#does anyone want to play Minecraft Java with me

[aq-s74]

sometimes I open a Minecraft skin file in a MC skin editor and go "damn this looks good. I'd definitely use it as my skin."

and then I open another file and start making a new one from scratch instead of using it in Minecraft or even finishing it in the first place.

[dullanyan]

does anyone know how to un-update java. i updated it and now i cant get my minecraft to load. it just gives me exit code -1 and i just want to play my modpack and not lose 4 years of progress on a world lmao

[adventuringalchemy]

Sorta a note since I saw you compare illagers and witches. Witches aren't actually illagers! Gameplay-wise witches are villagers that turned into witches by being hit by lightning. So they aren't born illagers even.

But also meta wise and what could be gathered from raid descriptions on the wiki (idk if the note is still there) and flavour from MC dungeons, witches aren't connected to illagers at all! They are more like... allies! They just hang out with illagers for the fun of it, but have no further ties to them?

Technically and by category, witches aren't illagers. Possibly they are their own thing. Villagers turned bad? Magic mishap villagers? Simply born as witches?

The closest would probably be evokers or enchanters, but those seem more like book savvy magic users than anyone who brews potions. A villager cleric does indeed seem to fit the best!

ANONYMOUS SENT AN ASK .

yeah, i had a friend on discord message me like RIGHT AFTER i published the ask and told me. 😭😭😭

i just always thought they were illagers because they spawn in raids and in bedrock edition, they hurt the villagers. and as i told my friend you can definitely tell i grew up on bedrock because jesus christ java is so fucking different. like i've had to play it recently because most of my friends play java edition and i'm okay with playing it, but much, much prefer bedrock. 💀

but ivor knows about enchanting as well! he is very fluent in the ancient texts that enchantment books have and always knows what to use / say / the amount of mana to give. he is an expert on that just as much as he is brewing! and i always headcanoned that his mentor helped dabble with him in it, but he primarily learned it all on his own. after the experience with his mentor, he wouldn't be too keen on having a mentor again. at least, not one for like a decade and a half of his life. and he certainly wouldn't sit around and be walked on anymore. nope.

i see witches being neutrals though. because they can also aid the human, can't they? in minecraft legends, i think. so i believe that they very much do whatever they want for their own benefit. as a witch myself i am very much the same way. if someone purchases a hex from me i do not ask. business is business. 💀

fun side note: i do headcanon ivor to be so fascinated by the magic of the illagers! he would want to put himself in their society, just so he can learn about their powers. he would want to know how to spawn vex himself so he can use them for his own gain. or maybe even turn vex into allay to make them more docile. he would also just want to learn how to do it because he just wants to know. he seeks knowledge. he wants to know!

[nova-ayashi]

It’s been a little while since I’ve written on an actual topic. A lot of that has to do with me filling my free time with building a ridiculous world around my base in Minecraft Java (heavily modded), and jumping back into World of Warcraft on my original DeathKnight from … uh, whatever year Wrath of the Lich King released. And that kind of has to do with why I want to write this today. Why I want to write about how Discord, the community chat app, has, and is, killing communities not only around the web, but also within games.

I think I’ve written before about how Discord has almost completely killed usage of internet forums (which is partially why I decided to host my own forum, even if nobody feels like joining it), which is terrible for retention of data online. Especially if you’re someone who uses search engines to find answers to questions, none of the problem solving happening within Discord channels is searchable on Google, and is absolutely not permanent.

And now, that problem will be especially exasperated, as the government defunds grants related to the Internet Archive, one of many horrible moves to erase, destroy, and replace history as we know it.

But … I’m getting a little off-topic.

I wanted to write this today, because this is a problem I’ve seen grow more and more over the years. It’s related to World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, or basically any online game where players are supposed to talk with each other within those games.

But that’s not happening, is it?

I log onto World of Warcraft and encounter players in-game. Nobody speaks. I do casual dungeons with random groups. The tank bursts through everything, not even paying even a single bit of attention to the other group members around them. And, once the final boss is beaten, the group disbands, all without anyone ever speaking a word. This was a little bit of an issue ten years ago, and it’s only gotten worse.

I also have personal experience with joining guilds, places that are supposed to be communities, where, instead of any of that, you’re immediately assaulted with Discord links.

“Don’t forget to join our Discord!”

So, instead of people speaking in groups, in guild chat, or in the game at all, communication has moved to the modernized IRC and AOL Instant Messenger merger chat client.

Oh, … great.

So, instead of speaking to you and other members of a guild inside of the actual game, I have to tab out of the game and talk in your closed channels on a proprietary app that has already singlehandedly all but murdered old-net social media?

I even went on the World of Warcraft forums and responded to a thread where someone asks, “How do you meet people in-game?” and I responded, “It’s simple. I don’t.” And someone felt they needed to reply with, “Join Discord servers!”

