Was it better than Adventure?
I've been thinking about the Minecraft grass block lately. If I were to boot up Minecraft right now, it would most likely be the first block to face me. When I look at today's grass block, I can confidently and rationally say that "that is indeed the grass from Minecraft", and with it follows almost a sense of boredom. Yes, I can see that it is a grass block, it doesn't have a special place in my heart dedicated to it, a sense of corporate identity almost radiates from it, and it is for a lack of a better word, boring.
There are several things you can legitimately critique modern Minecraft for. You can for instance question the ethics of the microtransactions in the game, with the game pushing exciting skins and game-modes costing real money with flashy imagery in a a game that many kids play. You could also criticise the gameplay. This is the route that the mod known as "Better than Adventure".
(if you want to know more about the mod, see this video) https://youtu.be/Dqw3aS_ip14?si=fzZg3Ubi25Y-Olvo
The mod has a very basic premise: "the 1.0 update otherwise known as the adventure update was bad, and the game went in the wrong direction. Therefore, we should continue the development of the beta version as if the adventure update never happened"
This stuck with me. I haven't played Minecraft in a while, and when I've played it I haven't had a good time. I usually play it for some hours, go caving and then forget about it. As the new dirt block, I find modern Minecraft boring. I don't really know why, perhaps it's just become too bloated, perhaps it's become to corporatised and sanitised like the grass block. Those ideas really led me to be interested in the better than adventure mod. Perhaps if Minecraft went in a different direction, everything would have been different? What if Minecraft kept its indie identity, everything would be better?
To be frank, I do think that indie games generally are better than aaa games, especially as I consider them to have more soul. Yet, when I looked at the latest trailer for the mod, I didn't feel. The dirt block looked the same, yet there was something just off about looking at one of the stone brick blocks. It didn't feel like Minecraft.
I think we humans often think we'll go with the times as everyone else. Yes, we won't follow along on every trend that the kids are up to, but we will generally understand the overarching trends and developments in society and that we won't get left behind. Writing this from the safety of a Scandinavian social democracy, I guess that last part is true on a materialistic level. Yet, I'm reminded of that grass block. Since I've watched a lot of better than Adventure content, I've seen a lot of beta minecraft recently, and looking at the old grass block, it just screams "minecraft" to me.
The old grass block doesn't have the same connotations to me as the new one, it fills me with a sense of joy and wonder, it reminds me of the times I played Minecraft pocket edition demo with my foster-sister after I was placed in another foster family. It reminds me of all those times I spent inside when the rain was pouring outside and my foster parents were arguing. For good and bad, I was playing the game, and there I saw the grass block.
With it, memories formed around it, and the block got a place in my heart even though I wasn't aware of it. The dreamy landscapes of the old Minecraft versions formed my understanding of what the soul and essence of Minecraft was, and that understanding doesn't seem to move with the times. For kids that were born when I started playing the game, they'll only have experienced the new block. Even though it is just a grass block that had its texture slightly changed, that change for me represents so much more. It represents how you grow attached to simple things due to the things they represent in your life, and to be honest I don't think that is a bad thing.
I think that is why the better than adventure mod firstly appealed to me, and the same reason as why the latest trailer feels so alien to me. Because, yes while the modern Minecraft experience is fucked up in some ways, and that on a philosophical and ethical point of view better than adventure undoubtedly is better than modern Minecraft, it wasn't the issue of direction that was my problem with the game. If that were the case, why would I find the stone brick so distressing? No, my problem with modern Minecraft is that it changed, the Minecraft that I grew in love with changed in substantial ways that made it different.
Even so, is that annoyance so bad? Is the yearn for the nostalgic experience so bad? Reminiscing over a grass block in fictional video game may seem absurd on surface level, but the underlying meaning of reminiscing over your previous life experiences is a part of growing up and learning to accept yourself. In the race for progress we often think that anything old is automatically bad because it is outdated, yet I would argue that the feelings created by the old never grow outdated. They are a valuable part of who we are, and what we believe. And all that, over a simple grass block. Neat, right?