I half suspect that the British Geological Survey’s continued Minecraft experiments are just an excuse to play Minecraft in work. “It’s educational,” they probably tell their bosses, before closing their latest 3D model and loading in to a Dropper map.
A year after creating the entirety of Britain and its geographical features in Minecraft, the BGS is back with a new project. They’ve now created 3D geological models of three sites across Britain: West Thurrock, York and Ingleborough.
“They show how the geology rises and falls, overlaps and folds at different depths,” explains BGS’s press release. “You are now able to see the rocks beneath north London, the soils that were deposited by ancient glaciers in York and how the ground is dissected by faults beneath the hilly slopes of Ingleborough.”
The three maps use a variety of tinted glass blocks to see the exact composition of different geological units under the surface.
Your level of interest probably depends on how much you care about a) Minecraft, or b) geology. Still, I do think Minecraft’s continued use as an informative or educational tool is neat. You can download the maps from this page on the BGS site.
If your children are always jabbering on about creepers, spiders, spawning and mining for redstone, chances are good that they’re among the more than 100 million registered users of Minecraft, a player-directed computer game in which you build a world out of pixel-like cubes.
Minecraft brings you into an open-ended world of adventure and creation, in which every day lasts 20 minutes. You mine, forage or hunt for resources such as wood, iron, gold, and seeds, which you keep in your inventory and use to create buildings, make vehicles or other objects, grow crops and clothe or feed your game character. You can play in five modes: creative, survival, hardcore, adventure and spectator.
Kids are drawn to Minecraft because of the power they possess to shape this universe, and to interact with friends and strangers through online servers and modifications to the game — called “mods” — that they can download. Since an early version of the game was released in 2009, Minecraft has sold about 54 million copies across all platforms and launched an entire industry of third-party servers that allow multiplayer games, fan sites and YouTube channels. Microsoft purchased the Danish company that developed Minecraft, Mojang, for $2.5 billion in 2014.
“My daughter has devoted all her screen time to Minecraft,” says Rebecca Blouin, 42, mom of Gretchen, 11. “She stopped watching television three years ago.”
Gretchen and her brother Thomas, 8, can spend hours creating their own worlds, visiting servers and watching YouTube videos of other people playing Minecraft. Blouin prefers the creativity that the game unlocks to more passive video games or television, and loves that Gretchen has started talking about a career as a graphic designer and wants to learn computer programming.
Experts and parents of other Minecraft -obsessed kids agree that the game can be used to inspire, educate and build skills that can help children in school and their future professions. The logical next steps might be to explore software development, engineering, architecture, interior design, video editing, graphic design or even entrepreneurship. But the repeated process of gathering resources, planning a new creation and executing the project can apply to almost every career field.
“Minecraft is a very different game than almost everything else out there,” says Joel Levin, the co-founder of TeacherGaming, a gaming company partially founded by teachers whose officially supported MinecraftEdu is designed for classroom use. “When kids are playing Minecraft, they’re confronted with an almost endless number of challenges and goals, and most of it is self-directed.”
Cynthia Liu, Los Angeles-based founder of K-12 News Network, does her best to channel her 11-year old son’s interest into creative directions, playing alongside him and asking questions to understand what he’s doing. His interest in third-party servers, which make money from players visiting their worlds, led him to write a 30-page business plan for his own server, part of a fourth-grade school project. He also wrote and published an e-book to explain Minecraft basics to kids and their parents.
It’s not advisable that you let your kids play Minecraft unsupervised and consider it educational. They may join a violent-themed server and spend their time trying to “kill” total strangers — many of them adults. In most of these player-versus-player worlds, a live chat overlays the screen and is often laced with profanity as well as racist and sexist comments.
As with many dangers to our kids, the best defense includes open lines of communication supported by regular spot checks. Discuss appropriate and safe online behavior with your children as well as the difference between passive and active play.
Monitoring your children’s Minecraft usage will also give you an opening to encourage them to develop 21st century skills like coding, video editing and design — or even to find ways to be a creator rather than just a consumer in the Minecraft realm.
So if you have a child who adores Minecraft, it’s OK to encourage and embrace their interest. It just might pay dividends later in the real world.
‘Minecraft’ is one of the most popular games on the planet. Microsoft spent $US2.5 billion on it back in September and it has millions of fans.
This is our first new ‘Minecraft’ game, and it is quite a departure from what fans know, here is what Telltale games says about the new iteration of its game:
Minecraft: Story Mode is an adventure game, by Telltale Games, set in a Minecraft world. It is a five-part episodic series that will take you to the Nether, the Farlands, the End, and beyond! You will drive how the story flows through the decisions you make: what you say to people (and how you say it), and what you choose to do in moments of thrilling action.