Look. I think Discord is alright for keeping up with friends and people I know, and there are some uses of servers, like the server I use to connect my Patreon and content I make or write, but also?

Fuck Discord.

This is also a problem in Second Life, a virtual world that is literally described as a 3D chat application, where, now, almost everyone is exclusively speaking in Discord channels instead of in Second Life!

How does this kill communities?

Instead of walking around within games and virtual worlds, and meeting people naturally, everyone’s ignoring each other until the off-chance they speak in Discord.

Do I have to detail how this is terrible for the health of communities?

Who wants to play a game filled with millions of people that is now essentially singleplayer until you join the app that’s harvesting all of your data?

But, I understand I’m mostly blowing hot air here. Me posting this won’t stop this from happening, and it’ll probably only get worse and worse. That’s the way of the world nowadays, anyway.

It’s only a matter of time before our actual society mirrors some dystopian depiction of what society might be like if all the wrong things happen and nobody says or does anything.

And I’ve been wondering: Am I just being old, yelling at clouds while new things take over?

20 years ago, old people were yelling about how smartphones wouldn’t improve anything, or in the 90s, about how the internet was a passing fad. But, I think both of these things improved society, even if, 20 years later, both smartphones and the internet are being turned into projections of evil via oligarchs and corporations. And, that’s why I don’t really think this is about just “being old,” and more, I think it’s just about people accepting shit, and consuming shit, because they don’t know any better.

Source: Original Post

Posted via Python, written by @daemon_nova

[iamhollywood]

does anyone want to play minecraft java edition with me :(

[mosspapi]

Honestly this might be petty and dumb but I do wish the like. Official Minecraft servers and events and shit worked on Java. Like I would love to join an official server and play the MCC games and earn the 15 year/MCC cape, but I don't play bedrock. Technically I have the ability to, but that's only within the last year or two- the other 14 years I've played this game (because I've been playing since the betas) I literally could not play bedrock even if I wanted to because I didn't have a Windows computer. And I know the majority of Minecraft's users play bedrock and it's the ~Microsoft version~ and has microtransactions so obv they wanna do more with that side but it's like. Idk man. Even all of the 15-year advent calendar items were bedrock only :( It just sucks that they seem to constantly ignore the original, main Minecraft version that a large amt of ppl DO play. It's not like Java is this niche old version with no playerbase. It sucks and I wish they wouldn't show as much flagrant favouritism in their marketing/community involvement stuff (like literally look at the "which version should you play"/version comparison chart on the official main website. It's so fucking biased lmao)

(Also if anyone DOES see this pls don't turn it into a "Java vs Bedrock" debate they're both good versions this isn't a culture war thing it's just me complaining abt marketing bias /gen)

[convexicalcrow]

Intro:

Hello, frens! Call me Lex or Crow, queer, he/they/she pronouns bc gender is weird and fucked. Old Millenial. Australian. Practicing Witch.

This tumblr was mostly set up for Hermitcraft and Empires shitposting, and that's mostly what I'll use it for. I do occasionally post fics and other ramblings, sometimes snippets from streams or from watching episodes, new or otherwise. Lots of art and fic reblogs. And sometimes I post my minecraft builds.

And now that it's Snowflake Challenge time again, i thought I'd do these posts over here and the first challenge is getting your fandom info and links organised, and I really don't have anything like that over here yet, so. Have an intro post. :D

Ships and Fandom Interests:

I'm mainly hyperfixated on Cub and Scar and the ConVex, as well as Sausage and Pearl and their lore, but I also write RenDoc and Ren/Martyn and others when the inspiration strikes.

I am shippy and do occasionally write smutfic and kinkfic, but I do also write gen and platonic fic as well when the story wants that instead. Mostly I am your niche rarepair writer who isn't interested in the big juggernaut pairings. And who wrote skulk Cub before it was canon lmao. XD

Blogs:

Follows come from this account bc I set this up not intending for it to be my main and then I left twitter like an idiot and well. Here we are lol.

I have a sideblog set up @lexstellaris for non-fannish shitposting and other more personal things. No need to follow that unless you want to.

Asks:

Feel free to submit asks if you have questions, or there there's something you want me to discuss, or you want to throw fic prompts at me. :D I have a tag for all my ask responses if you want to look through that as well.

AO3:

You can find my fic posted on AO3 here under the name orphancrow.

I have been posting fic on AO3 under other accounts for a long time, and I mostly adhere to AO3's guidelines when rating my fic. So you may find kinkfic and other sexual content in my M-rated fics as well as my E-rated fics bc both are designed for adult content, but this will always be clear from the tags so there shouldn't be any surprises. I know I differ from some of the fandom on this, but it's how I do things, and I want to be upfront about that.

Transformative Works Policy:

If you wanna write fic or draw art inspired by my works, that's totally fine with me, just link back to the works that inspired you. I'm also fine with anyone wanting to podfic my works or translate them into other languages, as long as there's a link back to my original works.

