Avengers: Infinity War – the death, the destruction and Thanos – discuss with spoilers

Avengers: Infinity War – the death, the destruction and Thanos – discuss with spoilers

It is tempting to wonder quite how the bigwigs at Disney must have reacted when the ending of Avengers: Infinity War was first revealed to them. “So let me get this straight,” they might have said, visions of billions of dollars in lost merchandise revenue whirling in front of their eyes. “You’re going to kill off half of all the superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the only guy – Doctor Strange – capable of bringing them back?”

In terms of far-out creative decisions, this one is right up there with Luke Skywalker’s declaration in Star Wars: The Last Jedi that he wanted nothing to do with laser sword-wielding space monks. Except that this time, we have to wait a whole year – until the sequel to Infinity War – to see if there’s any way of reversing it.

At least there were clues, hidden in the architecture of the Russo Brothers’ epic narrative, as to how we might get our MCU back. Here’s your chance to give a verdict on the movie’s key talking points, and perhaps offer up your own theories as to how Marvel are going to get out of this one.

The body count

Wow. Spider-Man gone, Star Lord gone, Black Panther gone. Doctor Strange, Nick Fury, Teenage Groot. The list goes on, and that’s just the superheroes who were destroyed with a click of Thanos’ fingers in that astonishing final scene on Wakanda as the mad Titan made good on his promise to destroy half of all life in the galaxy. We also lost Loki and Gamora earlier in the film.

Is Thanos finally a villain worthy of the name?
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 Is Thanos finally a villain worthy of the name? Photograph: LMK

The competing superclans

Would you agree that the Russos did a decent job of uniting the MCU’s myriad tribes? There was something a little off about Chris Hemsworth’s Thor during those early scenes with the Guardians of the Galaxy, but generally the worlds knitted together well. The Wakanda scenes seemed to me to be the most tonally on point, perhaps because Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther had presented it as such a well-rounded vision earlier this year.

Old favourites such as Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man and Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner played their part in helping to iron out the kinks between competing super clans. Is Scarlett Johansson still getting $20m (£14.3m) to appear in these movies? If so, you might have thought Marvel would give the criminally underused Black Widow a few more lines.

Thanos

It was in those early scenes on board the ruined Asgardian ship that Gamora’s evil stepdad was established as a fully rounded CGI supervillain rather than the second-rate baddies we’ve seen so many times before in comic-book flicks. There in the shadows Josh Brolin’s intergalactic despot emerged for the first time as a living, breathing character capable of sharing the stage with high-calibre actors. It’s testament to Marvel’s work here that we already want to see more of him in part two.

Doctor Strange’s vision of the future

Surely herein lies our best hope of a reversal of those deaths. Strange reveals to Tony Stark at one point that he has travelled forward in time to scope out millions of possible futures, and that only one of these scenarios sees Thanos defeated. If the sorcerer supreme knows his mystic onions, we have to assume his decision to exchange the Time Stone for Iron Man’s life is based on his belief that Stark will play a vital part in ridding the galaxy of the oversized space meanie. But perhaps you have different theory?

A Strange death

The biggest issue here is that Benedict Cumberbatch’s reality-warping wizard is among those flicked into the void by Thanos. If we are to assume that the Time Stone is the only vehicle by which our favourite superheroes might be brought back from the dead, Strange would appear to be the most likely candidate to pull off the feat. We don’t yet know if Benedict Wong’s Wong made it, or whether he has the powers to wield the stone. Moreover, there’s the small matter of all six infinity stones remaining in Thanos’s possession.

In Infinity War’s only post-credit scene, moments before his death the former SHIELD supremo sends what appears to be a message to Brie Larson’s as-yet-unseen superhero. We know we’re going to meet Carol Danvers in next year’s Captain Marvel origins story. But where has she been, and why didn’t Fury call on her during the events of Age of Ultron?

Marvel Studios supremo Kevin Feige has said that Danvers may be the most powerful superhero yet seen in the MCU. Might she be capable of defeating Thanos and wielding the Time Stone to bring back all those lost heroes? This, of course, would have the effect of sending Captain Marvel back to wherever she came from, as Fury would never have sent that signal. Would we only get the superheroes back who died as Thanos clicked his fingers, or might Gamora and Loki also breathe again?

