I Watched A Child Molester Play Minecraft

Back in the day when I was still going to university and also deep into minecraft (i.e. not even a year ago - time moves fast), I spent lots and lots of time watching Let's Plays. My favorite by far was "X's Adventures in Minecraft". But at some point of time I had burned through all his videos and he had stopped making new ones. So I plunged into the minecraft forums to find me a new X. There was a thread solely devoted to list all the good Let's Plays (unfortunately, I can't find it right now) and of course I went for the one with the most clips. His YouTube-channel was called quickshot14. I don't remember precisely, but I think he already had over 200 videos when I joined him on his journeys.

What I used to do when classes didn't start until late afternoon (I always tried to choose them this way) was stay up til around 4 or 5am and then sleep until 10 or 11m. Those were the six hours of sleep I needed. Then I treated myself with a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereals, sat in front of my computer and fired up the YouTube. At this point in time I definitely spent more time watching minecraft videos than playing the game (this was before I managed to convince my brothers to give it a try). Most of the minecraft videos on quickshot's channel are about 15 minutes long and most of the time, I couldn't bring myself to stop after only one. To be honest, I often watched several hours at a time. These long sessions happened mostly at night though.

When you watch those kinds of Let's Plays - and in such quantities - you can't help but develop a relationship to the person playing. I liked the relaxed way quickshot narrated his videos. I was impressed by the truly amazing structures he built. I learned that he had a wife and at least one kid (sometimes he was interrupted while recording). I also concluded that he probably had much free time (being able to record, edit and upload that many videos in 1080p - often he even edited out the building process). I definitely wasn't one of the "community guys", I didn't post comments on his channel or anything like that. But I enjoyed his videos very much.

Then, one day, he stopped posting videos. There was a bulletin on his YouTube-Channel that said something like "something has come up, I can't post any videos right now".
With that, I stopped watching minecraft videos. I don't know why I didn't miss it, but I just stopped. I don't even remember what I did instead. The last video on his channel was posted on the 4th of May 2011. This was around the time when I had to prepare for my final exams, so perhaps that was that. But I kept the subscription.

Some time later, there was another bulletin. I also don't remember when the first one was there and I don't seem to be able to find it on YouTube. It said that he was in jail. His brother posted it for him. First, it wasn't clear how long he would have to stay in jail. The next bulletin said, that he will not be back for quite a long time. It also said, that he had done something really bad.

Then, today, I saw that there was a new bulletin. It's from 2 days ago.

I felt very strange after reading this. I had never known anyone who had been to prison. Let alone molested a child. I still don't know what to make of it. It seems so unreal. The guy I spent hours watching play minecraft now sits in jail for at least 17 jears. He has brought pain and chaos into the live of an innocent child. I still have to get my head around this.

I don't really understand why his brother posted this. And I don't know what exactly he has done. I can just assume that it was really, really bad. But I feel unable to judge, for I know nothing. 

This is one of the strange things about the internet. You can spend huge amounts of time "with" someone. You develop a picture of this person in your head. You develop sympathies and aversions. Perhaps you even think you know the person on a basic level. But don't fool yourself - you probably don't.

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