The Minecraft April Fools Jokes for 2011 and 2013

This year Mojang, the company that produces minecraft,  made the best April Fools joke in history and I fell for it... really badly. Mojang talked to some of the most famous YouTubers and got them in on the prank. They got the administrators of the MindCrack server (a server that only people that are ridiculously famous on YouTube get to play on) to agree to release an exclusive update pre-release video and showcase an "update pre-release". So many things were added to the prerelease like, torches that burn out, the possibility to over feed animals, tinted glass, TNT slabs, and much more. I was so excited after seeing the video that I logged onto a multiplayer server and told everyone about the  pre-release video. This one player then told me, "lol, dude you know that was this year's April Fools joke right?" Well I had to admit it; they TOTALLYgot me. Here's one of the videos by one of the YouTubers who was in on the prank. Skip to 1:40 to see the features of the fake update.

There was also a good April Fools joke in 2011, so if you missed out on that look at this video. The joke takes place from 2:08-3:53

A PVP Server

I haven't done a Minecraft post in a while, but I want to share a pvp server that my friend introduced to me recently. I've attached a narrated video of me showcasing the server's features. As I get ready to post my entry, I realize that some might find the Minecraft vocabulary objectionable. The words "kill" and "die" are used to describe events in the battles between two teams of Lego-like characters. There are no guns, no blood; but bows and swords are used in combat. As video games go, Minecraft doesn't contain graphic violence. In my own life, I support peaceful solutions to problems in our world. I spent yesterday working at the Little Friends for Peace organization in a D.C. neighborhood that is plagued by violence. You may have read my earlier post after the Newtown tragedy, about attending a vigil to end gun violence. I don't think my interest in gaming conflicts with my personal values or philosophy about living an ethical life. I, like most avid gamers, know the difference between fantasy and reality. I hope you take my post in the spirit that was intended, and that you have you have a hobby that you enjoy as much as I do mine.

Minecraft 1.4.6 Review

I finally had the time to do something Minecraft related! It's been so long since I last posted something Minecraft related on this blog. So today I will treat you with a visit from a long awaited minecraft video. And before you ask, no it's not a machinima. I've been having a hard time coordinating a time that my friends can log on and be actors, and when I finally coordinated a time that worked for everyone, the universe decided that that would be a good time for my server to crash making me unable to film. Well I got around it by recording my review of the new minecraft update. Remember the last update review with the picture gallery? Remember how it took up so much space? well now that I put that in a video this post will not be as long as the 1.4 update review. I did forget to mention in the video that the Minecraft programmers added a Christmas surprise that only took place on the 24th and the 25th, they made the chests in minecraft look like Christmas presents. For some reason blogger is not letting me post a picture, so I will get you a picture of that when I can. There really is not that much to cover because this wasn't as major of an update as 1.4 was. So without any further ado here's the review video. I hope you likle it!

Some Changes To My Idea For Recording Mincraft

Several posts ago I talked about recording myself commentating Minecraft gameplay. Well I took some time to think about how long it would take just to record one episode.... a day in Minecraft is 10 minutes, dawn and dusk are 1 and a half minutes each, and night is 4 minutes long. That's 20 minutes from one morning to another. Nobody has the kind of free time to sit around for 20+ minutes watching some dude play a game. So I'm yet again changing my plan: I'm going to be filming short stories called machinimas. These movies are generally made as a person is playing a game and can range from 2-3 minutes. They can be really short - just for kicks - or they can be as long as a feature length move. I promise I will only post only short "just for kicks" videos on this blog. Machinimas have become increasingly popular lately and there is even a company (Machimina) solely dedicated to making these movies.
Here is one of my personal favorites from Machimina. I can explain what he is talking about in the first 30 seconds or so. Earlier in the year the Minecraft 1.3.1 update was released and VASTLY expanded the possibilities of the program. The update also allowed players to trade with the villagers in the game. The video below  shows how the company poked fun at the update.
Sorry about the advertisment trailer for a Halo movie at the end of the clip, but Machinima also made that movie and they're showing off their  creations. Anyway, here's the machinima.

Minecraft idea expanded

So after writing my Minecraft 1.4 update showcase with a picture gallery, I thought that the pictures took up a lot of space and it just didn't seem as natural as just talking to my friends about the new update. So to benefit myself and you (because I'm sure that all that scrolling was killing your finger) I've been looking into some screen recording software, and found a few highly rated programs that I'll do demos of later this week. Hopefully in the somewhat near future this blog will transform into a Minecraft vlog with some explanations, back story or left out information in the text area of the blog. I'm sorry that I couldn't get anything else really up on this blog but with Hurricane Sandy and everything things have gotten pretty rocky around here. Thankfully everyone is okay and I still have power. Now that things are easing up I promise that I will get that vlog up and running in a few weeks after I get recording software and an editing software that I'm comfortable with. Again I apologize that I don't have any big news about the block-y world of Minecraft but if you are reading this post to see something epic I will give you a sneak peak at something BIG coming to my Minecraft server soon.

