alone.

Minecraft is a deeply lonely game. It's something that we all seem to understand, but why?

Music by RetroGamingNow:
"The Solipsist"
"Dark Wanderer"

[CalamitasCalliope]

A fun little story based theory for minecraft I have is that every unique world exists as a single slice of a completed universe. If you teleport to the world border you see that the world still extends to the end of your render distance. The edges of each world are lined up beside each other, an infinite number of people all separated by some sort of innate natural force. It's a fun little theory for the story of the minecraft world and it adds a lot to the lonely feeling you describe

[cloudsaysthings]

Early Minecraft felt even more lonely... Especially with how darker the nights were, and how simplistic everything was.

[EngineMusic]

i believe that the loneliness really comes from all the creative power we have, yet nobody to show it to. you could build a massive city where you hand build every individual house, but who is going to live there? it's like panting a masterpiece and not being able to show it to anyone, or playing your best piano piece with nobody else in the room.

[Zoofactory]

At 50 years old, I’m fascinated that I can enjoy Minecraft with all of my children. We build things that will be around for more than a generation and we take that attitude when playing on our Realm. 👍 Great Monologue.

[BackSet]

Maybe this is why people really stream. It makes them feel less alone.

[Christopher_Gibbons]

A big contributing factor is the fact that we as players tend to accidentally create liminal spaces. Our efforts to make structures that look believable, also make them look like there ought to be people in them. The grander and more beautiful we build, the more empty and alone the result feels.

[gh-cujh]

Also another note, I tended to notice how high my anxiety would get playing alone, the human brain hallucinates when not given enough stimulation. Whenever I’d play for longer sessions, I noticed I tended to turn around thinking I had seen or heard something move with nothing but the landscape.

[eddy]

This was probably why when Herobrine started to come up in the internet it blew up and everyone got that same sense of horror from just the thought of that.

The scary thing about Minecraft is not the Herobrine itself but the loneliness and the possibility that you might actually not be alone at all.

[EnigmaticGentleman]

Minecraft is truly one of the most "Liminal Space" games ever made, only rivaled by Gmod. Really, they have it down to an art, the finest details, and its one of the things that really makes Minecraft special. Also KurtJMac probably isnt the best example, since people have actually reached the world border in survival, let alone the Far Lands.

[Grebnednavwehttam]

I find once busy servers, but now empty multi-player worlds the most sad. All that evidence of occupation and endeavour, all the houses, farms, all the builds...just deserted. You can see months or even years of work abandoned. That fills me with feelings of loneliness.

[virtualdash]

I've never really thought about Minecraft as being lonely, but this makes so much sense. I feel like this is why something like Herobrine got so much attention, because of that feeling that you may not be alone

[allegsa]

this reminds me of a shorty story i wrote for my english class about a girl named nethina in her world who was the only one aware of her existence and the only kind of her species. In her world there was “town workers” (villagers), “night creatures” (mobs), and animals only. So everyday nethina would explore her world searching for someone else that was just like her. And one day another person, Mira, suddenly came across Nethina’s home. At first it scary for nethina to encounter someone like her, she had lots of questions but after a whole long night of talking and Mira answering all of Nethina’s questions, it was just everything nethina wanted, a friend. So Mira invited nethina to go back with her to her home but nethina was hesitant so Mira told her to make her decision and then meet her in the forest at a certain time. Mira left and time passed to nethina went to the spot but Mira never showed up. Nethina waited for hours and days until she became extremely desperate. She started making lots of potions, burying them in the ground in hopes to spawn her own creature friend, someone like Mira. She continued this for years and years until she died of bad health. That’s when her potions started to work but instead created bad creatures causing her world to turn into this red skies, scorching hot waterfalls world (the nether). But in the end Mira came across nethina because Mira accidentally created a nether portal so when Mira returned to her home, she was unable to go back cause she didn’t know how to recreate the portal. She didn’t ditch nethina at all. But it was just a tragic story for nethina cause she lost the thing she searched her whole life for. Which is why her tragic experience created the nether decades later. LOL but I got an A on that assignment. And also the name nethina does come from nether lol

[stephaniethebatter]

As someone who has played less lonely games of the same genre, such as Terraria, Starbound and Dragon Quest Builders, I think the main cause of lonliness in Minecraft is the fact that there are no _characters_ in the game. None with their own unique personalities that you can talk to. In Terraria, the NPCs have their own personalities and tastes and have unique things to say when you interact with them. In Starbound, there are characters everywhere, who react to your every decision and spill lore. In Dragon Quest Builders, you have characters and NPCs that you can ask to follow you around, all without the fear of them dying (if their HP reaches 0, they faint for a bit until they recover).

In Minecraft, there is no one you can properly interact and socialise with. And the friends you do make you lock up and stay far away from because if they die, they don't respawn. And you're too afraid of that happening to them.

[poultrypants]

This is why I usually listen to a video while I play. It makes me feel less lonely.

[EvelynTheVixen]

I think with the shipwrecks, old temples, ruins, it shows that we weren't always alone.

Where did everyone go?

[ohno]

I feel like this is one of the things that made Herobrine so scary/iconic. You recognize the shape of another player innately- some mobs, like villagers or zombies, come close, but still not close enough that you'd ever mistake them for a player. The idea of thinking you're alone and then seeing that distinctive shape out of the corner of your eye is wonderfully frightening. Plus the idea that something malevolent also has the same power that you do over the world.

[tuxtheterrorist]

I'm worried he knows too much because the beginning was literally me I really feel alone in minecraft

[Ichisakusei]

The loneliness in this game is really what makes it a horror game to me

[Veljko]

Sometimes i feel so lonely that i think i aint alone and somebody is watching me

[daisyfillyfore]

This is why I mostly play with friends or on servers because the loneliness makes my anxiety through the roof