Minecraft maker Mojang has confirmed it will patch the game’s parrots in response to a recent fan outcry.
Parrots are a relatively new addition to Minecraft, and currently are fed using the game’s existing chocolate cookie item.
Feed two nearby parrots, like any other Minecraft animal, and they will pop out a baby.
In real life however, far from being an aphrodisiac, chocolate can be lethal to parrots. Because of this, many Minecraft fans have raised concerns the game might encourage young players to feed pet parrots a sweet cookie treat and inadvertently kill them.
A reddit post calling for Minecraft’s parrots to be patched has now received 37k upvotes on the official Minecraft subreddit – enough to become the board’s most-upvoted post of all time, and for Mojang to take note.
“If Minecraft has any effect on children’s behavior, we want it to be a positive one,” Minecraft lead creative designer Jens Bergensten told Motherboard, “so we’ll change the item used to breed parrots.
“Our reasoning for originally using cookies was twofold; it gave cookies a reason to exist within Minecraft, and it was a subtle reference to the Nirvana song ‘Polly.’ However, we didn’t consider what the chocolate ingredient would mean to real life parrots!”
Parrots are currently only available in the game’s PC version. There’s no word yet on when they’ll land on console – or what they will soon be eating instead.
Minecraft activities will be taking place at libraries in Tenby, Haverfordwest and Pembroke Dock during May half-term, giving children the opportunity to get together and chat about all things Minecraft!
Meet new friends, share ideas, and learn new tips and tricks from our selection of Minecraft books.
Children can bring along their own tablets if they are already using Minecraft at home, with a limited number of iPads available for anyone who is new to the world of Minecraft.
All of the events are suitable for children aged eight and over, with parents and guardians very welcome to join in the fun!
Booking is essential due to the limited availability of equipment. Refreshments will be provided.
Tuesday, May 30 (3.30-4.30 pm) – Minecraft at Tenby Library; Wednesday, May 31 (3.30-4.30 pm) – Minecraft at Haverfordwest Library; Friday, June 2 (3.30-4.30 pm) – Minecraft at Pembroke Dock Library.
Parrots are set to arrive for Minecraft’s PC version in the upcoming 1.12 ‘World of Color’ Update. However, the colorful birds have already been available in the game’s development versions since snapshot 17w13a.
Earlier this week, a user on Reddit going by the name 1jl pointed out a problem with how players breed parrots, which involves feeding the birds cookies. The issue is that in real life, chocolates can be lethal to birds, and since Minecraft cookies appear as chocolate chip cookies, the user had concerns of kids feeding their pet parrots chocolates and causing harm.
The post quickly blew up, with it currently boasting over than 37,000 upvotes and becoming the highest upvoted post ever on the Minecraft subreddit.
Yesterday, in a statement to Motherboard, Minecraft Lead Creative Designer Jens Bergensten said another food item would replace the cookie based parrot breeding mechanic in an upcoming update.
“If Minecraft has any effect on children’s behavior, we want it to be a positive one, so we’ll change the item used to breed parrots before the 1.12 update is released,” said Bergensten.
In effect, the new update is now live, dubbed 1.12 pre-release 3, where players can now breed parrots using seeds instead, and feeding a cookie to one will instantly kill the bird, with some added poison particles for good measure. Let’s just hope kids punching trees will not become a concern at a later date.
The pre-release’s full changelog is found here; in addition to parrot dietary changes, the update includes quite a number of bug fixes.
Nintendo revealed its plans for E3 in a press release Thursday, and we couldn’t be more excited for the Switch-related reveals. While these aren’t necessarily predictions, here are five games and announcements we’d love to see from Nintendo at E3 2017.
1) Super Mario Odyssey: It’s already been confirmed that Super Mario Odyssey will factor into Nintendo’s E3 plans in a big way, but we truly hope it delivers on everything we saw in January’s debut trailer. For all intents and purposes, this looks like the triumphant return of 3D sandbox Mario games. We haven’t seen one of those since Sunshine in 2002, so expectations are riding high.
Not only should the slice shown during E3 be as substantial as last year’s Breath Of The Wild Great Plateau demo, but it should also highlight several ways in which the play style has evolved over the last 12 years. Fans who played Sunshine or Super Mario 64 already have a basic idea of what to expect. We hope Nintendo builds on the best parts of those games in ways nobody sees coming. Infuse new genres and mechanics into the plumber’s upcoming adventure.
