The 13 Phases of the Minecraft Infection

Through my career as a Minecraft player I have recognized several basic stages an average player goes through when "infected". I have a feeling that you will recognize these stages.

1. The Infection: Almost no one discovers Minecraft on their own. Most Minecraft players are introduced to the game by close frineds, or they here about it on the internet. I myself, discovered it after my friend and I played it at his house for hours. Many people are also "infected" by means of YouTube.
2. The Arrival: Now that the player has seen Minecraft, he will want it. Badly. Either by pirating (shun them) or by buying the game, the player will acquire it.
3. The Begining: The player will play Minecraft for the first time. The game will suck. The player will not know how to do a thing! I myself had to watch six YouTube videos just to figure out how to open up Minecraft and start a new world.
4. Who likes survival mode?: When a Minecraft player first starts he almost never plays survival. In his mind, survival is boring and hard, but creative is exciting and interesting. You can do anything! You can fly! You can kill creepers! You can make full diamond armor!
5. Creative gets Boring: The player has been playing Minecraft for about a week now. All he really does is build dirt houses and kill creepers with full armor and enchanted weapons. Its kinda fun... Well actually it's getting really boring. The player isn't very good, and there is no challenge for him. Its time to try out survival mode, right?
6. The Start of Survival: After getting bored of creative, many players will turn to survival. The player uses the internet and finds out how to play.The survival phase lasts for about a year.
7. The MADNESS: This is one of the worst stages of the Minecraft infection. When a player is well on in a survival map and dies chaos insues. ONe characteristic of this stage that will help you identify it is classified as the "engraged maniac howl".
8. First Break: After dying and losing diamonds a player will often spend up to a month away from the game.
9. Cheating: After taking a break from the game, the player choses to try it out again. He will pretend he had never died, and hack his items back.
10. The End: If the player is good enough, he will eventually kill the enderdragon. He will then brag to all his friends.
11. Second Break: Survival is over and creative is boring. What's left for the infected to obsess over?
12. Creative: A month or so after beating survival most players will turn to creative. They will build houses, make mob arenas, and find hight limit.
13. The Divergence: After experimenting with creative, infected players may go in multiple directions. Some infected will show signs of multiple paths.

Route A: The player will begin to play on servers

Route B: The player will download maps to play

Route C: The player will experiment with redstone and eventually become a professional

Route D: The player will download and make mods.

Route E: The player will host a server.

Route F: The player will quit Minecraft.

Route G: The player will (much like me) build Minecraft custom maps.

Route H: The player will fall into a repetitive and deadly cycle of greed and become terribly obsessed with Minecraft. The player will lose all his friends and family.

Now that you understand the common stages of the Minecraft infection, try to recognize them in your self. Denial is not the answer.

Benefits of Playing Games

Gaming is increasingly becoming a part of life. Many of those who began playing games on their computer have carried their passion to adulthood. In the past, the games were misunderstood and both parents and teachers worried that these kinds of games would have negative effects on their children and students, respectively. A lot had been written about gaming, leading to addictions and violent behaviors. Today, various studies by leading researchers show that gaming offers many benefits, including:

· Support the healing process

It has been discovered to help children who have injuries or an illness. These kids often get the opportunity to be absorbed in a game, which helps to distract their minds from the pain and discomfort. In fact, many of the healthcare facilities are encouraging their patients undergoing any painful treatment to participate in playing games. Furthermore, playing games on the computer helps children diagnosed with attention deficit disorders. According to research, gaming helps these children to gain social skills. In addition, many medical departments are relying on them for physiotherapy. These types of games help with the recovery process from physical injuries to gain motor skills as well as coordination.

· Improve hand-eye co-ordination

Gaming also helps players to gain important skills that require the co-ordination of hand and eyes. Children who participate in gaming learn how to work their eyes and hands to achieve results. These skills are often transferred to their day to day activities. When they grow up they end up becoming good in professions that demand proper hand and eye co-ordination. Some of these gamers end up becoming very good surgeons, engineers and mechanics.

· Induce decision making

It encourages players to think while on the move. Quick decisions have to be made about the most appropriate action to reap maximum benefits, without asking for the opinion of others. This is particularly important for children and teenagers who end up becoming good decision makers. Furthermore, many of these games inspire gamers to strive to attain more difficult levels that present different challenges every step of the way. This helps gamers learn to become motivated and more effective in solving problems.

· Develop self-confidence

Gaming helps the players to participate in a game that offers various challenges. The more they overcome the challenges and become better players, the more confidence they gain. These desirable qualities are often transferred to real life where the player is confident to tackle any challenge.

Top Scary Games Of All Time

With the start of our "Top" Lists Campaign, we bring to you the Top Scary Games Of All Time..

-Amnesia: The Dark Descent

-Alan Wake

-F.E.A.R.

-Silent Hill: Downpour

-Dead Space

For some of you, at one point in your life, after playing numerous games, from Halo 4 to FIFA 14, there comes a game that creeps you out so much that you're just not able to finish it, and you say 'Screw it' and go back to a genre you're comfortable with. Or you somehow persevere and do finish it, and then do your best to not think about it ever again. I'm one of the people who, if possible, take a partner along for every mission/quest. A dog is even better, like in Fable 2 (the game wasn't that scary, I just don't like being alone in dark and isolated areas). Here's a list of the top scary games (in my opinion, since I haven't played every scary game ever made):

1. Amnesia: The Dark Descsent (PC)

Developer(s): Frictional Games

Publisher(s): Frictional Games

Platforms: Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux

The game is based in London, in the year 1839. You play as Daniel, and when the game starts the player wakes up in the Brennenburg Castle, with absolutely no memory of how he got there, and doesn't remember anything but his name and where he lives, and the fact that something dangerous is after him. To reach your goal, you have to explore the castle with nothing but a lantern. No weapons, no powers. No way to defend yourself from the horrors that plague the castle, all you can do is run, as fast and as creatively as you can. You'll have to fix things so you can use them, and solve some puzzles too.

