Michael, 21, known as siddlestix in online communities, is an aspiring landscape artist who joined the world of online communities nearly 10 years ago on a popular Minecraft server called Hypixel. He went from playing games with his older brother to branching off on his own and exploring his love of building and creation.
Overtime, Michael discovered other Minecraft servers, like IHasName, which hosts Minecraft civilization events. Following this exploration, Michael took his “preference for building outdoors in Minecraft into real life.”
This led him to find his passion for landscape design by day, but Minecraft became a place he could create experimental designs for his landscaping work at night. He maintains that if he hadn’t joined Hypixel 10 years ago, he would have gone down an entirely different career path.
“The connections you make online are more than just chatting; it’s far more than just texting. Some of these people will likely become lifelong pals. They become almost like a family.”
Jake, 19, known as edgylifey in his virtual world, is a Creative Director for multiple game studios, and had a similar experience. He was “always chasing a new goal… pursing a way to improve.” On a game called Sandbox hosted on the platform Roblox, he discovered he was interested in coding.
Jake said Sandbox made them curious about the software that ran the game and he began to look for entry-level positions in the gaming industry.
“With these online communities, it’s always come down to connections and knowing people. Things just fall into place.There’s a lot of opportunity online.”