You can find this in my AO3 profile as well.

Tags and Projects:

#spoilers - I'm (mostly) consistent in using the spoilers tag for any new eps or current streams I'm posting about so feel free to block that if you're not interested in knowing. I mostly use this for eps just released if I'm watching them then.

#fanfic - Fanfic posted on this account can be found under the fanfic tag. This does include stuff I've posted to AO3 as well, some of which is stuff I've edited and tidied up after posting it here.

#vex magic grimoire - If you're interested in the Vex Magic Grimoire, I have a tag for that where you can follow the progress of that grimoire. The concept behind it is that it's being written mostly by Pharaoh Cub in s7, with inputs from Scar, and it's exploring and explaining Vex magic and potions and a bunch of my Vex lore.

I have also started an archive for the grimoire pages over here at the Liber Vex archive. It's just simple links back to tumblr rn, but it'll be more of a full text archive in time. New pages will be updated there and I'll link this at the end of each new post as well, so keep an eye on that site if you want to keep up with all the lore.

#minecraft builds - All my minecraft screencaps and builds are housed under this tag. I play mostly java these days. I currently have two worlds I'm working on:

#villa hekatea - This is a Java solo world, seed -6478546301100136766. I mostly play this as survival, but it's become a bit of a crevival world, as sometimes I just don't have the energy to grind resources in survival, so I build in creative instead. It's its own personal mix of builds for particular gods, and just whatever else I want to do. Current project is a woodland mansion base near a mountain that I cannibalised for ores early on.

#hctcg smp - This is the Creo minecraft server, where I have a big desert base inspired by ancient Egypt as well as Pharaoh Cub and other things.

[simplepotatofarmer]

ive seen people call c!techno ancap. seeing as youre a techno appreciator, actual anarchist, and probably enough of an adult to actually understand the wikipedia page unlike myself, i wanna know if you have any thoughts on this? is c!techno an anarcho-capitalist?

i do have thoughts on this!

my very first thought is: cc!techno admitted that he wasn't well versed in anarchism when he first started playing his character. you can see that in his one conversation about the strong surviving while the weak huddle in fear (though that conversation is in a kinda awkward situation to begin with: he was speaking to bad and sam, it was his fifth stream, and c!techno had said he wasn't sure who was on his side and it seems like he was trying to figure out where they stand) where he seems to take a sort of hobbesian stance on anarchism.

but he's since learned more about anarchism, quoting emma goldman, the syndicate's manifesto being basically 'intro to anarchism' talking points, and having his character work with an enemy to take down the egg.

so i think that a lot of people who dislike c!techno (and i say this because i've seen at least one or two bigger blogs bring up this line very often) point to the 'i want a dog eat dog world' bit and say 'this is what c!techno really wants' are kinda missing the fact that cc!techno has said on stream that he didn't know much about anarchism and wanted to learn, asking for people to recommend him things to read. basically it shows that the actual situation was 'whoops i didn't do my research i should fix that my bad'.

and i think it's also missing the fact that since then, c!techno has actively worked on changing his ways. he's even gone as far to say that he's been a bad example of anarchy in the past and saying he wants to do better. which he has done much better. not perfect, but better.

basically, i believe that cc!techno didn't know much about anarchism in the first few streams and has since worked to learn more though it's still not perfect.

my second thought is: anarchy in minecraft can't function exactly like minecraft in the real world.

to me, this is where most of the 'c!techno is an ancap' arguments come from. that and a kind of.....internet/twitter understanding of anarchism.

c!techno is rich. he has a lot of wealth. he hoards that wealth.

in our world, the people who hoard wealth are the antithesis of anarchism. they're the products of capitalism.

but capitalism doesn't exist in minecraft the way it does in our world. what makes capitalism in our world so oppressive is the fact there's almost no way to succeed if you don't have capital to begin with. a few people hold all the wealth and power and it's nearly impossible for the rest of the population to get to that level. and that wealth is gained through the exploitation of the working class.

in minecraft, however, wealth is gained through a single person's actions. wealth is gained by grinding. anyone can do it. all they need is time. there's no restrictions to who can or can't do it and it doesn't take anything away from the other people. (in easy, i kinda think that the only resource that really is limited are totems of undying but i've never played java.)

basically, having wealth in minecraft doesn't work the same way as it does in our world. c!techno isn't exploiting anyone, he's not taking resources away from others, and he's not harming the world (server) by industrialization.

but again, i feel like a lot of the time, especially online, we see having wealth as an automatic negative. you saw the sort of thing i'm talking about after the twitch leak where people got upset that these streamers were making so much money but realistically the only issue would be unpaid twitch mods because streamers aren't the problem. the problem is the system and the exploitation of workers and yeah, there's definitely a bit of privilege for people to be able to do streaming full time, but compared to the harm that billionaires are causing.... i'm getting off-topic.

