by Stone Marshall | Jul 5, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
One of the most popular video games of all time is helping students combine innovation and education.
Opaheke School is one of 400 around the world taking part in the Microsoft Showcase School digital learning initiative.
The project was launched by the technology giant to prepare students for the workplace using up-to-date resources, mobile and online tools.
Students at the school are now using the computer game Minecraft to assist with learning in different subjects as part of the project.
The game, which has sold more than 70 million copies worldwide, requires students to build their own worlds using 3D objects and materials.
The school’s new digital learning hub, which opened last year, was designed through the ideas students came up with through the game.
It’s also being used for literacy and science subjects where students create the worlds they are learning about.
Associate principal and programme leader Nikkie Laing says digital education is helping teachers and students explore new ideas.
Minecraft is helping students “visualise ideas in a more constructive way” and it’s more than just entertainment, she says.
“It’s pretty obvious they are learning and not time wasting… it’s purposeful and productive. It’s another hook for us teachers and the students can work and create together.
“Communication, problem solving and collaboration are the skills the kids need,” she says.
Laing recently travelled to Budapest as part of an educator exchange conference hosted by Microsoft and won an award for best presentation. She spoke about the impact online tools are having in keeping students and teachers connected.
Year eight student Callen Trethowen recently used the game for a school project on Antarctica. It helped him explore the features of the Scott Base research facility while interacting with research scientist Regina Eisert.
Fellow student Hannool Lee says Minecraft is “a fun way of learning”.
“It’s making us want to do school work because we get to use our computers,” he says.
The school has three specialist teachers driving the project and they work closely with Microsoft to share ideas and innovations with other schools.
Minecraft part of students’ learning at Opaheke School
by Stone Marshall | Jul 4, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Club |
Once every decade or so, a game comes along that becomes more than just a game, more than just a franchise, and evolves into a genuine cultural phenomenon. In the 70s it was Space Invaders, in the 80s it was Super Mario Bros and Tetris. The 90s and noughties brought us Pokemon and Halo.
If you had to choose one title that broke out of the relatively niche world of gaming over the past decade, it would have to be Minecraft. Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or should that be block?) somewhere, you’ll probably know about it.
Even if you’ve never played it, you’ll have seen the cuboid characters and trademark pixelated art style on everything from toys to t-shirts. Minecraft is designed with creativity at its core, allowing players to build their own objects, structures – even entire worlds out of 3D textured blocks in a procedurally-generated environment.
It actively encourages co-operation and collaboration, allowing thousands of players to work together on group projects, or team up to battle enemies and the elements in Survival mode. Its open-ended, sandbox structure means that there’s no beginning or end to the game, and players are limited only by their own imaginations.
After selling 130 million copies to date, its already the world’s second biggest selling video game (behind only Tetris), of all time.
it wasn’t much of a surprise when tech behemoth Microsoft decided to acquire the rights to the intellectual property from visionary developer Markus “Notch” Persson in September 2014. What was surprising was the price; a whopping $US2.5 billion ($NZ3.4b) making it not only the biggest gaming buy-out of all time, but one of the technology industry’s largest ever acquisitions.
Building on success
The future of Minecraft was one of the key focuses of Xbox’s E3 showcase in Los Angeles last month.
After spending that kind of cash on a single game, everybody expected Microsoft to have big plans for Minecraft. The most obvious move would have been to make the game an Xbox and Windows exclusive, but interestingly, the company decided to go in the opposite direction, focusing their efforts on releasing a version of it on practically every format known to mankind.
Seriously, if you own a device that’s capable of running a video game, there will almost certainly be an adaptation of Minecraft for it. It’s on everything from Android phones to Apple TV. Microsoft’s strategy seemed to be proliferation rather than progression, choosing not to mess with a winning formula or release a guaranteed smash hit sequel, but instead to spread the Minecraft seed as far and wide as possible.
This business model made a lot more sense when, at last month’s E3 gaming conference in Los Angeles, Xbox chief Phil Spencer unveiled the company’s grand plan for the the future of the world’s most popular video game.
