The latest update Mjoang pushed to Minecraft has allowed players to create animated paintings, which pretty much means players immediately found a way to watch TV in-game.

Because the update breaks paintings into different textures, players have been able to mod the game so that the textures show video footage. Some players have managed to get smoother quality than others in their videos, but the process is essentially like creating a flip-book style animation.

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From PCGamer:

You can replicate it yourself by downloading the files in the post. Basically you just place the paintings and apply a resource pack. A word of warning: it’s 500MB, and having multiple animated paintings on a server will certainly cause a bit of lag.

Another user, ShaneH7646, put the entire Bee Movie into the game, because why not? It’s a bit like watching one of those picture flip books—it’s about 1600 frames, and another user calculated the entire Bee Movie at 30 FPS is 171,000 frames (which could be the answer to a very niche pub quiz question), but you get the idea.

Now, Bee Movie may not be the height of entertainment, but it is the height of meme culture for a certain group of humans. We’ve got so many versions of Bee Moviefloating around that putting it in Minecraft is possibly the least insane way we’ve screwed around with it.

That said, you’ve got to admire how fast gamers were able to turn the update into a really complicated way to watch a bad movie.

Yakuza 6’s demo, made available on the PlayStation Store earlier today, clocked in at over 30GB. There was a good reason for that: the download actually contains the full game, with only the opening stages made playable. The idea was that if you later decide to buy it, you’d be purchasing an unlock code. That was the idea, anyway.

In practice, for at least some lucky downloaders, they left out the lockout restrictions. Fans quickly discovered this while playing through; where the demo was supposed to end at a certain point early in the game, some players found they could just…keep going, and earn trophies as they went. They’d basically downloaded, and were playing through, the full game.Outstream Video

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Sega quickly noticed this and pulled the demo from the North American store. The European and Australian versions of the demo appear to have been the correct versions, so they’re still up.

We’ve contacted Sega for comment on what happens to players who have already got past the initial cut-off point, since an original promise from the demo was that players would retain their progress made in the demo if they purchased the full game.

Yakuza 6 isn’t supposed to be out until April 17.

The latest snapshot update for the Java version of Minecraft added some new things, like a stone cutter and new ways to modify stone blocks. But the new update also added the ability for players to wall run. 

This new ability isn’t mentioned anywhere in the blog post announcing what the latest snapshot is adding and changing. This had led most fans to assume that the wall running is the result of a bug. Though some fans want the feature to stay. “This would be a cool feature though,” said Reddit user JamesBeYeezy. Outstream Video

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Reddit user NatalieZem gave a reasonable explanation for what is happening here:

Just for context, this isn’t a trick or a prank or anything. In the recent snapshot, you can’t jump while pressing against a block. And apparently not being able to raise your elevation also means you can’t lower it either. Try it for yourself: All you need to do is stay sprinting into the wall and you can move along it.

So most likely players won’t be running around the walls of Minecraft worlds for long. But don’t worry, even if wall running is officially removed from Minecraft, you can always download mods that add even more advanced wall running and climbing abilities into the game.

Microsoft-owned Mojang has been hard at work on the next feature update for the multi-part Village and Pillage series of upgrades. The game’s slabs, stairs, and walls are now receiving more options than just the basic wood, cobblestone, and brick offerings than were present before, with the update adding andesite, diorite, granite, mossy stone, and smooth sandstone and quartz as possible construction materials for them. Walls are probably getting the largest sum of new options for crafting, with brick, sandstone, and red nether bricks also becoming options.

Additionally, crafting a sign with the different types of wood will now result in different colors depending on the type used, instead of all of them resulting in the same oak wood sign. This will now allow for more consistency when placing them of different buildings or constructions which might not be made from the same type of wood. Other new features in the update include new Lily of the Valley flowers and Cornflowers, as well as new options for gamerules and new buttons to take the player to the feedback, bug tracker, and support sites.

Also worth mentioning is an interesting new toggle for Experimental Gameplay features. Users can enable Pillagers, the new Panda Jungle Biome, new lanterns, and more enchantments for crossbows. Also for developers, there’s an experimental new scripting API, allowing those to create their own scripts and incorporate them into their worlds to produce different games (for example, Minecraft chess).

If you’re interested in the new features, you can always download the update from one of the links provided below, depending on your system. Mojang says they’re working to add new villagers to the game as well for the next version as part of the Village and Pillage update.

DownloadQR-CodeMinecraftDeveloper: MojangPrice: $6.99⁺

DownloadQR-CodeMinecraftDeveloper: MojangPrice: $6.99⁺

DownloadQR-CodeMinecraft for Windows 10Developer: Mojang/Microsoft StudiosPrice: $26.99⁺

DownloadQR-CodeMinecraftDeveloper: Mojang/Microsoft StudiosPrice: $19.99⁺

YouTube king Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg was just over 18,000 subscribers away from being overtaken by Bollywood label T-Series when he pulled out all the stops with an emergency Minecraft stream.

PewDiePie went live on February 17, just as T-Series appeared to be winning their race with a mere 18,000 sub gap between the two channels.

PewDiePie engaged in a series of variety games within Minecraft with his fanbase, playing everything from a version of Pictionary to hide and seek and other activities to engage with his viewers.

Following the first hour of his stream, PewDiePie managed to increase the gap between T-Series by around 4,000 subs, reaching a gap of 22,000 subscribers – despite supposedly being on holiday. 

This wouldn’t be the first time PewDiePie has broken down to play a popular game in an effort to defeat his Bollywood menace, either.

