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we are all aware of this
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phenomenon the so-called two we
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Minecraft phase and odds are you are
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going through one of those
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phases right
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now the twoe Minecraft phase is a very
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unique and wildly recognized cultural
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experience there are memes about it
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YouTube videos about it there's even an
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urban dictionary definition for it but
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what most of us don't seem to understand
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is why why do we have this two we
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Minecraft phase what is it only last for
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2 weeks why do so many people in our
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generation experience this well to
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answer this question we have to go back
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in time a little bit back to a time
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before the two we phases back to our
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first introduction to this game we all
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love and for me that time was 20133
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I remember this all vividly it was the
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end of May summer vacation was right
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around the corner and a friend of mine
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had just introduced me to this Lego BL
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like game called Minecraft of course it
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was a cracked version of Minecraft
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because I came from a country in culture
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that stigmatized paying for video games
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at the time but then again we didn't
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even pay our taxes matter of fact we
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still
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don't oh come on guys it was a joke
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anyway the point is I launched the game
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created a new world and spawn in a swamp
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biome just just like this one on
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Minecraft
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1.5.2 and from that point on I don't
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think I stopped playing
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[Music]
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Minecraft and of course why would I the
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game was and is genius it's basically a
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digital Lego set that never runs out of
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blocks for you to build with or places
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for you to explore it is honestly as
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close to perfect as it gets but no
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matter how perfect it was by the end of
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2014 there was a new player on the
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Block no no we're not doing this no if
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you want to hear about Five Nights at
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Freddy's go watch one of map pass
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200,000 oh God damn it the point is
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Minecraft had gotten a little boring as
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any game does after a year of playing it
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so one day without even realizing it I
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logged out of Minecraft for the last
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time until a year later when my first
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ever twoe Minecraft phase would begin
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even though this was the first of many
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twoe phases it turned out just like all
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the ones that followed it was fun
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exciting and nostalgic in the first week
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but by week two all of that had
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faded and as many of us will attest to
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it just wasn't the same as it once
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was that twoe cycle would go on to
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repeat many times over many years it
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almost became a tradition like say
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Christmas so what do you want for
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Christmas to be able to afford a house
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in this now that I think of it
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prior to starting this YouTube channel I
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don't think I had ever actually made it
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past the first week of one of these
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phases in fact in recent years I was
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actually tired of the whole thing by day
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three and this was for many reasons but
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there was one that stood out to me the
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most one that I didn't expect yeah you
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got some iron I can borrow I want to
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make some armor what the uh take that
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and take
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that dude how do you have enough for two
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sets of diamond armor already oh that's
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easy I just made this contraption in the
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strip mine I found out on YouTube by
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that one guy uh let's yeah we all have
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that one friend who speedruns the game
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to the point where he has 64 diamond
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blocks and 43 elytras and less time than
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it takes a creeper to explode behind you
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now I don't know about you but this is
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the reason that I personally never make
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it past day three Minecraft was not
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meant to be played like that it was
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meant to be played at a much slower pace
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so that you could explore the vast World
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it offers through the various biomes
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cave systems and other worldly
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dimensions mess around with your friends
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build a house a giant City a giant
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uh what don't get me wrong we all love
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watching dream get hunted by his friends
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as he tried to beat the game in an hour
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oh my God but that doesn't have to be
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every Minecraft playthrough personally
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the most fun I ever had in Minecraft was
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playing slowly just messing around in
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vanilla chatting it up with my friends
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while we struggle to build a house in
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survival mode here let's give it the H I
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fell
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off this terrible no crazy mods no
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ridiculous objectives just playing and
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experiencing the game at its natural
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pace efficiency and feather falling 4
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sure maybe we tried exploding the game
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for an extra diamond or two but we most
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definitely weren't doing what the
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average of Minecraft YouTubers doing
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these days in my last banger I collected
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every blot there is in Minecraft and
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today I build a house now I'm by no
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means trying to hate on other Minecraft
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creators most of them make very
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entertaining content for their target
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audiences and of course course they can
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play the game how they want to I'm just
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simply saying that you likely shouldn't
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play the game as they are if you want it
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to last more than 2 weeks mainly because
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it's probably just not that fun to do so
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why am I still strip mining what you
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have to understand is that those
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Minecraft creators play the game like
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it's their full-time job and do so
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because it is their full-time job in
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many cases they have to constantly think
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of new ways to make their videos
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interesting for you to watch that's
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where all those 100 Days videos extreme
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challenges and mod packs come in but
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they only show you the good parts in
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their videos they don't show you that to
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get 64 diamond blocks you have to know
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Life the game while exploiting it like
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the US government exploits any country
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that has crude oil we're here fighting
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bad guys I swear I'm sure if you played
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and thought about Minecraft 8 hours a
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day 5 days a week trying to make YouTube
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videos you would lose your mind if you
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didn't spice it up a bit but that's not
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you you don't play Minecraft for work
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you play it to have fun either alone or
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with your friends so stop trying to kill
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the Ender Dragon in 30
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minutes yeah woohoo I killed the Ender
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Dragon for the 40th time in5 seconds oh
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who cares well they don't you do the
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same thing don't you play Minecraft from
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work that's a great question Melvin but
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the thing is I don't play Minecraft like
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what I just described if you went
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through the videos on my Channel at the
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time of this recording you would find
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that I barely just started enchanting my
