Primary school pupils encouraged to use ‘sandbox’-style game to visualise their dream park, with $8.9m allotted to bring winning design to life
Australia’s next national park could be designed on the video game Minecraft – by primary school children Photograph: Alamy
Parents may be looking for reasons to coax their square-eyed offspring away from the flicker of the computer screen but the South Australian government is taking a more entrepreneurial approach to young gamers.
Australia’s next national park could be designed on the video game Minecraft – and by primary school children – if a new venture by the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges natural resources management board (NRAMLR) goes to plan.
In a move worthy of Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation, pupils from the Adelaide Hills area have been invited to design their “perfect national park” using the block-building game, with $8.9m allotted to bring the winning student’s design to life, reported the Adelaide website In Daily.
Suggestions for design elements include bushwalking, mountain biking or horse riding trails, wheelchair accessible and interpretive paths, campsites and, for the digital natives out there, geocaches. Entries must incorporate five Minecraft screenshots and a narrated flythrough of no longer than three minutes.
They will be judged on design, real-world usability, and sustainability – the park design must complement the natural environment of the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges and use sustainable materials and resources. Judges will also be looking out for that elusive fun factor and “how amazing we think it is”.
The educational potential of Minecraft is attracting attention worldwide. In March, the CultureTECH innovation festival announced it would be distributing the game free to every secondary school in Northern Ireland. Teachers recently shared creative ways to use the game in the classroom on the Guardian Teacher network.
“It’s a really good thing to get kids using as a positive,” Georgia Gowing of South Australia’s environment department told In Daily. “They do this stuff on a screen and then they get out into a real national park.”
The competition is open to class groups from fourth to seventh grade until 12 June, with shortlisted entries uploaded to the NRAMLR YouTube channel and a winner announced in July. The successful student will win a free trip to Belair national park for his or her class.
The rules state that entrants must use the basic version of the game with no add-ons “to keep it fair and creative”. The board has also published an online consultation for adults – though sadly with no gaming element.
After a series of missteps in video game development, this duo now hosts multi-player servers for the popular game Minecraft.
A two-person company from the small southern French town of Narbonne has unlocked a lucrative revenue stream from a global trend: Minecraft. After a series of missteps in video game development, Starlancer Studios, run by Jacques Vaquier and his business partner, Gregory Jung, now hosts multi-player servers for the immensely popular game.
“I’d spent a good amount of time playing video games. So, I was really motivated to develop video games myself,” Vaquier says, using the French word impassioné, or impassioned, to express his enthusiasm for gaming. Initially, hosting Minecraft servers was only a way to fund his video game development business.
Vaquier’s and Jung’s future English-language site.
Taking advantage of Minecraft’s worldwide success, Vaquier and Jung are expanding Starlancer Studios’ Minecraft operations into North America and the rest of Europe this month. They will launch their new English-language site to promote their Minecraft servers on both sides of the Atlantic, on top of their three-year-old site for the French market.
Minecraft was created by Stockholm-based Mojang, which is now part of Microsoft. At the time I wrote this, Mojang reports there were 19,405,002 paying PC and Mac customers, and the number keeps growing. Known as a “sandbox” video game, its threadbare rules let players wander through virtual realms. The only real imperative is that a new player must gather enough resources to build a shelter by nightfall.
What is Minecraft?
Minecraft servers enable multiple players to play the game together, without requiring people to keep their machines on at all times, or at least whenever their friends want to continue playing. The business opportunity lies in renting server space out to groups of players. And Minecraft isn’t the only game that requires servers for more than one player to play against one another. Games like Call of Duty and Battlefield work under the same principle.
“We have 8,000 servers available to us in a data center in Paris,” Vaquier says. “The value is that they are always online, are reliable, and are stable.” He now has a new partnership with a data center in North America, to serve his new clients with the same dependability.
Minecraft’s Global Takeover
In 2008, Vaquier started developing browser-based video games with a team in Montpellier, France. There, he met Jung, and with their joint investment, they transformed the group’s project into a business. It eventually flopped.
