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Family Minecraft

My boys get to play Minecraft for an hour each Saturday and Sunday morning, and then we all play together for an hour of “Family Minecraft” each weekend evening, too. On our home server [in survival mode] we have a large main fort where we each have our main houses, (mine is up on a high mountain overlooking the fort), and then we have several smaller forts scattered about within a day or so of the main. (A day and night in Minecraft is 10 minutes each.) We have small farms, corrals of various animals, and of course mines underground crisscrossing all over the place. I even built a portal to the Netherworld (Hell) under my home.

During our family games, we always go on some adventure as a group. We’ve gone monster hunting — we love fighting Endermen. We’ve invaded the Netherworld — we’ve even made a small fort in Hell. We’ve gone basic exploring to find new zones and terrains. We’ve searched long and far for a village, but after weeks of looking, we hadn’t found one. (A village is like the Holy Grail to the Calfgrits.) Until Sunday night…

Sunday night we were on one of our exploration missions, with Calfgrit8 leading us to an interesting area of mountains he had found near one of his personal forts. We ended up traveling overnight and got into a serious battle with several monsters, including two Endermen. In the melee, I and Calfgrit12 died and had to respawn back at our homes. In making our ways back to our gathering spot, we got a little separated. Calfgrit12 went in a different direction while I caught up with Calfgrit8.

When we’re playing our family Minecraft games, we have our home telephones set up as an intercom so we can talk to each other. I’m in on my computer in my office, Calfgrit8 is on an old computer set up in the upstairs loft, and Calfgrit12 is on their mother’s computer downstairs.

As CG12 was exploring his wrong direction on his own, he suddenly started shouting, “I FOUND A VILLAGE! I FOUND A VILLAGE!” CG8 ran downstairs to see what his big brother was seeing on his computer screen, and then he got all excited, as well. Through all the excited shouting, we figured out where he was, and we all converged on that area.

Minecraft Villagers

Minecraft Villagers

Sure enough, there was a village in the desert, with 7 or 8 buildings and many villagers milling about. The Minecraft sun was on its way down to the horizon, and we all knew that the first night after you discover a village, there is a zombie attack. And when zombies kill a villager, the villager is not only dead, but turns into a zombie, also. Night in Minecraft is hard enough because that’s when monsters spawn anywhere it’s dark. (Zombies, skeletons with bows and arrows, giant spiders, creepers that explode when they get near you.) We had less than 5 minutes to start up some kind of defense plan for the village before the sun disappeared and darkness brought out the dangers.

Four Minecraft Creepers in the Dark

Minecraft creepers coming at night

We called out our plans to each other, and everyone got to work. CG8 had a lot of cobblestone blocks with him, so he immediately started building a wall around the village. I had a lot of torches with me, so I started placing them around the buildings to prevent monsters spawning too close. And CG12 started running around the village taking stock of what was there and how it was arranged in the terrain. When night came, and the first monsters started approaching out the darkness, the wall was only about a quarter or a third way around the village.

Minecraft Village Wall

The wall started around the village

We ran around the village, calling out monster contacts to each other, fighting with swords and bows, defending each other and villagers, and trying to extend the walls. This was the most exciting and fun game session of Minecraft I have ever had. We all worked great as a team. We shot down creepers with our arrows before they could get close enough to explode, we hacked away zombies that got inside our perimeter, we double-teamed spiders that climbed our wall, we avoided antagonizing Endermen, and by the time the sun came up again, we had successfully defended the village. One creeper had managed to sneak up on us and blew up one wall of one building, but otherwise there was no real damage and no casualties among us or the villagers.

By that time, our normal hour of family Minecraft was expended, but I told the boys that we’d play through one more day and night before logging off. That meant we had to mine the local terrain for materials to finish the wall during the day. By the time the next night time came, we had the whole village surrounded by a protective barrier (mostly made of piled sand — the village is in a desert region), well lit with plenty of torches, and we stood atop and patrolled along the wall. That second night was easy with the wall completed. We had prevailed and conquered. We owned that village.

Minecraft Village

The village seen from the temple tower

When we all logged off the server, all three of us were running high on the adrenaline and excitement of the game. Being this was a weekend that Wifegrit worked, she was on her way home as I was herding the boys into their showers and beds. I called her and warned her she might not want to come home right then. If the boys heard her come in the house, they’d immediately jump up and run to tell her about the Minecraft village defense. I’d never get them to lay down. So she went to the grocery store and came home only after they had fallen asleep. So it was only me who excitedly regaled her with the tales of our Minecraft adventure.

Honestly, that 1.5 hours of Minecraft with my boys was one of the most fun gaming experiences I’ve every had. We can’t wait till this weekend so we can go back to the village and expand on it.

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