Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Minecraft mod known as Better Than Wolves. I’ve followed the project for almost a decade, and I interact with the community almost daily. I’ve pumped more hours into the game than probably any other activity. It’s hard to explain the appeal of the thing, but basically it is a version of Minecraft with industrialization and mass extinction and tree stumps. It is an immersive and sometimes painful version of the game. Some have described it as “hardcore.”
As a depressing marker of the occasion, Flowerchild officially announced that development of the mod has ended. He will be disengaging from the community and disbanding his social media and forum accounts related to the mod. The plan to step back was actually made known months ago, but I did not quite realize that the end was nigh. This is a pretty emotional event for me, all things considered. I’ve gotten to know many members of the community, and I’ve made many lasting memories playing this game with them. I also feel I owe a debt of gratitude to Flowerchild and the BTW community for fostering a sense of creativity and critical thinking within me. I was like 12 or 13 when I discovered BTW. I basically grew up alongside it. I would say that the crass humor of the players, the wisdom of Flowerchild, and the thoughtful and at times subversive design of the mod itself helped me, for better or worse, develop into the edgy bastard that I am today. I don’t know if my love of literature or analytical drive would be quite so deep had I not discovered this mod.
With the conclusion of the mod comes the first official release of the BTW source code. Flowerchild, who for years forbid the creation of most add-ons, has given total permission to do whatever the hell we want with his code. This is an incredible turn of events. Players have already been discussing the creation of a kind of mod loader utility for a while, so I suspect add-on development to totally explode. I’m considering opening up some of my own add-on projects and reviving them! To us, BTW is the default Minecraft experience, so it makes sense that we would want to modify it. The potential for new content is unparalleled. Code savvy folks like Dawnraider have already produced amazing content. Her BTA project revamps the 1.5.2 terrain gen to look amazing (though it is strangely reminiscent of, dare I say biased toward, the west coast).
Perhaps somebody could even port the mod to the latest versions of vanilla? A pipe dream, that one.
If you have no idea what Better Than Wolves is and have an interest in trying it out, I am always down to play. Shoot me an email. It’s a hard game, but the experience is so rewarding and immersive. Perhaps I will do a write up of the game someday? I have long dwelled on plans to create a BTW guidebook, but that project never moved past some initial drafts before school work swept me away.
BETTER THAN WOLVES IS DEAD, LONG LIVE BETTER THAN WOLVES! Praise Flowerchild, 420 yolo placenta