what my point here is that this subject has been boiled down to 'rich equals capitalism' without any nuance. like, yeah! i hate billionaires! i'm pissed at people like bezos and oil companies and politicians who take money from lobbyists. i'm not mad at streamers or actors or whatever.

and in the same vein, i'm not mad at a character in minecraft for having wealth.

my third and final thought is: the other argument i've seen is that c!techno hasn't done enough mutual aid, especially re: helping those from l'manberg but... i don't know what he should have done? he offered c!ranboo a place, he checked on c!niki, he saw that c!jack had his home still. i mean, there's other people who were effected but then you start to get into problems with personal grudges and, out of character, issues with scheduling and being able to line things up.

like, you can't really say 'c!techno didn't actually care about the egg' when cc!bad and cc!techno's schedules and personal lives had a big impact on what they could or couldn't do.

so, in my personal opinion, taking any inactivity as proof that c!techno doesn't care is disingenuous. the idea that c!techno didn't actually care about what the prison could be doing and what it represented because he hadn't done anything when cc!techno has real life issues and cc!sam also had scheduling issues just. doesn't completely sit right with me.

my conclusion: no, c!techno is not an ancap. he's not a perfect example of anarchism, either, which is something that i've been saying for a long time. he's a character created and written by a young dude who wasn't well-versed on anarchism when he first started his character and who has since done a good job of correcting those mistakes and portraying basic anarchism. i wouldn't label c!techno as any specific sort of anarchist, really, but as someone who follows the base tenets of anarchism.

[the-phantom-ender]

Idiot Proofing Minecraft

(Written by said idiot)

So! This is a little different than my normal posts! But I've been playing Minecraft for a real long time and I am... not very good at it! So here are some tips and tricks from someone who, in all honesty, isn't all that great at the game that I've found helpful in my time playing!!

Now I am terrible with directions. And compasses Do Not help. What I've learned to do? Name a piece of armor the cords to your base! Why armor? Well it keeps from filling an unnecessary inventory spot! You can also name a tool, but I find my tools break a lot quicker- at least in early game.

Lava. It's the worst. Especially when you're strip mining and suddenly lava gets dumped on your head. A way to keep going without having to start new? Block spam! Literally just block spam cover the lava. Take it slow, block off in front of you if the lava gets too close for comfort. If you're careful, you can brute force through the lava pocket without ever taking damage!

Need enchanting? Well you're in luck! Don't forget that there are four animals that drop leather, not just cows. Horses, lamas, and hoglins also drop the stuff! I've seen youtubers forget this. So you know.

(Mooshrooms, donkeys, and mules all also drop leather- but those are variants of existing mobs. Hoglins are mid-game enemies so you may not come across them while needing an enchanting set up.)

Great! You've got the leather! What about sugarcane? If you're impatient like me: find a river. Swim along the river or walk along the banks and you'll find a bunch of naturally spawning sugarcane!

You can combine tools and armor in your inventory crafting. I know, that sounds like something from a data pack, but it's true. As long as they aren't enchanted, you can throw two damaged axes or something into your inventory crafting and repair them.

Learn how to torch grid. Okay, you don't have to be perfect at this. but I've learned that spacing torches roughly five to six blocks apart does pretty well at spawn-proofing areas I want to keep safe.

You can craft wool from string. So you probably won't ever need to do this, but if it's ever night and all you have on you is string, it can come in handy to craft a bed!

This might be a Bedrock only thing, I'm not positive, but there's a small window where you can swim at normal speeds without losing air. It's kinda finicky, but if you're careful you can swim fast without having to pop back up for a breather. (Edit: thank you orthidar for confirming this works on Java too!!)

If you want to learn how to build, just build! There's no shame in copying tutorials, you'll pick up the skills they give you as you go and eventually you'll learn how to branch off and do your own thing!

But uh! Yeah! That's some nonsense I've picked up over time! I hope it helps anyone that might be reading this out! There's more stuff in this brain of mine, I'm sure, but this is all I can come up with at the moment! ;^^

[ihavenoconsistentname]

For the ask game: The last 10 questions :) you brought this on yourself /lh

Jdkhjsh god alright /lh

10- Which Hermits do you actively watch?

It's funny cause I actively watch a hermit who isn't entirely active rn /hj

I used to watch Grian, Mumbo, Xisuma, Jevin, and Zedaph actively but now I just watch Wels (not just hc we all know this) and Beef kind of actively I'm still catching up

11- Which Hermits do you only watch occassionally?

Well,,, I think technically my previous answer is the answer to this one

12- Which Hermits do you not watch?

