BNM's 10 years on CV story!
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2026 3:33 pm
July 21, 2016
My son (7) has been interested in Minecraft for a couple of years now, and I have joined him in playing this game. I bought it for our Playstation so we could play together as a family. I have built insane mansions and love exploring caves, though the zombie under my house at night is terrifying.
My child tells me that he wants to play on a server. That’s…. not a thing on the PS3 from what I can find online. I want to play with him and playing on a server sounds like fun, so I’ve purchased a Minecraft account for the PC.
Google search: family friendly minecraft server
Most of these servers are whitelisted, which means that we can’t join unless we’re given permission, but we want to play today! Here’s one… cubeville.org family friendly, no whitelist, 24/7 with active staff. Sounds great!
Load minecraft version 1.9.4….
Login to cubeville.org
This is quite the tutorial, very informational. I take notes on commands and rules and help my son navigate to the end of the tutorial. There was a lot of information and the tutorial took a while, but then…
“Welcome to Cubeville, ClanThomasCrew!”
A flurry of “Welcome!” messages start appearing.
I’m at spawn. Walls with heads and names surround me.
Look up: massive bubble ship above me.
Skyway. Yes, this must be how to navigate the server (it was).
Oh look, a lift sign - I learned about those in the tutorial! *right click*
I pick a direction and start running (I chose West). I run past some incredible builds…
someone built The Eye of Sauron?!
One problem: How do I get down from the skyway?
*jump*
.
.
.
.
*die*
I’m back at Spawn. Let’s try that again. Skyway: North this time.
Eventually I find an empty snowy spot that seems 40+ blocks away from other builds, but I want to be sure.
/modreq Can I build here?
CaveHuntress and Saemai appear to help check out the area. Meanwhile, it’s dark and I’m brand new on the server so I have no food. I’m starving. I get down to half a heart. There are zombies around. I ask saemai if they have any food. They do not. So… I guess I’ll die then (I jumped off a 4 block drop). Back at Spawn. I find my way back to the snowy area. There’s a build underground, so no go.
Back to exploring.
I have finally found a place that we can call our own. I’ve built a house. The one building skill I have is that houses should not be square. This is what I ended up building:
(We lost our base fairly often, so I wrote “Hi!” on top of it as a marker)
As the days rolled by, my son and I shared the account. I’d build, he’d destroy. I’d collect resources, he’d die in the middle of nowhere. I talked with saemai again and she recommended getting my own account. The more times he died with our gear the more convinced I became.
Within a month BandNerdMama was born. ClanThomasCrew was renamed to BruceWayneCEO and we now had our own accounts!
Slowly, over the course of a month or so, my son lost interest in playing on a server. I, however, had made friends and was REALLY enjoying working on my own little base. I moved about 300 blocks East from this place and began building in my three 30x30 allotments. Eventually I got SK and received a fourth claim, which completed the square I had worked on.
My building improved over time, and my very first little “village” was born:
There was more to it than meets the eye! I had a 60x60 plot of land and I wanted to build so much more, so I dug down. I dug out the ENTIRE area down to bedrock:
I had included my own tree farm for all the tree variants, a dye farm (yep, a dye farm), animal pens,and crop farms.
It was around the beginning of CV6 that I decided I wanted to become a better builder. I put so much effort into learning to build - I watched lots of Grian’s tutorial videos (before he was on Hermitcraft) and practiced quite a bit. I've also learned to ask people for advice and/or help when I get stuck. That's probably how I've learned the most over the years!
My favorite build from recently is probably this trade hall in Prism:
Tuesday, July 21, 2026 marks TEN YEARS for me on Cubeville. A decade. That’s amazing. In that time I’ve made so many friends, some for life, and have watched people grow into wonderful adults. I know that my kid was onto something when he wanted to join a server. He doesn’t play online anymore but I’m still here. Older and wiser, but still weird. Oh, and I’ve become a better builder too!
My son (7) has been interested in Minecraft for a couple of years now, and I have joined him in playing this game. I bought it for our Playstation so we could play together as a family. I have built insane mansions and love exploring caves, though the zombie under my house at night is terrifying.
My child tells me that he wants to play on a server. That’s…. not a thing on the PS3 from what I can find online. I want to play with him and playing on a server sounds like fun, so I’ve purchased a Minecraft account for the PC.
Google search: family friendly minecraft server
Most of these servers are whitelisted, which means that we can’t join unless we’re given permission, but we want to play today! Here’s one… cubeville.org family friendly, no whitelist, 24/7 with active staff. Sounds great!
Load minecraft version 1.9.4….
Login to cubeville.org
This is quite the tutorial, very informational. I take notes on commands and rules and help my son navigate to the end of the tutorial. There was a lot of information and the tutorial took a while, but then…
“Welcome to Cubeville, ClanThomasCrew!”
A flurry of “Welcome!” messages start appearing.
I’m at spawn. Walls with heads and names surround me.
Look up: massive bubble ship above me.
Skyway. Yes, this must be how to navigate the server (it was).
Oh look, a lift sign - I learned about those in the tutorial! *right click*
I pick a direction and start running (I chose West). I run past some incredible builds…
someone built The Eye of Sauron?!
One problem: How do I get down from the skyway?
*jump*
.
.
.
.
*die*
I’m back at Spawn. Let’s try that again. Skyway: North this time.
Eventually I find an empty snowy spot that seems 40+ blocks away from other builds, but I want to be sure.
/modreq Can I build here?
CaveHuntress and Saemai appear to help check out the area. Meanwhile, it’s dark and I’m brand new on the server so I have no food. I’m starving. I get down to half a heart. There are zombies around. I ask saemai if they have any food. They do not. So… I guess I’ll die then (I jumped off a 4 block drop). Back at Spawn. I find my way back to the snowy area. There’s a build underground, so no go.
Back to exploring.
I have finally found a place that we can call our own. I’ve built a house. The one building skill I have is that houses should not be square. This is what I ended up building:
(We lost our base fairly often, so I wrote “Hi!” on top of it as a marker)
As the days rolled by, my son and I shared the account. I’d build, he’d destroy. I’d collect resources, he’d die in the middle of nowhere. I talked with saemai again and she recommended getting my own account. The more times he died with our gear the more convinced I became.
Within a month BandNerdMama was born. ClanThomasCrew was renamed to BruceWayneCEO and we now had our own accounts!
Slowly, over the course of a month or so, my son lost interest in playing on a server. I, however, had made friends and was REALLY enjoying working on my own little base. I moved about 300 blocks East from this place and began building in my three 30x30 allotments. Eventually I got SK and received a fourth claim, which completed the square I had worked on.
My building improved over time, and my very first little “village” was born:
There was more to it than meets the eye! I had a 60x60 plot of land and I wanted to build so much more, so I dug down. I dug out the ENTIRE area down to bedrock:
I had included my own tree farm for all the tree variants, a dye farm (yep, a dye farm), animal pens,and crop farms.
It was around the beginning of CV6 that I decided I wanted to become a better builder. I put so much effort into learning to build - I watched lots of Grian’s tutorial videos (before he was on Hermitcraft) and practiced quite a bit. I've also learned to ask people for advice and/or help when I get stuck. That's probably how I've learned the most over the years!
My favorite build from recently is probably this trade hall in Prism:
Tuesday, July 21, 2026 marks TEN YEARS for me on Cubeville. A decade. That’s amazing. In that time I’ve made so many friends, some for life, and have watched people grow into wonderful adults. I know that my kid was onto something when he wanted to join a server. He doesn’t play online anymore but I’m still here. Older and wiser, but still weird. Oh, and I’ve become a better builder too!