There's a health meter, and along with that there's also a sanity meter, and you must keep an eye on both. The sanity meter is affected when you're in the darkness for too long, or see something really, really distubing or stare at some of the 'horrors' mentioned above for too long. As the sanity meter declines, the hallucinations start, which lead the monsters right to you. Having some form of light with or around you will help maintain the sanity meter, but just in case you don't have access to any, use the tinderboxes to light any candle you see. If you see an ugly, deformed and unearthy being- run as fast as you can, because it will chase you until you're out of sight. Don't even try to fight it because this is not Skyrim. Or Supernatural. So, run and hide and don't stand behind doors because they can get rid of doors very easily.

2. Alan Wake

Developer(s): Remedy Entertainment

Publisher(s): Microsoft Game Studios

Platforms: Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows

The protagonist of the game is Alan Wake (best selling psychological thriller author), who is suffering from writer's block- which didn't go away for a while. Alice, his significant other, and his agent Barry suggest a vacation, and so Alan and Alice travel to Bright Falls, though they had no idea what was waiting for them. Alice is kidnapped by an unknown force, and the player must overcome various obstacles to get her back. Thus, you dive into the supernatural world where fiction comes to life, and it's not (most of the time) in your favour. A world where a certain darkness is slowly taking over those around Alan, and that includes humans, animals and even non-living things. You have to defeat them with the combined use of light and firearms.

You opponents will have weapons of their own, and they'll come in different sizes and with different levels of strength and speed. They are protected by a layer of darkness that surrounds them, and while it's there firearms will have no effect on them. You have to get rid of the darkness by using the flashlight or some other source of light, and then use your trusty weapons to kick their asses. Ammunition and batteries will be limited, so make sure to collect them while you explore the town. Bigger sources of light will destroy more opponents, and streetlights will generate your health faster. There's also an optional objective, and it's pretty useful: collect the scattered pages of Alan's latest novel, Departure, and it'll contain information on events that have yet to happen, and tips that'll help you progress.

3. F.E.A.R.

Developer(s): Monolith Studios, Day 1 Studios

Publisher(s): Vivendi Universal

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows

In this game, you're the Point Man-a member of F.E.A.R., which is an exclusive special ops group that deals with supernatural forces. The player is in this group mainly for his distinct reactive reflexes. It's a first-person shooter game, influenced greatly by japanese horror. The overall atmosphere of the game is one of the main reasons why it's among the top scary games. One of the unique features of the game is reflex time-this slows down everything around you (you move normally) and allows the player to aim and shoot with ease. As for the weapons, you have your normal firearms: rifles, pistols, etc. The one thing that will probably creep you out the most is Alma-the terrifying little girl in red. But at least your opponents are human, albeit telepathically-controlled ones with extraordinary abilities.

The hallucinations are also something the player is subjected to repeatedly, injecting you with a healthy dose of fear and caution if you get too cocky at times. Parts of the game will mess with your head a little, and the sudden appearances will tire you out (mentally) after a while, so I'd suggest taking short breaks in between, if only to remind yourself that it's not actually real.

4. Silent Hill: Downpour

Developer(s): Vatra Games

Publisher(s): Konami Digital Entertainment

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStaion 3

The main protagonist of the game is Murphy, who's out for revenge, with one goal in his mind: killing a certain nasty pedophile. On this path, he makes mistakes that come back to bite him in the ass later on. The player explores Silent Hill, encountering monsters at every turn. Firearms are among the available weapons, but they're painfully limited, and so is the ammunition. Your melee weapon should always be on hand, but even that breaks eventually. As the health meter declines, it gets reflected on the character's appearance. You do get to solve more than a few puzzles, and other than that the main focus is combat, which will occur more frequently while it's raining because monsters appear more often. Alongside the main quest, there are other minor objectives available that are related to the townsfolk. The game's outcome will depend on the choices made by the player throughout the game.

5. Dead Space

Developer(s): EA Redwood Shores

Publisher(s): Elecronic Arts

Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows

Definitely one of the top scary games. You play as Isaac Clarke who survives, along with two other partners, their ship's collision with the dock of the mining starship they were sent to investigate. Along with making certain discoveries about the Ishimura(mining starship) and the planet they're on (Aegis VII), they finally realize how much danger they're in, and the fight against the Necromorphs-that are quite similar to zombies, I think. Behavior-wise. They're just reanimated corpses and a smarter version- starts. It's kill or be killed: and they have to kill in order to get off the planet.

The menu, health bar etc are viewed in the form of holographic projections. but unfortunately it doesn't pause the game, and you can still get hurt while trying to check how much ammunition you have left. Unlike zombies however, Necromorphs are capable of strategic thinking, and headshots don't do much damage so you have to cut their limbs off if you want to stop them. But, they have another skill: regeneration. As in, they can sprout new limbs, like a certain Namekian everyone loves. Coming to the weapons, the only one you'll recognize is the rifle- other weapons include a hydrazine torch, a plasma cutter, a contact beam. As the game progresses you'll experience a sense of helplessness, betrayal, misery, and eventually, a pretty unexpected end.

For some of you, at one point in your life, after playing numerous games, from Halo 4 to FIFA 14, there comes a game that creeps you out so much that you're just not able to finish it, and you say 'Screw it' and go back to a genre you're comfortable with. Or you somehow persevere and do finish it, and then do your best to not think about it ever again. I'm one of the people who, if possible, take a partner along for every mission/quest. A dog is even better, like in Fable 2 (the game wasn't that scary, I just don't like being alone in dark and isolated areas).