Patrick Shanley breaks down ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' and gives insight on what adventures may be in store for the next film.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/video/jurassic-world-franchise-predictions-spoilers-watch-1122008
The new Coral Crafters campaign will install six user-crafted BioRock structures to promote coral growth off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico.
With Minecraft's recent Update Aquatic populating the game's oceans with kelp, sealife and colorful coral reefs, developer Mojang has now turned its attention to the real-life seas threatened by climate change, pollution and endangered natural reefs.
With the Minecraft Coral Crafters campaign, Mojang, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, is turning in-game designs from content creators into real-world underwater sculptures made from BioRock, an innovative technology that promotes coral growth up to five times faster than normal. The effort is led by Professor Wolf Hilbertz and Dr. Tom Goreau of the Global Coral Reef Alliance.
“Coral Crafters is a celebration of the Update Aquatic,” Emily Orrson, product marketing manager at Minecraft tells Heat Vision. “As we put coral into our oceans in-game it seemed natural to put them into the oceans in real life. Already, our players are innovating and creating in Minecraft to build a better world — and we are following their lead with Coral Crafters”
The initiative will see six BioRock structures installed off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico, where coral reefs have suffered from coral bleaching and been battered by hurricanes. Three designs feature familiar characters from the franchise, while the remaining three were designed by the Minecraft community.
Starting on World Oceans Day on June 8, Minecraft challenged players to build coral reefs in-game and within two days, 10 million coral blocks were placed underwater in-game, triggering a donation from Minecraft to support The Nature Conservancy’s efforts to restore and protect coral in the Caribbean. In addition, net proceeds from the game's Coral Crafters skin pack go to support The Nature Conservancy's reef restoration efforts.
“This contribution will allow us to outplant 15,000 coral individuals on reefs that we are working to restore in the Caribbean,” says Stephanie Wear, senior scientist and strategy advisor for The Nature Conservancy. “We expect these outplantings to happen in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Dominican Republic and possibly Mexico.”
Snorkelers in Cozumel will be able to view the newly installed features as they traverse the picturesque waters off the coast of the island.
“This is the best part about this project — attracting attention to this important ocean habitat — an opportunity to have fun and learn all at once,” says Wear.
“We believe the creativity and innovation in the Minecraft community is building a better world for everyone,” Orrson says. “Coral Crafters is a way for us to support that creativity and innovation and bring it to real life.”
Not only does the initiative work to help real-world aquatic ecosystems, but it also inspires children to advocate for natural conservation in our world's oceans. “It is a great opportunity to connect people — especially young people — to marine life in the ocean that they may never have the opportunity to experience,” says Wear. “It can inspire curiosity about these critically important ocean habits and the hope is they will want to learn more and get involved to help in even bigger ways.”
Minecraft's World Ocean Day efforts to help restore coral reefs have seen enthusiastic success. Along with a $100,000 donation to The Nature Conservatory, Mojang partnered with creators and community to help rebuild coral reefs in Mexico in its iconic, blocky style.
The efforts began with the Minecraft Update Aquatic, which brings a variety of sea life to Minecraft's previously rather barren oceans. As a part of that update, Mojang challenged players to place ten million coral blocks underwater — a goal that was accomplished in only a few days. To celebrate, the studio made its donation to The Nature Conservatory, a non-profit working to save and rebuild coral reefs around the world. In addition, net proceeds from the new Coral Crafters Skin Pack also go to the organization.
“With the Update Aquatic, we're filling Minecraft's oceans to the brim with kelp forest, shipwrecks, deep sea trenches, fish, turtles, dolphins and colourful coral reefs,” reads an official blog post of the announcement. “In the real world, however, it's the opposite: climate change, destructive fishing methods and pollution of the water are killing off our planet's amazing marine life. Coral reefs, one of the Earth's most precious natural wonders, are under threat.
“Coral reefs are home to some two million species – roughly a quarter of all marine life. We're only just unlocking the secrets of these amazing organisms, and yet the World Wildlife Fund estimates that nearly a third of coral reefs worldwide are already damaged beyond repair. If trends continue, we will soon lose 60% of the world's coral in the next few decades.”
In addition, Mojang partnered with three popular Minecraft YouTubers — Rabahrex, Logdotzip, and Stacyplays — to design real-life structures that would help rebuild faltering reefs. The three worked with the community to design “biorock” structures in Minecraft that were then recreated in the real world and transported to the reef in Cozumel, Mexico, where they will be used by The Nature Conservatory to regrow coral and restore the reef.
