Why tomorrow’s PlayStation 4 update is a bigger deal than people assume

My father was my very first video game hero.

He brought us a Nintendo Entertainment System from a pawn shop when I was a toddler, and cemented what would eventually become a decades-long love affair with the medium in my tiny brain. I was head over heels in love with gaming and, with Dad as my guide, I was in for a whole new world of awesome.

We’d play for hours together, picking up our Nintendo Zapper guns and taking aim at dastardly outlaws in the darkness of our living room. Later, we gravitated to Mario Tennis on the Nintendo 64, where I’d throttle his Mario with my Yoshi 30-Love until he slammed down the controller in mock disgust.

Gaming was his way of spending time with me in ways he knew he’d never actually be able to, due to an early diagnosis of muscular dystrophy that confined him to walking with a cane and later on to a wheelchair for longer outings.

Whatever we could find, we’d play together, because Dad knew he’d never be able to hit the green with me in real life or run around a tennis court to best me beyond the virtual world.

Unfortunately, the years passed and our console collection soon withered away to nothing. So too did our emotional bond, originally bolstered by a shared love of gaming. It’s now 2015, and Dad is a much different man than he was when I was clad in a Batman T-shirt and leggings sitting on his lap in our living room. He’s into reading sports news online and working on his wheelchair basketball technique.

But there’s one very important thread that we do still share: Minecraft.

A whole new, blocky, world

Mojang’s colorful and imaginative sandbox in which you can erect any sort of architecture or interact with nearly any type of character by way of mods is a mainstay in our home. When my father wakes up, he de-stresses by farming some experience with a monster spawner. In the evening, to relax, he’ll create a minecart system powered by redstone to better navigate the castle he’s erected, an exemplary bit of architecture that took him months to construct.

I’m thankful. I’m able to share the medium I’m most passionate about with Dad thanks to his introduction to the world of Minecraft. He became enamored with Minecraft from the moment he loaded his first world, and I couldn’t have been happier. This was his ticket back into gaming.

For the uninitiated, Minecraft is a juggernaut in the PC gaming world, with a bustling mod community, dedicated Let’s Play streamers, and hundreds of variations on play to keep things fresh. Nearly everywhere you go, even in department stores, you see the gaping mouths of Creepers, blank stares of Steve heads, and even diamond pickaxe styluses. It’s not so much a game as an industry, a cultural force that extends past the computer and consoles.

The circle of extra lives

We’ve managed to bypass the disconnect that often occurs between older parents and their aging children, having come full circle. This time, Dad’s the one amazed by what modern gaming is capable of, and I’m the one cheering him on from the sidelines.

I’m convinced it could be this way for everyone, whether it’s via Minecraft, Terraria, or other similarly accessible games. These games, and their casual contemporaries, are very much “gateway drugs” for non-gamers and even those who enjoyed them before, but for some reason strayed from the path.

I’d like to take credit for being the sole introductory conduit through which Dad could finally come to life via the world of gaming again, but I really have to hand it to streamers like Tobuscus or CaptainSparklez, whose combined hundreds of videos went a long way when it came to introducing him to the basics of the in-game world or which mods were worth downloading.

He’d start with a few downloads a night on my own personal Minecraft account, and in a few months he had a small library of mods with his own game key and more saved worlds than I thought I’d see in one lifetime of play.

The spread of gaming content on non-gaming devices has made learning about games more accessible than ever

He’d begin rattling off advice to me about how to create items in-game when I found myself faltering, and when life dictated I spend less time within the enormous world he and I played in, he soldiered on to create his very own worlds, reveling in a plane where he could not only run and jump to his heart’s content, but that he ruled with absolution.

It didn’t end with Minecraft, though. I’ve seen his rampant enthusiasm come out during televised commercials for the PC release of Diablo III, and most recently, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. He’s not so sure his rig would be able to run the PC version of CD Project RED’s game these days, but when I mention that I could stream it via PlayStation 4, he’s keen on sitting by and watching me.