The YouTuber streamed popular battle royale title Fortnite and children’s title Roblox in quick succession, managing a major comeback against T-Series each time.

In fact, PewDiePie managed to beat out the entirety of Fortnite’s viewership across Twitch due to his broadcast, unintentionally becoming one of the game’s most popular streamers thus far.

PewDiePie’s streams have likewise garnered some negative attention, with his Roblox stream ultimately resulting in a ban against the YouTuber.

Roblox later admitted that their ban was a mistake, claiming that they had merely intended to ban the word “Pewdie” across their platform due to an alleged “negative” meme that spread throughout their community in late December of 2018.

Despite initially refusing to play such games as Fortnite and Roblox, PewDiePie’s livestreams have seen major involvement across the net – as well as helping bolster his sub count in the fight against T-Series.

After so many years of updates and evolution, Minecraft has come really far from its humble beginnings. It started out as a passion project and has turned into one of the biggest gaming franchises in existence. One of the defining games of this modern generation. Such a grand feat means you’re going to have new people constantly joining in on the fun. With how complex Minecraft has become, newcomers may need a little guidance to figure out some of the intricate details of the game.

Fans have spent hours exploring the many secrets and hidden details within Minecraft. There are hundreds of these tricks stored away within the game. However, in this list, we’ve had to narrow it down to 25. It’s not everything there is to find in Minecraft, but some of the more interesting and important ones. Even veteran players may find a few things they didn’t know since the game has been updated quite a bit since the old days. With new mobs and items added every update, there will be a whole bunch of new secrets to uncover. New players will find some great tips and new strategies when building their dream house or looking for the elusive diamond.

Of course, this list won’t even come close to covering everything in Minecraft. The game is so expansive and is limited only by the creativity of the player. There will still be many more things to discover. You should definitely take the time to explore the world of Minecraft and see how many new things you can find on your own.

25Placing Torches On Crafting Tables

This is more for the looks than for any practical reason. But you can actually place a torch on top of a crafting table or furnace. Why you would do this isn’t important. It’s about the fact that you can.

To do this, put a “transparent block” behind the crafting table. This can be something like a block of glass. Now, while facing the crafting table, try to reach out and put a torch on the glass. You should now have a torch on top of the table.

24Placing Blocks Next To A Torch

You may not even consider this due to the impossibility of what we’re doing. But Minecraft is all about breaking the laws of physics. And you can do that by placing a block right next to a torch.

Simply aim next to the torch like you would with any other block. After that, place any block you like. Surprisingly, the block will actually build off the torch. It’s a strange look but you can use it for some creative architecture.

23Stacking Signs

It’s possible to stack signs on top of each other. You can do this to create the illusion of a really big sign that is actually comprised of smaller pieces. It’s perfect if you have a long message to write or something like that.

The best use for this mechanic is when you’re making an adventure map. You can stack signs to create a literal wall of text full of instructions and details about the adventure. Stacking signs is a small detail that could easily be missed.

22Wooden Slabs Are Flame-Resistant

Usually, you don’t want too many wooden items around the house. Especially if you have any structures that use fire. A single spark can cause a huge accident. There’s no worse feeling than watching your hard work be burned to the ground.

Which is why you should use wooden slabs instead.

These pieces don’t actually burn. You can get the benefit of that wooden texture without any of the risks of burning. It’s the safest way to implement wood into your structure

21Lava Buckets Are Great Fuel

If you find lava anywhere, be sure to keep it marked. As soon as you get some buckets, go and collect as much lava as possible. Lava is an excellent fuel to use in the furnace. It lasts a long time so you can smelt as much as you want.

Lava is also one of the ingredients in creating obsidian, a rare block. With a bonus use like that, there’s no reason not to carry lava. Get as many buckets of this as possible and become an efficient adventurer.

20The Best Diamond Level

The best Y-coordinate for diamonds is eleven. You can check your coordinates by pressing F3. The Y-coordinate shows how far down you’ve mined. You can find diamond anywhere after Y-16, but eleven is the best.

You also wouldn’t want to go lower that. If you do, the chances of running into lava will be higher. There’s no point in finding diamond ore if you’re just going to lose it all to lava. This molten liquid can be useful, but not when it’s trying to drown you.

19Use Torches To Farm Sand/Gravel Blocks

Torches are probably some of the most versatile items in all of Minecraft. They do the obvious things like lighting up dark areas and keeping monsters away. However, they have some other useful abilities.

As you may know, Sand and Gravel blocks are affected by gravity. So, if you remove the block underneath, they will fall. At that moment before the block falls, you can place a torch. This will cause all of the blocks to be broken allowing you to collect them.

18Zombie-Proof Your Door

Zombies can break down your door and invade your precious house. Thankfully, there are some ways of preventing the zombies from ruining your day and destroying your property.

One option is to have a door set up one block higher. That way the zombies cannot reach it. Your other choice is to use a fence instead. They can’t break the fences down and it also allows you to fight back without any risk.

17Mushroom Biomes Are Safe

The Mushroom Biome is the only biome where hostile mobs do not spawn at night. This makes it the safest place in Minecraft and the best place to build a home. There are also no mobs in the cave systems, allowing for safer mining.

However, be aware that mob spawners will still work.

So, if you do see any zombies or spiders, then you know there’s a spawner nearby. Overall, the Mushroom Biome is a good place for a base.

16Pumpkin Head

Wearing a pumpkin is more about just making you look awesome. Yet, it has other benefits which can help you fight a powerful foe. If you wear a Pumpkin, then Endermen will not attack you. Even if you attack them.

