Man Spends Three Years Walking to The End of The World (Of Minecraft)

[Steven Bogos]

Man Spends Three Years Walking to The End of The World (Of Minecraft)

A man has walked over 700 in-game kilometers over the span of three years, in an attempt to reach Minecraft's "Far Lands".

Diehard Minecraft fans will remember a place known only as the "Far Lands" - the realm on the edge of every Minecraft world where the game's procedural generation code begins to fold in on itself. Before the "feature" was patched out, players could cheat by using teleport commands to reach them, but one dedicated fan running an older version of the game has been walking for over three years in an attempt to reach the Far Lands legitimately.

Kurt J. Mac started his quest in March, 2011, and has been marching toward's the end of the world (of Minecraft) ever since. He has trekked more than 700 virtual kilometers in 180 hours, but is still a long, long way off the 20,000 kilometer threshold of the Far Lands. At his current pace, it will take him another 22 years to reach his goal. But still, he walks.

Mac has filmed his entire journey, and has uploaded it to YouTube for all to see, and dispel any doubts about his pilgrimage's legitimacy. "If anyone had doubts as to whether or not I was making this trek to the Far Lands without cheating, they could go back and watch all of the footage," he told the New Yorker [http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/01/a-journey-to-the-end-of-the-world-of-minecraft.html?mobify=0] in an interview.

To stave off boredom (and to make the YouTube videos a bit more interesting), Mac fills the time with commentary on... well, pretty much everything. "The series transformed into a sort of podcast, where the topics I talk about might have little to do with the journey itself," he said. "Of course, it is always exciting when Minecraft re-grabs my attention with a perilous cliff, a zombie attack, or a memorable landscape, and I remember the journey I'm on."

In a world where satellites, Google cars, and Mars rovers have mapped out pretty much everything, Mac's journey re-ignites that adventuring spirit that spurred on the great explorers of the old-world. Be sure to check out his YouTube channel [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9vtWUOm4MY] and join him on his quest.

Source: The New Yorker [http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/01/a-journey-to-the-end-of-the-world-of-minecraft.html?mobify=0]

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[Roofstone]

I've followed this guy, his podcast with accidental gameplay in the background is rather interesting, an ocasionally the gameplay is exciting too!

 

[dumbseizure]

Uhh, I think theres an error? "He has trekked more than seven hundred virtual 700 in 180 hours"

Anyway, it is quite impressive and concerning at the same time.

But 22 years?! surely he would get bored of it before then.

 

[hazabaza1]

...WHY
He's got like 300 episodes of this. They're (from what I can see) all half an hour long. It's just walking. Just walking. Who thinks this is a good idea, and who watches it?

Jayzuz.

 

[Klitch]

Kurt's actually a pretty cool YouTuber. When he began the Far Lands or Bust series, he was just starting commentating and was really monotone and nervous and he often spoke about being introverted. He even said in the early episodes that he started commentating Minecraft videos partially to train himself to be more comfortable talking.

If you watch his more recent stuff like Kerbal Space Program or some of his racing series, he's gotten really dynamic, funny, and is just brimming with personality. He's definitely one of the better Lets Players that I've come across and, given the sad internet commentator news recently, it's nice to see Kurt getting some spotlight after the positive change commentating has made in his life.

Indeed!

 

[Deadlywere]

And not a single mention of the fact that this is all done in the name of charity. OP, shame on you.

 

[Thaluikhain]

That's...

Hmmm...weird. I like the idea, but it could do with more exciting things to find on the way.

 

[bificommander]

So it's the video gaming equivalent of Gerry?

Probably more entertaining than the movie though.

 

[AzzA-D]

...WHY
He's got like 300 episodes of this. They're (from what I can see) all half an hour long. It's just walking. Just walking. Who thinks this is a good idea, and who watches it?

Jayzuz.

Kurt's a very good youtube personality - he's enjoyable to watch and listen to. However, one of the main reasons he does Farlands or Bust is so that he can raise money for Child's Play Charity. I believe this season (with the help of a Mindcrack livestream) he and his viewers have raised over $169,000 for charity, so its certainly a worthy cause. Sort of like a Sponsored Walk, but on a longer timescale...

 

[Oskuro]

...WHY
Who thinks this is a good idea, and who watches it?

That could apply to virtually any let's play. This guy has an specific gimmick, which is more than many let's players who just post videos of themselves messing around the game can say.

It is fine if you don't like it, but let's keep the broad generalizations down, ok? Other people have a right to like things you don't.

Oh, and as Deadlywhere and AzzA-D said, this guy does events for charity, so not only is he offering free entertainment for anyone who likes to watch, he is using it to help people. Way worthier than your average youtuber.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Normally with these kind of obsessive fan things I'm thinking "cool, it's their time, it's nice that someone's that into a game". But this is just...such a waste of time. Just to find out what has already been found. The sheer quantity of time involved is staggering.

 

[Strazdas]

wait, isnt miencraft world limit controlled by the human? at least in servers i saw there was always a limit and in some of them not that large one which acted as "Game boundaries" of sorts that did not allow you to move past that. or does he just go without any limitations and hope that the script generating blocks will crash on itself?

also how do we know that its 22000 km limit there? why the game does not generate it after that?

 

[Mirrorknight]

wait, isnt miencraft world limit controlled by the human? at least in servers i saw there was always a limit and in some of them not that large one which acted as "Game boundaries" of sorts that did not allow you to move past that. or does he just go without any limitations and hope that the script generating blocks will crash on itself?

also how do we know that its 22000 km limit there? why the game does not generate it after that?

Basically at the 22000km point, the Java code hits its limit, cries salty, bloody tears, and says "No More." At that point, the numbers and maths used to generate the random terrain become too big for the game code to handle, and causes game crashing lag, and odd land generation, which causes the large barrier in the picture.

The only reason we know that this is the case, as mentioned in the article, is that you used to be able to cheat and teleport to it. As alluded to, it would take a person a long ass time to actually reach that point naturally, and you never have to worry about if you're just playing the game normally, and you'd have to play an older version, because they changed the code so they're removed.

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

Normally with these kind of obsessive fan things I'm thinking "cool, it's their time, it's nice that someone's that into a game". But this is just...such a waste of time. Just to find out what has already been found. The sheer quantity of time involved is staggering.

This show actually raised several hundred thousand dollars for charity, so I'd hesitate to call it a waste of time.

And even without that it's not different from any other lets play, except longer. You're being awfully arbitrarily judgmental considering that this is just a youtube series.

He's clearly entertaining a couple dozen thousand people every video. Probably more productive then you, anyway.

 

[Fortyseven203]

Good christ, the fact that this is being done for charity is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT PART of this story -- without it, you wind up causing your readers to blow him off as some fucking crazy obsessive.

That said, I gave the #318 vid a watch last night. I found it unexpectedly entertaining in a way that it might not have been, if not for Kurt's skill of striking a balance between humorous commentary and pseudo-podcast. And he's doing a whole lot of good for kids while doing it.