Hi all

Hi all,

I'm jkuhn72 in game and am one of the founding moderators of the EVO Minecraft MOOC and a player of Minecraft since late 2010. Gaming has been a hobby for years and I've been fortunate to integrate it into my work as a teacher and teacher-educator most recently as the author of the TESOL Games and Learning blog.

It's great to see the community continue to grow each year. For new members the best advice is to jump in and explore. The sooner you join us in game the sooner it all makes sense! While our community may seem frenetic it has developed organically and was designed to mimic the way our students engage with games and game communities - by learning through doing and where everyone has expertise to share. We can't wait to see what you bring to our little world!
http://blog.tesol.org/welcome-to-the-tesol-games-and-learning-blog/

SERVER UPDATE

SERVER UPDATE

Hi all,

The server will be down through the evening of Feb. 10th (U.S. East Coast time) as we migrate the files over to a new computer and get the system back up in running. In the meantime thanks for the patience!

Today I printed out a Minecraft house!

Today I printed out a Minecraft house! Cura is an LGP licensed 3D printing software that features a Minecraft extraction tool.

Cura scans your single-player maps at which point you can highlight an area of your map and load it into the software. After that you can clean it up just a bit and then print it out.

If I grab a copy of our server map I could print our town.

Today I jumped onto the server via virtual reality and decided to record the experience.

Today I jumped onto the server via virtual reality and decided to record the experience. In the video you can see my in-game actions and down in the corner, you can check out my real-world controls as I take a tour of our city center and get startled by a creeper!
https://youtu.be/8YjUY-Qh-Ok

Although not Minecraft specific, the Overwatch League begins today which you can watch over on Twitch.

Although not Minecraft specific, the Overwatch League begins today which you can watch over on Twitch.

For those new to video games, the growth of e-sports or video game competitions has been tremendous over the last several years. This new Overwatch League is the premier example of that. Reports have suggested the buy-in to place a team in the league as high as USD $20 million with many pro-sports owners (NBA, MLB, Premier League) creating e-sports team.

Twitch paid USD $90 million for a two-year contract to stream the Overwatch League - video games are big business.
https://www.twitch.tv/overwatchleague

Hi all!

Hi all!
I'm Jeff a member of the moderator team for EVO Minecraft. In April I completed my PhD in educational studies with a focus on how teams problem solve within video games. With that completed my full time job is sending out CVs!

Looking forward to seeing everyone in game and all the cool creations the populate our Minecraft map.

My travels in distant lands today took me to an extreme mountains biome where I discovered the tallest mountain I...

My travels in distant lands today took me to an extreme mountains biome where I discovered the tallest mountain I have yet encountered.

Behold the newly named Mt. Stevens!

Check out the Minecraft Mod that turns it into a new 60 hour long Pokemon game!

Check out the Minecraft Mod that turns it into a new 60 hour long Pokemon game!

I find the ways people use Minecraft as a development platform to be fascinating.
http://kotaku.com/fan-makes-minecraft-map-into-a-60-hour-pokemon-game-1792016836

As my epic journey across the expanse of the Mincraft wilderness continues, it has me thinking about teaching.

As my epic journey across the expanse of the Mincraft wilderness continues, it has me thinking about teaching. Recently, I passed through an icy winter biome and having ran low on supplies, I got to thinking about the book The Worst Journey in the World. It's a fantastic read on an ill-fated expedition to the South Pole and would be an interesting complimentary read to my Minecraft adventure. Now I'm kicking around a course idea where players have to survive an arctic biome and read survival literature like Worst Journey or perhaps reading about Shackleton's expedition to Antarctica.

Anyway, it has me thinking about other traditional literacies that I could pair up with Minecraft. A few years back I taught a writing class that paired Minecraft and the book World War Z. Our goal was to better understand the experiences of the characters in the book by having similar experiences in-game. The reading and the gameplay fueled our writing. It was fun.

Any thoughts? Based on your in-game experiences what book, movie, or TV show would be a good pairing for the classroom?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worst_Journey_in_the_World

Hi all

Hi all,

Given that warps are springing up all over the server I crafted a Google Doc where we can keep a running list of the warp commands.

Feel free to add any warps you'd like. I added the only two I know, so far.