It's easier to say the ones I have watched to narrow that down and the rest I haven't:

Actively I have watched, and this is both rewatching old seasons and keeping up with new videos put out; Wels, Biffa, Jevin, Xisuma, Mumbo, Grian, Zedaph, and at one point I tried with Scar and Cleo

Everyone else I've either only touched a couple videos or not watched at all

13- Which Hermit did you start watching first?

hh Grian

^Typical, I started watching after I was just watching his building videos randomly and he kept mentioning hermitcraft so I was like alright ig I'll watch that and I started watching his HC videos in s6 in like the middle of the area 77/hippie arc

14- Which Hermit did you start watching most recently?

Beef,, I just liked his vibes so I started watching his s7 playlist

15- If you could play Minecraft with the Hermits, who would you most want to collaborate with?

This is a very theoretical question because I have java and a computer that can run fuck all

Technically if my computer could actually y'know run stuff I could be playing on Wels' pixelmon server lol but I think it's an obvious answer

Realistically I wouldn't collab with anyone because like what would we even do djgjskg

16- Top 5 favorite bases from any season?

I Haven't Been Paying Attentionᵀᴹ

Three fox hole's looking pretty pog, Iskall's tree too, Xisuma's is pretty cool, obviously I like Wels' base, that's literally all I've seen that I can remember the looks of

Oh and Toon Towers is fucking awesome

17- Top 5 favorite bases from any season?

In no particular order: Welsknight's s5 castle, Grian's s6 base, Mumbo's s6 base, does the nHo jungle count please tell me it does, and probably Toon Towers this season

18- Favorite shop from this season?

Again I haven't been paying attention all I know is Beef's stores and Welsmart the rest I don't really remember off the top of my head

19- Favorite shop from any season?

Uuuhhhhhhhh hell idk hfkhjskgs

I liked the way you got onto the platform for the elytra shop in s4??? That's all I got

20- Which Hermit’s skin do you like the most?

Believe it or not it's not actually Welsknight's skin, shocking ik (/s)

Honestly probably Beesuma lol

But in all fairness I do like Wels' skin,, especially this one from the civil war arc

Look at him with his little glasses look how fucking cute

And his little plume is green

ALSO SPEAKING OF SKINS I'm giving y'all the fucking eyebrow rant now;

Welsknight has Two (2) skins where his visor is flipped up and his eyebrows are visible, one with an eyebrow raised the other just normal

This man has these skins SOLELY for the last like around 10 or less seconds of one of his season 5 episodes where he sang Do You Hear The People Sing, he literally just stared at the camera then it switched to him staring at the camera but with an eyebrow raised and that was it that was all he ever used those skins for

Also he once changed his skin to Mr Mime to terrorize Nebris on C8sun's pixelmon server because Nebris hates mimes and I've mentioned this before but Wels also renamed his sword on that server "Mr Mime's Loving Touch" telling us that one day he would kill Nebris with it and it would say Nebris was killed by Mr Mime's loving touch and "it will be glorious"

Anyways fjkfgjskngs that's all the last 10

[arts-rock]

Does anyone want to play Minecraft with me and my brother(we’re on Java, sorry)

[thisoldmac]

This Old Mac Episode 10

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the ongoing saga of using Macintosh stuff.  Well since the previous episode I have been using the Mac Pro a little bit more due to moving it to a new location in my house.

So what have I been playing with at the moment.  Well as you know I was playing with Minecraft last episode.  I'm still no better of a player but occasionally I like to noodle with the modpacks.

So on the side of El Capitan I have been playing two modpacks recently using the MultiMC launcher. Both are large extensive kitchen sink type modpacks with over 200+ mods in each.

The first pack is All the Mods 5.  Now All the Mods 6 does exist and works with Minecraft 1.16.1 but I am running All the Mods 5 which is running under version 1.15.2 because ATM5 is more complete and also the Yogcast are currently playing with the modpack in their current series so I thought I would have a look to see whether it is worth messing about with.

Minecraft 1.15.2 doesn't require Optifine which is a mod to take advantage of modern day graphics cards, getting them to do some of the heavy lifting.  Minecraft is an amazing thing but because it is based in Java can sometimes take forever to load.

However with Optifine it offloads some of the textures to your video card allowing you to run the modpack with a much better FPS when entering areas of block generation.

ATM5 is an interesting pack but not for people with 8GB or less of RAM as the amount of memory for all the mods is quite big.  It doesn't contain All the Mods for all the name but it does contain most of the main ones used by other packs which have been updated.

When not using ATM5.  I have been playing with the Plunger modpack once again this is a kitchen sink modpack in which you have a large amount of the mods.  So you can have various different machines and setups to play with in your Minecraft world.  I believe it has 253 mods available to it.

Does having all these mods make me a better player... of course it doesn't

On the Snow Leopard side of the Mac Pro I have installed Guitar Pro 5 which is a program that allows you to write music using TAB notation and other methods and even play it back.

Now I admit I am not exactly Mozart when it comes to being musical, but I do own a guitar and I have a few minor compositions.  Nothing to write home about before anyone asks.

