I had never really played Minecraft before the year 2020. Sure, I’d watched my little cousins play when I was in my early twenties and thought I was too good for video games that looked like they were for babies, but what did I know back then. I never could have predicted that Minecraft would inevitably become one of the most important and fulfilling video games for me in the worst of times. 

In June of 2020, I was totally miserable for reasons I’m sure you can guess. I was unemployed, quarantining, and wallowing in my uncertain and futureless existence. A friend of mine asked if I wanted to join a Minecraft server he’d started with some friends. «Why not?» I asked myself. I’d just finished Red Dead Redemption 2 and was craving a crumb of social engagement, even if that meant mining for coal in a virtual world. It only took a few hours of playing while voice chatting in their Discord to realize that Minecraft was precisely the escape from the depressing plague I’d been craving for months. I’m not exaggerating when I say that Minecraft was imperative for my mental health during that difficult time of social isolation, and for that reason I’m eternally grateful that the game exists.