He’ll talk about a possible future Wii Sports Resort playoff run or a rousing game of Mario Kart too, if I ever bring my Wii U over to play. In these moments I can rest easy knowing my dad has returned to my realm. He’s eager to speak with me about my favorite activities again just as I’ve learned the jargon of his. And I’m hoping I’m able to preserve it forever.

This is very much a relationship and an experience that I believe any parent can have with their child, even if there’s a dormant enthusiasm for gaming or it’s never been there in the first place. And it doesn’t have to stop at the parent and child relationship.

It can extend to anyone in your life, but particularly older family members or acquaintances whose lives could be further enriched by video games, especially those who have a lack of mobility or the physical means to get up and get out into the world to do something.

Games have changed so much in the 20-odd years I’ve been following them. Online play has never been as welcoming as it should have been, and Xbox Live and other modern venues have all but blown it out of proportion.

PC titles can take so much effort to run if you don’t have the latest and greatest equipment, which some gamers can’t always afford. And it’s a lot easier to play with what you’re familiar with, which for my father was first-person shooters and PC titles, hence his jumping right in with Minecraft.

I also bristle when people say that the world of Let’s Plays and streaming is only for children, as my father proves otherwise. Experiencing games in this way allowed him to learn about them, and watch me play. There’s no age-appropriate bucket for video-based gaming content, and I’m glad it’s there alongside more traditional gaming media.

Anyone dismissing Let’s Plays as a youthful pursuit are missing the boat

He started with Tobuscus, because I showed my dad some Happy Wheels videos he had done. We’d sit in the living room and watch YouTube on our smart TV and I’d suggest videos for us to watch. I hadn’t broached gaming again before that day. One day he stumbled upon the Minecraft videos Toby had created and it snowballed from there.

The spread of gaming content on non-gaming devices has made learning about games, and how to play them, more accessible than ever. Anyone dismissing Let’s Plays as a youthful pursuit are missing the boat; they’re an amazing way to introduce anyone to gaming.

Watching Minecraft revitalize my father’s love for the video gaming world has me spending a bit more time on games that I would normally play through once and move on. Having video games be your lifeblood can sometimes blind you from the pleasures that simply playing, not just beating, games brings. He’s not rushing to any end goal, he’s enjoying the journey.

So when I spend 80 or more hours with Geralt, or in Thedas, or catch every Pokémon, I don’t feel the itch to simply move on. I take inspiration from my dad, who keeps soldiering and creating.

It’s worth taking the initiative to find that special game that can connect you to your loved on

Minecraft saved my father’s gaming life, and helped our relationship

Yes, those rumors of Lego building a direct competitor to Minecraft were true: meet Lego Worlds. The sandbox game has launched on Windows through Steam’s Early Access program for $17, and promises to do more than just let you sculpt buildings and fight off critters. You can alter the terrain on a large scale, and access ready-made drivable vehicles (including dragons) to get around the procedurally generated landscape. Not too surprisingly, there’s also a big tie-in with Lego’s real-world plastic bricks. You can play using a handful of old-school and current Lego sets, and more are promised down the road. Don’t be surprised if you’re eventually buying digital blocks at the same time as their physical counterparts arrive.

Lego Worlds

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This less-than-finished version doesn’t have much in the way of sets, and it’s missing a few features that Minecraft veterans would take for granted. Multiplayer won’t arrive until a future update, for one thing, so you won’t be building masterpieces with a friend’s help. Still, Worlds is likely the game you were always expecting Lego to make in response to Mojang’s smash hit — it’s not just an obvious promo piece like those Lego Minecraft kits that shipped a couple of years back. If you’ve been jonesing for a different take on construction games, you’ll probably want to give this a try.

Lego’s ‘Minecraft’ competitor is real and ready to download

Lego appears to be building a ‘Minecraft’ competitor

What’s, like, the biggest thing on Earth? Well, Godzilla is big. And it’s a scientific fact that his femur is 33 meters long. Bucket wheel excavators used in mining operations, those are crazy giant too. The biggest man-made building (by volume) is Boeing’s plant in Everett, Washington. That’s totally ginormous. Let’s call it the biggest structure on Earth. (Or you can go with the Great Wall of China for the longest, or some skyscraper in Dubai for the tallest. Up to you.) But compared to Minecraft, those things are…well, they’re piddly.