However people have asked if I have ever transcribed them.  I did using Tux Guitar but that program has proved to be a little temperamental.  So now using Guitar Pro 5 which is probably a million years out of date.  I may be able to keep it running without the program keeling over.

As I have not really tested the program in anger I can only speculate, but hey a man can dream.

Also I have been playing Active Lancer which is a shoot-em-up with various levels.  Your main ship has two firing modes.  and your primary one can switch between three main weapons of Pulse, Laser and Spread which is handy depending on the number of enemies on screen.  The secondary firing is used to fire missiles at ground targets such as tanks, turrets etc.

The game is rather fun, however each level is rather long so it can get very repetitive very quickly.  However that's most shoot-em-ups in a nutshell.

Each level has 4 stages and a boss at the end and the game itself has 6 levels.  The game is quite fun.  There is an updated version of Active Lancer version 1.0.1 that adds extra music, levels and other stuff but no matter what I tried I could not get that to work so I had to stick with version 1.0

It was missing some Carbon file which it didn't tell you which one it was so I could not just go and download CarbonLib as I have no idea which version it actually wants.

So that is what has been keeping me busy in the world of Macintosh.  So until next time... Take care.

[timetravelingmilkshake]

I play modded Minecraft once for like ten minutes just to make sure everything was functional in the modpack I downloaded and I don't think I can ever go back to vanilla Minecraft.

[peter-ino-salinas]

The Rise & Fall of Nerd Kingdom

First, let me say, while I adore and appreciate so much the underground movement and support of the select few who have kept Nerd Kingdom alive in your own ways, as well as our work, thank you. In so many ways you will never know those few of you have kept me going on my own path today.

Second, anyone who was involved who is looked at negatively, you shouldn’t, they are all brilliant people, but brilliant in their own regard, we are human, people had the best intentions, but sometimes values can change and shift when elements are introduced that people do not understand, for better or worse.

If any of you are reading this who were involved in any politics with Nerd Kingdom in any form, know that I always look back and appreciate the things I learned from all of you. Even if I did not always agree, I could have done better to listen and understand. In spite of my own best intentions, I lost myself with so many divided agendas and for that I am sorry. One day I genuinely hope we can be colleagues again, in whatever form that may be.

Genuine Intentions

The earliest forms of Nerd Kingdom were not EXACTLY what it was at the time, but the motivation was quite the same. It was based on some VERY old academic work and mutual interest of my colleagues in various fields. It was very simple, young minds in a social environment with the correct tools have the capacity to advance upon and outmaneuver larger entities which are subject to walls they engineer themselves into. Neat.

In not so technical speak, it was about Modders and Gamers. That was is. We had a quantifiable understanding (creepy topic, different post) that young minds who were not beaten into accepting conventions would define worlds. As it happened, the worlds we cared about were games for all the nerdiest and still most scientific reasons. Early on we had a variety of ways to access data or work with modders, but it wasn't the same as what happened when we saw Minecraft VERY early.

Comically the way we raised money in the first place wasn’t even intentional, we were just a bunch of outcast nerds who were not always understood in Academia or “Business” and we called out some truths about it before it happened. It was simple “The slow nature of content creation in Minecraft will inevitably lead to someone decompiling Java, building various versions and we can correlate that to the rise and fall of any industry or business. And low and behold, what we predicted happened.

To be clear, while we had a more technical articulation, at our core, we were also very much like many modders and gamers, we were passionate hackers who were ignored by masses and still did things that were valuable to people, even if very often we were taken advantage of. Admittedly, some of us had a chip on our shoulder early, but we hid it well, myself included. Assuredly, that chip is now gone, I have you all and my own children to thank for that to force me to see who I was and people around me.

ALL THE MONIES!

We were asked what we would do if we had access to money given that we just proved MAGIC (which was sadly obvious from our views of things) and the natural response was “Create a platform to empower people to learn and play and connect while also identifying measurable patterns of interactions to determine how to teach people how to solve problems and turn them into engineers or better creatives”. As you can imagine, this was confusing. We took some advice from some “Business Folks” we met and this was awesome and horrible down the road, but one of our first curses, which was what we had to do.

“It's like Minecraft with Better Graphics and we have PhDs and stuff”

As you can imagine. All the monies. Its something a lot of us had a conflict with, it was never about MINECRAFT, it was about an environment to play and understand. The reason we actually built our own engine was that the engines in the game industry, even now, are not REALLY all that great at empowering creation, its an inherent flaw in their architecture. So we had to go back to basics... SIMULATION! It's all nerd talk, but it's simple. A simulation engine or simulation at all is simply a single structure of code that allows access to all parts of it. Wanna know what else was a simulation engine, sorta? Minecraft Java. It's not really... well, it's slower than we liked, so we built our own. Several times over in fact, and each time we managed to benchmark performance of various areas that would actually outperform commercial engines, even now.

