During the Covid-19 shutdown, the options for the Monarch community to interact and stay connected with each other have been limited. Faced with these challenges, a small group of Monarch students found a way for everyone to enjoy time together and still stay safe–Minecraft.

Jacob Shively ’23 had been wanting to host a Minecraft gaming server for quite some time, and his time at home gave him and his friends the perfect opportunity to use their knowledge. 

“I thought that it would be a fun idea to get everyone together,” Shively said. “It’s a gateway to see your friends while in quarantine.”

The server was originally a four person project, but it currently hosts around 78 people. Shively and his friends had created and hosted smaller servers, but this schoolwide project is by far their largest. 

“It’s insane to see how far this has come,” Shively said. 

Through nearly a week of hard work, the server officially came online in early May. 

“After we struggled through the first server that we discarded, we created the now existing server that a lot of people have enjoyed,” Shane Stern ’23, one of the creators of the server, said.

The whole project took about a week of planning and hard work, with about ten people working to keep it running, clean, and interesting. Though the project may be growing now, it has faced problems with the size, as well as people who make it difficult to peacefully enjoy the game. 

“It’s hard to balance everything out and make everyone happy,” Shively said. “It’s also hard to keep everyone out who either wants to ruin the game or is just being rude to everyone. We make sure everyone is banned for their actions of being rude.”

Evan Manniko ’21, who helped originally put the project together, has also only had experience with smaller servers in the past, and was shocked to see the growth and attention this new one has been getting. 

“Keeping up with the demand of some many players and keeping the server stable [is difficult]. This is our biggest project so far,” he said.

As their project continues to get larger, Shively has plans to make donations available, but he’d really like to see it keep growing. 

“We pay 18 dollars a month to have exclusive plugins and a server hosting up to 1000 players,” he said. “We are also making sure people get exclusive perks in-game who donate, such as more storage in their chests and a way to change their name.” 

At the root of it, though, creating this online server widens the options for a stable Monarch community, and lets players be creative and social at the same time. 

“It’s fun to see everyone create their own thing and build up empires with their newfound friends. It’s also really fun to see everyone making new friends,” Shively said.