Cordeiro Jacob - Minecraft For Dummies

Jesse Stay is an author of 8 previous books, an accomplished and world-renowned speaker, and all-around expert in technology, especially in the areas of social media and social media marketing. Jesse eats, breaths, and sleeps Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and other future-leaning and connecting technologies. A computer programmer since age 10 years old, Jesse understands what its like to find an immersive piece of software that can teach you the further you explore. Not since he was a child has he seen an educational environment like Minecraft!

You can follow Jesse on his blog at http://staynalive.com or follow him on Facebook at http://facebook.com/stay!

Thomas Stay is Jesses 12-year-old son, who eats, drinks, and breaths Minecraft. Thomas programs in Python, HTML, and CSS, and blogs at http://tom.staynalive.com where he writes about programming and software development. Thomas is a straight-A student enrolled a grade level ahead and starts high school soon. He likes to do LEGO Mindstorms robotics and plays the trumpet. Hes often found late at night reading books. He loves to fix old Minecraft projects that dont work in the newer updates.

Jacob Cordeiro has been playing Minecraft since the Alpha pre-release. Jacob attends Stanford Online High School and won an award for his game entry in the 2011 Scholastic Art and Writing competition.

To Rebecca (or Mom), who really put more effort into this book than any of us did. The person who truly deserves their name on the front of this book is her (Jesse keeps asking her to replace his name with hers and she is too humble to allow it!).

This was truly a family effort, and like the rest of our family, Mom was the one that powered it, kept it going, and even dug in and made it happen, all while pregnant! As youre reading this book, while they are Thomas and Jesses words, youll catch a hint of Mom throughout. Rebecca and Mom, we couldnt have done it without you!

And to grandma, Talma, who was in my dedication of my fake book that I wrote when I was 6.

Thanks to the entire family for pitching in on this. Even our friends who would all place their characters in one spot so we could get a screenshot, the Rikers who would let us use their Minecraft server until we could set up our own, and Hunter who helped get us into some of this world of Minecraft.

Thanks to Joseph and JJ for pitching in a few screenshots (and the Josephs Corner!), and to Alex and Emily and even our big sister Elizabeth for letting us use the computer and devices while we played the game to be able to write this book. And to the little one on the way (should be born around when you read this!) who made a really interesting baby announcement using Minecraft sheep! Also, as always, thanks to the wonderful staff at Wiley and all those that worked with us in making this book Douglas MacRostie our tech editor, our copy editor, (the outstanding) Becky Whitney, as well as those that were with us the entire way, Colleen Diamond and Amy Fandrei. We couldnt have done it without any of you.

Publishers Acknowledgments

Executive Editor: Amy Fandrei

Project Editor: Colleen Diamond

Copy Editor: Becky Whitney

Technical Editor: Douglas MacRostie @Foosbag

Editorial Assistant: Claire Brock

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Project Coordinator: Erin Zeltner

Cover Image: Courtesy of Jesse Stay

Chapter 1

In This Chapter

Understanding Minecraft

Registering your account

Buying and downloading Minecraft

Starting your first game