Oh wow, they actually provided the full torrent. I was always hoping they would so it could be studied.
For those unfamiliar, 2B2T was a Minecraft anarchy server that had almost no restrictions. It devolved into roving gangs of people trying to kill each other, use cheats to find secret bases, etc. The trick to hiding on this server was to go as far away as possible from the center, which led to an enormous map size.
I joined with a friend several years ago to see if we could survive, and it took days just to get out of the spawn, which was completely destroyed, surrounded by massive walls, and flooded with Withers (very difficult to kill enemies).
Fascinating study and perhaps the biggest metaverse experiment that's ever happened (but definitely the most lawless one).
I have such fond memories of venturing into 2b2t in 2016! I think it was one of the last times I truly felt like a kid in my life. As if I was a part of something larger than me. Multiple factions, and people betraying each other. Secrecy abound. The scarcity of resources leading to small groups forming joining for survival. Item duplication bugs being exploited all the time! Oh, and of course, the wonderful world of hacked clients. The idea of anarchy was gripping!
It was so thrilling! I'd wait hours in a queue and then explore. The difficulty of escaping spawn in the first day, and only surviving because of an apple that a kind stranger gifted me before they died has stuck with me for 10 years (10 years?!!). Contributing to a nether highway (I believe it was +xy?), creating small bases for millions and millions of blocks all with my signature style and leaving a sign. I wonder how many of them are still standing? And I wonder if the last place I logged out of has ever been found.
Imagination does wonders if it's nudged just right :)
jorl17
I spent a few weeks there back in the day. After the ordeal of surviving the spawn I remember it as a haunting and melancholic experience: you kept finding decayed places, huge projects long abandoned, vandalized monuments, vague traces of simpler dwellings, hidden orchards.
I haven't played a lot of Minecraft but I'm glad that most of the little I played was there.
fcatalan
>"The data provided is NOT a single playable Minecraft world, but rather a highly compressed collection of several world downloads of 2b2t."
I feel like HN needs to have a small model that compares post title to the article content and assigns it an accuracy score.
The censorship story is lame. Someone should set up a new uncensored server.
pineapplepizza6
Chunks were made with different versions, but I wonder if there's any viable approach to figure out the seed & generating version of minecraft and store just deltas.
mlyle
I am a greybeard and I always find this stuff to be fascinating. Should I invest time in it for relaxation? I think I have the diablo-ish Minecraft thing on my Xbox series X. Is it worth the time?
karim79
How would one go about running this server, or a part of it? I’m guessing not all the map has to be in ram at the same time right?
ramgine
"players protested against these changes, this time by placing large amounts of hateful symbols and hate speech on signs all around the server"
comments (10)
For those unfamiliar, 2B2T was a Minecraft anarchy server that had almost no restrictions. It devolved into roving gangs of people trying to kill each other, use cheats to find secret bases, etc. The trick to hiding on this server was to go as far away as possible from the center, which led to an enormous map size.
I joined with a friend several years ago to see if we could survive, and it took days just to get out of the spawn, which was completely destroyed, surrounded by massive walls, and flooded with Withers (very difficult to kill enemies).
Fascinating study and perhaps the biggest metaverse experiment that's ever happened (but definitely the most lawless one).
This is what spawn looked like from above https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/vrKyqEBoNvRVbCtHoG6BGX-970...
kyledrake
It was so thrilling! I'd wait hours in a queue and then explore. The difficulty of escaping spawn in the first day, and only surviving because of an apple that a kind stranger gifted me before they died has stuck with me for 10 years (10 years?!!). Contributing to a nether highway (I believe it was +xy?), creating small bases for millions and millions of blocks all with my signature style and leaving a sign. I wonder how many of them are still standing? And I wonder if the last place I logged out of has ever been found.
Imagination does wonders if it's nudged just right :)
jorl17
I haven't played a lot of Minecraft but I'm glad that most of the little I played was there.
fcatalan
I feel like HN needs to have a small model that compares post title to the article content and assigns it an accuracy score.
sourweasel
smithcoin
pineapplepizza6
mlyle
karim79
ramgine
tkel