I must confess, up front, I'm new to this pious place and am unsure if I'll be pounding these digital roads for very long but already I'm disappointed with this new Realms server swap.

I had been working in World of Minecraft Main for the past few days on a little project that, without the assistance of automated scripts to clear blocks and what not was quite an effort but it was fun to see my creation grow organically and realizing I still had quite a bit to work on.

I knew of this new "Realms" server coming to us soon but had only heard vague mumblings that it would be replacing Main and not when or how that might happen.

And then today... it's gone.  My hours of effort, my little project seemingly erased for all time and what is left is the distinctly suburban disposition of World of Minecraft Realms.  No longer the grand city bustling with individuals we've each been assigned our own little-plots of personal kingdoms to manage as we see fit. 

But I didn't join World of Minecraft to be an admin or manage my little kingdom, I joined it so I can express a little creative flow, a little juice of the mind and let others appreciate those creations.  The reason the grand city of Main was so very grand is you butted heads, you were constantly on top of other people, negotiating, meeting, talking, discussing, dealing with things and though no one liked the griefers, people clearly liked the community.  

Realms, as it stands now, it the equivalent of the little house with a two car garage and a white picket house, a perfect lawn and never, ever any need to interact with others.  People move to the city to be with other people; they move to the suburbs to be with themselves.  Oh, the claims "But you can visit others, you can goto other realms..." but the default is quite clearly the solemn existence of 'local'.  The starting point is now: you play in your little sandbox and leave me to play in mine.

Those who have the benefit of past relationships and bonds will find it easy to be granted building rights in others' realms and the little cliques will form where people can hangout and the new can be discouraged -- want to see who's online?  TAB brings up just lonely you.  Sure shout-out to everyone with the equal-sign but the reason you must use the equal-sign is because the default is solemn and lonely.  Want someone to visit your creation?  You must beg for visitors to your realm, no quick /tp to them -- no stumbling upon some awesome fortress or befuddling maze when those people are offline because how would you ever know they existed unless you started guessing about realms?  Searching random usernames?  There's no meandering around the big city, it's the gated-communities now.

I suppose it's better for all concerned, no more griefing -- or at least it's your own damn fault, right?  But the thing about community is it isn't made up of the walls, the fences, or the realms but the people -- forcing people together can be uncomfortable and tedious but the result is a bustling, lively interaction.  Just like the cities of the not-so-digital world.

My own creation, a little underground aquarium was a challenge because I had to deal with running into other people's work, build around, or under, or between and incorporate them in a good way (or bad).  But the payoff?  A chance that they'd stumble upon my creation and go "Whoa" or "wow, I never would have thought of that..." or "that's really detailed" or whatever remark might come forth, even the dreaded, "I want to tear this place up!!! pass me the lava blocks."

You know that feeling when you lose that school paper you've been working for hours on, a computer crash?  That punch in the gut?  

I feel like that -- I was mid-project and zap... and to top it off, I have to re-register because there was no way to migrate the user information from one server to the other?

Quite literally, square one.

It's a bit discouraging and really disappointing.  It's not a demonstration of community or communication or the general spirit of good-will but rather something quite the opposite.  All in the name of progress, all the name of that bigger-brighter-better future.

I for one feel a little like I've watched the baby fly-out the window with the bathwater and don't particularly trust the nanny to take care of the next one I whip up.

Eh, it's all just a game anyway, not like it counts for anything, right?

Jaqs