Players will control protagonist Jesse throughout the season, as portrayed by actor Patton Oswalt. Jesse and his group of friends revere the legendary Order of the Stone; four adventurers who slayed an Ender Dragon. The Order is the very best at what they do: Warrior, Redstone Engineer, Griefer, and Architect. While at EnderCon, Jesse and his friends discover that something is wrong… something dreadful. Terror is unleashed, and they must set out on a journey to find The Order of the Stone if they are to save their world from oblivion.
Available to download soon for PC, Mac, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, compatible iOS devices, and Android.
(Courtesy of Rodeo Realty) Markus Persson, a Swedish video game programmer best known for creating Minecraft, famously dropped $70 million for a 23,000-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion in December 2014.The purchase was a record for the area, and Persson reportedly outbid Beyonce and Jay-Z, who had visited the home a number of times.
The home is completely over the top, with a 16-car garage, home gym, giant infinity pool, and lots of designer decor worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Persson — or “Notch” as he’s known in the gaming community — has certainly been enjoying his new digs.
A few weeks after news of the purchase broke, he threw a housewarming party to match the extravagant price, complete with celebrities, electronic music, Transformers, and fancy cars. Zedd, Selena Gomez, and Dillon Francis were among those in attendance.
Apparently that hasn’t been the only party Notch has hosted this year. As first spotted by Curbed LA, the mansion has become quite the party pad for young celebrities and famous DJs like Skrillex and Martin Garrix.
Avid Minecraft computer game players Xavier Roundy, 12, (right) and his brother, Lincoln Roundy, 7, play the game in the children’s computer area at the Grand Island Public Library. The building game is about placing blocks to build anything that can be imagined. (Independent/Barrett Stinson)
Nicci Roundy, a Grand Island mother of three, doesn’t understand Minecraft, a popular video game.
“I tried playing Minecraft. I don’t get it,” she said, smiling.
But Roundy doesn’t mind her two sons, Xavier, 12, and Lincoln, 7, playing Minecraft and another game, Skylanders.
She likes Minecraft for her sons because it’s challenging. “They have to be creative with it,” she said. “They actually create their own worlds.”
The two boys fill those worlds with buildings, roller coasters and other objects of their own design. They can come back and add to those worlds as long as they use the same computer. In addition to houses, Lincoln has also designed flying saucers.
Roundy doesn’t let her sons play any of the shooting games that are popular, such as “Call of Duty.”
She and her husband, Antone, also have a 10-year-old daughter, Zoey. She’s not very interested in video games. But that doesn’t mean they appeal only to males. Xavier and his mother know girls who really like Minecraft.
Xavier and Lincoln are both members of the summer Minecraft Club at Grand Island Public Library. The coding and gaming class is led by Ben Marten, who teaches at Walnut Middle School.
The sessions at the library are more challenging than just playing the game, said Roundy, who works at the library. Marten teaches the young people how to solve problems.
“It’s a little different than just playing the game,” she said. “They’re actually trying to figure out how to do stuff.”
Blocks are very important in Minecraft. Watching them at work, Roundy notices differences in the boys’ personalities just in how they design buildings.
Why doesn’t she understand a game that her sons like?
“I don’t think I’m as creative as they are. I think that’s probably a large part of it,” Roundy said, laughing.
Even if other games come along, Xavier plans to stick with Minecraft “because it’s so much fun,” he said. “I just like playing it. Sometimes it’s hard, and sometimes it’s easy. You just have to be really creative.”
Right now, Minecraft and Skylanders are probably tied for first place among Xavier’s favorite games. There are lots of levels in Skylanders, he said. As you play it, you can unlock some of those levels.
He likes Minecraft because you can “build anything you want.”
Lincoln also likes a game called Roblox.
Xavier is going into seventh grade at Walnut, where his favorite class is science. At this point, he’d like to be an astronomer when he grows up. Lincoln and Zoey attend Howard Elementary School, where Lincoln is in second grade and Zoey is in fifth grade.
Xavier said he plays video games at least two hours a day. The boys are supposed to get their chores done before they’re allowed to play, their mother noted.
In addition to video games, Xavier likes to read. He likes the Percy Jackson series, his mother said.
“And Lincoln likes to draw,” Roundy said. “He’s a really good artist. That’s another reason why Minecraft is really something he enjoys doing.”
Xavier likes to play the NCAA college football video game. He also likes playing with footballs and basketballs, as well as watching football, he said.
The Roundy kids have always liked Legos, their mother said. One of the first video games they grew attached to was a Lego video game.
In addition to playing Minecraft themselves, the boys also like a YouTube Minecraft series hosted by a British animated cat named Stampy. Xavier said he likes those videos because Stampy is funny and he builds cool stuff.
A good thing about Minecraft, Xavier said, is that he can play the game with other people. In some cases, he plays with them. In others, he’s against them.
One version of Minecraft is similar to “The Hunger Games” in that the last player alive wins. Players also hunt characters called Ender Dragons.