How about planets. Planets are big, like really huge, right? Take Earth. 500 million square kilometers, which is a lot. Until you learn that Minecraft has a surface area of Four. Billion. Square. Kilometers.

Which kind of makes the biggest thing on Earth a thing that doesn’t even really exist. To find out how huge Minecraft is, in terms of users, money, population, and sheer (digital) size, watch the video.

How Big is Minecraft? Really, Really, Really Big

Video: Let’s Play P.T in Minecraft

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.

Kids create ‘clean’ website for ‘Minecraft’ gamers

Minecraft is one of the most successful video games in the world, with more than 100 million registered users. YouTube is the top video site in the world, with a billion unique visitors a month.

And when combined, they are a staple of today’s tween entertainment diet.

YouTube videos about Minecraft are giant hits, even though the game’s blocky graphics don’t seem to scream excitement. Millions of people watch players narrate while they fly, hike and excavate Minecraft’s virtual world, which is akin to an open world digital Lego set. The Minecraft narrators – often men in their early 20s with effervescent personalities – act as solo tour guides as they build skyscrapers, ships and other structures or engage in battles of survival.

The most popular narrators turn up the entertainment value by bantering with others in the style of a talk-show host. Still, the popularity of this genre can be slightly baffling. After all, children can play Minecraft — why watch others do it?

“It’s super bizarre,” said Mitchell Hughes, 21, a top Minecraft YouTuber who, like his peers in the streaming world, is far better known by his online handle, BajanCanadian. “I don’t even understand it myself.

From Minecraft’s earliest days, the company behind it encouraged people to share video clips on YouTube and other social media sites, seeing it as a potent form of grass-roots marketing. Initially, many of the Minecraft clips were tutorials for newbies to the game. They gradually evolved into their own genre of entertainment — a remix of Saturday morning cartoons, pop culture parodies and pranks.

The videos aren’t exactly “Mad Men,” but they aren’t trying to be ambitious television, either. As with a lot of reality television programming, much of the appeal lies in the emotions of the Minecraft narrators. When one squeals in terror, it seems authentic, whether it is or not.

“I think content beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” said Ryan Wyatt, the global head of content for gaming at YouTube.

YouTube, which is owned by Google, says Minecraft is the most popular game of all time on the site, ahead of Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty, two major video game franchises. Last year, “Minecraft” was the second most searched term on YouTube, after “Frozen.” The popularity of the game explains why Microsoft paid $2.5 billion last year to acquire Mojang, the Swedish company that created Minecraft in 2009.

“The amazing thing about using this software is you can produce an amazing video every day with big production values,” said Joseph Garrett, a master of the Minecraft YouTube genre who uses the handle Stampy. “If you were doing live action shows that could be done, but it wouldn’t be as easy.”

Mr. Garrett has more than 5.7 million subscribers to his Stampy videos, which have been seen almost 3.5 billion times, placing him just ahead of Lady Gaga in terms of cumulative views. BajanCanadian has 4.8 million subscribers on YouTube and, since he joined the service in 2011, his videos have been watched more than 1.2 billion times.

YouTube has become a lucrative, full-time career for Mr. Hughes and Mr. Garrett, who get a cut of advertising revenue from their videos. Neither would say how much they make — “Billions!” joked Mr. Hughes — but both are making a healthy living off the videos.

Based on publicly available audience numbers and typical advertising rates, Peter Warman, an analyst with the market research firm Newzoo, estimates there are eight to 10 Minecraft YouTubers who earn over $1 million a year.

To get a better grasp on what it takes to be a successful Minecraft YouTuber — and, by extension, better understand what makes the videos so popular — I enlisted the help of YouTube itself, Mr. Hughes and Mr. Garrett. Although the alchemy behind online sensations is as elusive as for any other kind of celebrity, they all shared some basic prerequisites for their stardom.

Have personality, a lot of it

All the top Minecraft YouTubers are extroverts, or at least act like them in the voice-overs for their videos. Mr. Garrett’s Stampy is like a British version of Mr. Rogers after inhaling a bit of helium. As he gambols around a Minecraft map of his own creation, a cluster of buildings, tunnels and landscapes he calls “my lovely world,” Stampy seems to exist in a permanent state of delight.

