vanilla can be fun w/ friends if you're dedicated to it.
ex. me and a couple friends started up a realms server a while ago and our goal was to get as far as possible. started out at one point of the map, and we got really, REALLY far. i can't remember the last coords we got to before we stopped, but it was real far out. many boats were used, horses were brought along thanks to rope, there was lots of fun.
it eventually gets boring though without much else to do, but it was fun for the time.
mods enhance the experience if you've gotten very bored of vanilla, for example, tekkit, ftb, and other various modpacks are pretty nice to toy with. learning how to experiment with industrial, thermal and other kinds of mods is fun and when you get it done right you can make some pretty amazing and efficient things lategame.
just my two cents, though, i don't define everyone.
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