George T. Wittman’s newest blog post!
People have been talking a lot about minecraft since its release some two and a half years earlier. The independent computer game, developed by Swedish gamers, allows the players to build structures out of 3-D cubes, much like legos. Despite the game’s minimal graphics, which look like something out of the 1980s, it has become wildly popular thanks to the creative freedom it gives players and its addictive gameplay; as of early February 2014, it has sold over 35 million copies across all platforms. To give you an idea of how popular this game has become, the Danish Geodata Agency just created the entire country of Denmark in Minecraft at a 1:1 scale. The painstaking task, one of the biggest Minecraft creations of all time, was made up of about 4 trillion bricks and a whole terabyte of data. The replica was built using the agency’s 3D elevation model, and was meant to be used as a teaching tool.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark: A scene from the game, after American tanks rolled into “Denmark”.
Despite efforts to protect the structure from outside players, players soon started to blow up this virtual Denmark. The Danish Geodata Agency had disabled the ability to use the “dynamite” item on their Denmark, but had forgotten to disable another explosive tool in the game, the minecart with the dynamite item. Players discovered this, and started setting off explosives in several different Danish towns, building American tanks and flags on top of the ruins. According to Chris Hammeken, spokesman for the Danish Geodata Agency, they have no intentions to reboot Minecraft’s virtual Denmark, since elements being broken down and replaced is a major aspect of the game. However, if buildings are removed and nothing new is created, then they plan to “occasionally” rebuild minor areas of the map. However, you can download Minecraft’s Denmark map from the Danish Geodata Agency’s website. It’s so far gotten over 200,000 downloads. Hammeken claims that The Danish Geodata Agency is actually “very happy” to see players from around the world “creating fancy nice things” and having fun.
georgewittman 