You were spawned in a dark oak forest, surrounded by giant mushrooms. You can hear a cow moo in the distance. After taking in your surroundings, you get to work. Now you have a large cabin in the woods with a fruitful farm.

 Minecraft came out on November 18, 2011, and had a growth in popularity in 2012. With popular content creators such as CaptainSparklez, SkyDoesMinecraft, now Sky Does Everything, DanTDM, iHasCupquake, and many others. Most content consisted of playing the game for creative builds and competitive PVP matches. The game slowly slipped out of popularity in mid-2014, and the hype for the game died down. 

Now, the game has gained popularity again. A large contributing factor to this was the creation of the Dream SMP. Minecraft YouTuber Dream had gained popularity after his speedrun videos. He and his friends GerogeNotFound and Sapnap had made several videos where they coded ridiculous challenges into the game and Dream has a Manhunt series where he has to beat the game before he is killed by the hunters. Beating the game is done by killing the ender dragon in the end, a task that is difficult to achieve.

In May of 2020, Dream had made an SMP (survival multiplayer) server calling it the DreamSMP. It is an invite-only server with big content creators on YouTube and Twitch such as Tommyinnit, Tubbo, Technoblade, Wilbur Soot, and others. The server is used to deliver roleplay content with a complicated storyline. This SMP has since gained attention and now has a large following of dedicated fans.

“They all brought forth new ways to play the game, and truly depressed their creativity through scripting, mod designs, and so much more,” senior Mykayla Cole said.

Since the release of the game in 2009, there have been a series of updates for the game. During the high-time of the game, players received the redstone, horse, and bountiful update. After the decline of the game in 2014, updates such as the Combat, Frostburn, and Exploration updates were made.

“I think it has changed a lot since 2009. The graphics have gotten a lot better, more blocks, mobs, animals, and biomes have been added. It just keeps getting better and better,” junior Emma Shawley said.

Now, during the resurgence of the game, the Bee and Nether updates were made. An update that is highly anticipated to be released is the Caves and Cliffs update which will revamp the listed locations and add in new blocks and animals like copper and goats.

“I’m pretty excited to see the new cave biomes. After seeing some pictures it does look very interesting, I will miss the old caves though,” Emma said.

With the contribution of new content creators and new updates, the game has come into popularity again. The game has given many people an outlet for creativity and a way to make friends.