This resulted in some strange divides, however, this whole “Minecraft killer” thing, gave me anxiety EVERY day and I did my best to try and curb that from a market perspective, but I am sure many people saw it as a sales guise. It wasn't, but I get it, this is what “Games” and “Business” does, so I cannot even be mad about it. But as a result we actually became amazing friends with many amazing influential minds in Minecraft as a community, though the members of Minecraft themselves didn't pay much attention to us, I actually think some of them took jabs at us more than once. That was a bummer.

ALL THE DATAS!

What we tried to show, but did not always do so well with so much going on, is this really was a massive “experiment” that had a lot of potential impact in a LOT of places, not just games. But there is a good reason we kept attracting academics, amazing engineers, investors, and also REALLY pissing people of or outright confusing them. No matter what if you were exposed to what we were doing you paid attention in some way and you certainly had feelings about it in some way.

But our approach was meant to be genuine, its why we were always so transparent with stuff to the point that the industry saw us as these cathartic consumers, not developers like them. Also, nothing I can be upset about now, I get it, especially after now having spent so much time in the “Core Industry”. All that Data, all that research, all the things we were doing we wanted to go back to all of the community. To expose the environment to allow Academia to connect and understand people better, to demonstrate what young minds could do with the correct understanding, tools, and support, to break several walls with one elegant and comically obvious statement, the only way to solve a slew of problems, was understanding and empowering young minds to see how brilliant they all really are and not let us dumb adults or “professionals” make them feel otherwise.

What was NOT obvious to a lot of people, even some of them involved, is we were creating a massive digital brain. This was a result of the kind of engine we built and tools as well. The latest iterations actually had the capacity to understand the input of one thing and the output of another. And it was getting WAY faster with time. This impacted AI, which could learn from players, matchmaking, content distribution, everything. And it was funnier still that we got better at doing it the more we realized that doing it the way the game industry does, would never work.

This is something we wanted to build and give to everyone. It made the most sense that if we can create a great environment for people to play and learn from, they would naturally want to make their own versions of it and people would challenge those things and create new games with it which we could empower. This is also why we became VERY close to influencers in preparation for that. We had “big plans”, which were honestly ridiculously obvious, but we had too many motivations in too many directions which stopped that from happening.

Fighting Hacker Culture

Something that I often forget myself, but have found better ways of reminding myself of, is we are all hackers in nature, very few of us are architects or have the time to question “What was the impact of this thing”, we idolize a hack and create religions around it. Unity, Unreal, Playfab, Python, R, C++, Organic Food, Emotional Intelligence, Data Science, AI, etc, etc, etc. It all “Does a thing”, but we don't take the time to ask “WTF is it REALLY doing and how can it solve my problem better, or do I REALLY need to reinvent the wheel here”.

That being said, a hackers mentality very young when validated and accepted by the people that matter most, the masses, consumers, gamers, etc THAT is powerful and meaningful. THAT is what we wanted to empower. It's not that people who are set in their ways could NOT figure stuff out, it's sad that sometimes as adults and professionals we don't have time to ask why and we are trained to get ready to defend anything we believe in with emotions so big logic doest exist anymore.

But with games, this was powerful to us. We could empower young scientists, engineers, hackers, gamers, storytellers, who were not yet programmed in how to TREAT people, but still curious who could learn and leverage one another to do great things. That to use was disruptive, we didn’t talk about that dream much in the studio, we knew it would freak people out, but the few of us involved leading who drove it, or who was with us but had to leave, we all kept it as our motivation and reminded one another in every way we could.

The Power of Influence

The influencers were also people we became VERY close to early on, not just for their insights into the culture of gaming, but also to find ways of creating a new “Business Structure” for them to connect with indies and modders. Our goal was to not control that business, but create better connections and better tools. To us, this was sadly the most obvious thing to do.

Influencers have a LOT of Data, and even their MCNs have big teams that are sorta... well, built by humans with not great motivations, so it's hard to make sense of Data. On the contrary, we were CREEPY good with that stuff, so we were starting to explore that wedge in between. Not ironically, the same stuff we were building for our own stuff was going to be used for the data coming in from the influencers too.

To us, the influencer was the PERFECT game publisher and the solution would have been able to negate their own reliance on brands, advertisers, MCNs, etc. They would get access to games and content, they would be able to stay genuine, modders could monetize, profits could be split with influencers, we would use smart data and “AI” (still hate that term) to create a full loop. More data would come in, Science, Tech, Influence, etc would all create a symbiotic ecosystem and we would just take cuts of profits to keep building tools to keep making everyone better.