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diamond stuff I don't even have diamond
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armor and I've yet to go to the end
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after about 6 months of playing on this
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main world that I record on because of
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this fact I haven't really gotten bored
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after many years of having abandoned the
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game I finally figured out one of the
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secrets for playing it longer than 2
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weeks and that secret is just playing it
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at my own pace terms without subscribing
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to whatever the current update or meta
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is for the game right now in fact that's
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why for the longest time I've been
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playing on the older 1.7 and 1.8
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versions of the game from
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2014 but what's so special about those
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versions after all there's not as much
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to do less servers you can access only
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one color for fences what gives the
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answer is that there isn't anything
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special about those versions the truth
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is it's not about the version itself but
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rather The Nostalgia that the version
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brings you look we all know that the
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reason that us slightly older folk go
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back to Minecraft is to re-experience
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that feeling of getting home from middle
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school and hopping on Minecraft with
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your friends for me Middle School was in
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2014 that's when I played Minecraft the
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most consistently I remember spending
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the majority of the summer of 2014 on
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various Minecraft servers messing around
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with my friends and when I wasn't
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playing the game I was likely watching
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the most recent skota Minecraft
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video as you can see it all depends on
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your experience with the game you might
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have like the beta versions of Minecraft
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better simply because that's when you
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had your Minecraft Peak wait there's no
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hunger bar or you could be younger and
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maybe your Minecraft Peak was in the
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1.10 or something so having established
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this let's say you launched Minecraft on
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the version you had the most fun you
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play a little bit but you realize just
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like every other Minecraft phase it's
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not the same as it used to be something
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is still missing your childhood friends
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so you go ahead and round up the troops
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but I'm sure we can all relate to what
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comes next as suspected one friend is
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busy and can't join another can play but
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only for an hour and the last one hasn't
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been online in over 6 years you find
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that the squad you made all those
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memories with is nothing but a remnant
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of the past so you and your one friend
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play for that measly hour searching for
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that same feeling you had back in the
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Glory Days but unfortunately you search
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to no avail nothing can replicate that
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feeling the feeling of having fun with
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your friends gaming on a school night
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where you should be in bed that feeling
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of experiencing one of your favorite
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games for the first time that feeling of
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the good old days but it's only been a
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few days you still have hope so you keep
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on playing and playing maybe with the
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squad Maybe by yourself but you slowly
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start to creep up on that two we Mark
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and you see the end coming once again
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because you realize what you're looking
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for only exists and your memories that's
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what I think makes remembering those
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days so much more special because when
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the old Squad finally does get back
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together see
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you it makes reminiscing with them about
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those fun times so much better matter of
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fact recently I found myself Reminiscing
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on some of the good old Minecraft days
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while listening to some Minecraft
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music and it kind of just hit me the
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Minecraft soundtracks are so insanely
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good now personally I don't know
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anything about music
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but I found this video by a Creator
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named maraki who perfectly describes how
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I feel when I listen to Sunflower
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lullabi which is playing right now these
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tracks for me while Cal as the name
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suggests invoke a sense of melancholy
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when I listen to them I find them
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extremely sad despite having neither
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context nor lyrics the ambients created
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by the strings give a sense of
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loneliness and the piano feels almost
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like footsteps wandering through that
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vast emptiness and if you think about it
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that perfectly embodies what playing
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Minecraft alone is like to add on to
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mari's perfect description of this
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without even realizing it all of us here
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today recognize these tracks without
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having a second thought about it even
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just listening to the soundtrack back
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while editing this video I sometimes get
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chills which is insane to me since I
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listen to it regularly while playing
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Minecraft but it invokes such a unique
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and familiar feeling that I can't
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possibly separate the soundtrack from
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the game
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I would argue that hearing this
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soundtrack on a Tik Tok or random
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YouTube video has in many cases been the
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reason why many people including myself
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even start their annual 2E phase just a
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glimpse into your past through the
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unique properties of Sound and Music are
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enough to make you want to play the game
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again and that's pretty cool in my
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opinion now all of this still begs the
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question why do so many people
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experience this why is it such a
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cultural phenomenon throughout the
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gaming community on such a worldwide
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scale well it's no secret that Minecraft
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has the most sales of any video game
00:11:03
ever like by aing lot Minecraft has
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almost as many sales as the United
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States of America has residents based on
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these numbers if Minecraft was a country
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it would be the fourth largest country
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based on population in the entire world
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in fact more people care about Minecraft
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than they care about the entire country
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of France sorry France not to mention
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all the people who played cracked
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versions people who would play at their
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friends houses you name it to our
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generation playing Minecraft is the same
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as when the Boomers talk about going
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outside and playing with I don't know a
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stick in a
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rock for hundreds of millions of people
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Minecraft is and was part of their
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childhood their Pastime their life and I
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don't know about you but I just find
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that so fascinating that a clever
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amalgamation of ones and zeros
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transmitted to us through wires and
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conduits and projected onto a screen
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made of liquids crystals and transparent
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electrodes was able to invoke a dee
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rooted emotional response in so many
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human beings experiencing it so the next
00:12:02
time you have your two we Minecraft
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phase whether it was triggered by a new
00:12:06
PewDiePie let'splay or you listening to
00:12:08
one of the melancholic Minecraft
00:12:10
soundtracks think of the fact that so
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many others like
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you are most likely doing the same