Both Logdotzip and Stacyplays took design ideas from online communities. Rabahrex worked with students at the American Institute in Monterrey, Mexico and held a class competition to design the biorock installation. The winning design was an axolotl, which was placed with the other two designs and installations of Minecraft icons Alex and Steve off the coast of Cozumel.
A lot of players have been, ahem, diving into the latest add-on for Minecraft with the new Update Aquatic, exploring the deeper waters and taking advantage of cool items. But did you know this update is also helping out oceans in the real world? Now that’s deep.
Mojang posted a new update explaining how Update Aquatic is lending a hand with oceans, in an effort to fight back against “climate change, destructive fishing methods and pollution of the water” which are “killing off our planet’s amazing marine life.”
Earlier in the month, the developer threw down a challenge for players to place ten million coral blocks underwater and promised to donate $100,000 to the Nature Conservancy if it was met. The team noted that “just a few days later,” players smashed “that coral-placing target.” As a result, Mojang kept its word and made the donation.
The video above breaks down how the developer is lending a hand and even though you missed the challenge, you can still lend a hand. The team has explained that you can purchase the Aquatic Skin pack for Minecraft here with proceeds going to the Nature Conservancy.
Mojang intends to support the project over the next few years with more awareness and potential donations to assist further with what’s happening with the world’s oceans so be sure to keep an eye on this page for more information.
The U[date Aquatic arrived earlier this season, bringing a number of new additions to the game sucha s trap doors, pressure plates and buttons, along with coral block and a variety of underwater life as well as cool items like turtle shells, tridents and phantom membranes. It’s been a big hit across the board, keeping Minecraft’s millions of players coming back for more. You could say there’s an…ocean’s worth of fans? (Okay, that’s one pun too far.)
You can check out the Update Aquatic now across all versions of Minecraft. The game is available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC, as well as mobile and older platforms.
Don’t forget that you can engage in online play across Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch platforms!
This sweeping timelapse video shows the construction—out of thin air—of Novigrad, the great city of The Witcher 3 (and Witcher lore in general, I guess).
Built by Elysium Fire, this video not only looks amazing as the city emerges out of the countryside, but also gives you a very good look at just how many bricks (and how much planning) went into it.
Note that it’s not a recreation of the city as it appears in the game; it’s a “tribute” that hits the main landmarks, like the city’s walls, Great Temple and elevated walkways, while going into greater detail than the game could afford to in areas like housing and the surrounding countryside.
If you play Minecraft and want to take a look yourself, you can download the map https://www.planetminecraft.com/project/novigrad-timelapse-download/
Minecraft: Story Mode is coming to Netlfix later this year.
That's according to an exclusive report from Tech Radar.
That's not a new TV show, it's a video game developed by TellTale, the studio behind the popular Walking Dead games.
Of course, whether TellTale makes games or “interactive stories” is up for debate, and Netflix is insisting that the company doesn't consider this a video game.
“We don’t have any plans to get into gaming,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement. ”There’s a broad spectrum of entertainment available today. Games have become increasingly cinematic, but we view this as interactive narrative storytelling on our service. ”
You say tomato, I say tom-ah-to. Whether Minecraft: Story Mode is a game or an interactive story hardly matters. Games are, in essence, interactive stories of one kind or another. And while TellTale's “choose-your-own-adventure” games may be less gamey than Call of Duty or Super Mario Bros. they're still games as far as I'm concerned. Call them whatever you like.
Credit: TellTale Games
Minecraft: Story Mode
It doesn't sound like Netflix is interested in adding gamier games to the streaming service, which is probably for the best (at least for now.) But this could pave the road for lots more interactive stories, whether those are walking simulators like What Remains Of Edith Finch or other TellTale series like The Wolf Among Us. And that's great. One of the great things about games (even interactive story games) as opposed to TV shows and movies is that they invite us to participate. We aren't just passively consuming our entertainment, we're engaging with it.
In any case, Netflix has already expanded into the ‘choose-your-own-adventure' category with offerings like Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale. I'd love to see them take that effort further and develop full-fledged interactive stories for grown-ups. I'd love some of the old fantasy choose-your-own-adventure books to come to life on Netflix.
In related news, TellTale is reportedly developing a Stranger Things game. Or, well, an “interactive story” version of Stranger Things.
That could be neat, though I think the studio needs to evolve the way it makes games. Other offerings, like Dontnod's Life Is Strange, have pushed the envelope and TellTale needs to rise to the occasion.