It’s All About The Digging: Minecraft and Research.

I spent a hectic, exhausting, fantastic weekend in London, at MineCon – the Minecraft Convention.

Minecraft is one of the most widely played games in the world, and seventy-three countries were represented at the convention.

My children play Minecraft on various platforms, including their laptops and the Xbox, and are huge fans of YouTubers – in this case people who have made a name for themselves making films centred on the game.

Ten thousand tickets only went on sale. The competition was fierce. The event was sold out in minutes. Whilst my daughter and I sat in a car park in Plymouth, eating our sandwiches before attending a Paloma Faith gig, Gajitman was at home, poised at the PC, waiting for the first batch of tickets to be released.

At six-fifteen, I received a text to say he had secured five tickets – one for me, two for our children and two for our children’s friends. My teen was absolutely delighted and couldn’t wait to phone her mate to tell him the good news.

So, having achieved what at first seemed like the impossible, we found ourselves at the ExCel Centre in London for a weekend of gaming, workshops, panels and meeting the young (to me) YouTubers.

This is exactly the sort of thing my new hero, Ash Carrington, would do, and so I found the research invaluable, especially as I learned how Minecraft is now being used as an educational tool and as a way to help build real life communities.

While the children played Minecraft tournaments and carried out virtual building and mining, I did some digging of my own and was impressed and motivated by what I learned.

In conjunction with one another, the creators of Minecraft, Mojang, and UN-Habitat are using the mining and building game to encourage young people to design urban spaces, which are then built in real life. I think the Block By Block initiative is fascinating.  Please take the time to check out the site for more info.

This is the sort of project with which Ash, a well-known TV presenter, would be involved, carrying out his work anonymously, and I have returned home full of ideas as to how to develop his character.

On a personal level, it was an absolute joy to see the pleasure and excitement on the children’s faces. I say children, but they are young adults, who paid for their own tickets, carried their own rucksacks, and planned their two days to take full advantage of everything on offer.

The icing on the cake for them was a private meet and greet with a group of Minecraft YouTubers known as The Pack. The equivalent for me would be a chat with Kate Bush, Paloma Faith, Jodi Picoult … you get the idea. YouTubers are today’s celebrities in the world of tech.

It was an honour to accompany the four young adults, and their energy was infectious. Something I will remember, and something Ash will teach my new heroine, Jo …

Take care.

Laura x