Minecraft- Boredom then WTF!!!

Recently, I logged onto Minecraft (MC) to spend my one hour in "survival mode." Initially, I was very "ho hum" about the prospect of spending an entire hour in a virtual environment just exploring on my own. As a one-time (but no longer) gamer since the 1980's, I initially regarded MC as "dated" and simplistic with its pixelated look and deceptively simplistic mechanics. When I logged into MC, I was transported back into the same environment that we spent time in during the previous week's class. There literally was nothing different! The sun was shining and NO ONE ELSE was around. To alleviate my boredom, I wandered around and looked at some of the octopuses (octopi?) and explored some of the caves below the waterfalls. Mercifully, a couple of cows appeared and I satisfied myself with "butchering" them. After about 10 minutes of this, I was stone-cold bored and decided to abandon my station to wash a few dishes. After all, nothing was happening right?! After a few minutes standing at the sink, my wife came running to tell me that "my computer was making grunting and heavy breathing noises!" What was I doing? Abandoning my task and rinsing off my soapy hands, I ran back to my computer only to discover that it was now night (really? After only a few minutes?!) and I was being attacked by something. In order to escape, I stumbled down the waterfall into the caves where I proceeded to drown. Drats! Worse, upon respawning I discovered that all my inventory items had disappeared! I was lost- and SCREWED! Over the next 25 minutes, I proceeded to fight a procession of monsters that included spiders, zombies, and a DAMNED archer that I came to truly hate. Trying to fend them off with just bare fists was nigh impossible. I knew that I could have run to shelter and hid but my pride was stung. I continued to seek out, attack, and be slaughtered by successive monsters. I would best describe my MC survival experience as a never-ending suicide mission. I can definitely see why young students would be so engaged in such an environment. The fact that you can amass and build inventory items gives this deep replay and interactive value. I can honestly say that I can't wait to die again!