Vaquier and Jung then struck out on their own, forming Starlancer Studios in 2012 and focusing on creating a more intricate browser video game. To raise funds for this effort, they hosted Minecraft servers. Vaquier says that was the same year in which the game “exploded.” When the money started rolling in, the duo decided to make Minecraft the business’s focus.
Players use a visual interface to connect to international servers.
Given that Minecraft’s player numbers keep booming, very little may hinder Starlancer Studios’ growth—except for competition from other Minecraft servers. James Copeland, the founder of Canadian-based GGServers, says there are hundreds of thousands of companies offering server space for Minecraft players. Like Vaquier, Copeland is taking advantage of the game’s worldwide user base by renting out servers in eight locations around the world, with 10,000 to 12,000 virtual servers online at any given time.
Currently, Vaquier says, France is the third largest market for multiplayer Minecraft, after the U.S. and Germany. So entering the U.S. was a natural move for Vaquier’s growing company. But after an exhaustive market research study, he devised a careful initial strategy based on offering add-on applications for Minecraft and free server access.
“The U.S. and French markets are really different,” says Vaquier. “France is advanced in that it’s easier for players to find servers at no cost,” adding that running servers in Europe costs less than in the U.S. He’s decided to differentiate his business for the North American market by offering a “sizable amount” of free servers to players, giving them the opportunity to get used to other perks of the service.
According to Vaquier, there are two ways to make a Minecraft server business stand out:
Offer fun extras. In addition to server space, the team develops user interfaces and extra applications, called mods, to enhance the Minecraft-playing experience. Some popular mods let players build a complete Middle Earth or re-create Westeros from Game of Thrones. Vaquier and Jung have developed their own 3-D maps for various Minecraft worlds, as well as a VoIP application that allows players to communicate with other players in real time.
Make interfaces simple. “We make our user interfaces our number-one priority,” says Vaquier. “We want our users to be able to easily sign up for a server, automating as many steps as possible.” He mentions that many of his clients are children and teenagers, aged 8 to 16. They won’t take the time to configure IP addresses on their own.
Now 32, Vaquier says he’ll go back to developing his original video game concept, but there’s too much going on in the Minecraft world to divert resources away from the hosting business. For now, serving the game’s vast base of users is all the opportunity his company needs.
In the midst of celebrating the third anniversary since 4J Studios first brought Minecraft to home consoles, the developer still found the time to improve one of the newest versions of the game by releasing a new patch for the Xbox One edition of Minecraft. Developer 4J Studios announced the launch of the latest Xbox One update via their official Twitter account on Thursday.
On the Minecraft forums, the developer further detailed exactly what was fixed in this week’s minor title update. As 4J Studios previously confirmed, the latest patch fixes an issue where split-screen players could experience flying and floating animals within the Xbox One edition of Minecraft. The new Minecraft update also helps prevent several game crashes and improves performance inside network games. The complete patch notes can be found below for convenience.
Fixed an issue causing flying animals in a split-screen offline game.
Fixed a memory leak causing crashes after prolonged play sessions.
Fixed a problem with dropped items sinking below the ground.
Fixed an issue with TNT explosions.
Fixed a problem with baby villagers collision height.
Fixed a few issues with players joining a network game.
Xbox owners can also pick up all three currently available Minecraft birthday skin packs as 4J Studios is currently offering the free add-ons to honor the third anniversary since Minecraft was initially launched on the Xbox 360 in 2012. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, the free birthday DLC packs are now available to download on both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One for a limited time.
Minecraft – Console Editions
Roger Carpenter, who has served as the lead producer on both Xbox editions of Minecraft, reminded fans to pick up all three anniversary skin packs since they will soon go away for another year. Carpenter confirmed that the free Minecraft DLC will no longer be available to download staring Monday, May 18.
“You only have a few more days in which to download the 3x free Minecraft Birthday Skin Packs on your Xbox One or X360! gone 18th May!”
Every year, 4J Studios has released a new free skin pack on the launch anniversary of Minecraft. While the content is only made available for a few weeks, the developer rereleases each of the birthday packs alongside a new DLC every year. This marks the first time that any of the birthday add-ons have been released for the Xbox One since this is the first anniversary that has transpired since Minecraft was released on current-gen platforms last summer.
