It’s been a little bit over a month since Mojang released the latest patch for Minecraft, which, in fact, addressed a security issue introduced by a previous update.
For those of you unaware, patch 1.8 added a vulnerability that would allow players to remotely crash servers. The security flaw was discovered and reported by a programmer, and Mojang took care of it quite fast by delivering patch 1.8.4.
Today, another security patch has been released by Mojang, and it addresses more issues found and reported by Minecraft players.
First of all, Mojang has confirmed that this patch is fully compatible with all previous 1.8 versions, including 1.8.4 that was delivered a month ago. Here is the full changelog for Minecraft 1.8.5 patch:
– [Bug MC-79632] – Phantom Custom Player in Scoreboard / UUIDs of non-player entities on scoreboards truncated after relog;
– [Bug MC-75630] – Exploit with signs and command blocks;
– [Bug MC-80478] – Better server validation for movement packets;
– [Bug MC-80479] – Invalid beacon effects are not validated;
– [Bug MC-80480] – Certain attribute values are not bound.
If you’re afraid that this patch might bring more problems for Minecraft, then you should stop worrying, as Mojang highly recommends players to update to 1.8.5 as soon as possible.
That makes perfect sense since this is a security release, which is meant to patch up some security flaws that either developers or players found in Minecraft.
Obviously, should you find any more issues after upgrading to version 1.8.5, then you should definitely report them using the Minecraft issue tracker.
Keep in mind that Minecraft 1.8.5 patch is available for download in your launcher. Still, feel free to download the .jar file manually if that’s what you want.
Here, Youtuber MineplexOfficial painstakingly put together what looks to be the first of a new series “Minecraft Rap Battles”. The video stars Batman, with adversaries Joker and Bane going against eachother, slinging words. “This Minecraft music parody took me 15 hours to make,” MinePlex said in the video desciption, “but was so much fun, I want to do more!”
Liking/not liking the actual rap aside, taking 15 hours to make a three minute video is strong dedication, no matter how you look at it.
The Simpsons add-on skins
4J Studios made a small update for Xbox One’s Minecraft. They however did not release patch notes for the alteration made. Users soon discovered that they could view The Simpsons add-on skins which are to be added in the forthcoming skin pack DLC.
An attempt at changing the current skin allows one to preview the Simpsons avatars; however, they are yet to be available for purchase. News on the skin packs began being reported in January 2015. The DLC will allow access to 24 new Minecraft avatar skins.
The skins were inspired by the Simpson family- Bart, Marge, Maggie and Homer.
The licensed Minecraft DLC was to be released by the end of February. 4J Studios is yet to confirm whether the add-on will be made on other platforms like PS3, 4 and Vita. Roger Carpenter from Microsoft Studios however expressed his desire to ensure that all Minecraft updates are made on all platforms.
Title Update 21
This update comes with play improvements and fixes bugs as well. This update follows the Title Update 20 which helped fix many bugs. However, 4J Studios realized that another update was needed for all bugs to be fixed. The problem may have emanated from the Title Update 19 which had 3 different packs. This resulted in many bugs and issues that needed to be fixed.
The Title Update 19 featured red stones, witches, horses and wither skeletons. It is after the release of the Title Update 19 that issues like horses appearing and disappearing began to be encountered. However, subsequent updates have resolved some of the issues, and even more will be resolved in future updates.
The Title update 20 also fixed the many crashes that were happening as well as the village generation issue. The Title Update 21 had more Redstone fixes, and increased the limit on the Minecart. To ensure the horses don’t disappear, keep them in an area that is fenced-off. Starting with an empty map comes in handy when crafting a map.
The issue regarding witch huts, where other mobs spawn in them after a reload was also fixed. After the Nether was reset, Blaze and Chests spawners disappeared from the location. This has been fixed by the 21 update, as well as the Minecraft traveling to Nether portals.
All in All
Updates are a crucial part of a great gaming experience. For 4J Studios to provide the ultimate gaming experience, these updates will keep rolling, as they not only improve the gaming experience, but also introduce more dynamic features. Title Update 22 is probably being prepared and it could fix even more problems. Better still, new features could be introduced in the game. Microsoft is striving to ensure that the Minecraft Updates for XBox One are available on all platforms. This is a great approach since all users will benefit from the updates in spite of the platform they are using.
When it comes to YouTube, far and away the most consumed content comes from the gaming world. Whether it’s Let’s Plays, trailers, previews or reviews, viewers watch video games on YouTube more than any other content category.
Even cats.
The story comes from The Washington Post as they chat with YouTube Global head of Gaming Content Ryan Wyatt.
“There are over 42 million ‘Minecraft’ videos on YouTube today…
…It’s crazy because ‘Minecraft’ is also the second most searched term on YouTube. It’s a testament to (publisher) Mojang understanding the marketing capacity and power of our content creators.”
As for the other top 10 games on YouTube. Here’s the rundown with perhaps only Puzzle & Dragons as the surprise entry.