Endermen only attack those who make eye contact with them. However, the Pumpkin prevents you from making eye contact. So, they stick to their mantra and refuse to fight back. Such honorable foes.

15Get Some Bodyguards

It’s a good idea to get some extra help to protect your house. There are two options. The first is an Iron Golem. You summon it by making the formation shown in the image. They are very powerful and also quite durable.

The other guardian would be a snow golem. Stack two snow blocks and put a pumpkin on top to summon it. However, it needs to be in a suitable biome (like the snow) otherwise it will melt.

14Become A Cat Person

Cats are a cool addition to Minecraft and make for nice pets. However, it’s more than just having a cat as a pet. They also serve an important function.

Creepers are very scared of cats.

If you have enough cats around your house, then Creepers will avoid you at all costs. It’s the best way to ensure that you won’t run into any explosive surprises when doing some farming.

13Take Torches Underwater

Once again, torches have come to the rescue. Whenever you go on a trip underwater, be sure to take a bunch of torches with you. They can help you breathe underwater for a longer period of time.

By placing a torch on a block, it creates an air bubble for a short time. You have to be next to the block for this to work. But it’s enough to ensure that you can get some extra breath in an emergency.

12Another Way To Fight A Blaze

The Blaze is a powerful mob in the Nether. They can be a tough enemy to beat through conventional methods. Their fire blasts can also knock you into the lava, eliminating you instantly.

The Blaze mob is weak to snowballs. So you should take as many of them as possible. Using snowballs from afar is a safer way to defeat the Blaze. It’s not the most efficient, but it will ensure your safety.

11The Infinite Water Source

This is the ideal construction to have near a farm. You won’t have to carry a lot of water buckets or build near a water source to make this work. It’s also extremely simple to build and you don’t need anything special.

You need two buckets of water to start. Make a 2-by-2 square in the ground. It should be one block deep. Then pour one bucket in the top left corner of the square and let the water spill. Finally, pour the other bucket in the bottom right corner and you have your water source.

10Don’t Make Golden Tools

Gold does have its uses, but making tools out of it is not a good idea. They are even less durable than wooden items.

In fact, the tools will only last a few uses before breaking.

You are better off saving those previous golden materials for crafting Golden Apples. They are extremely useful healing items that can save you in a bind. Whatever you decide to do, don’t waste gold on weapons and tools.

9Carry Water Buckets

Water buckets can save your life in many situations, especially in mining. You can use it to counter random bursts of lava. You could also use it to climb down steep inclines and get to lower ground.

You could even use the water to help you get away from some monsters. Use it to create some distance between you and the mobs. Just remember to make sure that you have a few extra buckets of water when going into the mines.

8Remember To Use Bonemeal

Bonemeal is pretty simple to make from skeleton bones. Its main use is to quicken the growth of plants and trees. This is very useful when you’re trying to build a farm or grow some trees for wood.

It’s fairly easy to find because you get them from skeletons. These are common mobs at night time and aren’t hard to fight. Bonemeal is an excellent tool for the farmers at heart.

7Charcoal Can Replace Coal

When you start your new adventure, you may not immediately find some coal. Thankfully, there is an alternative, since coal is a vital resource. That alternative is charcoal. And it’s made from wood.

You can use wood as a fire source in the furnace.

By smelting some more wood, you can make charcoal. This has the same properties as coal and acts as a great replacement early in the game. That way you can focus on building a house before going into the mines.

6Look For Mob Spawners

Enemy spawners can be extremely frustrating. They keep spawning enemies into the vicinity until you get tired or are defeated. Unless of course, you are able to destroy them. But before that, there is another step.

Just place torches all around the spawner. This is a better idea than destroying it. Torches will prevent enemies from spawning. Also, if you need to farm a certain type of enemy, you can just remove the torches to let them spawn.

5Don’t Take Beds To The Nether

Beds are useful in the regular dimension. They create a checkpoint in case you perish during your adventure. It’s a staple of every house and everyone will want to have one. Except if you’re in the Nether.

Sleeping in the Nether causes you to explode. 

Probably not a good idea if you’re looking to get stuff done in the Nether. Just remember this one little detail before you set out to fight Blazes and Zombie Pigmen.

4Walking On The Edge

Crouching is a useful way to expand your movement options. By crouching, you can actually walk a little bit off the edge of a block. This is ideal when you’re building a bridge-like structure.

Be careful you don’t let go of the crouch button. If you do, then your character will fall. So, if you plan to try this trick high in the air, then make sure you hold onto that crouch button.

3Milking A Mooshroom

Mooshrooms are a special type of cow that are exclusive to the Mushroom Biome. They are similar to regular cows and you can even milk them. Except you won’t get what you expected.

Instead of milk, you get mushroom stew.

This is actually very useful as the stew can restore some of your hunger bar. If you find yourself in a Mushroom Biome, then you should definitely gather as many Mooshrooms as possible.

2Personalize Dog Collars

It’s a good idea to tame a group (read: army) of dogs to hunt with. They are great in combat and can help turn the tide in your favor. But you may want to give them all different names and differentiate them further.

You can easily do that by changing the color of their collar. Simply get a dye for the color you want and right click on the dog. That’s it. You now have a customized dog collar in Minecraft.

1Curing Zombie Villagers

Zombie Villagers are a recent addition to Minecraft. Essentially, the villagers get hit with a disease that turns them into zombies. However, you can cure them and activate their trading post.

First, you have to inflict the Weakness status on the Zombie which you can do with a potion. After that, you give it a Golden Apple. After around 2-5 minutes of waiting, the Zombie Villager should now be cured.

