Chess.com...on Minecraft??
As you may or may not know, I love Minecraft and just about everything about it, except for being pushed into lava or down a ravine by my pets. I don't play the game as most probably do; building huge towers, fortresses, or even a massive, sprawling town. I play it "Survivorman" Style where I take a number of in-game days trying to survive in some of Minecraft's dangerous climates. I got this idea, not only from Les Stroud ("Survivorman") but by a YouTuber, Paul Soares Jr., whose channel you can see by clicking this link. He's had a series called Man vs. Minecraft, where he follows a set of rules and role-plays the series like he's actually there. He's very good at it and even if you don't like Minecraft, he has other series going on right now like Skyrim and DayZ, the widely popular zombie mod for Arma II.
Anyway, one day, a long while ago, I decided to see what the world would look like if I created a world called "Chessdotcom," to see what kind of features would be in the world. I wasn't disappointed. Before I go any further, if there are some (I couldn't imagine how many) who don't know about Minecraft, go here.
So what did I find during my fly-around of Minecraft in the "Chessdotcom" world? Let's see:
Right off the bat, if you decide to capitalize the "C" in chess makes a big difference. Uppercase and lowercase starts you in two very different climates, a wintry forest or a regular forest, and every change would be different than what I did and saw here.
Spawning point: a nice, quiet little forest:
Still at spawning point, looking at the flowers:
The witch's hut - she wasn't home though, but next to the hut came this:
A ravine-with an extra special present inside---an abandoned mineshaft!! Since I got the game I've only seen a handful of them because of the way I play, but there were at least 3 on this map that I saw. I don't know what's in that mineshaft, so maybe one of you cyber spelunkers can let me know. 
Then I found this, in my favorite area of Minecraft, the Extreme Hills:
Once I got in and put some torches up all around, I noticed the waterfall (although I did hear it before putting up the torches). Minecraft can be such a great place to be, even if you just want to walk (or fly) around to see the sights...like the next picture:
Happy Halloween!!
A couple more and we're done. Extreme Hills Time!!!
The mountain and rock formations in this climate/biome are really a sight to see. Throwing gravity right out the window.
I just love these formations!
Alright I have a ton of pictures I can put up here to show what the world holds but if anyone has Minecraft out there, and are waiting for the 1.4 "Very Scary Update" or even have the 1.4 pre-release, try these worlds out, not in Creative mode like I did but at least on Normal or Hard, I always play Hardcore though. Check them out, see what you can find. As Paul Soares Jr. says "What do we say about holes in Minecraft? Holes lead to adventure."
I know this doesn't have anything to do with chess on any level except the name of the world, but it's something I enjoyed doing and Chess.com is my favorite site, so it was a no-brainer to me. In any case, look for more chess and non-chess-related blogs in the future.
Have a great night everyone!
-Mark