Know what it is? If the answer to that question was yes, then you're either one of my close friends, a stalker or a mindreader. Well if you didn't know what this is, don't worry I didn't intend for this picture to make sense...by itself. So I'll leave you with that thought this week and I'll see you later everyone.

Minecraft 1.4 Update Review

I've decided to do something new with this blog...Minecraft!

I woke up this morning, hours before Hurricane Sandy is going to strike the east coast and I said to myself, "If I'm going to make this blog personal, I'm going to write about something close to my heart and the hearts of 8 million people and counting. Minecraft. Minecraft is an online game that is basically a sandbox world  - meaning you, your friends and anyone else in the world can play it however you see fit. This is like building with virtual Legos. There are rocks and ores and various other resources in this block land with which you can build a fort, a castle, a house, a tower, or anything at all you can imagine. That's the real point of Minecraft: to be transported into a world of your very own making, without global warming and wars and those kinds of things.

On Thursday, the 25th  I was watching a video about the upcoming Minecraft update and was shocked to find out that it was released the day before! I started exploring right away.

Here I present some screenshots of what's new in this update, All you, the viewer, need to do is scroll down and look and have your mind dazzled by this improved world of blocks. The update is impressive.

A lot of things were added into the update so I'll try to keep it short and simple.Bats have been added to the Minecraft universe, and I saw a bunch but they move so fast that I couldn't get any clear screenshots.  It seems they're just there to add to the cave-y creepy underground feel. Like most other creatures, bats spawn in caves and other dark places.

Witches have also been added. They are hostile creatures that will attack a player with various throwable potions of poison and instant damage. A creature to be feared! I did manage to get a picture of the witch. They look a lot like a regular NPC villager: they wear shirts that hide their hands and they have gigantic Squidward-like noses on their ridiculously large heads. I could not stop laughing when I discovered that they have a small wart on that Squidward nose. Here's a screen shot of the witch...

Do you see the wart on the right side of the nose?

Also added into the game were two vegetables, one of which I'm very grateful for (keep reading). Here's a screenshot of the first veg, the carrot. 

You can tell these are carrots by the little bit of orange sticking out of the ground. Carrots can be planted and farmed over and over and over, so if you have one - you have infinity.

Same goes for the next vegetable - infinity. And if you want to know why I like the this vegetable, I'll tell you. My ancestors span quite a few heritages. I'm Polish, Welsh, English, German, Austrian, French, and Irish. The last heritage is why this vegetable is dear to me. Potatoes were added into the game! So even when I'm playing Minecraft I can embrace my inner potato-loving Irishman. Here's a picture of the potatoes in Minecraft:

The list of new stuff in this update just keeps gorwing. Flower pots! If you play Minecraft and like to garden, then just craft yourself a flowerpot and be the Father Lawrence of Minecraft . (Anyone see the Shakespeare reference there?) Here's a picture of the flower pots and all the plants that can be planted in them.

Heads were added into the game as well. Not to say that the Minecraft characters didn't have heads before this update... these heads are decoration blocks that look like the heads of creatures in the game. Here's the screenshot, and don't worry, no Minecraft creatures were hurt in the making of this blog post.

These heads can also be placed on the player as a hat so they can look like any one of these creatures. And a simple solution has been added into the game for fixing a Minecrafter's worst nightmere, the inability to fix broken tools. In the picture below, my golden sword is nearly broken. I honestly want to keep my sword so I'll use the newly added anvil tool to fix it.

The anvil also alllows you to rename items. So I'm renaming this gold sword a "butter sword" because golden tools have lame durability of butter. Also gold ingots look uncannily like sticks of butter.

Now as I add more gold ingots the durability of the butter sword goes up, up and away! Repairs do cost experience points (XP), but it's worth it

As seen in the picture below, it will cost me 4 gold ingots and 13 XP to fully restore my butter sword.

Also in this update you can now dye leather armor any color you want. Here's a picture of my character in a great looking Irish green set of armor.

This is a great picture because it also shows how players can now take any item they want and frame it. That's how I made the insignia in the background Also, he's holding the nether star which is used to craft beacon blocks. I'll tell you about those in a future blog post because I think I just tore a ligament typing this post... just kidding. The basic point of the beacons is to make a beam in the air which creates a zone around it giving the player a boost like jumping higher or being stronger. Now there are a lot of things that I didn't cover in this post. But that's because I want you, the viewer, to got to minecraft.net and buy Minecraft 1.4 to explore the new possibilities. I even hyperlinked it for you... I'm so nice :).