If your kids are going to play video games anyway, then you may want to make sure they’rereallygood at it. Why? Well, take for example this group of grade and middle school kids from Maryland who got a $15,000 shared college scholarship for winning the second Super League GamingWorld ChampionshipinMinecraft.Super League Gamingis a four-week league wherein participants play games in theaters. The 10- to 14-year-old players calling themselves Live2Craft bested 450 other groups of all ages (mostly grade- to high school-aged, though) from 68 cities across the US.
While the 5-person team won the scholarship prize, the top-scoring player in the league is from another team in California: a 10-year-old kid named Julien Wiltshire. He wasalsothe first season’s top scoring player and even took home a $5,000 scholarship prize. This time, he defeated almost 2,000 other gamers — twice the number of the first season’s participants — earning him the right to brag that he’s now a two-timeMinecraftchamp. He might also be gearing up for the third season starting on April 30th, so if your younglings want to join, it may be wise to start training them pronto.
Minecraft: Wii U Editionproved to be a download success when it arrived on the eShop late last year, albeit Nintendo gamers have had to wait for some key updates, while the Nintendo-exclusive content announced with the launch is still a mystery. Nevertheless, developer 4J Studios is still improving the Wii U version, and has released a new patch to step it up another gear.
It’s a notable update as it adds Achievements, Wii Classic Controller Support, a Story Mode skin pack and more besides. The full changelog is below.
Added Story Mode skin pack.
Added achievements.
Added support for Wii Classic Controllers.
Added new “Minecart Sounds” option to Audio Settings.
Added Huge Mushroom Blocks to the Creative and Superflat menus.
Improved sprint control.
Fix for issue where the Ender Dragon would be immune to attacks.
Fix for Slimes not spawning in certain Swamps and Slime Chunks.
Fix for Potion of Swiftness, Potion of Slowness and Speed bonus of Beacon having no effect on the player.
Fix for teleporting a player while they are sleeping in a Bed not working properly.
Fix for some chunks in the Overworld not generating for clients of a multiplayer game.
Fix for issue where Experience Orbs could not be obtained by some trades with Villagers.
Fix for Thorns enchantment not affecting players.
Fix for MCCE #747 – TNT cannon not working.
Fix for MCCE #659 – Doors have a weird texture on top when open (And other sides).
Fix for MCCE #1854 – Grass positioning is perfect.
Fix for MCCE #1826 – White tulip description incorrect.
Fix for MCCE #1756 – Witch Hut Bounding Box Too Small.
Fix for MCCE #1260 – Submerged Witch Huts.
Fix for MCCE #483 – Camera jitter and player unable to move when looking at chest you are standing on.
Fix for MCCE #863 – The map does not work as it should (unless “View Hand” is turned on).
Fix for MCCE #1757 – Slimes spawning in witch huts.
Fix for MCCE #1739 – No icon in item frame map.
Fix for MCCE #1803 – Item frames vanishing in very strange draw distance.
It appears to be a decent update, all told. If you’re in the Wii U Minecraft crew check it out and let us know what you think.
For a limited time on Google Play, you can pick upMinecraft: Story Mode, published and created by Telltale Games, for only $0.49. Typically priced at $4.99, this is quite a deal for fans of Minecraft and Telltale.
In this game, you play as a team of Minecraft realm dwellers, tasked with saving your world from dark, magical powers. You will travel across the land all of the way to the Nether in your quest to make your home safe again from the Ender Dragon. All five parts of this episodic series are available for multiple platforms, and your $0.49 purchase unlocks the first chapter. Once you are completed with that, you can purchase a season pass or each chapter individually via an IAP.
The game is playable on basically any device, but most notably, is compatible with Android TV and supported controllers, such as SHIELD TV with the SHIELD Controller.
Already released in Japan and Europe, with North America getting it later today,Minecraftupdate 1.25 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita adds six new Trophies,Minecraft: Story Mode Skin Packsupport, improved sprint control, and more.
