Minecraft Message Board older than one year ago

Don't you hate finding out the games you enjoy playing are actually a ruse to teach you about theoretical economics? Apparently that's what Minecraft has been doing all along, at least as it's presented in the above PBS Idea Channel video. It's the betrayal of outNumbered! all over again.

Idea Channel suggests creative mode in Minecraft is a perfect simulation of a post-scarcity economy, where we have unlimited resources and spend our time building magnificent structures because we don't have to bother with hunting and gathering, as is done in Minecraft's standard mode. While a post-scarcity economy is pretty impossible, tools such as the Makerbot, a cheap 3D printer, are helping to make these forms of creation readily available to larger society, the video posits.

Next time you boot up creative mode, maybe consider how many years it will be until you have an infinite-inventory machine in your own home, and how long it would take to create a physical replica of Hogwarts castle. To scale.

#minecraft Kid loves video game, spends lots and lots of time with it. Parent frets over kid, thinks offspring might've fallen prey to the bogeyman of video game addiction. It's a scenario that probably plays out in thousands of homes. Maybe even yours. One father went to Quora, where questions get asked and answered by site subscribers, to get some help. More »

Conan O'Brien is a self-admitted "clueless gamer." He thinks the Xbox controller is a neck massager. Anyway, here's a clip of him trying to review the ridiculously successful Minecraft. He may have a point about the graphics.

#minecraft Only Conan O'Brien could play Minecraft and say it's like being a Welshman in the 19th century, spending your waking hours digging in a coal mine. More »

#minecraft What happened to the world? Where have all the Steves gone? And will this Steve ever find happiness again? More »

#minecraft This was created by dedicated Minecrafter Nathan Chatham as a tribute to Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski and his wife Lauren Berggren. It's their dog. It's totally adorable. More »

Annoying news: Uniloc, a company known for spurious software patent claims, is making a spurious software patent claim against Minecraft, as well as against EA, Gameloft, Halfbrick (Fruit Ninja), Laminar (X-Plane) and Square-Enix.

Wonderful news: the lawyer representing Uniloc is called Barry J. Bumgardner. I’m told that name doesn’t raise so much as a smile in the US (where it’s very common and derives from the German ‘Baumgartner’ rather than from someone who gardens in bums for a living), but I can assure you that, in the UK, it’s basically the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.(more…)

Texas-based tech-patent collector Uniloc has filed suit against Mojang, claiming that the Android version of "Mindcraft," (seriously, that's what it says in the filing), infringes upon Patent #6,857,067, "System and method for preventing unauthorized access to electronic data." Specifically, the filing references claim 107 of the patent, which covers a "Computer code executable on an electronic device to prevent unauthorized access to electronic data stored on the electronic device."

Yup, Mindcraft.

"Unfortunately for them, they're suing us over a software patent. If needed, I will throw piles of money at making sure they don't get a cent," Notch said on Twitter this morning. "Software patents are plain evil. Innovation within software is basically free, and it's growing incredibly rapid. Patents only slow it down."

Uniloc is seeking damages compounded by both pre and post-judgment interest, as well as ongoing royalties from Mojang. This should be a good one.

[Thanks, Cody!]

#minecraft Smash hit Minecraft has been slowly found to have been compromised over the past week, a flaw in the game's authentication system resulting in a loophole that's given us one of the weirdest exploits of a game in recent memory. More »

Minecraft and Trials Evolution will receive "exclusive content" on the Xbox 360, to celebrate five years of Microsoft's Summer of Arcade promotion. Beginning July 18, Minecraft players can nab a "customized Summer of Arcade skin pack" with skins inspired by this year's five Summer games. At the same time Trials Evolution will get a new themed track, once a week, alongside each new game.

For the Minecraft promo, players can download the skins by visiting the "Summer of Arcade experience" ad on the Xbox Live dashboard.

The Summer of Arcade kicks off next week with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD. A safe bet is that the special Trials map derived from that game includes 900 laps of something.

#chronotrigger Here's a confession: I'm a sucker for awesome Minecraft projects. Particularly the ones that recreate great RPGs or stunning worlds. More »

What cavalcade of Minecraft skins would be complete without everyone's favorite cyborg? Play XBLA revealed Master Chief as one of the 40 different skins coming to Minecraft on Xbox Live Arcade.

As you can see above, Master Chief isn't the only recognizable blockhead in the group. Skin Pack 1 also includes Danklef, a scientist from 'Splosion Man, and Old-School Trials Evolution Guy.

Minecraft version 1.3 is on the way, and this update looks to be a doozy. The most sweeping change will be a merging of single-player and multiplayer modes. More specifically, single-player as everyone knows it will now be a "shell on top of multiplayer."

The reason behind the change, according to Mojang, is to accommodate the upcoming modding API, which otherwise would have required modders to create multiple versions of each mod, one for single-player and one for multiplayer. The downside is that single-player games will now require a little more computing power, though Mojang is hoping to smooth things out a bit in 1.4.

Other additions in 1.3 will include emeralds and emerald ore, the ability to buy items from villagers, the ability to write in books, an optional "bonus chest" that helps new players "get started quicker" and more. Minecraft 1.3 is slated to arrive August 1, with a "release candidate" available a week prior.

