Greetings fellows, I'm here to share with you a story. This story shapes the very way I view and use the social aspects of video games. This is but a single portion of the story, if you wish to view the rest, you may do so here. To make a long story short, this post is one of a series that details the way I was able to maintain a healthy social life after being removed from public school.
Minecraft was my first real foray into online gaming. I was 11 or 12 when I was first introduced to Minecraft from one of my friends at school (at that time I was going to a hybrid school that only met twice a week). I spent months piggybacking off of that friend’s account during the beta. If I'm not mistaken, we were both able to play single player, at the same time, on the same account. We would often play “together” and talk via skype. This was not the first time I had friendships outside of a school setting; but this set the framework for almost every friendship I've had since.
Fast forward a few months, and I have my own copy of Minecraft and a second friend (henceforth referred to as my best friend) from school to play with. None of us had our own servers, so we hopped from mini game server to mini game server.
Now fast forward about a year. I remain in my hybrid school, and both my friends ship out. Previously, when I moved schools or when my friends moved schools, that was basically the end of our friendship. I can think of a single exception to that, and even then it wasn't one for very long. But this time. This time we would continue to play Minecraft together. Despite no longer seeing each other face to face, we would continue to be friends.
Fast forward another year. I am now completely homeschooled, and I have few opportunities for face to face interaction with other people my age (minus my siblings). My friend that introduced me to Minecraft has stopped playing, and we stopped talking. Over the next several years I am able to meet other people my age through Minecraft, and maintain consistent communication with them. During this time I get a seasonal job. Occasionally, while speaking with people at this job, I talk about being homeschooled. Consistently, people (usually parents or folks otherwise older than me) ask me about my social life and whether or not I regret not getting social interactions at public school. They always seemed surprised when my answer was unequivocally “no”. I would tell them that my relationship with my siblings was particularly strong, and I was able to meet and speak with other kids via online video games. I would always bring up Minecraft when I got to that part. This game damn near single handedly allowed by social life to exist, and fostered many lasting friendships.
For better or for worse, it also meant that all of my friendships were exclusively sustained via playing online games. This has led to my current predicament: even though I would still call most of the people I played Minecraft with my friends, none of us have had the time nor desire to play Minecraft and, by extension, speak with each other in years. With the exception of one person, my friendships have died out when one or both of us stopped playing the same game(s).
Despite how depressing that last line was, this is the first in a series of posts that describe how my social life flourished thanks to online games, and how I was able (mostly) avoid the “antisocial homeschool kid” label for my entire life. Minecraft’s role in this was as a gateway into online gaming and as the game in which I met more people than in any other game I have played. If you wish to read more about this, you can do so here.
Greetings fellows, I'm here to share with you a story. This story shapes the very way I view and use the social aspects of video games. This is but a single portion of the story, if you wish to view the rest, you may do so here. To make a long story short, this post is one of a series that details the way I was able to maintain a healthy social life after being removed from public school.
Minecraft was my first real foray into online gaming. I was 11 or 12 when I was first introduced to Minecraft from one of my friends at school (at that time I was going to a hybrid school that only met twice a week). I spent months piggybacking off of that friend’s account during the beta. If I'm not mistaken, we were both able to play single player, at the same time, on the same account. We would often play “together” and talk via skype. This was not the first time I had friendships outside of a school setting; but this set the framework for almost every friendship I've had since.
Fast forward a few months, and I have my own copy of Minecraft and a second friend (henceforth referred to as my best friend) from school to play with. None of us had our own servers, so we hopped from mini game server to mini game server.
Now fast forward about a year. I remain in my hybrid school, and both my friends ship out. Previously, when I moved schools or when my friends moved schools, that was basically the end of our friendship. I can think of a single exception to that, and even then it wasn't one for very long. But this time. This time we would continue to play Minecraft together. Despite no longer seeing each other face to face, we would continue to be friends.
Fast forward another year. I am now completely homeschooled, and I have few opportunities for face to face interaction with other people my age (minus my siblings). My friend that introduced me to Minecraft has stopped playing, and we stopped talking. Over the next several years I am able to meet other people my age through Minecraft, and maintain consistent communication with them. During this time I get a seasonal job. Occasionally, while speaking with people at this job, I talk about being homeschooled. Consistently, people (usually parents or folks otherwise older than me) ask me about my social life and whether or not I regret not getting social interactions at public school. They always seemed surprised when my answer was unequivocally “no”. I would tell them that my relationship with my siblings was particularly strong, and I was able to meet and speak with other kids via online video games. I would always bring up Minecraft when I got to that part. This game damn near single handedly allowed by social life to exist, and fostered many lasting friendships.
For better or for worse, it also meant that all of my friendships were exclusively sustained via playing online games. This has led to my current predicament: even though I would still call most of the people I played Minecraft with my friends, none of us have had the time nor desire to play Minecraft and, by extension, speak with each other in years. With the exception of one person, my friendships have died out when one or both of us stopped playing the same game(s).
Despite how depressing that last line was, this is the first in a series of posts that describe how my social life flourished thanks to online games, and how I was able (mostly) avoid the “antisocial homeschool kid” label for my entire life. Minecraft’s role in this was as a gateway into online gaming and as the game in which I met more people than in any other game I have played. If you wish to read more about this, you can do so here.