Everything in the world is made of cubes. Well, the game is called Blockminer. Blocky people are everywhere, nameplates over each of them. I'm getting pushed around a lot. I must be standing on the spawn point again.

I'm still trying to make sense of what I'm looking at. I guess the green squares on the ground are grass. I think I'm in a park. I see gray paths and what I think are trees. The other players are mostly running towards one of the square arches that are at the edges of the park. The rest of the park has some fencing between the arches. At the edge of the fence, I can look down a long way. That sure is a long way down. There are vast forests, mountains, deserts, and water as far as I can see. Blocky clouds are overhead. I wonder where Nyatali is?

I hear a ding, and my chat window pops up in the corner of my vision.

Nyatali's right in front of me now. Well, at least that's what the nameplate says. She vaguely looks catlike. It looks more like someone stuck cat stickers on the same blocky shape that all the players have.

I read the FAQ. Now I know about mining, crafting, building, caves, and the basics of Blockminer play. Oh and how to bring up the main chat. At the end of the FAQ, I see mention of a website. I remember some players back home talking about websites and the world wide web. I didn't see any webs when I visited Kithera. Maybe I can ask her about websites when I see her next.

OK, time to mine!

Nyatali's taking me to her home on the server. We went through one of the arches (she called it a portal) and were transported to a road pretty far away. I'm not sure if the coordinate on my HUD's mini map are helpful or not. The day/night cycle here is a lot shorter than the one at home. We run up the road a bit and eventually boarded mine carts at a train station. Nyatali had to help me with getting on a mine cart. Pushing a cart and jumping in seems like a complicated procedure.

"Ok Hashi, we're going to get off at the next station."

"Why did they make train tracks instead of a bunch of portals?" I asked Nyatali.

"No clue Hashi. We're here, time to get off."

I exit my cart and then chase it down. I ask Nyatali, "What do we do with the carts?"

"Put them in the chest that has a 'Carts' sign."

I follow Nyatali for a little while longer, and we arrive at a small village of wooden homes. There are paths between the houses, and we finally end up at a two story home made of wood and stone. When I read through the FAQ, it had pictures of the various materials.

Nyatali's house in on a large lot that has several trees and many colored flowers. I have some trouble thinking about those blocky things made of wood and leaves as trees. Inside the house, she has a large room with a chandelier and a loft area with beds. The main room has a seating area with blocky furniture and a carpet with a colorful geometric pattern. Paintings and frames showing Blockminer items cover the walls.

Nyatali runs up the stairs and stands next to one of the beds in the loft.

"If you want Hashi, you can set your bind point here until you make a house and a bed."

"I really like your house. It's nice. OK, I've set my bind point to the bed. Now what?"

Nyatali places a chest next to the bed and stands next to it.

She tells me, "I've put some basic stuff that you might need in the chest. Grab it and let's go explore."

I transfer the chest's contents to my inventory and equip the armor she gave me. I've put a sword and a pickaxe in my hotbar.

I tell Nyatali, "I'm ready. Onward to blocky adventure!"