Minecraft has eaten up a lot of my time for the last 6 months.

It's been gaining a lot of popularity recently, thanks to Valve, Machinima, Penny Arcade, famous LPers and blogs, various websites that have some sort of interest in gaming, various websites that aren't related to gaming but still felt the need to mention the game, word of mouth, etc.

So yeah, any random people reading this who play? I need some good SMP servers to explore, and people to share diamonds/builds/stories with.

If you somehow don't know what this game is yet, it's basically the most addictive sandbox game ever:

Old free version: Basically lego. Run around building and breaking blocks, by yourself or with others, and make amazing blocky structures. Possibly on a procedurally generated landscape with hills, caves, beaches, lakes, underground lava pools, meadows, and whatever else. Some multiplayer servers have custom software running that makes more impressive land features... or flat surfaces that are better for building on.

Paid version: Currently only survival mode. Updated often, featuring MUCH better (and infinite) world generation. Take apart the world to collect blocks and other resources, so you can build shelters and avoid monsters. Some materials can be crafted, usually with others in a specific shape, into tools and miscellaneous fun items. Nothing beats riding down a waterfall into a giant cave, lighting the way with torches as monsters rain down upon you. You collect some ores along the way, before reaching the bottom of the waterfall, where the rarest ores are embedded in the stone above giant pools of lava. Note that survival mode can be extremely difficult at times, and crafting recipes are sometimes hard to guess, so after you think you've done all your brain can work out, read the wiki. Also, if you're having trouble with certain situations, the forumssssSSSSSBOOM

...

Also, to those who say Notch is uncaring, money hungry, incompetent, lazy, or any of the other horrible things I saw on his blog today, you really have no idea what you're talking about. To say he doesn't care about the community is especially infuriating. To give a just a few examples of him caring: He knows our memes and sometimes adds them to the a menu or as an in-game easter egg, he reads the suggestions fans make on various forums, and he directly answers questions on Twitter. Besides that, just look at what he's going thro- oh, wait, you're not listening. Oh well.