And that’s not the only mystery that will have to remain veiled in secrecy until part two rolls around. Can anyone out there explain what the Red Skull was doing on the planet of the Soul Stone?

Avengers: Infinity War – the death, the destruction and Thanos – discuss with spoilers

Inside Microsoft’s Quest To Turn Minecraft Content Into A Business

Inside Microsoft’s Quest To Turn Minecraft Content Into A Business

Stefan Panic and Joe Arsenault used to dream of building things in Minecraft for a living. But until recently, they couldn’t quite figure out how.

While Panic worked odd jobs and lived with his father, and Arsenault climbed the corporate ladder at Best Buy, they ran a 50-person volunteer collective called Noxcrew that built intricate environments and mini-games within Minecraft . To date, their work has been downloaded more than 1 million times. Yet all their attempts at making money–from Patreon donations to ad-supported download pages–have only been enough to cover their hosting costs.

Noxcrew’s World Of Horses Ranch lets players train and ride horses on virtual tracks. [Image: courtesy of Microsoft]

In late 2016, Microsoft reached out with an offer that changed everything: The company wanted to discuss an official marketplace for Minecraft creations, which would allow groups like Noxcrew to sell their work directly to players. Like most of the other creators that Microsoft invited into the program, Panic and Arsenault trusted their guts and gave up their day jobs. Now, they make Minecraft content full-time, with help from 15 paid contractors.“We got the Marketplace opportunity, and it turned from a hobbyist community into an actual business,” Panic says.

Minecraft boss Helen Chiang [Photo: courtesy of Microsoft]

Ten months after launching the Marketplace, Microsoft touts plenty of individual success stories like this. There’s the 16-year-old boy who’s paying for college with his Minecraftcreations, the Israeli startup that’s using Minecraft to make empowering content for young girls, and community mainstays like Arsenault and Panic who now have the means to increase their output. Microsoft tells Fast Company that it’s paid out more than $7 million to 49 Marketplace creators since last June–that’s after the company takes its 30% cut–and that people have downloaded Marketplace content more than 25 million times.“When I see the impact that it’s having—engagement with Marketplace content just continues to grow month-over-month—this is something we’re invested in for the long haul,” says Helen Chiang, Microsoft’s head of Minecraft. “And I’m just trying to figure out how we grow as fast as possible.”

The Noxcrew[Photo: courtesy of Microsoft]

Now comes the hard part. While the Marketplace has already been life changing for a small number of creators, it’s yet to become a meaningful business to Microsoft, which spent $2.5 billion to acquire Minecraft developer Mojang in 2013. With roughly 74 million people actively playing Minecraft as of last December, and lots more creators clamoring to sell their work, the Marketplace could someday become as big a phenomenon as Minecraft itself. But along the way, Microsoft must ensure the safety of its predominantly young audience and avoid alienating its community members–many of whom have spent years building the Minecraft ecosystem for free. There aren’t many examples of companies that have successfully pulled this off.

TAMING THE WILDS

Microsoft isn’t alone in trying to profit off Minecraft‘s existing player base. Over the years, a booming business has emerged around Minecraftservers, which can host lots of online players, offer meticulously crafted environments, and provide items and abilities beyond what’s in the standard game. To support upkeep and development, many of the largest servers sell new items and upgrades for real money.

Until recently, Microsoft and Mojang had taken a hands-off approach to the third-party server business, mainly stepping in to outlaw pay-to-win schemes and brand-sponsored servers. Last summer, however, Microsoft started carving out a piece of the business for itself. Players can now access a few partner servers from a list that appears inside the game, and can use Microsoft’s Minecoins currency–purchased with real money–to buy items within those servers.

The Marketplace is Microsoft’s first step toward monetizing the rest of the Minecraft ecosystem, which involves modifications to the game that players download and install on their own. The Minecraft modding community is immense: CurseForge, a popular modding destination owned by Amazon subsidiary Twitch, hosts nearly 38,000 Minecraftmods, and the most popular ones have been downloaded millions of times. Curse even runs an ad revenue-sharing program that allows modders to earn money from their work.