Minecraft
Grand Theft Auto
League of Legends
Call of Duty
FIFA
Garry’s Mod
The Sims
Five Nights at Freddy’s
Puzzle & Dragons
Dota 2
What type of content do you watch most on YouTube?
Top 10 most watched games on YouTube features Minecraft at #1
In a video that has been viewed more than 100,000 times on YouTube, a gamer known as Coestar uses a virtual pickax to expand a tree farm in his “Minecraft” world.
Coestar narrates his “Minecraft” adventures for fans who watch him play for entertainment or to pick up tips, sprinkling in some language that might not be suitable for his younger followers.
And that’s enough for seventh-graders Mitchell Brown and Scotty Vrablik to reject that video from their own fledgling “Minecraft” website.
Coestar and other gamers — some of whom have millions of followers — have posted countless online videos of the wildly popular game, which allows players to build and explore digital landscapes.
But Mitchell and Scotty’s website, cleanminecraftvideos.com, posts only those videos they think are appropriate for kids. The students at Quest Academy in Palatine don’t allow profanity in the gaming videos they post or in the chat section of a small, multiplayer game they run. They’ve turned off game modes involving battles, so the Lego-style characters don’t engage in violence.
It’s the kind of “clean” version of the game Ben Hebebrand, head of Quest Academy, said would be useful in classrooms, where a growing number of teachers have embraced “Minecraft” as an educational tool.
Tens of millions around the world play the video game — Microsoft purchased its Swedish publisher Mojang for $2.5 billion last year — and “Minecraft” offers several modes, some involving violent battles. In some multiplayer versions, users join a world and play or interact with hundreds, thousands or tens-of-thousands of other gamers.
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“Minecraft” is “a totally, open-ended sandbox,” which makes it easy to customize for use in the classroom, said Joel Levin, co-founder of TeacherGaming. His company created MinecraftEdu, a modified version of the game for classroom use.
“Minecraft” not only engages students, he said, but encourages skills such as resilience, problem-solving and thinking outside the box.
“In some ways, the academics are catching up with what gamers have known for years,” he said. “That these are evocative experiences that challenge the mind.”
Though the Quest students’ site is not the first moderated version of “Minecraft” Levin has seen, he praised them for taking initiative to make their virtual world a safer and better place.
Mitchell, 12, came up with the idea after overhearing the salty language in a “Minecraft” video playing in his little brother’s room about two years ago.
Since then, he and 13-year-old Scotty, with the help of tech teachers at school, have expanded their website and created an Android app, both of which now require subscriptions.
Between baseball, swimming and Boy Scouts, the boys watch every “Minecraft” video that appears on their website to decide whether it’s appropriate. They came up with hundreds of words to filter out of their “Minecraft” server — profanity but also words like “idiot” — and noncompliant gamers are kicked out if they use any of them. After three uses of banned words, the gamer is permanently removed.
The game itself allows them to limit the use of inappropriate language, the boys said, but it doesn’t meet their stringent standards.
Given the popularity of “Minecraft” among young kids, “profanity is really not acceptable,” Scotty said.
That was a sentiment shared by an Australian gamer known as Fox Blockhead, who reached out to Scotty and Mitchell to ask them to post his “Minecraft” videos on their website.
Fox Blockhead, whose real name is Justin Gilfillan, said in an email that, as a teacher and a father, he wanted to create G-rated videos appropriate for children.
Appearing on Clean Minecraft Videos provided independent verification to his followers that his videos are appropriate, he said. He enjoyed seeing the project two seventh-graders created, and he thought it would be cool to be listed on a website that included famous gamers, such as Coestar, he said.
Hebebrand said the “Minecraft” website earned the boys distinction in their character education program at school. He plans to share the kid-friendly website with parents and officials at other schools, he said.
Officials at Mojang and Microsoft declined to comment on the Quest students’ endeavor.
The game is already in classes at Quest, where a fifth-grade teacher uses “Minecraft” to have students design dragon worlds based on fantasy literature, Hebebrand said.
Levin, who said his “Minecraft-Edu” is being used in thousands of schools in dozens of countries, sees no limit to game’s potential classroom applications. History teachers could use the game to simulate historical events, while math teachers could teach lessons on volume and area, he said.
Locally, a Wheeling High School senior created a modified version of the game to help others learn about nanotechnology. And Scotty’s mom, Lisa Vrablik, said her children have used “Minecraft” to complete projects for French class and lessons on Greek architecture.
Though she admits she sometimes questioned the amount of time the boys have spent gaming, she is proud of their project.
“They really kind of branched out, learned when to ask for help,” she said.
About 100 users worldwide have subscribed to their website and app since Mitchell and Scotty began requiring payment. Their multiplayer server only allows 16 players at a time, but they hope to expand.
Mitchell said making money is half the motivation, but the other half is providing a service. He would like to see the website and game used in schools and libraries.
And Scotty, who said he once thought the idea was “really out there,” is committed to expanding the initiative, hoping their idea will really take off.