Survival

Survival mode is the game mode of Minecraft in which players can collect resources, build structures, battle mobs, fight hunger, and explore the land. It is currently the main focus in the development of Minecraft, being the only playable game mode in Beta until 1.8. However Creative has been reintroduced since this update.

Players also have an inventory so they have more space to gather items, which they are able to combine together using certain arrangements to create new Tools and Items. This process is known as crafting. Some crafting recipes need a crafting table. Players will also soon be able to create potions by brewing.

Survival Single Player (SSP)
Survival Single Player was the original Minecraft experience in Story Mode.

Survival Multiplayer (SMP)


Survival Multiplayer was originally an offshoot of the original Minecraft experience, but has evolved to be the focus of development. Any multiplayer Minecraft server is generally assumed to be SMP unless explicitly stated.

History
This game mode was introduced on 4th of August, 2009 in Survival Test under Classic. During this time, players experienced permadeath, meaning they could not respawn and the level needed to be restarted unless a save file had been created.

The inventory and crafting was only introduced in the Indev version while the Infdev version features infinite map generation. This version also drops the permadeath feature allowing the player to respawn. The Alpha version improved the map generation by introducing biomes.

The Multiplayer variant of this game mode also took place in the Alpha version. Originally, Notch had only allowed a limited number of people from the Minecraft IRC channel to participate in the first tests of SMP. These invitees could invite other people to test out this mode; however the password was leaked and the server was quickly filled up. Notch released the first version of the SMP server software on the 4th of August, 2010. The client was updated so that players could enter the IP of a server to join it.

Multiplayer Servers
Due to the large number of Minecraft servers, different resource sites offer lists of the different Multiplayer servers out there. Some of the known lists are: - Minecraft-server-list.com (Classic + Survival list) - Minecraft.dk/mcserverlist (Survival list) - Mcserverlist.net (Classic + Survival list) - List.mcmyadmin.com (Survival list) - Create  your own server tool

The Minecraft site also contains a server list for Classic servers. However, a Server List in the multiplayer join screen was introduced in Beta 1.8. This does not have a full server list, however, but it does save servers, ping them, and can tell you the number of players online and the maximum players online.