Minecraft is still the biggest force in gaming today with 2018 being its best year on mobile yet.

Odds are pretty good that no matter who you are, you’ve probably played Minecraft at some point in your life. After releasing way back in the heady days of 2011, Minecraft quickly expanded from a purely PC project to both mobile and console game markets. Now there’s not a single digital device that can’t play Minecraft if you really try hard enough.

Minecraft’s mobile version was released shortly after the main game in 2011 and it has been a growing source of revenue as more and more games are being purchased on mobile devices. In fact, 2018 was Minecraft’s biggest year in terms of sales, with Sensor Tower estimating 2018 annual income at $110 million.

That’s a 7% increase over the year before, which brought in $103 million.

The first quarter of 2018 sort of set the stage for Minecraft’s digital hegemony with a best-ever first quarter sales of $30 million. That’s $10 million per month just from people buying cutesie Moana skins for their polygonal avatars.

Sensor Tower goes on to describe Minecraft’s user base, which is still mostly American at 48% of all sales. The United Kingdom slides in at second place with 6% of total sales, while Japan comes in third at just 5%.

Minecraft’s mobile version alone has grossed half a billion dollars since 2014 when Mojang got bought out by Microsoft for $2.5 billion and creator Markus Persson was catapulted into the Forbes list of world’s billionaires.

Total sales have climbed to 144 million, with an astounding 74 million active monthly users. There’s no telling how many billions of dollars Microsoft has made off the game since buying it in 2014, but it has most definitely been more than the $2.5 billion they paid for it.

Minecraft remains the second best-selling game of all time, just behind Tetriswhich continues to make gains thanks to reboots like Tetris 99.

While Microsoft’s Windows Phones may be a dying breed, that hasn’t stopped the company from staying loyal to the mobile platform.

Ever since Windows Phone died a slow and not-very-subtle death, Microsoft has put a considerable amount of effort into supporting Android and IOS. While app versions of Office software are great, it’s their continuing support of mobile gaming which is surprising.

Despite other platforms losing updates for Microsoft’s Minecraft, the company is still making sure that mobile gamers are kept up to date. Seven years on from its original release, Minecraft Pocket Edition is a strong iteration of the now iconic survival game. In 2018, it also saw its largest yearly revenue yet.

With the recent introduction of the game’s Bedrock Edition, an update that introduced crossplay across a wide range of platforms, Minecraft Pocket Edition is more popular than ever. With more crossplay allegedly in the works, this may be a new tactic for Microsoft.

In 2018, Microsoft brought in over $110 million in revenue from just mobile alone. With a base cost of $6.99 and additional DLC texture packs and skins, Minecraft Pocket Edition is going just as strong as it always has.

With consistent updates, new features and a focus on crossplay, Minecraft is arguably better than ever.

Even though the launch of Fortnite and PUBG on mobile hugely contributed to the battle royale frenzy last year, these free-to-play games didn’t really hurt Minecraft, one of the most popular paid games on iOS and Android. Indeed, according to new data from app analytics platform Sensor Tower (via Gameindustry.biz), 2018 was Minecraft’s most profitable year on mobile with the iOS and Android versions bringing more than $110 million in revenue for Microsoft (up 7% year over year).

Minecraft is a $6.99 purchase on iOS and Android, but there are also lots of in-app purchases to unlock skins and more. “The largest portion of spending in the game last year came from the United States, at 48 percent of the total or approximately $52.8 million. Great Britain’s $7.3 million (about 6.6 percent) was a distant second, while Japan ranked third for spending at 5 percent or approximately $5.5 million,” Sensor Tower’s report notes.

Microsoft’s immensely popular sandbox game hugely benefited from the launch of the new Bedrock version, which brought support for crossplay multiplayer across iOS, Android, Windows 10, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. This is all done through Microsoft’s Xbox Live platform, which Microsoft wants to bring to more iOS, Android and Switch games with a new cross-platform XDK.

According to Sensor Tower, the mobile versions of Minecraft generated $500 million of revenue for Microsoft since 2014. That’s definitely not bad for a game with 91 million monthly active users on all platforms, but Fortnite has been doing even better for Epic Games. Earlier this month, Sensor Tower reportedthat Fortnite mobile revenue reached $500 million on iOS in less than a year.

DownloadQR-CodeMinecraftDeveloper: MojangPrice: $6.99⁺

DownloadQR-CodeMinecraftDeveloper: MojangPrice: $6.99⁺

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Further reading: Android, iOS, Minecraft

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Did you spend a lot of money in the mobile versions of Minecraft?

This article is part of the guide Game-Based Learning: Preparing Students for The Future.

“Can we set the story in Minecraft?”

We had been working for several weeks on a storytelling unit in my ESL classes in 2012. We had read and analysed short stories, examined the grammar of narrative tenses, looked into setting, character descriptions and developing plots. It was time to create our own stories.

Yet, one group was struggling for ideas. I needed to intervene. I suggested taking inspiration from a story they knew. What films had they watched recently? Were there any popular TV shows to use as a starting point?

“Or video games,” one student suggested.

“Why not?” I replied, and then someone popped the Minecraft question.

Fast forward a few weeks; Minecraft kept finding its way into my classroom. Oral presentations became screen-casted videos of student-created builds. Projects on natural environments were illustrated by the biomes in the game. We even had a recreation of a Sherlock Holmes tale made in the game!

Minecraft is a game with a vast online community. Its endless possibilities mean there is always something new to discover.

