In a day and age where new ideas are thrown around online every single day, it’s not too shocking how Minecraft has reached its popularity. Fans have come together and given Minecraft the love that it very much deserves. This is one of the first video games in the history of gaming that has given many opportunities to enrich the human mind through experiences in predetermined lessons by instructors. While there have been video games in the past that have been centered around specifically teaching lessons as coded by the game’s creators, no video game is as customizable as Minecraft. Teachers are able to take their students back through time in a visual representation of real-life places and events without leaving the classroom. If you’re looking for online content based around Minecraft, your best place to look would more than likely be YouTube. With millions of videos uploaded specifically about Minecraft, there’s no better place to start. Minecraft has become a very large part of the video-sharing website over the years. Hundreds of YouTube channels are dedicated to solely Minecraft content and do extremely well in comparison to other popular gaming channels with a variety of videos based around other games. If it wasn’t referenced in pop culture enough, Minecraft has gotten even more noticeable in terms of toys. If you go to any toy section in Walmart, Toys “R” Us, or any other major retailer, you will notice plenty of merchandise on the shelves. Legos, action figures, and foam swords galore will fill the shelves as you push your cart down the aisle. There’s a very good chance that the dedicated fans of the video game probably already own a decent amount of the merchandise. Many celebrities including Jack Black, Deadmau5, and Lady Gaga have been noted as enjoying Minecraft from time to time. Both Jack Black and Deadmau5 have been featured in videos on YouTube, playing the video game. Lady Gaga’s ARTPOP Film “G.U.Y.” (Girl Under You) featured not only a reference to Minecraft but also featured the very popular Minecraft YouTuber “SkyDoesMinecraft”. Lady Gaga has tweeted about Minecraft before, referencing the “Form This Way" (Minecraft Parody of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way) music video by InTheLittleWood. Deadmau5’s affiliation with Minecraft has not only been in the form of YouTube videos, however. Getting a Creeper tattoo and being the only player of Minecraft with a specially designed skin in which his character has ears like on his iconic helmet solidifies his place as a hardcore Minecrafter. In 2011, Joel Zimmerman performed for a very excited crowd at Minecon, as well. As Minecraft is constantly gaining popularity, it only makes sense for it to be referenced in various arts and mediums. Being featured in many magazines, commercials, webcomics, television shows and other types of forms of entertainment can only ensure Minecraft’s popularity will grow. The Minecraft community has inspired many modifications to the game of all types of creations. Some mods create an easier experience to access various aspects of the game, while other mods can create completely new environments that change the way the game is played entirely. These modifications give players new options in terms of finding their perfect way to play Minecraft. If you’re interested in playing Minecraft with flying islands and new, exciting mobs, the Aether II mod may be your new best friend. If your Minecraft tends to lag, Optifine may be your best option. Many mods are compatible with each other, allowing for a very customizable experience. Some video games that contain various traits from Minecraft’s art style are Ace of Spades, Crossy Road, CubeWorld, and many others. Whether or not these video games were directly inspired by Minecraft, they were more than likely inspired by other surrounding sources in terms of the direction of art in other games or mediums. On top of video games being clearly inspired and taking inspiration from Minecraft, many video games can be considered complete ripoffs. Some video games have very clearly inspired mechanics, while many of the video games are entirely clones. Many of the games follow the mining and crafting mechanics, while many others branch off of them. For sake of an example; Jagex’s Ace of Spades contains many aspects and ideas from both Minecraft and Valve’s Team Fortress 2. Even though Ace of Spades plays nothing like Minecraft, there is still a high number of players that will relate the two games based on the design standpoint alone. These video games that are created with a voxel-esque design are usually are looked at in a negative light, regardless of how good the video game actually is. With many video games following the blocky format, there is generally a stigma attached to the design that screams “copycat”. As technology has been advancing rapidly over the past few years, our current leaders in developing new and exciting gadgets, websites, games, services, and various other similar concepts have been realizing that the next generation should know the basics of coding. Rather than throwing children into an environment with a keyboard and a screen while telling them to “make something”, Minecraft and the Hour of Code campaign have made sure they are giving the proper tools and education to kickstart their enthusiasm for learning to code. Both the Hour of Code campaign and Minecraft has made coding seem extremely fun and entertaining with a very familiar blocky feel, instead of giving a blank canvas. The top-down view of Minecraft provided in the tutorial for coding gives players the feeling as if they are doing something. If a player has noticed what they have done has messed up, they can fix it by going back and looking at what they’ve done wrong. Rather than frustrating the player to the point of never wanting to try coding again, Minecraft and the Hour of Code’s campaign tutorial inspires the player to keep trying until it works. In December of 2014, i_makes_stuff on YouTube created a “Minecraft Controlled Christmas Tree”. This creation showed what Minecraft was capable of with doing with real-world objects. Using his knowledge of coding and programming, Ryan gave his real-life Christmas tree a very unique touch. When pushing various levers on Minecraft, Ryan’s real-life Christmas tree would light up depending on which switch the player selected to press.
