‘Minecraft’ Latest News & Update: Microsoft Uses ‘Minecraft” To Serve As Robo Gym To Test Artificial Intelligence

by Stone Marshall | Nov 26, 2016 | Minecraft News | 0 comments

“Minecraft,” the sandbox video game originally created by Markus “Notch” Persson,” a Swedish game designer, is not just a game for researchers at Microsoft Research Lab. The lab’s open-source platform is testing artificial intelligence using the game’s pixelated universe.

Katja Hofmann, lead researcher of Microsoft Research Lab, said that the open-source platform, Project Malmo, could create AI agents and set it loose in a modified version of “Minecraft” free-to-roam 3D environment. The agents, through trial and error, learned ways to walk, move and dodge barriers in a physically consistent world, Wired reports.

Moving AI To Interactive Learning

The ability to learn usually needs expensive robots that could also use tolls, craft objects and collaborate with agents directed by humans or other AI. Hofmann said that feature could help move the AI field to interactive learnings from its present paradigm learned through machine. Microsoft trains algorithms with data troves before the AI is deployed.  Is “Minecraft” an effective tool for this?

In interactive learning, most of the coaching would occur on the ground by exchanges with end user. Microsoft uses Malmo to investigate how AI could learn from people using human feedback. Using “Minecraft,” the AI agent could be taught a new skill and given a feedback every time the AI does something correctly.

In selecting a video game to serve as AI training ground, Microsoft tested several games. Hofmann said the lab selected “Minecraft” because of the video game’s versatility, not because the software giant co-founded by Bill and Melinda Gates acquired in 2014 Mojang, the developer of the game in Sweden.

1.0 Update Launch Before End Of 2016

Meanwhile, PCGamesN reports that “Minecraft” Windows 10 Edition would get its 1.0 update soon. There is no official date of the release, but the gaming website confirmed the roll out of the 1.0 update would be before 2016 ends. Also included in the yearend launch are new mobs, items, blocks and changes inbound.

‘Minecraft’ Latest News & Update: Microsoft Uses ‘Minecraft” To Serve As Robo Gym To Test Artificial Intelligence

Black Friday Deals 2016: Xbox One S 500GB Minecraft Bundle Cheapest At Kohl’s; The Cheapest, Best Deals At Target, Best Buy Detailed

by Stone Marshall | Nov 25, 2016 | Minecraft News | 0 comments

Black Friday Deals 2016  already commenced in several online retailers like Amazon. Microsoft’s latest console has been found bundled with great discounts only at Kohl’s for as low as $249.99. Furthermore, Target and Best Buy with $15 games along with $250 PS4 consoles with game bundles.

Microsoft’s recently released a smaller Xbox One console–the Xbox One S that is said to be 40 percent smaller than its predecessor. Black Friday Deals 2016 for the latest Microsoft console reportedly sells cheapest over at Kohl’s. The retailer store is offer Black Friday Deals 2016 the Xbox One S 500GB with Minecraft Favorites for only $249.99 packed with $75 Kohl’s Cash.

Best Buy also rolled out with Black Friday Deals 2016 for the Xbox One S 1TB with Battlefield 1 Special Edition Console with a Free Controller at $299 for those who opt for higher memory. Both Target and Best Buy offer Black Friday Deals 2016 for the Gears of War on Xbox for $29.99. Additionally, Kohl’s is offering Black Friday Deals 2016 for the PS4 Slim 500GB with Uncharted 4 and $75 Kohl’s Cash for $249.99.

Best Buy is reportedly offering the same Black Friday Deals 2016 bundle but packed Ratchet & Clank as well as The Last of Us in the $249.99 PS4 Slim 500GB bundle. In addition, Black Friday Deals 2016 at Target include Bloodborne and Until Dawn. The Overwatch also costs $34.99 for PS4 and Xbox One on GameStop.

