Minecraft as a Viable Passion?

[goldpower123]

I'm 21, throughout my teen years I was extremely passionate in Minecraft as a game, loved the creative aspect and freedom to build and survive however. I built my own server, hired a team of staff and invested literally thousands of hours into it, ended up making around $200 a week at one point during high school just off donations. Did this for around 2-3 years. Like the people on my server could sense the passion and it was a community of like minded people, but slowly I changed due to addiction and ego indulgence and lost all my authentic passion for life as many out in society do.

I've just recently visited this passion after so long of stopping, and after doing some personal development. I feel that spark that was there years ago. Like I truly enjoyed and found passion in the game and I know I could provide value and enjoy it heaps. But the value wouldn't be like providing some conventional service or labor for a company like out in society, it would be more personal, entertainment, creative/inspiring value. 

That's where my question comes in, how do I reconcile the pressure of what a "conventional career" is versus just authentically pursuing what I enjoy and find passionate. Like can this kind of thing, Minecraft or any gaming, be a viable thing to pursue long term? I also don't want to spend so much time and effort into something I don't enjoy, even though it would be "conventional" and standard work like e.g. engineering. I don't want to make loads of money I just want to be happy doing what I truly enjoy.

[Dlavjr]

How can you do it in such a way that you can market something that will provide benefit to society? That's probably the biggest question. 

[Yarco]

Yes it's viable. When working through the Life Purpose Course, it was one of the options on my shortlist.

I ran my own Minecraft server for most of 2019 - 2020. I nearly started a how-to channel to compete with The Breakdown teaching people how to run their own servers. That guy is currently sitting at 300k+ subscribers on Youtube and safe to say he is making a living from what he loves. There is 100% room for another channel in that space.

For me, it became too stressful. The power of being an admin got to me and turned me into an asshole. I got obsessed with maintaining a great lag-free server and started to resent my own players. And I was making more and more rules to micromanage stuff like redstone machines, which upset people. Eventually there was too big of a disconnect between what I wanted and what players wanted, so I decided to just step aside and let my mods take over the server and run it themselves.

Being a server admin is a thankless job where people never really tell you what you're doing right, and immediately start shouting the second something goes wrong. It also doesn't pay great for the amount of work that you put in.

There are a few guys who run multiple servers for different game modes and seem to be making a good living. But most of them do stuff that I think technically breaks Minecraft's ToS, like offering special perks to paying members that give them an advantage over non-paying members.

Like Dlavjr said I would try to find a way to benefit society. Don't do it as a money-grab. But don't think that it has to be some grand vision though. Giving a kid who is bullied at school somewhere that they feel safe and welcome to hang out is huge. The memories from your server may be some of the highlights of their adolescence, you might even save some kid from killing themselves by finding meaning and community on your server.

Aside from running a server, you could create all kinds of Youtube channels. Let's Plays, how-to guides, etc. Or even offer a service where you come in and create a running server completely customized for someone and then hand it over, so they get a turnkey solution without needing all the technical details.

A couple of the companies renting out Minecraft servers seem to be run by teenagers as well. If you like more of the IT side and want to rent an entire OVH server and then split it up for people to rent from you.

Edited June 2, 2021 by Yarco

[Strangeloop]

Ahhh... I miss the old days when I played minecraft with my buddies. Good times, good times

[goldpower123]

14 hours ago, Yarco said:

Yes it's viable. When working through the Life Purpose Course, it was one of the options on my shortlist.

I ran my own Minecraft server for most of 2019 - 2020. I nearly started a how-to channel to compete with The Breakdown teaching people how to run their own servers. That guy is currently sitting at 300k+ subscribers on Youtube and safe to say he is making a living from what he loves. There is 100% room for another channel in that space.

For me, it became too stressful. The power of being an admin got to me and turned me into an asshole. I got obsessed with maintaining a great lag-free server and started to resent my own players. And I was making more and more rules to micromanage stuff like redstone machines, which upset people. Eventually there was too big of a disconnect between what I wanted and what players wanted, so I decided to just step aside and let my mods take over the server and run it themselves.

Being a server admin is a thankless job where people never really tell you what you're doing right, and immediately start shouting the second something goes wrong. It also doesn't pay great for the amount of work that you put in.

There are a few guys who run multiple servers for different game modes and seem to be making a good living. But most of them do stuff that I think technically breaks Minecraft's ToS, like offering special perks to paying members that give them an advantage over non-paying members.

Like Dlavjr said I would try to find a way to benefit society. Don't do it as a money-grab. But don't think that it has to be some grand vision though. Giving a kid who is bullied at school somewhere that they feel safe and welcome to hang out is huge. The memories from your server may be some of the highlights of their adolescence, you might even save some kid from killing themselves by finding meaning and community on your server.

Aside from running a server, you could create all kinds of Youtube channels. Let's Plays, how-to guides, etc. Or even offer a service where you come in and create a running server completely customized for someone and then hand it over, so they get a turnkey solution without needing all the technical details.

A couple of the companies renting out Minecraft servers seem to be run by teenagers as well. If you like more of the IT side and want to rent an entire OVH server and then split it up for people to rent from you.

Thanks for your response Yarco, and yeah I had people message me and tell me about how its saved them from their horrible situations, how they got to meet people on there, and all the positive feedback etc. and it was never for the money originally but I ended up turning it into more of a business than a passion and then it went downhill from there.

Will definitely keep my doors open to new possibilities and pathways though I think that's the main thing

[Leo Gura]

Just don't fool yourself into thinking that playing games is how you build a serious career or skillset.

It's all too easy to use playing games as an excuse not to work hard on developing a skillset or doing real work.

Do you really want to hinge your LP on a single game? Think of how narrow minded that is.

By definition everyone enjoys playing games. That's not good enough of a motivation.

That's like saying: my LP is to jerk off because I enjoy it.

[IAmReallyImportant]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Just don't fool yourself into thinking that playing games is how you build a serious career or skillset.

It's all too easy to use playing games as an excuse not to work hard on developing a skillset or doing real work.

Do you really want to hinge your LP on a single game? Think of how narrow minded that is.

By definition everyone enjoys playing games. That's not good enough of a motivation.

That's like saying: my LP is to jerk off because I enjoy it.

One could sell online courses about Minecraft and jerking off.

How-to guides, different techniques etc. . 

People demand money for nearly everything nowadays. Even the dumbest things one can imagine. 

Edited June 4, 2021 by IAmReallyImportant

[Leo Gura]

38 minutes ago, IAmReallyImportant said:

One could sell online courses about Minecraft and jerking off.

One could sell a course for how to jerk off a horse.

The question of LP is much larger than merely what you're able to get away with selling.

The question is: "What do I want to devote my life's work to?"

[goldpower123]

Thanks for the responses, life purpose is definitely irrelevant from Minecraft for me, it'll only ever be a hobby/interest, I think at this stage survival comes in and should really develop some real world skill or trade to give to society.