“It’s a bigger, brighter version of me,” said Mr. Garrett, a former bartender who records his shows from his home in southern England. (To deter stalkers, he won’t give precise details about where he lives.)

The videos on his main YouTube channel are nonscripted, lasting around 20 minutes each. While plenty of Minecraft YouTubers delve into off-color humor, Mr. Garrett, represented in the game as a yellow-and-white cat, keeps his videos clean and cheerful.

“I would never get angry in a video,” he said. “If I lose, it’s, ‘Oh well, maybe next time I’ll do better.’ Everything is positive and happy. It’s the ideal me, living in the ideal world, where nothing ever goes wrong.”

Collaborate with others

Mr. Hughes believes a big reason his videos as BajanCanadian have been so successful is that he records himself playing with friends. Most of the videos consist of Mr. Hughes and a couple of friends exchanging jokes as they play survival games with other online players.

The fraternal chemistry between Mr. Hughes and his buddies seems genuine and keeps his videos from growing dull. Mr. Hughes’s roommate in St. Petersburg, Fla., Jerome Aceti, is a childhood friend with his own large YouTube following under the online name JeromeASF. He makes frequent cameos in BajanCanadian videos.

“Definitely surround yourself with positive influences and friends who are going to be able to motivate and participate in your content,” Mr. Hughes said. “Otherwise it might get lonely. That makes it a lot more fun.”

Some Minecraft YouTube stars, like Mr. Garrett, are mostly solo artists. But even that’s changing with a new Stampy side project called Wonder Quest that Mr. Garrett is creating in partnership with YouTube and Maker Studios, a producer of short online videos owned by Walt Disney. The scripted series has a cast of other YouTubers who voice various characters.

Be consistent

Mr. Wyatt of YouTube said any aspiring YouTube star seeking to build an audience should release new videos on a dependable schedule. Die-hard fans will come to expect fresh episodes, and they will be disappointed if the videos don’t appear.

“Often people get demoralized or complacent and stop doing consistent programming,” Mr. Wyatt said. “Whatever your schedule is, stay consistent to it.”

Mr. Hughes and Mr. Garrett post new videos at least once a day, sometimes multiple times a day. Mr. Garrett says keeping up that pace can be challenging, but it has been worth it.

“My fans love it,” he said. “Most content creators are creating one video every two weeks. I choose to be a little more programmatic about it. That was a big steppingstone for me.”

Minecraft Stars on YouTube Share Secrets to Their Celebrity

The world of Minecraft can be a dark and terrifying place…for adults.

Welcome to Minecraft Malfunction, a new YouTube channel from Seattleites Margaret Chiavetta and Brooks Peck. The pair — she teaches coding to kids and he is the sci-fi curator at Experience Music Project — created the channel when they realized that Minecraft was more than just a game. It was a phenomenon among the younger set.

So they challenged themselves to learn how to play with kids as their instructors.

It’s a fun idea on role reversal: Not only is it hilarious to watch two adults fumble their way through the mystical world — it’s even more fun to hear the kids explain the game to them.

Or, in Chiavetta’s words, “We suck at it, and the kids are hilarious.”

Here we talked to Chiavetta and Peck about their YouTube channel and why Minecraft is such a runaway hit.

How did you get the idea to do this?Margaret Chiavetta: I’m teaching after-school coding to elementary school kids called Creative Coding 4 Kids. One of the questions we have to ask them in the beginning is “what video games do you play?” They all say Minecraft — boys and girls equally. So we were thinking, “OK, this Minecraft is replacing Harry Potter as this global, cultural phenomenon.”

Brooks and I were looking for a project together and originally thinking of doing a podcast. And that evolved into us playing Minecraft.

Brooks Peck: You notice something that keeps popping up all around you, and for me that was Minecraft. From Margaret’s students and people at work, we saw it was all around us. Margaret had the idea that we try it and find out what was going on.

That’s a big part of it – the fact that you both don’t know how to play, right?

Peck: Right. Arguably, we still don’t.