Here’s the full list of patch notes, which apply to all PlayStation platforms unless noted otherwise:
Added Story Mode skin pack.
Added 6 new trophies.
Added new “Minecart Sounds” option to Audio Settings.
Added Huge Mushroom Blocks to the Creative and Superflat menus.
Improved sprint control.
Fix for issue where the Ender Dragon would be immune to attacks
Fix for Slimes not spawning in certain Swamps and Slime Chunks.
Fix for Potion of Swiftness, Potion of Slowness and Speed bonus of Beacon having no effect on the player.
Fix for teleporting a player while they are sleeping in a Bed not working properly.
Fix for some chunks in the Overworld not generating for clients of a multiplayer game.
Fix for issue where Experience Orbs could not be obtained by some trades with Villagers.
Fix for Thorns enchantment not affecting players.
Fix for MCCE #747 – TNT cannon not working.
Fix for MCCE #659 – Doors have a weird texture on top when open (And other sides).
Fix for MCCE #1854 – Grass positioning is perfect.
Fix for MCCE #1826 – White tulip description incorrect.
Fix for MCCE #1756 – Witch Hut Bounding Box Too Small.
Fix for MCCE #1260 – Submerged Witch Huts.
Fix for MCCE #483 – Camera jitter and player unable to move when looking at chest you are standing on.
Fix for MCCE #863 – The map does not work as it should (unless “View Hand” is turned on).
Fix for MCCE #1757 – Slimes spawning in witch huts.
Fix for MCCE #1739 – No icon in item frame map.
Fix for MCCE #1803 – Item frames vanishing in very strange draw distance.
Fixed a memory issue causing “Failed to Load” message. (PS3 only)
The Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Wii U versions ofMinecraftwere all updated today as well, carrying similar patch notes to the PlayStation versions.
As for theMinecraft: Story Mode Skin Pack, it’ll be available in the PlayStation Store later today for free. Then, after April 12 in Europe and April 13 in North America, it will be priced at £2.49/€2.99.
Here’s what’s included in theSkin Pack:
The latest skin pack, Minecraft: Story Mode Skin Pack, allows you to make your own adventures as one of the characters from the beloved Telltale Games series. Play as one of the various Jesse options, the TNT juggling Magnus, the scheming Ivor, or one of the many other Minecraft: Story Mode characters. This highly requested pack will help you recreate your favourite moments in Minecraft: Story Mode or craft a new story and world of your own.
Minecraft 1.9.2 Update Available with Bug Fixes and Tweaks
The latest Minecraft update is now available and it comes with the usual fixes and tweaks. According to reports, the new update fixed the issues that were preventing players from connecting to some servers on their realms.
At the same time, the new Minecraft 1.9.2 comes with “toughness” stats, which means that once again it is worth crafting diamond armor. We’re pretty sure that the players will now start working on their diamond armor in order to have a good defense against the nasty creatures that this game comes with.
In addition, Mojang claims that the new update brings improvements to performance and memory usage of servers, as well as to command blocks from custom maps, which will behave better and this will be noticed in long sequences which are executed at every tick.
Here are more changes that the Minecraft verision 1.9.2 comes with:
– Elytra sound effects have been added; – The AI has been improved; – The entity selectors have been improved; – The loot tablets now also work in droppers and dispensers; – The Hoppers can now pull items out of blocked chests; – The limit for “Executed command blocks per tick” has been increased.
We’re pretty sure that the Minecraft fans will be quite happy with the new improvements that this new game version comes with.
We remind you that Mojang is continuously working on the game and has asked the players to report any bugs and issues that they find, so that the developers will be able to fix them as soon as possible. Mojang has also emphasized that “if nobody reports a bug, we can’t fix it!”, so if you want this game to evolve with your help, we suggest you to report any bug, error or problem that you find while playing it.
Two hours north of Sydney, the kids of 3-6 Rainbow, a class in Aspect Hunter school combining grades 3-6, are playing Minecraft. The students are bright, bubbly and talkative — pretty much what you’d expect from any group of kids ages 8 to 11.