We then brought the game itself into class, using the now defunct MinecraftEDU with impressive results. How could a game featuring so little language drive this much language learning? In addition to the language generated by the students themselves in their projects, I found that a huge amount of English was being generated as students shared tips, accessed online guides and built a common understanding.

The game had given them a reason and a context, not only for using English, but also for activating 21st-century skills. Here are six examples of higher-order thinking skills my students developed while creating and playing games:

1. Collaboration

Minecraft is a game with a vast online community. Its endless possibilities mean there is always something new to discover. In my experience creating projects in Minecraft and running after-school clubs, expert players are always keen to help their novice peers learn the essential skills. This can occur with two players at the same workstation or with the class playing together on the same networked map. The novices raise their skills very quickly, uncovering ideas even the experts didn’t know.

After choosing Minecraft as an in-class resource, I found that not everyone knew how to play—including me! The solution was simple: I put the novices together, and we brainstormed questions about the game. Meanwhile, the experts prepared a rough survival guide. We then paired up, and the newbies learned gameplay tips and tricks, most of which was conducted in English. Suddenly, my English Language Learners (ELLs) had a reason to use all that language for advice and requests, explanations and asking for clarification.

2. Critical Thinking

Minecraft is truly an open-world game. When a player spawns to start a new game, the map stretches in all directions. Playing in survival mode, a new player is quickly required to learn the basics. They fail…and fail a great deal. However, each failure is a learning experience. If a player cannot build a base or find a light source before dark, or strays too far from their shelter, they respawn and try again. As they learn, they start to hypothesise, experiment, reflect and adjust. This process parallels that of scientific inquiry and encourages resilience and problem-solving skills to negotiate with an occasionally unforgiving digital world.

Minecraft generates excitement with each new discovery, whether a feature of the game or a gameplay idea.

Planning and reflection became a regular feature of our play. Before entering the game, students would outline their plans for the day—a great way to get them using the “going to” future tense and conditional form for hypotheses. At the end of class, we reviewed the plans and ideas to evaluate what worked and what didn’t. Students recorded these reflections on a Google Doc as a reference for the next time we played.

3. Initiative and Creativity

The harsh reality of the survival world forces players to come up with inventive ways to stay alive. I once witnessed an 11-year-old novice panic as night fell and his overly-ambitious base remained incomplete. Then, he simply encased his in-game character inside a wall of dirt. He had no room to move but also, as he pointed out, gave the mobs—computer-controlled enemies—no way to get to him. After waiting a few minutes for the in-game night to pass, he broke down his wall of dirt to resume his base building. This was not an idea he had been given by a fellow player, nor was it one he had seen online. It was simply one he invented when he had no other options.

Minecraft generates excitement with each new discovery, whether a feature of the game or a gameplay idea. That excitement was always communicated around my group very quickly and with a remarkable degree of fluency. And these discoveries were added to the student’s Google Doc log so that descriptive or instructional language was captured and refined as necessary.

4. Digital Literacy

While players in a school environment can turn to each other for assistance and support, they may also visit the numerous Minecraft-dedicated wikis, blogs or YouTube channels for inspiration. This involves navigating search engines, identifying key ideas, evaluating and assessing the quality of information and adapting it to the player’s own unique game world context. Many students go on to create such guides themselves, learning how to edit wikis and take screenshots, or capture, narrate and edit in-game footage in the process.

Minecraft doesn’t feature much language . . . . However, that is the beauty of this game for language learners. The lack of in-game language creates opportunities for players to generate their own.

This resulted in several of my students engaging in lengthy and demanding composition tasks. One group of junior high students who were very reluctant writers took it upon themselves to create their own guide in the form of a blog. They pooled their experiences, conducted online research and ultimately created multiple gameplay guides in English. They even requested feedback from me and their peers, very keen to root out any grammatical errors.

5. Communication

As mentioned earlier, Minecraft doesn’t feature much language, aside from some incidental vocabulary specific to the game. However, that is the beauty of this game for language learners. The lack of in-game language creates opportunities for players to generate their own. There’s also a clear context and great motivation for engaging in higher-level language, even with monolingual groups.

Several years ago, I was working with teenage Turkish students who were huge fans of gaming. Once we introduced Minecraft to our learning program, I witnessed several reluctant readers pore over English-language handbooks and websites in pursuit of deeper knowledge of the game, translating to each other and pooling their linguistic resources to come to a common understanding of the text. Without the inspiration of the game, that would not have happened.

6. Productivity

The game world is vast, and the game itself has seemingly infinite possibilities. Minecraft is a great tool to encourage production and creation. While teacher-generated builds for specific learning purposes are great, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing a student engage in a project with real gusto. Using their Minecraft skills to create something, they then use their language skills to describe it, demonstrate it, encourage others to try it and tell the story behind it.

Whether a recreation of a famous landmark, an original build in response to a classroom topic, or the setting for a narrative tale, nothing is more powerful than a project generated by the students’ own voices.

For more about using Minecraft with language learners, David Dodgson recommends the following resources:

Articles

• Digging Deeper: Learning and Re-learning with Student and Teacher Minecraft Communities
• Language Learning and Minecraft
• Learning English in Minecraft: a case study on language competences and classroom practices
• Ideas for Using Minecraft in the Classroom

Minecraft MOOC

• EVO Minecraft MOOC

YouTube

• IrvSpanish
• Vance Stevens
• A Minecraft Education

Teaching Computer Science at school just got easier as Microsoft is making a 30-hour curriculum, targeted at students in the age range 11 to 16, available as a free download.

The curriculum is based on Minecraft Education Edition, a version that offers special features for educators, and Microsoft MakeCode, a block- and JavaScript-programming editor as means for teaching the basics of coding and computational thinking skills.

