore mode. It’s the idea of only having one life, living on borrowed time, I suppose. This concept is not unfamiliar to us; after all, we who are mortal (and shall remain so, for the foreseeable future) are perfectly accustomed to only having one life. But I suppose in the fictional environment of a video game, in which we are supposed to be able to do anything we want, the idea of being limited to a single, pitiful, life is repulsive. There is no requirement to submit yourself to these limitations. You are a god in this world, after all. And yet, so many still choose to play. 

Perhaps it is the increased sense of danger, or beauty, or art. Art created by the dead and the dying has themes and emotions that those who are immortal could never hope to match. Thus, by trapping oneself in a single, limited, mortal form, one can unlock true creative potential, driven by the knowledge, or perhaps fear, that it all will end one day. And so, we come to Hardcore Minecraft. When one sees a Hardcore world, the most prominent features of it are the beautiful structures and creations that litter the sandbox. I myself have seen hundreds of worlds, each with their own brand of splendor. I have seen a world with an emerald tower that reaches to the sky. I have seen worlds where Players recreate a black hole. Anything and everything that the human mind could possibly conceive of can be found in these digital realms. But an issue arises when you realize that all of this is for naught. The Players of the worlds only create these structures to prevent themselves from falling into a pit of boredom. What do you do when you have done everything? They create these things to amuse themselves, give them something to do. And it works, for a time. They create buildings that stretch to the sky, machines that rival the gods themselves. Forces of boundless creation and infinite destruction lie at their fingertips, and they need but to call upon them, and they will appear, whisked towards them on wings from some ancient dimension, whose true purpose they still do not know. The very concept of the Minecraft world is truly unusual, when you think about it. Across the ages that one plays their world, there eventually arrives a point, an event horizon of sorts, when the Player can go no further. Where the dream and the game end. They have done all there is to do. Of course, there are the achievements to while away the eons, but those too, will eventually fall, if the Player is persistent enough. With time, any insurmountable challenge becomes a simple task for the Player, and with that ease comes monotony, and with that monotony comes that inescapable boredom. So they build. And create. And farm. And kill and seethe and rage against the borders of their world, of their single lived experience. Because they have everything, yet they have nothing. They are gods with no one to rule over. They are beings beyond comprehension, with no other creature even reaching their power, the Endermen potentially coming closest. But the Endermen are hollow things, whose minds are long gone, only remembering their basic instincts. They amuse themselves by picking up blocks with hands that once built civilizations, speak garbled language through mouths that once ordained poems, stare with lifeless eyes that once saw the rise and fall of their civilization, and scream in rage when another pair meets their own. They were once like us, but no longer. And even then, they had limits we easily surpass! Their greatest foe, the Wither, drove them underground, and into the clutches of the Warden, and the Dragon. But we defeat these challengers easily, only requiring a few hours of preparation, while to them, these creatures seemed impossible adversaries. It truly is amusing, the concept of Hardcore, and of the Player themselves. The lonely god with nobody to rule over. The conqueror without a kingdom. The builder without a family. The victor without a war. Sentenced to spend all of eternity…..

Alone.