Minecraft: we are all information from a star

This week, keeping up with something of a tradition, the game Minecraft got an update.

Frankly, it’s a little disappointing compared to last summer’s update because the development team ended up splitting it in two out of concern for the wellness of the staff —which is a good thing.

But regardless, Minecraft 1.17 is here.

As a side note, if anybody is interested, the 1 notes it as part of the full game and 17 is the number of updates the game has gone through. There can also be a third number, which notes the number of minor updates that version’s had.

But, I don’t really want to talk about 1.17. It mostly added some new blocks, changed some textures and gave players some new animals.

Rather, I want to go back to the beginning. Well … The End.

Despite being an open world, sandbox game, Minecraft does have an end, which takes place in The End. While you can go back and keep playing after the final boss battle against the Ender Dragon, this is where the credits come in.

Now, understandably, most people don’t read the credits. It’s 10 minutes of scrolling text and that’s not what most players are looking for.

I just read — well, listened to a reading of — the credits for the first time all the way through.

It’s an interesting philosophical conversation that definitely could have used another edit on account of time.

When the full game first came out, most people saw this conversation/poem between two beings and took away the message of “get a life and stop playing.” If you just look at the final line “Wake up,” that’s kind of understandable.

However, if you really pay attention to the whole thing, that isn’t the message at all.

It talks about “the long dream of life and the short dream of the game” as both important.

The poem tells people not to judge how others live their lives.

“To tell them how to live is to prevent them from living.

“I will not tell the player how to live.”

While this is expressly said in the credits, it is also the essence of Minecraft itself.

Sure, you can go down the path of killing the Ender Dragon.

However, it is also just as valid to play the game by building a home, adopting cats or dogs and starting a farm.

People have built massive castles, spent months or years making this world the story, their story, takes place in.

That’s how the game has stayed popular for so long, built such a big community of players and birthed countless successful content creators. No two people are playing the same game.

There’s millions of worlds and you, as the player, didn’t create them. You were born into them.

All around you are underwater monuments, desert and jungle temples, woodland mansions and villages. One aspect that was supposed to be in 1.17, and is now unclear if it will ever be added, is archeology.

There’s a history here.

The villagers, pillagers and zombies go about their lives and you have minimal impact on them.

You can trade with villagers.

If you get too close the pillagers and zombies will attack you, but they don’t go looking for you.

Despite having extreme strength, and strong pants, to carry over 2,304 items along with wearing armor, you’re largely insignificant in this world.

You can make yourself significant by protecting the helpless villagers from the monsters that come out at night. You can liberate the Endermen from the Ender Dragon’s reign.

But that’s the journey.

Fundamentally, we all start out the same: punching some wood.

The end credits address this even.

“The seven billion billion billion atoms of the player’s body were created, long before this game, in the heart of a star. So the player, too, is information from a star.”

If you’re ever feeling down on yourself and need some encouragement, take 10 minutes to read or listen to this conversation.

It can be a good reminder of your potential.

“and the universe said I love you

and the universe said you have played the game well

and the universe said everything you need is within you

and the universe said you are stronger than you know

and the universe said you are the daylight

and the universe said you are the night

and the universe said the darkness you fight is within you

and the universe said the light you seek is within you

and the universe said you are not alone

and the universe said you are not separate from every other thing

and the universe said you are the universe tasting itself, talking to itself, reading its own code

and the universe said I love you because you are love.”