The course is comprised of 10 units with each focusing on specific computer science concepts and programming skills. Teaching all units and lessons will require approximately 30 hours of instruction, with each unit including 1-4 lessons of approximately 45-60 minutes each.

The lessons are comprised of activities that introduce core CS concepts and give hands-on coding experience, as well as a number of independent projects suitable for applying the newly gained skills, and assessments for testing the knowledge and skill development acquired.

Many kids are already familiar with the world of Minecraft since it’s a very popular collaborative game in which characters survive by performing tasks such as chopping, hunting or mining.This curriculum requires students to understand the merits of writing code to automate such tasks using the core concepts of computational thinking.

So by the end of the course students are expected to be able to:

• Change their Minecraft world through coding in Microsoft MakeCode.
  
  
• Describe and apply the following programming concepts:
  
  Events 
  Coordinates
  Variables
  Conditionals
  Functions and parameters
  Iteration
  Arrays 
  Artificial intelligence
• Synthesize the concepts in a new, creative ways through self-directed coding projects.

The curriculum is well structured and addresses the probable inexperience of teachers who have never taught computer science before but nevertheless want to incorporate the CS into their curriculum, regardless of their subject area.

For example the guidance, backed by the appropriate material, given to educators is as as clear cut as:

Introduce the concept of computer science

Ask students: What is computer science? 
Then share:
· The study of what machines can do for us.
· Includes learning how to create new software, solving computing problems, and inventing new ways to use technology.
· A very large subject that can be difficult for even computer scientists to define.

Ask students: Why is it important? How does it help us? 
Then share:
· It’s changing everything about the way we live and work.
· It’s for everyone, not just for computer programmers.
· It teaches important skills, like creativity, problem solving, critical and flexible thinking, and working with others.
· Those skills and knowledge are important for successful jobs and careers.

 or

Coding with Microsoft MakeCode

Ask students: What is coding? 
Then share:
· Code gives instructions to a computer to do something.
· A computer can be a laptop, tablet, smart phone, or any kind of computer. Even robots.
· Coding and computer programming mean the same thing.

The Units in detail:

Unit 1: Introduction
 · Describe computer science and coding and its importance
 · Learn to play and maneuver in Minecraft: Education Edition
 · Understand block programming in Microsoft MakeCode
 · Change your Minecraft world through coding 

Unit 2: Events
 Lesson A: Introduction to events 
 Lesson B: Coding with events
 Lesson C: Linking events
 Lesson D: Get creative with events

Unit 3: Coordinates
 Lesson A: Introduction to coordinates
 Lesson B: Coding with coordinates
 Lesson C: Automating actions with coordinates
 Lesson D: Get creative with coordinates
 
Unit 4: Variables
 Lesson A: Introduction to variables
 Lesson B: Coding with variables
 Lesson C: Combining variables 
 Lesson D: Get creative with variables
 
Unit 5: Conditionals
 Lesson A: Introduction to conditionals
 Lesson B: Coding with conditionals
 Lesson C: Debug problem code with conditionals
 Lesson D: Get creative with conditionals
 
Unit 6: Functions
 Lesson A: Introduction to functions
 Lesson B: Coding with functions
 Lesson C: Building on functions 
 Lesson D: Get creative with functions
 
Unit 7: Iteration
 Lesson A: Introduction to iteration
 Lesson B: Coding with iteration
 Lesson C: Debugging with iteration
 Lesson D: Get creative with iteration
 
Unit 8: Arrays
 Lesson A: Introduction to arrays
 Lesson B: Coding with arrays
 Lesson C: Building on arrays
 Lesson D: Get creative with arrays

Unit 9: Artificial intelligence
 Lesson A: Introduction to artificial intelligence
 Lesson B: Coding an intelligent agent
 Lesson C: Get creative with artificial intelligence

Unit 10: Final independent project
· Design an original creative project to program four tools for a survival backpack to help you in a Minecraft world
· Demonstrate your learned coding skills and apply them in a new way
· Validate your approach to the project, including beta testing and analysis of code to debug and problem solve 

Of course, the most eye-catching of all has to be Unit 9 on Artificial Intelligence which introduces the concept of crafting programs that mimic human intelligence, but also revolves around the ethical questions surrounding it.Here students will be creating AI rules for winning a tic-tac-toe game as well as building Intelligent Agents who navigate mazes and chop wood on their own.

The final project is about creating several sub-projects which address the needs that your Agent is going to have to satisfy in order to survive the game, and which can be solved with code. For example, to satisfy your character’s requirements for lots of paper you can code a sugar cane farm for him to harvest. Simiarly for building better tools you can code an iron-finder.

In all, this curriculum offers a first class opportunity for educators around the world to introduce their pupils to the concepts of computer science and critical thinking in order to prepare them for the workplace of the future.

A bug in Minecraft’s latest update has given players the ability to parkour.

This week’s snapshot update appears to have a bug that allows players to wall run.

Redditor NatalieZem posted a video of the bug in action (via Kotaku), explaining how this feat of athleticism is possible.

“Just for context, this isn’t a trick or a prank or anything. In the recent snapshot, you can’t jump while pressing against a block. And apparently not being able to raise your elevation also means you can’t lower it either. Try it for yourself: All you need to do is stay sprinting into the wall and you can move along it.”

A number of players are enjoying the unintended feature, and want to see it implemented properly in the game.

Last month’s update saw the addition of pandas and new-and-improved cats.

And later this year, PC players can look forward to the release of Minecraft: Dungeons, announced at MineCon Earth 2018.