Ooh, shiny
A fully upgraded lighting system is one of the major improvements in the Super Duper Graphics Pack
The first revelation was that the game was to undergo a complete visual overhaul, which, in typical Minecraft fashion, is to be called the “super-duper graphics pack”.
Ostensibly, this was to take advantage of the new Xbox One X’s 4K GPU, but for a game that has always been deliberately lo-fi and retro in terms of its art style, it did seem like a strange decision to render all these pixelated cubes in Ultra HD.
On closer inspection though, it’s clear that the update is more about visual effects than the graphical assets themselves. While the game retains its trademark pixelart style, it’s the world around it that has been given a new lick of paint..
A side-by-side comparison of how Minecraft looks now, and how it will appear once the new graphics pack is installed.
Dynamic shadows created by Minecraft’s new directional lighting system means that what you see is constantly changing as you move through the world, and the appearance of your constructions will vary depending on where your character is standing and the position of the sun or other light sources. The addition of HDR gives deep blacks and bright colours a noticeable “pop” factor.
Edge highlighting creates clearer, more defined boundaries between individual blocks and a completely revamped water system means that rivers, lakes and streams look more lifelike than ever before.
Of course, you’ll need a 4K monitor to get the most out of this graphical overhaul, but there’s more than enough here to ensure that even gamers using standard 1080p TVs will see the benefit.
Unifying worlds
Perhaps the most exciting revelation however, was that Minecraft would be going cross-platform. Up until now, players have been restricted to teaming up with friends on the same system, meaning the millions of Minecraft gamers around the world have been pigeon-holed and walled off into small, if thriving, communities.
The decision to tear down these walls and bring everyone together on one unified server is a literal game changer. In a world where everything is about teamwork and co-operation, making it possible for an iPhone user to work with a friend on Xbox or join a grand-scale collaborative construction job on PC means that things are going to get bigger and better.
There’s a lot of potential in this strength in numbers strategy. In one fell swoop, Microsoft and Mojang have created one of the world’s biggest gaming communities.
Large-scale collaborative projects have seen the creation of sprawling worlds in Minecraft, including a full reproduction of the land of Westeros from TV’s Game of Thrones.
Minecraft is already being used in schools as an educational tool and the fact that kids will now be able to hop on their phones at home to continue working on a project they started on their school computer network means that “homework” is going to be a much easier sell for teachers.
Unfortunately, the cross-platform plan won’t include every single format. Sony, Microsoft’s main rival in this generation’s console wars, has refused to come to the party, meaning that PlayStation users won’t be joining in just yet. However, if the Minecraft phenomenon continues to grow at its current rate, you have to wonder if they’ll reconsider and get involved if things start to snowball.
Minecraft: The next generation
by Stone Marshall | Jul 4, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
Minecraft PS4 will continue to get updates from Mojang despite Sony not agreeing to implement its Better Together update, which enables cross-play.
Writing on the official blog, following Minecraft update 1.52, Mojang confirmed it will support the PS4 edition going forward.
Here’s the full quote:
“As you probably know, we’ll soon be bringing you the Better Together Update, which will combine console and mobile editions into one super-lovely version of Minecraft – but that doesn’t mean we’re twiddling our thumbs in the meantime! Console Edition will still be getting updated with new features, and those platforms which won’t support the Better Together Update will continue getting updates even after it lands.”
The Better Together update will allow players of PC, mobile and Xbox to use their saves on any platform.
The Minecraft developer has apparently been trying to persuade Sony to change its mind about implementing the next major Minecraft update, but it appears that Sony isn’t budging.
Still, it’s good news that Minecraft PS4 players can still look forward to future updates of the stupidly popular sandbox adventure.
Minecraft PS4 updates to continue despite Sony’s stance on cross-play
by Stone Marshall | Jul 2, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
While the ‘Better Together Update‘ gets ready to combine console and mobile versions of Minecraft into one mega Minecraft with much prettier graphics, the console versions have been updated. The update is currently making its way onto Xbox and PlayStation platforms, with Switch and Wii U to follow on later tonight, and it’s bringing quite a bit.
