You may have noticed we are hosting a Minecraft Easter egg hunt this Saturday on Living Computers’ very own Minecraft server.
 
For those of you unfamiliar with Minecraft, there are two primary things to know.
 
First of all, it’s impossible to overstate the game’s success. At just over 10 years old, Minecraft is the best-selling game of all time, closing in on 200 million copies sold. Microsoft bought the whole IP in 2014 for $2.5 billion and has successfully kept the game in the spotlight with no signs of fading.
 
Secondly, the game thrives on creativity instead of competition. Players are placed in an infinite world, with no levels or quests, and can go wherever they like to start hunting for resources. With those resources they can begin to build and craft whatever structures strike their fancy. This creative aspect is what separates it from other gaming phenomena such as Fortnite or Call of Duty. It’s the difference between a board game and a box of Legos.
 
Not only are players afforded the freedom to heavily modify their Minecraft worlds--they can also modify the game itself, adding in anything from custom tools to custom creatures. These types of customizations are called mods, short for modifications.
 
There’s an entire educational edition of Minecraft to help utilize Minecraft as an educational tool. One of the more obvious subjects is coding. Students enjoy how a few lines of code turn into a visible result in their Minecraft worlds. In this way, it becomes feasible to turn Minecraft’s influence over an entire generation into a gateway for learning. The education team for Minecraft has content for everything from language arts, to math, to history and culture.
 
Our team’s Easter egg hunt doesn’t match the ambition of a full curriculum. We’ve walled off a small portion of the world and hidden chests with Easter eggs among the hills, trees, and ponds. Players will get a chance to explore and hunt. Or, because it’s Minecraft, you can just build whatever you feel like using the resources you can find--kind of like the one kid that goes to play in the dirt during a traditional Easter egg hunt.
 
If you have more questions about our Minecraft server, visit the website: https://mc.livingcomputers.org/