For the vast majority of my life on the internet, as well as with gaming in general, it was all about the shared experience. From mastering and joining “clans” in a Tetris-like game called Yahoo! Towers, to playing Runescape and GuildWars; gaming was always a way for me to be social with others who shared similar interests. When I wasn’t playing multi-player games, I would play on consoles with my brother or friend or even simply watch them play.

Despite playing soccer at a near professional level, being online was developing into a huge hobby. It was a perfect outlet for my creativity and allowed me to sidestep my social anxiety through anonymity. When I was forced to undergo three knee surgeries and retire my soccer cleats, online gaming became a more prominent part of my life.

Having grown up loving Lego, Minecraft wasn’t too hard for me to jump into. Fortunately for me, Minecraft came at a very hard time in my life. In 2010, I graduated from university and made the gross mistake of moving away to attend teacher’s college in North Bay. The mistake here was thinking that moving in with my then boyfriend – whom I had already caught cheating – and his friend would be a fine idea for a year. The boyfriend is the one who actually bought the Minecraft account and chose the name “Kroax”. I haven’t bothered to change it since after he let me keep it.

In that year, the three of us played Minecraft in Solo worlds, all sitting in the same room and recounting the discoveries and troubles we were having to each other. I quickly picked up the tricks of the game and was soon annoying the other two with how many diamonds I was accumulating. I loved exploring caves and most of all, just letting my creativity take hold of my builds. However, my life was crumbling around me after a terrible break-up. Having to continue living together exacerbated the terribleness of the situation and I can honestly say that my year at teacher’s college was the worst year of my life. Teacher’s college itself did not help in the least with its uninspiring classes and endless group work – but that’s a whole other story.

Minecraft took a backseat to the heavy depression that had kicked in. Once I had graduated, I was forced to move back in with my parents, which could not have been a worse thing for me. One late night, browsing Reddit, I came across the MC Public subreddit and immediately decided that I should try out Mulriplayer Mode in Minecraft. That very night, I hopped onto the PVE server and wandered around in awe. This was a whole new game, a whole new experience to me. I could see other peoples’ builds and I instantly fell in love with the concept of people coming together to build entire towns. This was Rev. 3 on the server.

After some time, I happened to come across two players: Vykoden and Chernenkov. They soon convinced me to get Mumble and join them in voice chatting as they played. This was another great experience for me as it opened up the shared experience of Multiplayer even further. This was exactly what I needed. I joined a quite famous town called “Newcastle” after I had already built in a less active town. Soon, I found myself pulling all-nighters clearing out large areas underground for “Bedrock” as well as having great fun in chat on Mumble.

My days went from depression and wondering if my ex-boyfriend would talk to me again to excitement and wondering how many people would be on Mumble that night. Minecraft and the people I met within it did more than any counselor I had spoken to could do. I was inspired, happy, and motivated. Above all, I was social again. To this day, as a successful teacher who watches her students fawn over the same game, I can honestly say that I owe my life to it. More than that, I owe my life to the wonderful assortment of people I met and befriended through the game. By some degrees of separation, that is how I came to meet my now-boyfriend of three years.

I don’t think I have ever told anyone from Minecraft just how much of an impact they made on me and how much they helped me through a very difficult time in my life. Now that we have reunited and started these accounts of our experiences, I finally get the chance. So thank you all for being an absolute wonderful distraction for me. I love you all.

-Kroax