Sandbox game beats GTA, League of Legends, and Call of Duty to become most-watched game of all time on YouTube.
To celebrate what it’s calling Let’s Play day, online video giant YouTube on Wednesday announced the ten biggest games of all-time on the decade-old site, based on time watched.
Despite being a relative newcomer, Minecraft topped the list, beating out other household names like Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, FIFA, and The Sims.
Minecraft’s dominance isn’t all that surprising, given that the sandbox game has frequented YouTube popularity charts before. In 2014, Minecraft was searched on YouTube more often than Beyonce or Taylor Swift.
Check out the top ten list below, but note that YouTube didn’t provide any details on how wide the gap is between titles in terms of watchtime.
Minecraft
Grand Theft Auto (series)
League of Legends
Call of Duty (series)
FIFA (series)
Garry’s Mod
The Sims (series)
Five Nights at Freddy’s (series)
Puzzles & Dragon
Dota 2
YouTube also announced today that Let’s Play videos, like the ones PewDiePie releases for his 36.5 million subscribers, have together generated “billions of hours of watchtime” to date.
Jens Bergensten, one of the Minecraft developers working at Mojang, has recently announced that the team is working on a brand new dungeon and new features.
Describing what he was doing Jens confirmed, via the social networking website Twitter, that the team is “working on upcoming features!” Without going into any details he went on to add that currently it revolves around “A new ‘dungeon’, with blocks and mobs, [which is] very different from the other dungeons.”
Jens, who took over Minecraft’s development from creator Markus “Notch” Persson in 2011 to become the lead designer and developer, has not yet revealed if these new features will be released as part of Minecraft 1.9. Up until now we have been lead to believe that the 1.9 update will be focused around combat, with Mojang even reaching out to fans for their thoughts and opinions.
While Jens has not confirmed if they are linked, he has also posted a screenshot (seen above) of what happened during the design process of a new feature. It seems to have a similar structure to that of existing dungeons, with a sprawling network of rooms to be explored by players. Alongside the image he simply put that when working on new features for Minecraft they “sometimes produce surprising
Minecraft, the online world that most parents simply don’t understand, is now officially the most watched game of all time on YouTube.
According to the video-sharing site, the game that allows children to build worlds made out of blocks – a bit like Lego – has also become the most searched-for term, behind “music”.
It bears out earlier research from YouTube video research firms Newzoo and Octoloy, which found that Minecraft material notched up more than 3.9 billion views on YouTube in March 2015 alone.
None of this will come as a surprise to the many parents who have become ‘Minecraft-widows’, desperately trying to entice their children to go on a bike ride, throw a ball, visit the park – anything other than while away the hours watching other people build things with little green bricks on the internet.
The fact that parents are worried about the varying levels of enthusiasm/obsession/addiction that their children display when playing Minecraft has been well-documented.
In numerous posts and articles online, they complain that the game is taking over their children’s lives, that they become irritated when they aren’t playing it, they neglect homework, chores, even going to the toilet, to keep on playing.
It has led some parents to ban or severely curtail Minecraft time. One father, explaining his decision to limit his twin boys’ access to the game, said simply: “Minecraft, as with all successfully addictive games, is endless. My kids’ childhood isn’t, and I want them to spend it learning about the real world, not a virtual one.”
But for other parents, children playing the game is OK – at least they are doing something vaguely creative – but spending hours mindlessly watching others playing it represents a whole new level of obsession.
Living with Minecraft fans – by Mark Ward, BBC technology correspondent
Is Mark worried about the amount of time his boys devote to Minecraft?
I’ve got two boys who, it is fair to say, are closer to being Minecraft fanatics rather than just fans.
That means they spend a lot of time watching YouTube videos of other people playing the game in its various guises. Right now, they probably watch more YouTube than regular TV.
Do I mind? A little, but I’m aware of the place that Minecraft occupies among my boys and their peers. Cutting them off would mean severing a strong link to their friends.
And that interest has a positive aspect too. It’s made them intimately familiar with Minecraft down to its most esoteric commands, is nurturing a desire to make their own mods for the game, has led them to run their own game server, make and edit videos and curate their own YouTube channel. It’s by no means passive consumption.
