At the beginning of the pandemic, students were told that a quarantine would be in place for two weeks. During that time there were many small activities to do such as taking walks, playing games, and enjoying family time, but very quickly feelings of isolation set in. There needed to be new ways to cope with this change.

Minecraft was released in 2009, over eleven years ago, but that hasn’t stopped it from being a cherished game by thousands of people to this day. One of the friends I play with during this pandemic, Matt,  said, “It’s easy to stay in touch with everyone and get to work creatively,” and it does!

My other close friends, Nina and Andrew, have used Minecraft as a way to get together and just hang out. Minecraft has gifted my friend group a creative outlet and a way to get our minds off the pandemic.

Minecraft isn’t all about building, however, there are many servers friends can join to play mini-games together such as Build Battles and Bedwars.

Bedwars is a popular Minecraft sever game where groups of players attempt to destroy other teams’ beds, while protecting their own.  “My favorite aspect of the game is definitely fighting against other players on online servers. The game has been around for so long that there is a massive community revolving around such a simple aspect of the game, and it’s something anybody can get into” Matt said.

These servers tap into different sides of Minecraft such as PVP (player vs player) and connecting with others.

Nobody would have thought that Minecraft would have been such a big piece of many peoples’ quarantine essentials. Not only did it lift the spirits of my friend group, but it also made our bonds stronger by giving us a platform to stay in touch.