SAS: Zombie Assault 3 appears to be making a comeback, according to the AndroidGaming Reddit.

The game has been dormant for a while but ninjakiwi has breathed new life into it by switching the servers back on.

SAS: Zombie Assault 3 is an old school top down zombie shooter

It seems like the latest entry in the franchise, SAS: Zombie Assault 4, didn’t prove as popular.

If you haven’t heard of this yet, it’s a top down multiplayer shooter by the creators of Bloons.

You’ll battle hordes of zombies across a bunch of maps with friends, ranking up, and unlocking new weapons and perks as you go.

So head on over to Google Play and check out this golden oldie. It’s nice to see an older game getting some love in this fast-moving world.

Here’s a nice little treat to liven up your Friday: Android just got its own mobile-exclusive Minecraft-style MMO in Islet Online.

It’s not a complete exclusive though, as its’ available on Steam too. Still, any instance where we get a game and iOS doesn’t is a cause for celebration.

Islet Online is out right now on Android

It’s basically Minecraft but entirely online. You’ll wander around digging up blocks and stacking them to create tools, furniture, and other bits.

You can create a home and decorate it, catch animals and ride them, and even fly around the world.

It sounds like a lot of crazy fun that we can’t wait to check out. You can grab it right now on Google Play and link up your PC account if you’ve played it there before.

Could the museum exhibit “Game Changer” be the game changer for the gamer in your life?

The release of “Game Changers” will be Friday at the Science Museum of Minnesota — and it will also be open, along with the rest of the museum, on Presidents Day on Monday (a day that many of our gamers are off from school).

The exhibit, created and curated by a museum in Australia, spans 10,000 square feet. It goes into the history and evolution of video games, and includes more than 100 playable games. So it’s an arcade as well as an exhibit. No tokens are needed, because the exhibit and its features are included in the price of regular admission to the museum.

The games people will be able to play in the exhibit include Asteroids, Pac-Man, Angry Birds, Space Invaders, Sonic the Hedgehog, Fruit Ninja, Diablo, Minecraft and Rock Band 3.

It’s not just for gamers, though; you could say that the exhibit is rated “E” for everyone.

“It’s really multigenerational,” says Kim Ramsden, museum spokeswoman. “We’ve heard from other museums who have hosted it that adults will go in and feel excited to find the games they knew as a kid — they will be excited to show it to their kids; and then, by the end of the exhibit, kids will be able to show their parents the new games, games that kids are playing today. So it’s a really social experience.”

These types of games — played on clunky machines back in the early days and played on devices as small as our phones today — really have been game changers for how kids play, but the exhibit isn’t merely an arcade. Behind every game, after all, there are people and processes to educate and inspire us.

“It’s fascinating to learn about game designers,” Ramsden says, “their process and who they are.”

Their creations are teaching tools.

“In the scientific process, we talk about failure, we talk about getting up again after failing at something,” Ramsden says. “In video games, that happens a lot as you work through the levels.”

In that way, gamers are developing problem-solving skills and the art of collaboration as they play Minecraft or other popular games.

“There are parallels to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education,” says Ramsden.

We can also dance, thanks to Dance Central, an example of how gamers don’t always need a controller anymore.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Ramsden says.

Game Changers

Where: Science Museum of Minnesota, 120 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul

When: Opens Feb. 15 and runs through May 5.

Exhibit: Get the gamers in your life into the museum with this special exhibit inside the museum’s U.S. Bank Great Hall that takes visitors on an interactive journey into the history and the future of video games — including more than 100 playable games as well as rare concept artwork and interviews with designers. The exhibit is divided into three sections: Arcade Heroes (think the arcade era and beloved games like Pac-Man); Game Changers (think contemporary designers and how their games, such as SimCity, took gaming to the next level); and Indies (a look at today’s independent game designers and phenomena like Angry Birds, Minecraft and Fruit Ninja).

Admission: Included with regular Science Museum exhibit gallery admission ($19.95 for adults and $14.95 for kids ages 4 to 12 and seniors).

Let’s get one thing out of the way. Disney Channel’s original Kim Possible movie is just that: a Disney Channel Original Movie. We can’t compare it to theatrical live-action versions of animated Disney films; it’s made for TV, and based on a TV show. Adjust your expectations about live-action Kim Possible accordingly.

That being said, this version of Kim Possible, a classic Disney cartoon from the mid-2000s, keeps the true spirit of the DCOMs many of us grew up with — Wendy Wu Homecoming Warrior, Halloweentown, and Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century among them. Kim Possible is campy and hammers in its message with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, but that’s not a critique. It just means that Kim Possible is, like most in the DCOM canon, a fun movie, and little else.

[Ed. note: This article contains slight spoilers for Disney Channel’s Kim Possible.]

Kim Possible bears a weighty legacy. The animated series ran from 2002 to 2007 and was a staple of many childhoods. Featuring a crime-fighting teenager and her best friend (and his naked mole rat) as they take on evildoers and the perils of high school, the show received high praise. Unlike many other action comedies at the time, Kim Possible centered around a capable heroine, and many boys and girls alike watched the show. Because it is such a beloved childhood show, the nostalgia value is high.

In Kim Possible the DCOM — just like Kim Possible the Disney Channel Original Series — Kim (Sadie Stanley) lives a double life. By day, she’s a high school girl; after school, she’s either playing soccer or taking out bad guys. In the movie, Kim’s greatest foe, Dr. Drakken (Todd Stashwick), still wants nothing more than to defeat her once and for all. Because Kim is just so good at everything, he decides that he needs to steal the spark of what makes her Kim.

