Howdy, y’all!
Joe Hills here, writing as I always do from Nashville, Tennessee!
Today is June 1st, 2022, but that wasn’t always the case…
Ten Years Earlier
It’s been ten years since I released my first HermitCraft episode, recorded along with episodes two and three in a marathon collaboration session with GenerikB and Hypnotizd:
A suspicious invitation
Viewers ask me sometimes, “what was it like to be invited to join HermitCraft?” and I’ve gotta say, it was a real surprise.
I’d never heard of HermitCraft! It was only a few weeks old at the time, and I didn’t really know any of the members personally.
Earlier that year, HermitCraft’s founder, GenerikB, had somehow stumbled onto a 49-hour charity stream benefitting the LLS I was co-hosting with a Leukemia researcher from Vanderbilt University’s Hiebert Lab. Please permit me a few digressions about that weekend:
- That was my first real attempt at helping organize a charity stream, and y’all were generous enough to contribute $1700! I’m always incredibly grateful to have such a kind audience!
- Don’t ever schedule a 48-hour charity stream on a weekend when the clocks change, because your pre-event marketing, schedule of events, and reality will all desynchronize at 2am Sunday morning.
Anyway, when GenerikB was a few weeks into launching HermitCraft, he somehow got it in his head that his new server full of talented builders and redstoners needed a wildcard, and he chose to invite me out of the clear blue Skype.
I’d never recorded a single Minecraft SMP video, as my channel was primarily focused on playing Super Hostile CTW (Collect The Wool) maps with occasional collaborations to compete in Minecraft contests like the Race For Wool maps, where I played on Team Tunnel Rat alongside PauseUnpause, Zisteau, and ZombieCleo.
The invitation sounded like such a poor fit, I was skeptical it was some sort of scam or intellectual property theft attempt, but when GenerikB assured me I didn’t have to sign or pay anything to join the server, I decided I should give it a try.
I’m glad I did!
An adventurous decade
The last ten years of my life have been incredibly hectic, but the opportunity to work and play alongside so many talented and creative artists on HermitCraft has been a constant source of motivation and inspiration for me.
The broader HermitCraft community has supported and encouraged us all, and we couldn’t accomplish what we do without you. An invite to play on HermitCraft would be worthless without the time and energy to create and perform the acts of imagination we attempt.
Y’all made the last decade of HermitCraft possible for me, and I hope my work can demonstrate how much I appreciate your assistance.
It’s been wonderful revisiting old times, but I’ve gotta get out there and build.
Until next time, y’all, this is Joe Hills from Nashville, Tennessee. Keep adventuring!