Saying Goodbye

As a few of you may know, I live and breathed this project. It cost me a lot on an emotional level. While trying to find balance and losing myself it cost me a relationship with my children, it did result in a divorce, and it led to a lot of pain and anxiety from failing everyone. I sadly was raised to take on the rough situations, but I always got good at “processing” and “growing” as it were, its also what led me to do things in Academia and in Business which would ALSO make people feel some kind of way about me :P

While its unfortunate things ended this way, and I still hold the weight of it and I refuse to ignore it, I understand why it happened. In the end, it helped make me remember who I was before we got caught up with the money. But the things I did AFTER Nerd Kingdom were interesting, things I still do today. And still, the things I do today either REALLY piss people off, resulting in amazing friends or outright confuse people, but when they hear of me or see what I have to say, or awkwardly and playfully call out every buzz word they throw at me, they pay attention in some form.

I have been offered executive roles at HUGE studios in games, many of which you all know by name, many of which are also in the public eye for missing the mark. I have become friends with “big name Venture Capitalists” literally around the world, I have become an advisor, mentor, colleague or friend to these brilliant minds who are Loved, Hated or Ignored in the space and I keep them close. More important to me, I keep them close and connect them with one another, its important to me that people have a chance to connect and understand to challenge their views but ultimately see they are wanting the same things, even if they forgot their path to getting to their success.

Saying Hello?

I noticed something a year ago after about 40 ish studios or tech companies that I was being offered work at, was advising, consulting, or just visiting to say hi... they all suffered from the pains they seemed to be ignoring. Their views on Data, Culture, Games, Technology, and even AI was... well, human. The very nature of the market in games and the creative passions and pains of gamers created a divide that results in... well, human responses, which are not so great.

As it happened the further I looked I would see little pieces of technology we were building or trying to build at Nerd Kingdom were popping up. I took the time to chat with them, even brought some of their own tech and tools into games at a few studios, then started to formally start chatting with more studios to just ask questions. Turns out, we built at Nerd Kingdom the earliest version of what a few big game studios are doing now and in tech, but they seem to be overlooking how they should connect, which simply comes from language barriers inside and no time to REALLY solve problems.

Then, those few big names from big studios out there now who know me, some famous designers, some brilliant engineers, a few investors and a handful of others put some pressure on me to get something going again. And I think it might. As it happens my meetings with people are becoming more frequent, my brain is fried, I am connecting and reconnecting with like minds in places like IBM, Qualcomm, Google, and even a few very large tech entities and it seems that with a bit of dialog we are all on the same page.

NOPE

Now, if something DOES happen, it happens because it makes sense and I would not be so bold as to promise we went back to making TUG, that would be tricky, though I did adore the world, which was also VERY calculated at the time, but what I can promise is that my work will always involve efforts of giving more power and understanding to all of you.

If somehow I do manage to make another thing I have to personally be more careful about who is involved, the money, and the terms. Hard lesson learned and I have to do it in a way that would allow things to be flexible enough to make it up to the many of you that invested a lot of time, or money where you could support what we did, while I will say it, assuredly, none of us ever forgot. And none of you were ever just “consumers” to us.

While I do have VC colleagues even if they wanted to, you can’t fund nothing without them taking a LOT of control fast, so some of the stuff I am exploring is simply a mutually beneficial agreement with a group I know well. Help them build a thing, let me take a thing and use it to make the deal work correctly. I have been fortunate enough to have a team of people, even a few very famous influencers you wouldn't suspect to support us when the time is right.

The names involved and the people in some form are easy to figure out, but others are not so easy to figure out and some names I am talking to now I won't name drop, because in my business world that is still rude until they are more comfortable with the idea of doing business is this... awkwardly honest.

Playing It Cool

While Nerd Kingdom is dissolved and TECHNICALLY this is within my “Legal Rights” I do understand that sometimes business against its better nature can result in “actions”. So I’ll do the same thing I do with each awkward conversation in games, just in case anyone is paying attention from the business world.

To whoever is potentially considering legal actions, it would be a silly thing to do. While your legal teams may not understand this, your executives certainly know it, I pay attention to details and I am not motivated by money, which makes trying to take legal action on me VERY silly. On the contrary, I’m collaborative, helpful and tend to make everyone else a lot of money ALL the time if I am given the ability to do so and their own internal politics do not devour the work I do. 

In short, it's a short-sighted move to take action on someone that you know VERY well is capable of bringing people with a lot of potential together to do things with a lot of amazing potential. I do happen to have a LOT of friends in “big places” in the strangest way, I took the time to plant seeds and do a LOT of favors, any actions I am sure would be public for all the wrong reasons and in the end it would only validate the work I have done in the American and European market of the things we did and are capable of doing. So, I would rather just be friends :D

To My Nerds

To anyone that has had the patience to have gotten this far, don’t let me forget who I am, ever again. And thank you for the weight of failure I was able to pick up to remember it when I was important. I don't know how yet, or when, or in what form, but something is telling me that soon ill be doing something of interest, with a few people of interest, with a lot of potential.

Thank you, each one of you, troll, evangelist, or otherwise, you keep me human, in the best possible ways.