Chiavetta: We’re actually not playing it on our own on purpose, so we can have the fun of the kids showing us how to play.

How far into this Minecraft experiment are you – and how do you find the kids?

Chiavetta: We have 15 episodes up [as of this date], the first 10 are Brooks and me trying to do the tutorial, the next 11 to 15 episodes are playing with my nephew Brayden.

Peck: We play every couple weeks at least. It’s with kids of friends, coworkers, within our network mostly — and we’re always looking for more girls to play the game with us. So far, it’s not be terribly hard. Everyone with kids over 6, they play Minecraft.

What has been the most difficult part of learning Minecraft so far?

Chiavetta: Surviving one night was our biggest challenge. We weren’t building a shelter fast enough. I got distracted that night would come, and I would have to barricade myself and wouldn’t be able to finish the shelter. There was no roof usually.

The first one we made, I accidentally made a step up so a skeleton got inside and killed me. We didn’t survive a night until we got Brayden to help.

Peck: We might as well have left the door open. We’ve been learning about the creatures, but it’s mostly been running in panic in the dark and falling into pits. This happens way more often than it should.

Is there any chance of a Minecraft exhibition at EMP anytime soon?

Peck: We’ve had two different video game exhibitions so far. [Laughs] I wouldn’t rule it out, but I’m not promising anything. We’re always looking for ideas.

The cool thing about Minecraft is that it is transcending video gamers and video game culture and becoming a wider thing, and that is always interesting to me as a curator.

That’s why Minecraft is something parents and kids can enjoy together, yes?

Chiavetta: We’re noticing with kids, 8 or 9 years old, they really want their own YouTube channels. And parents are like, “No, you’re too young.” This is a great compromise for them – they can be on YouTube and not have to maintain their own channel.

Peck: It goes back to the idea that we’re always thinking about ways to get intergenerational conversations into the EMP gallery, and ways to get kids to talk to adults. The art of video games — old games and new games – are great for this kind of dialogue.

Minecraft has great potential for that since it can be so collaborative. It’s not like Facebook. No one sits down as a family and uses Facebook together.

Want to learn more about Minecraft Malfunction or play along? Email Margaret and Brooks at minecraft.malfunction@gmail.com.

‘Minecraft Malfunction,’ a funny YouTube channel where kids teach adults how to play

With the recent sale of Minecraft for $2.5 B to Microsoft, the brand is in no danger of losing steam. It’s even expanded into toys, film, and books. Recently, I had the privilege to speak to the author of one of the Minecraft novels on the market, MTV journalist Danica Davidson. Her day job may be covering social justice issues at MTV, but when she comes home at night she authors Minecraft novels. Her first, Escape from the Overworld, is already out in print, ebook, and audiobook formats. She is working on a second novel Attack on the Overworld is in production.  Both are available to order at Amazon as well to preorder.

William Wilson– Danica, thank you for speaking with me today.  So, how did you get involved with the Minecraft brand?

Danica Davidson– Pleasure’s all mine.  I got involved in the Minecraft brand after my publisher suggested I pitch them about it. I’d played Minecraft, I knew Minecraft, I appreciated the versatility of Minecraft … but it had never crossed my mind before that I could write a fictional book about it.

WW– What drew you to the Minecraft Universe originally?

DD– I like how it lets you be creative and make the game what you want it to be. You can have all the swashbuckling adventure you desire, or you can create your own world, or you can spend all your time building whatever your mind comes up with. Or all of the above. For me, it lets me write fun books!

WW– Makes total sense. So, in your opinion, why do you think people love this brand?

DD– I think because it really lets you play. A lot of people have compared it to Legos because of the building aspect, but there’s so much more. For one, the building is endless because you don’t have to buy supplies. You can go on adventures and fight monsters like zombies or skeletons. They have “skins” that let you play as different characters, or create your own. So you can get skins for big franchises like The Simpsons, Halo, My Little Pony, Attack on Titan… or you can make your skin look like yourself (except, you know, blockier). There are portals so you can enter different worlds and there’s a whole Minecraft mythology. I’ve heard parents also say they like their kids playing because Minecraft can be used for everything from teaching reading skills to learning chemistry. Whatever it is, Minecraft has it. It’s also fun to play with groups of people, which is typically how I do it. We take turns building while we hang out and relax.

