Love Letter to VS

[Dio L]

Hi, I really like crafting and survival games.

I probably have much the same background as the majority of VS players; grew up playing minecraft, sprinkle in ~1,000 hours of terraria and stardew valley for good measure. I use to sit on my older brother's bed and watch him play minecraft in-browser in 2009, I also have very fond memories of watching him play on the very first releases with multiplayer compatibility with his neighborhood best friend. Everything was so square and janky and colorful and the world felt like it went on forever in all directions. I probably started playing it myself around 2010 or 2011, hard to say. I played on free private servers with my childhood friends through Hamachi (iykyk) until they stopped having fun and being interested in the game like I was, and then I migrated to finding multiplayer servers to play on by myself. I made a lot of (questionable) friends and have memories of talking to them on Skype about running our own server, which we did for a short while, funded by one of the older people in the group as I was only about 12 or 13 at the time. Minecraft's heydays for me were late alpha and very early beta, up until the adventure update I would say. I still played a lot over the years on servers with friends, you know, the two week minecraft phase we all experience once a year or so. I still have fun with minecraft when I play it, but I can't play it alone and almost never have been drawn to single player. My worlds feel empty and I get lonely, bored, and lose a sense of direction very fast without people to share the experience with. It's always been a social game for me. 

I've kind of lost touch with minecraft in the last year or two, I was fairly on board and up to date with everything through the deep dark, and everything past that I really have no idea what's been added or introduced. I watched part of a video covering the latest update, mounts of mayhem, and that's the first time I really couldn't recognize the game I grew up playing. I dipped my toes into and am grateful for the beta community of people who play the game like the adventure update never happened, but even then, modding or playing old versions of the game by myself has never captured the same feeling as it did in my youth. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, and I'm certainly not immune. I am sickeningly nostalgic for my childhood at times. 

It's not minecraft's fault that it's continued to grow, evolve, and adapt into the future. And it's not minecraft's fault that I don't find the same joy in it as I did when I was a kid. I could only live those memories once. 

But that's enough about minecraft; I saw some small videos from very small creators about vintage story ~3 years ago but at the time had a really crummy laptop that would not have been able to run VS in any stable or playable way. I started getting recommended videos about it again ~3 weeks ago and, having a desktop this time around, I dropped the $20 on it without a second thought. I have 100+ hours in my first save file at the moment and there's no end in sight. It took me 20 hours to make my first copper pickaxe, and probably ~40 hours before I had a real house that wasn't just a small hovel dug into a mountainside. 

The experience I've had playing VS for the first time has brought me back to my childhood playing minecraft again. I didn't think that feeling was possible to relive. Everything is square and janky and colorful and the world feels like it goes on forever in all directions. I mean this genuinely and from the bottom of my heart, I hope that everyone who has had a hand in VS' development knows how special the game they're making is. I don't see it talked about much in videos, but the lore is so important to me and I have enjoyed every discovery and story location more than the last. I read every book and scroll and tapestry with baited breath to learn just a little more about the forgotten world in which I live, full of rust and human remains and infinite sunsets and sunrises from spring to winter. I love the music, the atmosphere, the gameplay, and every niche crafting mechanic you can get your little hands on. I love the long days and short nights of summer and the blink-or-you'll-miss-it days of winter spent toiling over more homely concerns, chiseling or building and staying near spawn. I love panning boney soil in the reedy pond behind my house after a long journey, saddlebags packed with bits of a world long gone but not forgotten. I love rummaging through ruins and sitting by the campfire on a winter night cooking and listening to a little-known track that plays when you're sat around a fire for a while. I love exploring and pushing the boundaries of my world ever further, I've yet to take the long treks north and south but am planning on doing so in the coming in-game months. I love smithing, and making pottery, and cooking meals in my little kitchen. I love hunting deer and battling bears and watching shivers who haven't seen me stare at their small, unrecognizable hands before craning back on their hind legs to rise and look into the sky before bashing their head against the walls and floors again.

Really and truly, VS is such a once-in-a-lifetime game and I am so grateful to have stumbled upon it. It feels alive in the same way that minecraft did when I was little, and it's been really special to relive those memories and feelings.

[Zane Mordien]

Welcome to the Game!

Nice post. It still amazes me that Tyron reads anything on the forums. 

[CastIronFabric]

I have been playing games for 45 years now and by playing games I mean a lot for 45 years.

I think this is my favorite game ever, the only one that might beat it would be Wurm Unlimited (yeah I know vast majority of people do not like it but I do)

[The_Tataguy08]

Love this