Minecraft partner program director Todd Stevens [Photo: courtesy of Microsoft]

Still, the vast majority of Minecraft mods only work with the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions of the game (collectively called the Java Edition, named after the programming language in which it was built). In recent years, the mobile and console version of Minecraft (now known as the Bedrock Edition) have become stronger sellers, and while they do support a limited form of user-made content, modding on the Java side is far more popular.Microsoft sensed an opportunity. With the Bedrock Edition, the company could turn modding into a business–both for itself and for creators–while giving parents a safe way to extend the game for their kids.

“We realized how much friction there was for players to find cool creator content in the Java edition,” says Todd Stevens, the director of Minecraft’s partner program. “A lot of times the websites you found it on had viruses and weren’t that safe. Parents were reluctant to give credit cards to some of these websites they didn’t know. We thought, when looking at this from a Bedrock perspective, if we created this safe marketplace . . . that we’d have a better environment for the player.”

Jack “Visula” Steckler’s Minecraft skin packs give characters emoji-like faces. [Image: courtesy of Microsoft]

The Marketplace also presents a chance for creators like Jack “Visula” Steckler to make some serious money from their hobby. At age 13, Steckler started making “skin packs” that change how characters look in the game, and Microsoft invited him into the program last year based on the quality of his work. The company only discovered that he was 16 after asking him to sign a non-disclosure agreement.In an email, Steckler says he’s used his earnings to buy a laptop and “a few goodies” for himself and his family, but the vast majority of his profits have gone toward saving for college.

“Coming from a family that can’t afford to pay my college tuition, I knew it was important to use this opportunity to help continue my education and launch my career,” he says.

Toya’s The Woman Of Colors [Image: courtey of Microsoft]

LEARNING FROM MISSTEPS

Trying to profit off a game’s modding scene can easily backfire. In 2015, about a year before Microsoft started planning the Marketplace, Valve announced a plan to offer paid mods—starting with ones for Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim—through its popular Steam PC game store. The announcement was a surprise, and the outcry was immediate, with complaints ranging from the meager revenue split (25% for modders, the rest for Valve and the game’s publisher) to the potential for content theft among creators. Valve rescinded its plans four days later. (The company does allow users to create and sell virtual items in a handful of games, and has paid out tens of millions of dollars to creators since 2011.)

To head off a similar backlash, Microsoft decided to give developers 70% of sales revenue before processing fees, which is in line with the revenue split on mobile app stores. Creators also get to retain ownership of their work, so they can theoretically reuse their assets and ideas outside of Minecraft.

“We were in a fortunate position where we could maybe learn from some of the things that had happened with other games,” Microsoft’s Helen Chiang says.

Toya cofounders Yifat Anzelevich and Anat Shperling [Photo: courtesy of Toya]

With its Marketplace creators, Microsoft has also tried to preserve the open communication that creators say was the norm with Mojang before the acquisition. Microsoft makes creators aware of its road map so they can plan for new features, and in some cases they can influence that road map themselves. Anat Shperling, the cofounder of an Israeli startup called Toya that makes empowering Minecraft adventures for girls, says some of her ideas have turned into future Marketplace features (though she declines to say exactly what those ideas are).“There is mutual exploration, because the Minecraft Marketplace team is exploring and developing the platform alongside the partners, so it feeds back on our own process, where we impact each other and discover the essence of this platform together,” she adds.

Regardless of how Microsoft approaches paid mods, some backlash would be inevitable—and Minecraft players, unlike Minecraft creators, are naturally wary of monetization schemes. When the company launched the Marketplace last June, complaints abound on forums like Reddit, accusing Microsoft of exploitation (for selling the kinds of content that had been available for free), alleging that the Java Edition might go away, and theorizing that Microsoft would actively remove popular mods from free download sites in order to charge for them.

Microsoft has tried to assure modders that it won’t curb their freedoms, and that the Java version isn’t in jeopardy.

“We’re not taking anything away with the Marketplace, and we encourage the community to continue making and sharing free content,” Chiang says. “Modders, both creators and players, on PC Java are an incredibly important part of the Minecraft ecosystem, and we encourage creativity within Minecraft in all forms and on all platforms.”

Still, there’s a kernel of truth to the criticism: Chiang says Microsoft is looking into a scripting API for Bedrock, which would allow creators to develop mods similar to those that exist on the Java version. As Microsoft opens up the Marketplace to more creators and gives them more sophisticated tools, the most talented creators could certainly decide to sell their work to players instead of giving it away.

