Minecraft is a lot of different things to a lot of different people; a place to
build a word processor, recreate Westeros or trap incredible monsters. For many players itās simply about survival, which means making sure you have shelter at night, forging armor and weapons with which you can fend off attackers, and somehow finding food to keep your hunger meter full. Itās that last one that presented a problem for me when I picked the game up again recently.
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So now Iām a vegetarian, and Iām much happier. But when I started playing the Xbox One edition of Minecraft I found myself in a curious situation: how to play Minecraft successfully without killing any animals?
I wanted to see if I could play Minecraft as I live life: by doing as little harm as possible to my friendly animal neighbors.
When Minecraft arrived on Xbox 360 in 2011 my friends and I delighted for hours and hours in the gameās splitscreen mode, crafting elaborate bases in which we squirreled away our valuables and set traps for one another. We experimented with redstone; I made a complex five-way track switcherāstill one of my proudest gaming achievementsāwith help from a diagram online. We harassed one another constantly, but we played on āpeacefulā difficulty so we wouldnāt have to deal with destructive creepers and that pesky hunger meter too.
I did occasionally crank up the difficulty, on Xbox 360 and again later when I built my first gaming PC. Iām not opposed to a challengeāthe Souls games are some of
my absolute favoritesāand I wanted to feel that struggle. But the hunger thing vexed me, and I found myself spending way too much time hunting for pigs whose flesh I could roast for food. It was never long before the chicken drumsticks that represent your hunger started ticking down again, and farming seemed boring, so I eventually went back to peaceful mode and then lost interest in the game for a time.
I knew I could spend my time hunting pigs through the woods if I wanted to, but I wanted to see if I could play Minecraft as I live life: by doing as little harm as possible to my friendly animal neighbors.
But Iām also not the first person whoās had this thought. There are Minecraft Forum posts suggesting rules for a
vegetarian challenge, andthe same can be found onmany other online communities. Some thoughtful players simplypose the question: āDo vegetarians avoid killing animals in-game?ā One respondent says that any who do canāt tell the difference between reality and fantasy, which I donāt necessarily agree with. Imposing your own external rule set on a game is nothing new; itās called a metagame, and itās common in communities ranging from competitive first-person shooter players toavid PokĆ©mon trainers
Thatās how I saw my own Minecraft vegetarian challenge: as an extra set of rules that I hoped would force me to play the game more creatively and, ultimately, have more fun.
In the interest of honesty I have to admit that I got off to a rough start when I really quit eating meat back in 2013. I cheated. A few weeks in I drunkenly gorged myself on some home-smoked BBQ pulled pork, and for months Iād regularly eat fish, saying it was to ween myself off meat gradually, like a smoker chewing nicotine gum. Iāll still eat fish very occasionally, in sushi, because I really, really like sushi.
My experience in Minecraft was similar. Although I didnāt have to resort to eating meat or even fish, I did cheat. Iād done a bit of research before starting my challenge in Minecraft, and had decided to start by farming wheat I could bake into bread. But the wheat seemed to take forever to grow, and in the meantime I was mining resources and trying to stay alive with just a single half heart because my hunger meter was constantly empty. Iād fall a few feet off a ledge and die instantly. Itās a pretty great analogy, actually.
I had spawned and made my base in a jungle environment, so there were plenty of animals around. They proved a temptationājust until my crops started to grow!ābut I resisted, instead abusing the gameās generous save system. I did this a lot during those first few hours, making a bit of progress, getting killed by an errant mob or a careless step, and reloading to a few minutes earlier. That probably explains why I felt like the wheat wasnāt growing, but sitting around waiting for it was like watching low-res paint dry, and I was determined to have fun.
So just like in life, I eventually found a rhythm. The wheat did grow, and I quickly baked more bread than I could carry. I planted a mushroom farm in a dark corner of my mine so I could make stew. I eventually found a carrot on a zombie (I still donāt really get why, but thatās Minecraft) and I started multiplying those in the ground too. I added sugarcane to my farm so I could make cakes and cookiesāyou have to treat yourself sometimesāand I planted two rows of pumpkins, though you canāt even eat them. I just like the way they look on my farm (update: apparently I can make pumpkin pie! Yay! Thanks commenters).
I donāt think any of the blocky cows and sheep that wander near my jungle home are aware of the fate they avoided when I spawned into their world instead of some other player
Yes, Iām now, for the first time, a self-sustaining Minecraft player. It turns out challenging yourself pays off.
I donāt think any of the blocky cows and sheep that wander near my jungle home are aware of the fate they avoided when I spawned into their world instead of some other player, but thatās part of the beauty of animals. Theyāre wonderfully naive. I did befriend a dog, using bones from a hostile skeletonāit was self defense!āand Iāve been trying to tame a cat, though just like in real life thatās significantly more challenging. Iām feeding it fish, which I count as the natural order.
I do object on some level to the hunger meter being represented by those flesh popsicles, which look less appetizing to me with every day I spend not indulging in them. If I was on PC I could probably mod those out, but oh well. Iām on the right track, and Iām not going to start over now.
Every time I pick Minecraft back up I discover something new that I love about it. I think thatās one of the reasons why itās remained so popular for so long: thereās always more to discover. And Iāve still barely mined the surface. Iām building a picturesque home block-by-block, and I have a minecart track with some simple redstone mechanisms to take me between my farm and house and mines. But Iāve never brewed a potion, or traded with a villager, or defeated the Ender Dragon or the Elder Guardian (or even seen them, for that matter).
Iām excited to keep playing and discover everything thatās been added since the last time I was into Minecraft, and there are definitely lots of unknowns. But one thing I am certain of is that Iāll never again find myself chasing a pig through the woods with a sword in Minecraft.