2) Virtual Console & Online Details: While this sort of stuff may not be sexy enough for a Direct debut, we hope Nintendo takes some time during E3 week to answer two of the biggest questions still haunting Switch owners: is Virtual Console coming, and how will this fall’s online service be structured?
Since we’re talking about desires rather than predictions, our reasonable dream scenario is that Switch online access costs $20 a month with a free Virtual Console game that you can keep as long as the subscription is active. In January Nintendo said free games would only be playable for the month, but we hope that idea gets rolled back. As for VC, we hope Nintendo is taking this extra time to ensure that all Wii U purchases transfer to Switch for free. Even more pie in the sky perhaps, wouldn’t it be great to pay an extra $10 a month to get unlimited access to the entire VC catalog? Make Switch’s services shine so brightly that we never have time to be bored with the console.
3) Super Smash Bros. For Switch: We’ve heard the rumors forever, and we hope E3 2017 is when they’re finally confirmed to be real. We’re fine with this game starting out as a Wii U port, but we’d love to see Nintendo commit to an extended DLC plan for the future.
‘Super Smash Bros’
We hope ‘Super Smash Bros.’ comes to Switch in a way that builds off its predecessor on Wii U with tons of new character and stage DLC.Photo: Nintendo/Facebook
In other words, continue to give us new characters and stages beyond the couple of new additions that have popped up in rumor reports. Make this iteration less of a Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and more of a continuation of an existing service on a new platform.
4) Metroid: Enough is enough Nintendo! We know Retro Studios has been toiling away on something for years, and evidence is mounting that it could be Metroid-related. This franchise has essentially been dormant for a decade, so we’re willing to take anything. Just tell us this game exists. If we’re dreaming, we’d like to see it come out this fall, but even a 2018 tease would blow the roof off the building.
After seeing how Breath Of The Wild brilliantly reinvented Zelda, it’d be awesome to see Metroid adopt some of that game’s best features. Put space exploration front and center, flesh out planets with sidequests and tie it down with the impressive combat and movement from Prime. Metroid Switch could fill in for the awesome Mass Effect game we didn’t get this year.
5) Something Nobody Expects: Every great E3 showcase has a totally unexpected surprise, so we hope Nintendo has one up its sleeve. There have been no rumblings about a franchise like Animal Crossing or F-Zero coming to Switch yet, so wouldn’t it be awesome to hear that a title along those lines is set to release this year?
The shock factor could also come from a third-party partnership too considering Nintendo historically struggles in that department. We know about the whole Rabbids thing, but that’s not a show stopper. We’re talking about a major name or franchise with some form of Switch exclusivity. Beyond Good And Evil 2 in 2017 perhaps ? Bring on the unexpected.
Nintendo’s E3 Direct stream is set to take place June 13 at 12 p.m. EDT. It will be followed by Treehouse streams throughout the convention.
What do you want to see from Nintendo’s E3 showcase? Will any of our dreams come true? Tell us in the comments section!
The project from Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow landed with a thud after earning only $14.7 million domestically during its opening weekend off an estimated $175 million production budget, not to mention marketing costs. Not even overseas grosses — which have propped up big-budget films, not in the least limited to “Pacific Rim” and “Warcraft” that would have been considered bombs otherwise — could save “Arthur,” which brought in $29.1 million internationally this weekend. Audiences have received the movie relatively well, earning it a B+ CinemaScore, but the same cannot be said for critics, who sliced and diced the picture down to a 27% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The weekend tallies and critical and audience consensus are the result of a years-in-the-making story, eventually directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Charlie Hunnam. So how did the big-budget film become what could be remembered as the biggest flop of the summer, or even the entire year?
Was the IP too tired? The legend of King Arthur is one that has been told and retold in various forms, not unlike many of the superhero movies that dominate the modern-day box office. But this flop feeds the narrative that Warner Bros. is banking too much on reviving stale ideas after misfires including “Pan,” “The Legend of Tarzan,” and, most recently, “Chips.” Still, Ritchie has made good money off an old idea with his take on Sherlock Holmes in 2009 and its sequel in 2011, which both grossed over $500 million worldwide. Ritchie addressed the idea in an interview with Variety’s Kris Tapley.
“It didn’t occur to me that it was a dusty or unexciting title,” Ritchie said. “To me, I fancy the challenge of — a bit like ‘Sherlock Holmes’ — I thought, ‘Oh, I’m familiar with that. I think I can do something with that.’”