WW– Can you tell our audience about the first book, and why should they go out and buy it?

DD-11-year-old Stevie lives in the Minecraft world and has been feeling down on himself because he’s not good at building or fighting monsters. He finds a portal to our world and steps out of the computer of an 11-year-old girl named Maison, who’s bullied at school for being different. The two become friends, but because they don’t close the portal, zombies and other monsters from the Minecraft world break through and attack Maison’s school. Stevie and Maison have to put their heads together to save the school and the world from this attack.

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People should buy it because it has a number of Minecraft elements and cliffhangers, but it also has things real kids can relate to. I went to my old writing from sixth grade to inspire me, and I put in stuff about bullies, about going to a new school, about feeling like an outsider. From my research, it didn’t look as if girls were getting much representation in Minecraft novels, even though girls love video games, too. So it was important for me to have a character like Maison. She’s smart, strong-willed and talented, and there’s a reason Stevie looks up to her. The book has actually be selected for inclusion in an anti-bullying, girl-empowerment curriculum called Saving Our Cinderellas, and it’s all because of Maison.

WW– Now you’re in the middle of writing a second novel.  Can you tell us a little about it?

DD– In the next book, cyberbullies are harassing Maison. She’s become a hero for saving her school in the first book, but the cyberbullies think she knows more about the zombie attack than she lets on. I mean, how do you explain zombies attacking the school? Where did they come from? They hack her computer, realize it’s a portal to the Minecraft world, and start griefing it, turning it to eternal night and unleashing monsters on the villagers. Stevie and Maison have to stop the cyberbullies, but they also have to figure out why they were bullying in the first place.

WW– What was the inspiration for writing the second book?

DD– The first book dealt a lot with bullying — the in-your-face kind. After I wrote it, I kept thinking, I need to talk about cyberbullying. Cyberbullying can get so vicious and attack people of all ages. I get bullied online for my writing — unfortunately, it seems to come with being a journalist — but I’m an adult, and I can ignore it. I can’t imagine what it’s like for kids to face that sort of thing. It also got me thinking about why kids cyberbully others. I do a lot of writing about cyberbullying for MTV, and I took that knowledge to explore this theme in the second book. I’m hoping it can help kids feel less alone and be able to talk about cyberbullying with their parents and teachers.

WW– That’s a really good point, something rarely touched on. Now, when you write, do video games inspire that, or do ideas come from somewhere else?

DD– I’d never thought about writing about video games before this. I’d just sold a manga book and my publisher asked if I had any ideas on Minecraft I could pitch for them to consider. There are a number of adventure Minecraft books out there, I found out, but I wanted to write something that had adventure and important real issues. So I take on bullying, I take on gender roles, I take on universal fears and insecurities. I sent the pitch in through my agent, not knowing what to expect, because it’s not as if the publisher had to take it. They just wanted to see if I had any ideas. But they got back to me almost immediately, wanting me to write the book as soon as possible. They gave me a six week deadline, and I buckled down and got it in while still working full-time for MTV.

WW– How has the videogame industry influenced you outside of writing?

DD– I grew up playing video games as a kid. I do remember — and this is me being a child of the 90s — that there were some games aimed for boys and games aimed for girls on my Sega Genesis. I would play both, but I would be frustrated because the girls’ games I had weren’t challenging at all, as if they expected girls to be bad at playing video games. The games aimed for boys were much more fun, so they were the bulk of the ones I played.

WW– Now apart from Minecraft, what is your favorite video game, and why?

DD– I don’t know about having a favorite, but I still do like to get together with friends and play Mario Party on a pretty regular basis.

WW– How long do you see yourself writing Minecraft novels?

DD– As long as the ideas keep coming and the interest is there. I write novels about things other than Minecraft, but I’m really enjoying how Minecraft has let me build my own book worlds in its universe.

WW– Where can people find out more about you?

DD– They’re more than welcome to check out my website, www.danicadavidson.com.

Danica Davidson Explores Issues Facing Kids In Her Minecraft Novels