Unfortunately, the update is for console versions only (as stated previously), but at least is brings Llamas. Check out all the new features below!
New Features:
- 7 new Achievements/Trophies
- New UI engine (saving significant memory – which should boost performance!)
- Llamas
- Parrots
- Woodland Mansion
- Treasure Maps
- Observer Block
- Totem of Undying
- Illagers! Vindicator, Vex and Evoker!
- ‘Bouncy’ Beds
- Dyeable beds
- Option to change Biomes size to match other platforms (since they are smaller on console by default)
Minecraft PlayStation, Xbox versions updated with new features; Nintendo Switch, Wii U update coming tonight
by Stone Marshall | Jul 1, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
For some perspective, that means it has been watched more than all five Super Bowls over that same time period combined. Way more.
Middleton, better known as Dan TDM, may not be a household name yet, but he’s one of YouTube’s brightest stars and biggest successes. For five years, he’s mixed real-world video footage with gameplay from the video game Minecraft to draw a giant audience of kids and parents.
Now he’s bringing his first-ever live tour to Clearwater’s Ruth Eckerd Hall to see if the pug-filled, evil-twin-inhabited digital world he’s created will translate beyond the Internet.
“You’ll see quite a few of the characters from YouTube, like scientist Dr. Trayaurus and my evil twin, Evil Dan,” Middleton said.
And yes, that includes the pugs, which appear in the show, but are also Middleton’s real-life pets.
“We love them because they’re quite lazy so it gives me ample time to make videos,” he said. “I won’t say they don’t bug me, but they’re just really great at chilling out.”
The storyline for the stage show involves Dan TDM being kidnapped by Evil Dan, who gives him a series of gaming challenges. During some of those games, the entire audience participates from their seats. At other points, some audience members are brought on stage.
There’s a giant screen where the gaming happens, which includes a level custom designed for the live show by the online social gaming platform Roblox. It usually goes smoothly, but Middleton concedes that when you’re playing a game live in front of an audience, “unexpected things can happen.”
It’s a busy time for Middleton. Late last year he released his first graphic novel, Trayaurus and the Enchanted Crystal, and he wants to do another one. He continues to release daily content on YouTube while he’s traveling for the tour, lugging hard drives worth of material around with him, and even filming and editing in planes and hotel rooms along the way.
“I just love what I do I guess. I think you have to, in order to have a crazy schedule like this,” he said. “But I just find it really
YouTube’s Minecraft sensation Dan TDM brings live show to Clearwater
by Stone Marshall | Jul 1, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
Minecraft—the wildly popular video game that lets you build things out of virtual bricks—has emerged as a favorite of architects and enthusiasts eager to make everything from imaginary Brutalist buildings to miniature cities. But Su Yijun, a 22-year-old aspiring architect in Zhuhai, China, has created a true Minecraft marvel: a detailed replica of Beijing’s Forbidden City covering a site of 100 million blocks.
The virtual project had broken ground with the help of volunteers back in 2013, but when Su joined the group in 2014, they decided to start again from scratch. Su eventually became the project’s chief organizer, researching traditional Chinese architecture in order to perfectly replicate the palace’s nearly 1,000 buildings. He researched structure, decor, materials, and architectural history, even visiting the real-life site to learn details he couldn’t find elsewhere.
But this was tricky too: “Many areas are not open to the public,” Su told Sixth Tone. “And because of the exhibits, the interior decorations in the Palace Museum were not the same as how they originally appeared.”
Su worked with fellow Minecraft players to build the replica, but at one point their construction team was down to just him and another player. The effort, though, was worth it: “Through this, I hope to impart some knowledge about architectural aesthetics,” Su said, “and share my thoughts on architectural design.”
Minecraft replica of Forbidden City covers a grid of 100 million blocks