Did the delays kill buzz? When Ritchie signed onto “Arthur” in 2014, he attached himself to a script by Joby Harold that was conceived as the first part in a six-film series set in one contained universe. Three years later, the film was finally released.
“King Arthur” was originally slated for a July 22, 2016 release, which ended up belonging to Paramount’s “Star Trek Beyond.” Warner Bros. released the low-budget supernatural horror film “Lights Out” instead, which was a surprise hit. “Arthur” was pushed to a Feb. 17, 2017 release, only to be pushed again to March 24, and then finally to its ultimate date of May 12. If IP already causes rumblings of being tired, delaying a film’s release several times might only hinder potential excitement.
Did recasting get in the way? Starting in 2011, years prior to Ritchie’s involvement, Warner Bros. was adapting an Arthur-based project with director David Dobkin called “Arthur and Lancelot.” At the time, Kit Harington and Joel Kinnaman were attached to star, and later Colin Farrell was thought to bring the star power necessary to see the project through. Neither iteration was brought to production.
When Ritchie reignited talks of reviving the property, Idris Elba’s name was floated to play a Merlin-esque character. Neither the actor nor his character made the 2017 release.
Does Charlie Hunnam lack star power? Charlie Hunnam is a relatively untested star. Although he toplined “Pacific Rim,” the actor is most well-known for “Sons of Anarchy,” which ran for seven seasons on FX. Whenever a film tanks, the star shares some of the responsibility. But Hunnam’s role in “Arthur’s” lack of draw seems more like a small piece of a large puzzle.
Was it the recutting? Ritchie’s original cut of “King Arthur” was three and a half hours long. The final product clocks in at two hours and six minutes, which some critics, including Variety’s Peter Debruge, have identified as feeling more characteristic of Ritchie than a sprawling Arthurian epic.
“I was desperate that it would be an entertaining three and a half hours,” Ritchie told the Ringer’s Sean Fennessey. “Two hours into it, I knew I was in trouble.”
But Ritchie defended his process of trying to make the “worthy, extended version” before chopping it down to a movie that fits within his own oeuvre. “If I went to the studio and said, ‘This scene is going to cost me $3 million and it’s going to be ten seconds long,’ it’s very hard to get your nut around that,” Ritchie said.
So what? Despite this catastrophic flop, Ritchie has a potential reputation rehab project in place with Disney’s live-action “Aladdin.” The studio has had nary a miss recently with remakes of “Jungle Book” and “Beauty and the Beast” each topping $1 billion worldwide. Warner Bros., too, has several shots at redemption with titles including “Wonder Woman” and “Dunkirk” in the summer pipeline and “It” hitting theaters in early fall. But while the residual effects of “King Arthur’s” financial losses have yet to be seen on a grand scale, the jab of earning title of “summer’s first big flop” can only be felt once a year
Robot’s are awesome. I have had a Roomba for years. That’s an example of a robot that does specific tasks. But what about all the other repetitive tasks that occur every day? Washing and putting dishes away, making the bed, doing laundry, making breakfast and coffee. I’d like to reduce the amount repetitive tasks that occur daily so I can spend more time working on experiments and going on adventures.
Flynn’s robot, LOT (Logic On Treads), is something like Tony Starks robot. It’s helpful. LOT can do repetitive tasks so that Flynn doesn’t have to. LOT can also help Flynn by being an extra hand. Plus, when Flynn is making things that need to be precise, it’s nice to have a precise instrument around, like LOT’s robot arm.
The kind of robot I need is something like LOT. A somewhat universal robot that can help with more than a single task. Rather than just a vacuum robot (which is great), the robot I am building needs to do much more. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time and I think Flynn got it right with LOT. The basic structure I need is a mobile robot arm that can respond to basic input and preferably, verbal input.
Making a robot will take time. I’ll have to design, make and assemble components and program a “brain”. I see teaching a robot to be much like teaching a baby. Start with the basics; getting around, avoiding danger, exploring the environment, listening to simple commands, replying with simple output. Then adding more complexities, like controlling its arm and hand. Then onto even more complexities, like dynamically adapting to verbal input. For example, if I say, “LOT, get me a cup of coffee,” LOT will know that means to run several libraries of tasks that end up with a fresh cup of coffee next to me as I write. Of course that’s a very simple example that is actually more complex than it seems in the background. But it all seems do-able, and I’ll keep you in the loop.