Yes, Drakken wants to nerf Kim Possible. He intends to do this literally, as if Kim’s “spark” is something that can actually be obtained.

Meanwhile, at the core of the movie, Kim deals with a struggle many millennials who grew up with the show can relate to: After being accomplished and the best at everything she does for most of her life, she faces a sharp turn in high school. At first, it’s that she’s unequipped to deal with the social hierarchy and the demands of her teachers; but when her new best friend, Athena, starts to outshine her in almost every way — including in crime-fighting — Kim has to battle feelings of insecurity and jealousy. The eventual plot twist is predictable, but it shakes the movie up from being more than a full-length, live-action episode.

Relatable as this premise may be to older Kim Possible fans, some seem unable to let go of their long-held visions of a live-action version. When lead actress Sadie Stanley was cast, many reacted negatively, because she didn’t fit the version of Kim that they had cast in their minds. The crown of beloved childhood classic sits heavy on its wearer’s head.

But instead of comparing 2019’s Kim Possible to some impossibly polished fantasy, we must look to the other Disney Channel Original movies. That’s what this is, after all; not a full-fledged remake, but fluffy TV fare.

The set design and special effects of Kim Possible are overdramatic, and could be lifted straight from the cartoon. Different gags grace the marquee of the high school each time it’s shown; Ron’s signature dish, the “naco,” drips with cheesy goodness; Rufus the naked mole rat is just silly enough as to not be jarring. At one point, Kim looks at her old outfit — one that resembles the outfit she wears in the cartoon — and remarks that it always felt a bit “cartoony” to her.

The acting is also all about hamming it up. But as far as the kid cast goes, Sean Giambrone as Ron Stoppable is particularly endearing, bringing his own touch to the quirky character. Sadie Stanley’s Kim might be a little more vulnerable different from the golden-eyed way fans recall her, but if you realize that Kim was a crime-fighting, over-achieving cheerleader, then her Type-A personality and insecurities make sense. The adult cast, which includes Kim’s original voice actor, Christy Carlson Romano, in a small role, also delivers the sometimes-cheesy lines with finesse. And Taylor Ortega, who plays Shego, nails everything about the iconic villainess, from exhausted eyerolls to the sassy comebacks.

The cast of Kim Possible mostly manages to save the movie’s shallow plot from falling totally flat. Despite Stanely and crew’s best efforts, however, there is a lot of misplaced melodrama. Kim realizing that she’s more than her accomplishments, that she can be a good person without being good at everything, would have more impact were it not for the grandiose plot twist in the latter half of the movie.

Though a few plot road bumps persist, Kim Possible manages a heartwarming ending, goofy and endearing characters, and a whole lotta wonderful corniness. It pays acceptable tribute to both the cartoon and the Disney Channel Original Movies that came before it — just as long as you keep in mind that it’s a tribute, and nothing more.

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Fresh off yesterday’s Fortnite toy reveal, Hasbro today announced an even larger line of Overwatchaction figures, plus other toys coming this year.

The figurine assortment involves nine of Overwatch’s cast, among them a couple of two-packs of related characters and a giant-size fully poseable Reinhardt with a hujungus Barrier Field.

GameStop is offering all of these toys for preorder right now. (They’re linked in the descriptions.) Here’s the lowdown: GRID VIEW

1 of 20 Hasbro

• Solo figurines are $19.99 and all are six inches tall. The characters launching in Spring 2019 are Lucio, Sombra, Tracer and Reaper in his Blackwatch Reyes form. GRID VIEW

1 of 11 Hasbro

• The two-packs are $39.99 and pair off Phara with Mercy and Soldier 76 with Ana. GRID VIEW

1 of 7 Hasbro

• Reinhardt is the same scale at six inches tall, but because he’s so, erm, wide he gets his own $49.99 SKU. He comes with a Barrier Field and Rocket Hammer.

All the action figures are expected in Spring 2019.

Other toys coming this spring include three Microshots mini-dart blasters ($9.99 each) based on Lucio, Mei and Roadhog’s gear and an Overwatch collector’s edition of Monopoly($49.99).

Then, this fall, Hasbro is offering an assortment of $19.99 masks (including Genji and Tracer) just in time for Halloween.

Hasbro says everything will be “available at most major toy retailers nationwide.”

Last year around this time we were talking about Dragster, and how a 35-year-old world record was debunked and the record-holder got banned from high score competitions for life. Well, someone — using an Atari 2600 emulator in freaking Minecraft, of all things — technically tied the legitimate world record. Technically being the best kind of world record, of course.

What’s even funnier is this emulator renders at 1 frame per second. So that means YouTuber SethBling’s blazing fast time of 5.57 took about 15 minutes to complete.

Obviously, the fact the game is so slowed down is a big help, since it allows SethBling to get off the line perfectly, hit his shifts perfectly and nail what is considered the fastest playable time in the game. And he points out that, well, his run conforms to the rules for Dragsterposted on speedrun.com, which specify that in-game time (not real time) is what counts, and allow for runs on emulation — which SethBling notes are usually rendered slower than on native hardware. (Probably not one effing eff ps though.)

For the record, the time of 5.57 is held by 16 players on speedrun.com, six of them not in emulation. SethBling is not on the leaderboard, so it sounds like he hasn’t submitted this performance for review.

The rest of the video shows how the emulator works with a variety of other Atari 2600 games. They’re playable, alright, with the slight qualifier that they are all slower than the molasses in January. But if you’re interested in seeing the Minecraft 2600 emulator all for yourself, SethBling has made the world available here.