The counterargument is that those creators deserve to be paid for their work, and that making a business of it would allow them to increase their output.

“We hope that as the Minecraft Marketplace grows, it will encourage even more players and content development teams alike to create their own work to submit to the Marketplace,” Chiang says.

PixelHeads’ Dinosaur Island has been a top revenue earner on the Minecraft Marketplace. [Image: courtesy of Microsoft]

“THOUGHTFUL GROWTH”

When Microsoft announced the Marketplace a year ago, “hundreds and hundreds” of people applied to be part of it, Todd Stevens says. But since then, Microsoft has moved slowly, only letting in nine partners at launch before expanding to the current 49. The challenge now is figuring out how to let in more creators without compromising the Marketplace’s quality or harming creators’ ability to make money.

“We talk about that all the time,” Stevens says. “I use the term around here called ‘thoughtful growth.’ . . . I could have quickly signed up 200 partners, but to be honest, our Marketplace wasn’t ready for that much content and that many partners.”

Initially, for instance, the Marketplace didn’t have a search function or a way to filter results. Microsoft also had to set up an editorial team to play all incoming content, provide feedback to creators, and decide which creations are worth selling and promoting in the store.

Now, Microsoft simply has to hire more people. The company insists on screening all incoming content through human moderators, and Helen Chiang says that’s not going to change anytime soon. She’s aware of how filtering algorithms can fail on sites like YouTube, and isn’t willing to take the same risks with Minecraft, a game with a vast following among kids.

“I would rather spend the extra time making sure the content is safe before it goes up than having to put really strong procedures on how we take down content,” Chiang says. “When I think about the demographics of our user—and we have some that are quite young—I don’t want to be exposing them to content that isn’t safe.”

Staffing up with moderators can easily become an expensive endeavor. One of Minecraft‘s primary competitors is Roblox, a platform that lets players make and share games using Lego-like virtual blocks. Like Minecraft, Roblox caters to a predominantly young audience, and while the company uses automation to detect abuse in multiplayer games, it still subjects every new game submission to human review. To that end, Roblox employs hundreds of people, who accepted 11 million submissions for user-made content last year.

“We have more moderators on our staff than other employees,” says Craig Donato, Roblox’s chief operating officer.

Despite the potential for problems, Chiang acknowledges that scaling up the Marketplace team is one of Microsoft’s top priorities for Minecraft .

“Really this is just based on the capacity of our team and what we’re able to take on, but we’re growing the team and increasing the pipeline of partners that we’re able to bring onto the Marketplace,” she says.

As Microsoft lets new creators into the Marketplace, it must also devise new ways to promote their work. Currently, the company dedicates some store space to items chosen by its editorial team, and will soon sell a “Creators Pack” that bundles the base game with content from Marketplace partners. But Roblox goes a step further, letting creators pay to promote their work in its marketplace. Because these paid promotions rely on the same Robux that players can earn by selling their works, popular developers are able to plow some of their earnings back into advertising for new creators.

“Roblox is not only a platform, but it’s also an economy,” Donato says.

It’s unclear if Microsoft would do something similar, but Stevens floats the idea of a different approach: Instead of lumping everything into one marketplace, Microsoft could open a separate storefront with a more freewheeling approach toward user submissions. Still, even he seems uncertain about whether Microsoft would go down that path.

“You have to be careful with those. We see a lot of those types of digital marketplaces in other games, and you can kind of get lost as a player,” he says. “You’re not quite sure what to spend on, there tends to be a lot of competition on price, so prices race to the bottom, and players don’t reinvest in making more content.”

Jack “Visula” Steckler’s cry-laughing emoji skin. [Image: courtesy of Microsoft]

PAYING IT FORWARD

While the Minecraft Marketplace has plenty of challenges ahead, if successful, it could also become a blueprint for the rest of Microsoft to follow.

Minecraft is already showing Microsoft how to handle cross-platform gaming, which the company is now pursuing though its new cloud gaming division. The Marketplace, Chiang says, could also be an example of how other Microsoft games could launch their own stores for user-made content.

