How to Play Minecraft (According to Alsion)

Title image credit to Dane Harris

Alsion students rarely have much free time to spend, but games still get their fair share of playtime from students at this school. It turns out, Minecraft is the most popular game for the students, by a large margin. (See my previous article: https://witherlyheights.org/the-tastes-of-alsion-gamers/ ) However, there are many ways to play Minecraft. Which ones do Alsion students prefer? Let’s find out!

By: Jayden Cammarata

What do you do in Minecraft?

The most common pastime of an Alsion Minecrafter is building. However, the other activities Minecraft offers are also popular. Nearly as many people (11 versus 14, out of a total of 16 respondents who play Minecraft) like exploring as building, and as many people like fighting as exploring.

Who do you play Minecraft with?

Most people play Minecraft with their friends. However, a few people also like to play it as a singleplayer game. One person even plays it often with strangers. 

What servers do you play on?

Hypixel is a hugely popular Minecraft server. Over 30 million people have played it, more than a fifth of all people who have ever played Minecraft. However, among Alsion students, it is even more popular than among Minecraft players as a whole. Of the 16 Minecrafters who responded to the survey, 11 people play on any server. 10 of them play on Hypixel.

In addition to Hypixel, some students play on personal servers with their friends. Some also play on public servers other than Hypixel. However, neither of these play types are overly common.

Is Survival or Creative Better?

The majority (three quarters of the respondents) of Alsion students prefer to play Minecraft in survival mode over creative mode. This is odd in one way, since more people like building than anything else and building is better done in Creative than in Survival, but it also makes sense, considering many people play on survival servers such as Hypixel.

This should clearly be taken as irrefutable proof that survival mode is objectively better than creative mode‽ 

How long have you been playing Minecraft?

There was a roughly even split in this survey between people who picked up Minecraft recently and those who have been playing for almost a decade. 6 out of 16 people started playing the game only 1 or 2 years ago, and 8 out of 16 have been playing (not necessarily consistently) for 7 or more years. This includes 4 people who have been playing for at least a decade, which is impressive, considering half of this survey’s audience is under 15 and the other half is under 18.

Put together, this gives us a fairly clear picture of how Alsion students play Minecraft. They often play on servers with their friends, and they like to fight people (and things) when they’re not playing alone. They play especially often on Hypixel. They also like to build and explore. They mostly play in survival mode. 

There’s also one other data point I collected that might give us more insight into the lives of Alsion students. A total of 19 people responded to this survey for Minecraft players. Of these 19 people, 16 had played Minecraft. Another 3 had evidently had a sad childhood.