Keith Stuart, video game journalist at The Guardian, recently published this piece about how he used Minecraft to connect with his autistic son when they'd play together on Xbox 360, and he recently stumbled upon the now-retro console in the attic. He struggled to get back into his old Xbox Live account but when he eventually did, he was able to relive all the memories stored within those blocky, procedurally generated worlds. He describes it as "like revisiting an old family home - the same, but also irrevocably different".

What does Minecraft mean to you? 

Early adopters among you will remember the days of alpha and beta, and maybe even indev and infdev before then, when there was barely anything other than grass, stone, and a few trees to punch. If you've never really stopped playing, Minecraft as a game will have grown up alongside you, as a constant throughout the ups and downs of life. Or if you started playing more recently, how has that experience been, trying to penetrate a game that is now surprisingly complex and in some ways quite daunting to newbies?

‘A place that made sense’: Minecraft is 15 years old and still changing lives

When my son, who is on the austim spectrum, was struggling, this classic game opened up his world. It continues to help lonely, isolated people find ways to connect and belong

www.theguardian.com