“I hope that we are the tip of the spear, especially in thinking about content moving with players across platforms and devices,” Chiang says. “I think that’s something we should celebrate as important to our players. Minecraft is a game that you should be able to play anywhere, and when they purchase something, we hope that they can enjoy that experience on any devices that they have.”

That said, it’s still early days for the Marketplace, and Microsoft won’t say whether it’s considering a similar model for other games. For now, Chiang is just happy to see Minecraft creators turning their hobbies into full-time work–though she’s not surprised it’s working out that way.

“We know that we’ve had a ton of people making content in their spare time,” she says, “and I think it absolutely was part of how we thought about the future for them.”

Inside Microsoft’s Quest To Turn Minecraft Content Into A Business

Minecraft for Nintendo Switch getting Xbox achievements

Minecraft for Nintendo Switch getting Xbox achievements

Nintendo Switch doesn’t have a built-in achievements system, a la Xbox Achievements or PlayStation Trophies, but the Switch version of Minecraft will soon bring Microsoft’s brand of achievements to the platform.

A set of Xbox Live achievements for Minecraft for Nintendo Switch was recently spotted by content creator Patrick Maka, who posted about the finding on Twitter, and by achievement tracking website True Achievements. The achievement list appears similar to the Xbox versions of the game as well as those on non-Microsoft platforms, like Android and iOS. (PlayStation versions of the game do not tie into Xbox Live Achievements.)

A representative for Minecraft confirmed to Polygon that the game’s Switch version will indeed track Xbox Live Achievements later this year.

“We can confirm that Minecraft players on Nintendo Switch will soon be able to earn achievements tied to Xbox Live once the Bedrock update is released,” a Minecraft spokesperson said in an email.

Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition was released in 2017. The game’s Bedrock update started rolling out in September 2017 and allowed players on Xbox, mobile, VR and PC to play across those various platforms.

Minecraft for Nintendo Switch getting Xbox achievements

Earth Day Special Events Abound with Minecraft, Pokemon Go, and More

Earth Day Special Events Abound with Minecraft, Pokemon Go, and More

Earth Day gives us the chance to look back at our home and reflect on how we have treated dear Mother Earth over the year. It also means we get a bunch of really cool special events to tide us over!

For starters, Minecraft has partnered with United for Life to create the We Are The Rangers special lessons for MinecraftEducation–a special edition devoted to bringing Minecraft to the classroom and promoting education. The new partnership will create a world that takes place in a ranger station, a shipping port, and a DNA lab to teach students about the science of animal conservation.

View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter

We also have a special live event from Pokemon Go promoting players to pick up trash in partnership with Playmob and local NGOs. Hopefully, this live event will go over better than previous ones.

Players will receive rewards for working with the local non-profit in cleanup events around their neighborhoods and the joy of a job well done. You can check out what events are near you by checking out the website here.

Rewards include:

  • 1,500 players cleaning up trash:
    • Unlock 2x Stardust when catching Ground-, Water-, and Grass-type Pokémon
  • 3,000 players cleaning up trash:
    • Unlock 3x Stardust when catching Ground-, Water-, and Grass-type Pokémon

Finally rounding up our group of Earth Day events comes from puzzle-RPG mobile game Legendary Game of Heroes, which launched a Slayer event in which proceeds will be donated to Rainforest Trust. The event is wrapping up today and has succeeded in raising its $75,000 donation goal, but there’s still time to log on and obtain event exclusive rewards, catalysts and heroes.

That’s about it for this roundup of notable recent Earth-y events. There are plenty other games doling out some Earth Day rewards in addition to these, so be sure to check out your favorite games for any special events and rewards!

Earth Day Special Events Abound with Minecraft, Pokemon Go, and More

Minecraft aiming to use ocean update to restore real coral reefs

Minecraft aiming to use ocean update to restore real coral reefs

(RNN) – Minecraft, an immersive computer game in which players use blocks to build the world they inhabit, is now trying to build something in the real world.

The makers of the game are using a new ocean update – which will be the first to give players a chance to focus on building underwater worlds – to promote rebuilding actual corals.

The game’s website announced the initiative, the Coral Crafters regrowth project, on Tuesday.