There is certainly a rich vein of Minecraft-related content on YouTube – around 42 million videos that range from tutorials offering ideas on new things to create, “Let’s Play” videos, essentially footage of other people playing the game, and new ways to modify their Minecraft worlds.
There are also hundreds of channels devoted to Minecraft, including popular ones such as Yogscast and SkyDoesMinecraft.
Some, dedicated specifically to children, have become internet sensations. Stampy, a YouTube channel narrated by a cat has more than 5.6 million subscribers and nearly 3.4 billion views. In 2014, it was the fourth most popular YouTube channel.
Others are less appropriate, narrated by what one parent described as “helpful but sweary” adults.
Bec Oakley is founder of MineMum, a blog intended to help guide parents through the minefield that is Minecraft.
She is not surprised that it has become so popular on YouTube.
“YouTube is this generation’s television. It’s how [children] entertain themselves, learn, share. Watching others play Minecraft allows them to extend their experience of the game, to share it with others and to learn from each other,” she told the BBC.
“There’s a huge amount of content available, and much of it is incredibly engaging, educational or useful for kids,” she added.
She acknowledged that Minecraft is “definitely a game that kids can become obsessed with, and watching YouTube can be part of that obsession”.
But she added that she doesn’t think it signals a problem in itself. “A better indication of that is how much time is being spent, and the flow on effect on health and mood.
“It’s important for parents to help kids enjoy their love of Minecraft in healthy ways – to talk with them about things like how to be healthy gamers, how to identify when they need a break, and to set rules for healthy game play with rewards for sticking to them.”
A particularly imposing entrance to a castle
Mojang, the maker of Minecraft, never designed the game specifically for children.
The brainchild of Swedish videogame programmer and designer Markus “Notch” Persson, Minecraft was inspired by a series of other games such as Dwarf Fortress, amusement park simulator RollerCoaster Tycoon and strategy game Dungeon Keeper.
Eventually Mr Persson founded Mojang, which last year was bought by Microsoft.
His firm has always encouraged fans to put videos up on YouTube.
While Nintendo uses YouTube’s Content ID copyright system to make its claim videos featuring its games – accruing any advertising revenue they generate along the way, Mojang has always taken a more relaxed approach.
“We’ve essentially outsourced YouTube videos to a community of millions of people, and what they come up with is more creative than anything we could make ourselves… There’s no damage to us from YouTube,” Mojang’s chief operating officer Vu Bui told the Guardian newspaper last year.
At the same time as Minecraft has become a sensation, so too has YouTube begun to appeal to a younger audience – in February 2015, nine of the top 20 YouTube channels were aimed at youngsters.
And it isn’t just Minecraft videos that they are watching. My son, who never really took to Minecraft, will happily watch videos of other people playing Fifa. Often for hours.
And children do get obsessed with things. There is a long list of toys and games that have been greedily coveted by kids, only to be discarded a few years later.
And maybe Minecraft will also end up in the back of the toy cupboard – and children will return to watching cats on YouTube like every other self-respecting citizen.
What effect does playing Minecraft have on the brain?
There have been many studies, some controversial, into whether gaming affects the brain.
Researchers in China, for example, performed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies on the brains of 18 college students who spent an average of 10 hours a day online, primarily playing games like World of Warcraft. Compared with a control group who spent less than two hours a day online, gamers had less grey matter (the thinking part of the brain).
And, as far back as the early 1990s, scientists warned that because video games only stimulate brain regions that control vision and movement, other parts of the mind responsible for behaviour, emotion, and learning could become underdeveloped.
In terms of specific studies on Minecraft, an article penned by psychologists Jun Lee and Robert Pasin in Quartz magazine, suggests it may not be as creative as parents might hope: “In Minecraft, kids can build and explore new worlds and manipulate them with unprecedented control and precision.
“The underlying creativity is baked into the program – the combinations, tools and materials – so the players have only one task to complete: design ever more complex structures. Though this seems like the pinnacle of an imaginative play experience, the kids we studied said they felt edgy and irritable after Minecraft sessions.”
The game, said the researchers, becomes “less about open-ended play and more about working to complete the never-ending stacks of buildings.”
