Social Motivations

     The majority of my social interaction in Minecraft was with my previously existing friends or group members and not with people that I met in the game. Most players in public servers seem to either ignore other players or simply not be able to find many others in the very large open world. The few interactions that I had with other players in the servers were usually limited to PVP attacks where other player's avatars would try and kill me for experience or to loot my gear. The only positive interaction that I had with other players included compliments regarding my impressive structure as they explored it.

     I do not feel however that I was missing out much on a social experience while playing Minecraft, due to the heavy survival focus of the game, cooperation is the best way to approach many, if not all issues in the game. I cooperated with players that I communicated with outside of the game, either face-to-face or over Skype. Through proper cooperation, my friends and I were able to mine materials more efficiently and build more impressive structures.

     In "The Guild" the players were able to overcome real-life issues as well as issues within their virtual world through cooperating, both face-to-face and over voice chat while playing the game. My experience with Minecraft has been similar in that many of the objectives that I have overcome would have been impossible without the help of my friends.