Developers are planning six Biorock installations, fixtures placed in ocean waters around which new reefs can grow. They are said to facilitate far quicker growth than natural reef processes.

They intend to put them off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico.

Biorock structures can be arranged in elaborate designs, and Minecraft’s site said three of its fixtures will be fashioned to look like two of its iconic block characters, Alex and Steve, as well as a sea turtle.

The other three will be designed by popular YouTubers who play the game.

One, Rabahrex, will work with schoolchildren in his native Mexico on a design. Another, Logdotzip, is allowing fans to vote from three designs for the final one he will submit.

Reefs are collections of small marine animals called polyps, which come to host the algae that gives them their fantastic colors in a symbiotic relationship.

According to a recently-updated post on the website for Columbia University’s Earth Institute, 75 percent of the world’s coral reefs face environmental risk and a quarter are already permanently damaged.

Citing a report by the World Resources Institute, 90 percent of coral reefs could be in danger by 2030, and possibly all of them by mid-century.

Reefs are one of the most important habitats for marine species. Fishing and pollution have long threatened them, and now warming waters are frequently resulting in what’s called coral bleaching. That process robs them of their rich colors, and more seriously can lead to disease, reproductive issues and death.

A report published in the journal Nature this week notes that Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest and most famous reef, lost a third of its corals in a bleaching event in 2016. The lead author of the report, Terry Hughes, told The Atlantic that initial research indicates a heat wave last year triggered another bleaching, and the reef has now lost half its corals since 2015.

“We can do something about this – with YOUR help!” the Minecraft post says.

Minecraft aiming to use ocean update to restore real coral reefs

How to avoid Minecraft Virus

How to avoid Minecraft Virus

An Avast report claims that almost 50,000 computers have been infected by malware in the past 30 days via infected Minecraft skins. The malware is said to package itself as an unsuspecting PNG file, ready for fans of the game to download from the official Minecraft domain. It’s not to be trifled with either, as the malware can cause serious damage to your PC, wiping your hard drive and destroying backups.

Don’t panic, though; here, we explain what the Minecraft malware is, how to avoid it and what to do if you’ve got the Minecraft virus.

What is the Minecraft Virus?

According to Avast data from the past 30 days, there have been nearly 50,000 Minecraft accounts infected with malware that could potentially reformat hard-drives and delete both backup data and system programs.

The Powershell script identified by Avast experts is apparently smuggled onto unsuspecting gamers’ computers via Minecraft skins. The script is created in the same PNG file format used for Minecraft skins, making it hard to identify potentially malicious Minecraft skins on the surface.

Avast has admitted that the malicious code is largely unimpressive, and can be found on sites that provide instructions on creating viruses with Windows Notepad. The simplicity suggests that it’s not backed by professional cybercriminals, though the skins are hosted on the official Minecraft domain.

A Microsoft spokesperson has since said that the company “has addressed this issue and put additional measures in place to protect our community” and that players should “report any suspicious activity to feedback.minecraft.net.”

How can I avoid the Minecraft Virus?

The key thing right now is avoiding the HDD-reformatting malware – the good news is that it shouldn’t be too hard to steer clear. The easiest way to avoid the malware is to simply not download any skins from the official Minecraft domain while Mojang fixes the issue and removes any infected files.

If you simply can’t wait, you could try and avoid any of the skins that Avast claim feature malware. A screenshot of the skins is provided below – just avoid those skins, and any that look like them for now.

If you don't want to risk it, then why not try one of our favourite Minecraft alternatives?

What should I do if I’ve downloaded malware from Minecraft?

If you’ve found unusual messages in your Minecraft inbox along the lines of “You have maxed your internet usage for a lifetime”, are experiencing performance issues or receiving error messages related to disk formatting, chances are you’ve downloaded a malicious Minecraft skin.

Don’t panic; Avast recommends scanning your machine with free (or paid) antivirus softwarelike Bitdefender Total Security or Avast Free Antivirus. The company claims that most should be able to identify the malicious file and remove it for you, although some users may need to go through a few extra steps. Some users claim that the malware ‘breaks’ Minecraft for them; if this is the case for you, you need only reinstall the game from the Microsoft Store.

Now, if your computer has become completely infected and system files have already been deleted, you may need to completely reset your PC.

How to avoid Minecraft Virus