What keeps me playing this game. well thats a bloody loaded question aint it :P
im a terrible builder, most everything i decorate gets destroyed and rebuilt by someone obviously better color coordinated .. i cant redstone very well- 9/10 my machines dont work and i end up breaking others... im a terrible PVPer (best streak i had was 1 kill after 17 deaths).. my only minecraft ability is digging a hole.
But ive been here for two years now and whats always brought me back was not the game at all.
When i first started minecraft, it was to play with my brother. we joined a survival server and i proceeded to build myself a giant dirt semicircle house thing i called "Barons Bio-Dome". it contained everything- single person farm, oak tree roof, mine, nether portal.. While i was there, i would watch the chat, never really saying much, but i noticed a tift constatnly going on between certain sects of players..
One day, a war was declared, and i chose to step in and join the recruits of one side.... In a epic battle of nearly 10 people clashing with 10 people on a predesignated hilltop, we fought- we fought, and fought.. with bows and swords and buckets of lava, potions of strength and a secret weapon called Cyanide (later i discovered it was not actually a potion you could make, it was taken from a spawn area, meant to kill you if you got stuck in a labrynth).. Anyway, We won the war in the end and i joined my first group.. We spent months building massive bases, having them get destroyed by our rivals and building again elsewhere.
They taught me many things i didn't know existed, like nether roof travel, invisible red stone traps and how there were actual levels designated to certain ores... I made friends, and after a short year together, lots of laughs and crazy antics later, CraftyMyner shared with the group his red stone development server. it held 10 people when i first saw it and youve seen how its grown since then XD. Through trolls and hackers, corruptions, power failures and data wipes, thieves and liars and honest to god crazy people- im here for the people i love and believe in.
My little circle of friends keeps growing.. all ages, all types and all around the world, i get to talk and laugh and have fun with. As long as my friends are here, as long as CraftyMynes runs and probably longer, i play because of the people. Because what fun is being able to do anything i can think of if theres no one to share it with.