But this class is a little different. It’s run for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a diagnosis that covers a broad range of difficulties with social interactions, communication and repetitive behaviour. Yet you’d have trouble guessing that as the kids excitedly play together over a networked Minecraft session. Since Mojang, now owned by Microsoft, first released the immensely popular game in 2009, it’s found a dedicated fan base of teachers, parents and kids living with ASD.
Before he started playing Minecraft in the classroom, Hamish Ellem, 11, would do a lot of “aimless wandering” at the library, say his parents, Walter and Tracy. “Now he knows there’s the Minecraft [section] that he can go to,” says Tracy, “and he’ll look at lots of other books to try and think ‘what can I create in Minecraft?’ to challenge himself.”
Hamish (centre) with other students of class 3-6 Rainbow playing Minecraft.
Dave Cheng/CNET
The game is built around mining resources, like ores and timber, and then using them to craft tools, machines and buildings. It’s also very logical since players need to gatherthis, so they can buildthat. That gameplay “provides information in a visual format and structure, and a certain amount of predictability,” says Victoria Todd, a psychologist atAutism Spectrum Australia(Aspect).
Aspect is the leading national provider of education, support, diagnostic assessment and other services for people on the autism spectrum. Its teachers like Craig Smith, deputy principal for Aspect Hunter School in the Hunter Valley region north of Sydney, have made Minecraft a big part of teaching classes like 3-6 Rainbow.
Minecraft gives students “a much more understandable version of the actual world,” says Smith, because it presents ideas in a straightforward and visual way. Seeing the game’s potential, Aspect’s teaching staff began designing and testing lessons that integrated Minecraft in early 2013. They learned to play the game, sat in on each other’s classes, gave feedback and improved their methods. That experience, along with their expertise in autism, helped Aspect’s staff create lessons around Minecraft on subjects ranging from English and science to geography and art.
Aspect made many of these lesson plans available last year by publishing “Minecraft in your Classroom”, a free book available fordownload in the Apple iBooks Store. Smith and co-author Heath Wild include lesson plans and ideas for teachers looking to engage their students with iPads and Minecraft.
Life lessons
Today ASD affects 74 million people,or 1 percent of the world’s population, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while recent research suggests theremay not be a clear cutoff point. Many on the spectrum struggle to talk to and understand other people’s thoughts and emotions as well as their own. This makes it hard for many kids to form lasting relationships with those around them.
That’s where Minecraft can help.
Minecraft provides an environment that encourages social interaction as students learn to communicate and play within the game’s well-defined rules. Teachers and autism specialists around the world report that, when kids work together in multiplayer mode, they figure out how talk to each other, share ideas and say what they want others on their project to do.
With help from teachers, the students gathered their iPads to create a networked game so they can play together.
Dave Cheng/CNET
In a situation that mirrors the classroom experience at home, Hamish and his younger brother Harrison are building worlds together. Their parents admit they “don’t always get along” but say that Minecraft has given them an interest they can share. They’re encouraging and challenging each other in the game — building their relationship as brothers.
“Students will get frustrated and yell at the beginning, but by the end they figure out how to resolve conflict and use their communication skills,” says Jessica Koehler, director of student experience with Sparkiverse Labs, an after-school and summer camp program in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Smith says that same dynamic plays out with autistic children — they’re able to learn social lessons inside Minecraft. By understanding the logic behind why people are expected to act a certain way in a Minecraft context, they can apply those same rules to make sense of real-world situations.
“You could just see lightbulbs going on,” Smith says. “I think the kind of life hacks that they pick up inside of Minecraft translates into the real world very nicely — especially around those social, emotional and organisational skills.”
For kids on the Autism spectrum, Minecraft gives a view of the world and the rules that frame it. In the classroom, it helps teachers show students that many things in the real world aren’t so complicated.
A look at the chatty and smiling students of 3-6 Rainbow shows what a difference that can make.