Meanwhile, more and more retailers are reportedly offering Black Friday Deals 2016 $50 discounts for the Xbox One S and the PS4 Slim.  Moreover, retailers have also been selling additional controllers for both consoles at $20 below retail price. Additionally, Black Friday Deals 2016 for the Nintendo 3DS Super Mario bundle now sell with $99 discounts.

Black Friday Deals 2016 at Walmart and Dell will reportedly begin on Nov. 24 9 p.m EST. The Microsoft is also offering $50 on all Xbox One and Xbox One S bundles with FIFA 17 and the Halo Collection from Nov. 24-28.

Black Friday Deals 2016: Xbox One S 500GB Minecraft Bundle Cheapest At Kohl’s; The Cheapest, Best Deals At Target, Best Buy Detailed

The History of The Creeper, Minecraft’s Most Infamous Monster

by Stone Marshall | Nov 25, 2016 | Minecraft News | 0 comments

Silent, deadly, and destructive, creepers are probably the most dreaded mob in Minecraft. Fittingly, the creeper has a twisted and horrifying past that ranges all the way back to one of the first editions of Minecraft.

The creeper is one of the oldest entities in the franchise: it was the first enemy mob added in the survival test in 2009. Creepers were never meant to be in the game, though. According to creator Markus “Notch” Persson, he was originally trying to create a pig.

“The creepers were a mistake” Notch revealed in the 2012 documentary Minecraft: The Story of Mojang. “I don’t have any modeling programs to do the models, I just write them in code. And I accidentally made them tall instead of long, so it was like a tall thing with four little feet. And that became the creeper. As opposed to a pig.”

Inspired rather than horrified by the monstrosity that he had created, Notch added a green texture and some aggressive behaviors and threw the creature into the alpha version of the game to torment players for years to come.

From the beginning, the explosive power of creepers was a real threat, and unlike zombies, which most seasoned players can run circles around, creepers have never stopped being dangerous. On higher difficulties they can kill you in one explosion in iron armor and drop you down to two hearts even in diamond. They can knock you into lava, off of ledges, or toward other mobs. They’re completely silent until they’re right on top of you, making them especially painful for players with bad sound or who like to listen to music

For a while, it seemed like creepers would remain an afterthought, with little more than a placeholder texture and behavior that was mostly a copy of the way zombies behaved, but— possibly because of how many unfortunate players lost their lives, loot, and bases to creepers— they eventually got a new texture, sound, and unique behaviors (here’s a recording of the old creeper sounds, which are lot less horrifying than the current hiss-boom). Early on, creepers would charge right at players like zombies and only explode when killed, but Notch decided that wasn’t maddening enough, and made the explosion their baseline attack.

Fans of Minecraft developed a love/hate relationship with this iconic mob from the very beginning. The “That’s a very nice [X] you have there, it would be a shame if something happened to it” joke is probably the oldest Minecraft meme in existence (using ‘sssSSSS’ as an interrupter is probably about as old, but hasn’t had the same persistence). Some of the earliest Minecraft fan videos are expressions of frustration about creepers, like Rocket Jump’s Minecraft Massacre, though perhaps an equal amount of effort has been spent on trying to understand the tormented creeper.

Aside from Endermen, who (inconsistently) pick up and move blocks, they remain the only mob that can affect the terrain, making them a particularly cruel foe to survival builders:

Hilariously, creepers could also damage players and objects in creative mode through the end of beta. It took several patches for the devs to iron out creeper-related bugs like that one, and every now and then a new one would slip through. For a short while creepers would explode after falling, which meant players were literally being dive-bombed by unavoidable, completely silent exploding mobs.

After a few patches, Mojang decided that creepers weren’t quite unpredictable enough and added a way for them to become even more destructive: if struck by lightning, creepers become charged, and explode at twice the force. Don’t let the fact that you are unlikely to ever encounter a naturally charged creeper soothe you into a false sense of security, because it happens when you least expect it. Weirdly enough, mobs killed by a charged creeper will drop heads that can be worn as disguises, causing some particularly deranged players to actually seek out the glowing monstrosities.

