Minecraft: Exploring the Dark Side

I discovered that the world of Minecraft has a dark side! This week I explored some public servers and engaged in different types of environments with multiple online players.  A Google search led me to Emenbee Realms, which hosts several different Minecraft servers for various types of game play.  When I saw that the creator of Emenbee had posted rules, I decided to read them because I’ve never played on a public server before and I didn’t want to unknowingly commit some type of gaming faux pas. The rules were full of abbreviations that I didn’t understand and I spent a fair amount of time Google’ing various terminology.  Since Emenbee publicly posts punishments for those who disobey the rules of the server, I was glad that I decided to play it safe.
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There were many server options for players to choose from, ranging from familiar (“Hunger Games”) to mysterious (“Skywars” and “Prison OP”). Since I have come to enjoy Minecraft survival mode, I decided to try out one of the survival games…and that’s where I discovered the dark side.

It turns out that serious Minecraft survival gamers are mostly about killing everyone and everything in sight.  There were no explicit rules for game play that I could see, beyond the generalized safety and social rules presented on the main Emenbee site. Being teleported into the middle of game play was overwhelming!  Since I’m a fan of The Walking Dead TV show, I decided to join a game called “Infected.”  My reaction? Wow.
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It took me a while to figure out that the object was to kill players of opposite teams, and that teams were designated by armor, weapons, and whether or not you had been exposed to the zombie virus. Initially, I felt like everyone was attacking me.  (I died a half dozen times before I figured out that I had to hit the ground running or risk being taken out after twenty measly seconds.) My response to the attacks was to try to attack everyone else first as soon as I teleported, but that wasn’t the correct strategy either. I attacked some of my teammates, who weren’t particularly pleased. Eventually, I decided to just hit the ground running and hide until I could figure out which team I was on, who I should be killing, and how to avoid the zombie infection. I’m not sure that I was ever particularly successful, but I did manage to avoid death for five whole minutes during one round.

Other servers in Emenbee Realms that I explored included the Creative server, which had some impressive builds, and a Towny survival game, which once again included lots of running around and killing.  The difference between the Infected survival game and the Towny survival game was mostly the setting – the latter took place in an urban environment, while the Infected game took place mostly within a maze.


My previous experiences with Minecraft have been mostly solitary, aside from playing several simulations with out my EDTECH 531 class. The most refreshing, interesting aspect of this quest was the interaction I had with other players. A few times I battled zombies alongside others and the feeling of intense cooperation was kind of exhilarating!  I will definitely continue to explore public servers in the future.  This experience has added a whole new dimension to Minecraft for me.  I continue to contemplate how I can translate Minecraft into my classroom.