ANARCHY IN THE PC: In 2b2t, if you build it, they will surely come to destroy it.
ILLUSTRATION BY TERENCE EDUARTE AT YCN
TIME MOVES diff erently in Minecraft. A day lasts 20 minutes. A night lasts seven. With the right conditions, Rome can be built in a day. And with the right supplies, a troll can burn it to ashes in minutes. 2b2t, a malevolent form of Minecraft, is full of such ruins. It’s a place of beauty and terror. Ranked among the world’s most popular video games, Minecraft is often praised for fostering creativity and constructive play. An almost limitless virtual world that players build themselves using small, 3-D cubes, it is the parent-approved successor of Lego, even used as an educational tool in schools. In addition to the usual solo gameplay modes, multiplayer servers turn it into a social activity, with communal worlds that are subject to rules. Players are discouraged from attacking others, laying waste to buildings or using pornographic terms to describe someone’s mother.
Not 2b2t. It’s what is called an “anarchy server” and is the oldest and most infamous of its kind. It offers a world without rules, where aggression is encouraged and survival rarely assured. Players are advised to bury their supplies, arm themselves to the teeth and be prepared to die many times over. If Minecraft is the terrain of the imagination, 2b2t plays out like a Cormac McCarthy novel built from 1x1 digital bricks: It is no country for old men. And since this summer, 2b2t has been ravaged, first by invasion, then by war.