One of the many things that I had not previously expected to take up a portion of my quarantine procrastination time is a Minecraft server made by and for Fordham students. It was created by the students running the Instagram meme account @lc_sinners.

You may have seen their recent activity on Instagram with a petition calling for Fordham to refund housing and tuition for the spring 2020 semester as a result of the coronavirus bringing a halt to in-person classes and on-campus housing. You may also be familiar with their memes. 

Their main goal is to unite the Fordham community on both campuses, and this new online version of Fordham on Minecraft is another method of theirs to help build stronger relationships among students. “I think students right now don’t have the ability to see friends or fellow community members face to face,” a member of @lc_sinners, who wished to remain anonymous, wrote to The Observer on Instagram. “A Minecraft server gives students the opportunity to play with friends from school and meet new people from the fordham community.”

A Minecraft server has been an idea of the group for about four to five months now, but it had never been a high-priority idea until recently. “It wasn’t until we put a meme on our story about the graduating class of 2020 when that changed. We joked that given the current environment Fordham would have to host graduation in Minecraft. We got a lot of dms from people actually excited for a Minecraft server. This showed us there was a lot of people who would want to play.” 

It was also created as a small escape from the coronavirus anxiety. “(W)e decided it was especially important to make right now because people are stressed, anxious, bored and lonely. Therefore we believed that a Minecraft server where students can play with fellow community members would strengthen our community and aid the mental wellbeing of students.” 

After they announced that a server would be made, the Rose Hill Computer Science Club reached out to offer help. The server was announced on March 23 and launched on March 29. 

When you first “spawn,” or enter into the server, you find yourself in Keating Hall at Rose Hill, with a bunch of signs around to give you a starter kit and a list of rules and commands to use. When you exit the building, you’re in front of Edwards Parade, with a pressure plate you can step on to give yourself speed to run across the field. Once you’ve made it across Eddie’s, there is a Ram Van waiting to transport you to “the Bronx,” where you are able to explore and claim a chunk of land all for yourself. Users, Fordham friends and colleagues are also around to hang out and create with as well. 

So far, the server has been a success, according to the creators. As of now, there are 172 members from both campuses on their Discord server (a computer/phone video chat app used by gamers to keep in touch while playing) and an active player base. “(W)e have seen so many students come together and spend weeks building bases with friends, and reaching out to ‘strangers’ on the server and getting to know eachother better, bonding over their common community.” The server is at its liveliest on weekends and event nights, but you can log on at any time and find a few friends online. Their last big event was an egg-building contest on Easter, and their last planned event for the year will be a graduation ceremony for the seniors on May 13, as of now. 

There are plenty of parkour opportunities, and other mini-games are currently works-in-progress. The anonymous member of @lc_sinners said that they plan to keep the server going after quarantine. “(W)e believe that this will extend into the summer because we have revived (sic) many dms from students saying that they are currently overwhelmed with school and don’t have enough time to play, but that after finals they’re going to join and play with their friends.”

The students are currently paying for the server out-of-pocket, but their long-term goal is to fund the server through student donations. One way for users to support the server is to buy ranks. Every user comes in as a freshman, which allots them a small chunk of land and a few available commands. By buying a sophomore, junior or senior rank — with actual money, users can increase the amount of land they can claim and how many homes they can have, use commands to teleport to their friends, and swear in the chat — with the exception of slurs. 

Beware: The server is on hard mode, so inexperienced users should ask a friend to help them stay alive. Sincerely, someone who spent five minutes running away from a baby zombie wearing golden armor that just refused to die or stop following me until my imminent death.