Let's Play Minecraft is a popular Let's Play series produced by Achievement Hunter and to date is the longest running Let's Play series produced by the team. The first Let's Play Minecraft episode was a roaring success pulling in more than 1 million views per episode, which ultimately led to a weekly series being set up and new episodes released every Friday in accordance with the first. Geoff stated in an episode of AHWU said that he and
Let's Play Minecraft Episode 70 title screen; from left to right: Geoff, Jack, Michael, Gavin, Ray, Ryan
the rest of the Achievement Hunter staff "will upload new Minecraft Let's Play videos every week now until we die" showing the commitment the team has to the series.
Overview
The Let's Play Minecraft series is a weekly series consisting of five Achievement Hunter members; Jack, Geoff, Michael, Gavin and Ray. The series later expanded to include Ryan, who became a regular, and occasionally Caleb would join in and most of the time be a medium between community members and the AH team when playing on a community made map. Primarily, they use the Xbox 360 edition of Minecraft, with each episode usually being thirty to forty minutes long sometimes expanding into 2-part or 3-part episodes. The first episode was released on May 11, 2012, two days after Minecraft was released on the Xbox 360. The series reached it's 50th episode on May 10, 2013, one day before the anniversary of the series. The 100th episode is scheduled for release on April 25, 2014.
During the first few episodes, the five of them only explored the world and 'griefed' each other. This includes killing each other, destroying each others houses, and accidentally getting lost or misplacing blocks in a hilarious fashion. In later episodes, the series started to focus primarily on goal/competition based gameplay, with a number of activities based around popular PC-version variants such as Hunger Games, parkour, and The Walls. The prize for winning a competition is a tower of four gold blocks known as the Tower of Pimps, which the member of the team pride themselves upon winning.
In Episode 67, the Achievement Hunters explored the world of the Mass Effect Mash-Up, which was the newest texture pack for Minecraft. During the video, the lads stated that they would explore the world of every new texture pack from now on.
Each of the members have a role/quirk that defines their behavior in the series and associated skin:
Geoff's character skin is Master Chief from the video game Halo, and is also a reference to his voicing of Grif in the Red vs Blue series. He is considered the leader of the group; organizing the team and dictating the way the competitions are run. He along with Gavin are the main builders of structures in Achievement City. Geoff has participated with the team during the early episodes of the series for the prized Tower of Pimps, but during the Dig Dug challenge he stated that he just likes to create more then competing and as a result has "retired", though he still competes from time to time. He is generally very competitive and will try to stack odds in his favor. For example, one of Geoff's Tower of Pimps wins had him build a sky fortress surrounded by lava and use diamond equipment. His house was built to jokingly represent his ego and Michael described it as a 'Monolith'. Due to the latest Minecraft patch adjusting the build height, Geoff and Gavin stated that Geoff's house is now even taller than before. Recently the crew began construction on Geoffs tower and as of the 2014 Achievment City tour video Geoffs house is now at maxium build height.
Jack's character skin is the biker from the video game Trials HD. He is seen as a very slow and methodical player who examines every detail, which Geoff is known to exploit. During the earlier episodes he is shown to be very knowledgeable about Minecraft; dealing with lava and how to build a Nether portal. Many times after being stopped from winning a competition he would remark about "building a house" though he is only ever seen twice building a house in the series and only completing one during the The End Let's Play, which turned into a hotel. During episodes when Geoff is explaining he would occupy himself with the cursor being a butterfly. His house is a wooden house on stilts with a mine leading to the underground of Achievement City, with a lava ceiling made by Geoff.
Michael's character skin is Banjo from the video game Banjo Kazooie. At first, Michael's defining quirk was that he didn't know how to play, often making mistakes, dropping pieces of equipment, and swearing a lot, reflecting his Rage Quit persona. Since then he has begun to understand the game more and the team refers to him as "Mogar" which he coined himself (the name is a same reference to the Guardian from the Marvel's movie Thor). He is generally aggressive towards other players; especially Gavin for his stupidity. He is an excellent fighter; winning two fighting related challenges: Last Man Standing and Thunderdome. His house is a wooden house, with an "awaiting approval" sign above his door.
Gavin's character skin is a Creeper, which since the new update has often caused him to be mistaken for an actual Creeper. He constantly harasses and ridicules other players and as a result he is frequently the target of the other players' rage, even to the point where they'll physically attack him. He is also well known for griefing others structures, usually leading to hysterical rages. His most well known exploits was lava-ing the house during the first episode and co-creating Plan G. Despite being one of the only two members (the other being Ray) to have played the game prior to the original Let's Play, he often fails at what he does because of his own actions. Gavin is the co-creator of structures in Achievement City and had also inadvertently created the original Tower of Pimps when messing with Ray's gold. Oddly enough, even though Gavin created the Tower of Pimps he has only won it thrice: during the Hunger Games Shopping List competitions, and Mad King Ryan Part 2. His house is a cobblestone art house with a secret trophy room inside the adjoining hill.
Ray's character skin is the Tuxedo Steve skin, which he bases off of Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon. In going with the character, he is often seen carrying specifically red roses in his inventory or close to his person. If another member does anything negative towards a rose, he displays violence towards them, such as Caleb, or will ensure the safety of a rose. He has displayed many other traits such as standing near a wall and admiring his face, pretending to masturbate, "shout out to...", creating signs with text humor, hatred for Cake, pointing out Endermen, and making karate related noises when ever the art picture is present. He often opens an episode shouting "LLLLLET'S PLAY!" which has become a staple for the series. So far he is tied with Jack and Ryan for the most wins of the Tower of Pimps and has always showered the losers with red roses. His house is a mud house with a torch and dirt floor, which was later expanded to include a bed and a chest with Kung Fu related art work on his wall that hides Cake dispensers.
Ryan's character skin is the Scottish Steve skin. Ryan joined in the Let's Plays shortly after joining Achievement Hunter. Ryan was originally only known as the "PC guy", but is now a full Achievement Hunter member and competes in Let's Play. Due to his PC knowledge, he normally helps with Geoff and Gavin when creating circuit related structures in Achievement City and is always referred to as the smart one due to his college credentials. He is usually quiet and sometimes confused with Jack. Ryan has been seen to occasionally break the rules, although not always intentionally and has become a staple for the rest to not to "pull a Ryan". Despite being in less Let's Plays, he has won the Tower of Pimps eight times, and holds the record for the most consecutive wins. Ryan has claimed Kung-Fu House as his house and has since made 3 additions to it, including a basement for his pet cow named Edgar.
Caleb's character skin is usually the nurse skin, although he has also appeared with other skins, such as the Boxer Steve skin in Episode 28. Caleb usually appears as a mediator and communicator between the creator of the community-made maps and the Achievement Hunter team; for example the Grifball map and the Labyrinth map. He has competed during Let's Play for the Tower but is the only player who has yet to win, and as a result of excessive cheating and screen-looking, he has been banned from the competitions. Screen-looking in the series is now usually referred to as "pulling a Caleb". His house is a simple 2x2x1 block hole, filled with water. Caleb made a return in Let's Play Minecraft Episode 71.
Lindsay has only appeared in Episodes 55 and 71. She has a penguin skin.
Kerry appeared in Episode 74 due to Ryan being absent for personal reasons. He uses the Jetforce Gemini skin. Kerry was also in Episodes 89 and 90 as the assistant of Mad King Ryan. At the end of Episode 90 Kerry became Edgar and served as the final boss of the Let's Play.
Joel appeared once in Episode 2 and wore the Prisoner Steve skin. Joel did not partake in getting the achievement which was the goal of the let's play and left the group almost immediately.