Hi all

Hi all,

Another postcard from the expanse. I reckon I'm nine days walk due north of the village. I crossed two seas and one large ocean in my tiny birch boat so far. Along the way I spotted my first polar bear. Roaming across the icy mountains I spotted a singular building. Inside a ladder descended deep into the earth. At the bottom of the shaft sat two cages - one with a zombie, the other a witch. After commandeering some of their supplies I fled not sure what exactly was going on in that hut. I continued to venture farther afield.

As my day came to a close, I discovered some interesting geography, and just before logging out for the day I encountered a village. The village sits on the grassy plains beyond the icy mountains. Updates from the village soon.

Two days ago I decided to venture out into the world.

Two days ago I decided to venture out into the world. I picked a direction and proceeded to walk. It was a fun bit of adventure. What struck me was the amount of evidence of people in the map. Just when I thought I'd been farther than ever before, I'd find some half-constructed building or the remains of an abandoned settlement. It's fascinating to get out an see a bit of the world.

Here are a few screenshots from my travels.

I'm a slacker for not getting any in-game pictures, but I got some building time in tonight.

I'm a slacker for not getting any in-game pictures, but I got some building time in tonight. Trying to replace my stone house with a nicer wood structure (with sustainably harvested wood!).

Wandered around back and found an open pit dug by an adventurous explorer. Maybe it's where David Dodgson was digging and found a neighbor?

Tomorrow I need to get serious. I need iron, so it's off to the mines I go!

If you have some time check out Good Games Done Quick.

If you have some time check out Good Games Done Quick. It is a bi-annual charity fundraiser where gamers 'speedrun' games. In speedrunning the goal is to complete a game as fast as possible. Fantastic displays of memorization and systems understanding on display: https://gamesdonequick.com/
https://gamesdonequick.com/

Hi all

Hi all,

As part of the team of moderators of the Minecraft EVO welcome to our ever evolving community.

I've been playing Minecraft since the early days, first getting into it back in 2010. Since then I've done workshops on Minecraft all over the place and taught a university composition class that used Minecraft as a platform for experiential writing. These days I am wrapping up my PhD in which I am investigating collaborative problem solving in video games.

In my freetime I play even more games - The Witcher 3 and Stardew Valley being my current favorites. I also monkey around in VR and have been testing out Minecraft on the HTC Vive.

You'll find me in-world as jkuhn72. Again welcome to the community and as we say in gamer parlance: GLHF (Good luck and have fun!)

YOU ROCK!!

YOU ROCK!!

Awesome work team :) I think we wow'ed the crowd and getting to see the community made the difference!

THANKS!

#evomc16

Anyone else having trouble with the server?

Anyone else having trouble with the server? I'm unable to connect but probably because I am on the wrong version of the game. Is the server running on 1.9.2? Sorry but I forgot :)

Rose Bard and I will show it off at the BrazTESOL conference this week!

#evomc16

After being away far too long I'm back on the server...and can't find my house!

After being away far too long I'm back on the server...and can't find my house! It's not that I don't remember where my house is - it is that I can't get my bearings to point in the right direction things have changed so much. Our world has boomed! Can't wait to get some exploration time in and see all the stuff the community has put together :)

#evomc16

What is neat about games is something called the possibly space.

What is neat about games is something called the possibly space. This is all the possible things you can do in a game. As long as the possibility space is too large for our brain to fully process the game stays interesting.

For example in tic-tac-toe the possibility space is small. That's why small kids love tic-tac-toe but past a certain age it becomes boring - the child's brain can process all the possible moves making it possible to win or force a draw every time (mistakes aside). Chess, however, can be played for life.

Possibility space can also provide room for a key component of the engagement games provide - internalized goals. Most games have a win state such as Mario saves the Princess. When players get engaged by a game they often forsake this win state goal in favor of a 'win state' of their own - I want to collect every coin in Mario without dying.

Which is a long winded way of saying I have found my new internalized goal - to fill in this map on our Admin Office wall!

#evomc16

MC for Cross-Cultural Exchange?

MC for Cross-Cultural Exchange?

Hi all,

For some time I've been kicking this idea around and recently Rose Bard and I emailed about it. Here goes:

We can set up a server for our students as a way for them engage with other students from around the world. Perhaps we can make it a survival world so they learn to cooperate and interact (their teachers being awesome examples!). Then maybe periodically we have change the game mode to creative for mega builds.

During mega-build weeks the kids can build something from their town/country to show the other kids.

I'm still sketching the idea out but the core concept is a shared space to use a shared game as a platform for international exchange/English language practice.

Thoughts?

#evomc16