Creepers, aside from cosmetic changes, are still basically the same mob that they were at release, but, ironically enough, they have a long and storied history of wreaking havoc on the code as well as on players. Getting creepers just right, in terms of behavior, power, and interactions, has proven to be pretty sticky for developers. For a while, other mobs would run away from creepers, but this behavior was removed, presumably because it was causing undesirable AI interactions. Iron Golems — which are supposed to protect villagers from mobs—still ignore creepers because otherwise they’ll blow the village to pieces. Most of these bugs have been addressed in the Java edition, but the latest MCPE patch was delayed for almost a week because creepers were exploding through doors and ruining survival players’ hard work.

The legacy of this particular monster was so immediately iconic, that in 2011, the Minecraft logo was updated to include a creeper face, and it’s stayed that way ever since. Some of the very earliest Minecraft merch were creeper plushes, and in 2016 that’s expanded to include t-shirts, toys, hoodies, and, for some reason, Bible covers?

And yet, Notch’s cruel disregard for his creation continued as long as he was at the helm of Mojang. When asked to describe the creeper, Notch said that he always thought of them as “crunchy, like dry leaves”, but that he doesn’t know why they explode. I like to imagine that it’s because they’re filled to bursting with the burning shame of being discarded by their maker, but maybe that’s being dramatic.

So the next time a creeper blows a hole in your house or ends your five hour spelunking expedition with an ignominious plunge into a river of a lava, spare a thought for the poor creature, lurching through the world of Minecraft like an abandoned Victorian monstrosity, malformed by fate and unloved by all, doing the only thing that it knows how to do: kill.

Rob Guthrie is a lapsed academic who writes about history, video games, and weird internet things. Follow him @RobertWGuthrie for pithy Tweets and lukewarm takes.

The History of The Creeper, Minecraft’s Most Infamous Monster

Minecraft’s Next Update Will Bring Huge Progress To Consoles [Update]

by Stone Marshall | Nov 24, 2016 | Minecraft News | 0 comments

In an announcement today, Mojang has indicated that a large number of long-awaited changes are coming to the console editions of Minecraft, bringing those editions a lot closer to the Java edition.

The most significant updates are the addition of Ender Cities—pre-generated structures in The End that contain some of Minecraft’s more obscure materials and enemies—and the Elytra, the much sought-after glider that allows players who have beaten all of Minecraft’s structured challenges to explore the world from the skies. Chorus plants, chorus flowers, and purpur blocks, all harvested from The End, give late game players more options when it comes to construction and decoration. You’re also now able to harvest the Ender Dragon’s breath, which opens up a whole new dimension of potion crafting that relies on this particular ingredient (harvested from the dragon’s attacks) giving console players the chance to create throwable potions with lingering effects.

Another cool addition is the addition of the ‘amplified terrain’ world creation feature, which generates a world with much higher highs and lower lows. World generation features have been somewhat lacking on consoles, and opening up more features can only be good.

What’s especially exciting about this, however, is that it’s one of the biggest steps toward feature parity that we’ve seen in a long time. Console players have felt like second-class citizens for a while because of how far those editions have lagged behind the Java edition, but with this update — and a similar one announced recently for the Pocket and Win 10 edition — the gap has closed considerably.

There are still some unknowns at play, like if and when Shulker boxes, Observer blocks and other late additions will be making their way to consoles — but even taking some doubts into consideration, this is a very exciting announcement that could mean big changes for the future direction of Minecraft.

Correction 11/23 9:46 AM: An earlier version of this article identified the part of update as “The End,” rather than Ender Cities. We apologize for the mistake.

Rob Guthrie is a lapsed academic who writes about history, video games, and weird internet things. Follow him @RobertWGuthrie for pithy Tweets and lukewarm takes.

Minecraft’s Next Update Will Bring Huge Progress To Consoles [Update]