Scrolls just hit playable Alpha, and Notch is off programming computers inside of other computers (inside of other computers still, if life as we know it is in fact a nightmarish artificial construct), but Minecraft keeps on plugging away. LAN support – an art thought to be lost to the ravages of time and overbearing game services – was already a known quantity, but Mojang’s detailed gobs of other stuff that’ll be included as well. Sadly, an official modding API didn’t make the cut, but Adventure Mode sounds interesting. And hey, there’s also an NPC trading system, readable/writable books, and updated cookies!

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Five more of those 40 upcoming skins for the XBLA version of Minecraft have been revealed in all their pixelated glory. Jack of Blades, Clayton Carmine, Banjo, Ms. Splosion Man and a prisoner will all be working towards building a better, blockier tomorrow, as seen in the gallery after the jump.

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition is getting a DLC pack with 40 character skins, set to drop around the same time as title update 1.7.3, which entered Microsoft certification today. Some of the skins are originals, while five of them in particular are based on popular Xbox franchises.

The character pack will include Creeper, 'Splosion Man, Trials dude, Covenant Grunt and King skins, all of which you can see above. Shh, though - don't tell the 'Splosion Man skin that he just looks like a naked dude with jaundice.

#minecraft There's only one way a hoodie based on Minecraft can be genuinely terrifying. And that's this way. More »

#humor With the Xbox Live version of Minecraft, anime fans thought now would be as good a time as any for this. More »

#crime Last year, the Washington state legislature was said to be considering stronger laws and punishments against "SWATting," which is trolls' cute way to take revenge when something displeases them in an online game. They phone a fake call to your local cops and next thing you know, armed deputies are crawling around the backyard. More »

Corridor Digital are wizards, harnessing their powers to make live action movie-magics based on them there vidjagames. They’ve tackled Minecraft before but their new short, Diamonds are Forever, could be their best yet. I do wish it concentrated more on the stunning blend of blocky vistas with real landscapes rather than becoming an action movie, but maybe expecting a travel documentary or an absurdist comedy about the tribulations of a life where interactions involve hitting things with other things really really fast was too much. It’s hugely impressive all the same. Enjoy.

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#minecraft One of the charming (and most would say, integral) things about Minecraft is the game's floaty, particular physics engine. But what if it had a "proper" next-gen physics engine? More »

Building off the epic Minecraft action of last year's The Last Minecart, the crew of Corridor Digital - who have also produced quality works on cheat codes and instakills - return with Minecraft: Diamonds Are Forever. Sadly, there are no Bond or Kanye appearances.

#minecraft Check out this awesome Minecraft fan film, courtesy the folks at Corridor Digital. The special effects are excellent. Kinda cheesy. But mostly excellent. More »

A proposed new technology will allow personal computers within the same building to share data with each other via a physical cabled connection. The innovation is believed to allow significantly better speeds and latency than existing ‘online’ connections, as well as less data loss, no risk of interference from local ruffians attacking nearby phone company equipment, little to no need for opening router ports and no reliance on an error-prone remote server. While this new ‘local area network’ technology is rare and experimental for the time being, little-known PC game Minecraft will be one of the first titles to include it as an alternative to existing multiplayer connections.(more…)

Minecraft's XBLA edition will get a patch tomorrow, fixing issues with save crashes, enemy spawning, zombie pigmen, and "being able to stand on sugarcane." It also fixes the issue that prevents players from entering the Nether properly. Non-"fix" updates include the ability to turn tooltips on and off, and an autosave feature. Find the full list of fixes after the break.

Now if there were only a patch allowing us to enter the Neitherworld. Beetlejuice has been waiting for us for years! With some Party People in a Can ready!

Minecraft for Xbox 360 has sold 2 million copies since its launch in early May. The $20 XBLA version of the sandbox crafting phenomenon sold a million units in five days following its May 7 launch.

XBLA portfolio director Chris Charla tweeted earlier today: "I guess I can officially mention Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition has crossed 2,000,000 in sales on XBLA!!"

#minecraft While the official LEGO Minecraft set doesn't look like much in pictures, it looks a lot better before you take it out of the box, the bricks coming in square packaging that's been printed to look like a chunk of Minecraft terrain. Cute touch! More »

The Microsoft Store is selling Minecraft on XBLA for $14.99, $5 off the price you'd pay direct through XBLA. Unlike other recent Microsoft Store deals, there's no catch that we can see.

#minecraft Remember the Minecraft-playing couple who got engaged at MineCon back in November? Well, yes, they have now been lawfully wed and kissed and no man put asunder and all that goes along with the big day—including an outstanding Minecraft-themed throwdown for the reception. Chickens, sheep, a creeper, everything. More »

Minecraft's ability to churn through the bank accounts of all the cosmos continues unabated, having sold six million copies on PC to date, according to a tweet from Mojang mogul Markus Persson. Factoring in XBLA, Android and iOS sales, the figure is "around nine million," according to Persson, a number that Mojang's Daniel Kaplan puts a tiny bit more specifically as "maybe 9.2" million.

If you've been affected by Minecraft's unwavering grasp on the gaming universe, make sure to listed to the Mailbag portion of this week's Super Joystiq Podcast, wherein Joystiq's feature content director Xav de Matos, managing editor JC Fletcher and editor in chief Ludwig Kietzmann discuss various methods for breaking Minecraft addictions.