Perpetual Miner FAQ

A few questions that have come up!

So, what am I actually doing?

1. I will remain in Minecraft with no outside contact or stimulation for 21 days.

2. I will, by sharing notes, compel a beautiful young woman to bring me food and water equivalent to what I can actually get in Minecraft.

3. I will keep a journal of the experiences of the Perpetual Miner and publish it online upon conclusion of the experience.

Why Minecraft?

Minecraft is the purest form of digital isolation. It’s a game that has been written about at great length, a game that’s attained a cultural cache vastly beyond its apparent nature (I mean, it’s a game where you punch dirt until it breaks. That’s Minecraft. Dirt punching from Hell to breakfast). Still, I think everything that’s been written about it has missed the fundamental nature of the thing, and I think this experiment is going to expose that.

Why three weeks?

Honestly? Just a number I picked. It’s long enough to drown in the world of Minecraft, long enough to fulfill the goal. Probably. We’ll see.

What’s the point?

I want to see what it would be like to be the Miner. What would his experience be in the world of Minecraft? We can peek into it for 3 (or 12) hours a day, play around, and then go away. We don’t live there, we don’t breathe and eat in Minecraft, and so we don’t get the sense of isolation and desolation that Minecraft fundamentally represents.

What inspired it?

I was having a conversation about the ‘make your own fun’ aspect of Minecraft. You’re really attempting to find something to do in a world with no apparent direction or reason. That’s abnormal for games… 99% of the gaming world is, if not linear, directed. Plenty of people spend hours doing random driveby shootings in GTA or eating the tastiest-looking civvies in Prototype, but there are still things you’re supposed to do in those worlds. Minecraft has none of that. The Miner is simply spawned there, alone, uncomprehending, with nothing. Go, little Miner. Do stuff.

Is this a publicity stunt?

I do love publicity, but this is something I’d absolutely do anyway. The blog showing it off is purely to share the experience.