For many people, gaming serves only as entertainment and nothing more. Many parents even believe that video games and gaming are an absolute waste of time. Back in the 1980s and 90s, there were even authorities in government and education that wanted to ban gaming altogether, if not for the benefits from playing video games that have been proven and compiled over the years. Regardless, video games and gaming have withstood the test of time and today have become a part of daily life.

The Minecraft game and online platform have been around for quite some time and have captured the hearts, minds, and focused interests of millions of gamers worldwide. Gamers, both young and old, immersed themselves in the multitude of Biomes, Maps, and Game Worlds within the Minecraft universe, which have continued to evolve and improve through the years. What's more, the majority of these game worlds are user and gamer-created and shared with the rest of the gaming community.

To increase the relevance of building worlds within Minecraft, Mohjang launched the "Build a Better World" initiative for Minecraft gamers and builders to focus their game-building efforts towards relevant current-day issues and problems that plague society and humanity at large. This way, Minecraft is able to provide a relevant function in today's world through education despite being a video game, and prove that relevant video games can make a difference in our world today.

The Minecraft Initiative

The objective of the initiative is to bring relevance to the gaming world by bringing in real-world situations and realities into the Minecraft universe. By creating maps and games that address these current-day realities, Minecraft is able to bring awareness to, and educate gamers about, the world events, situations, realities, and issues as they are portrayed and brought to life within the Minecraft gaming platform.

The initiative promotes active creation and engagement instead of just playing the games. It encourages gamers to become creators and build games and worlds about important and relevant issues. This promotes a deeper level of immersion, understanding, and interaction as the created games delves into an activity beyond simple playing.

The initiative provides the development of technological and informative relevant skills. By being involved and active with the initiative, creators and students develop skills that go beyond game creation, programming, and design. These include skills like problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity, among others. Skills that are useful as well in other areas of daily life.

The initiative promotes current-day and historical issues on several relevant themes like the environment, ecology, the problems of society, relevant history, and many more. Minecraft creators and gamers are encouraged to explore these diverse topics and themes and create content that shares these realities and opens discussions and education for all.

The initiative makes complex realities accessible via the game. This way, gamers are able to experience a simulation of a real-world event, location, and issue not otherwise possible through entertainment gaming. This will give the gamer a simulated hands-on experience on how to deal with the topic and learn from it. What’s more, it enables the gamer to explore, experiment, and learn from such an experience.

The initiative enables collaboration and shared learning as it promotes a collaborative environment where content creators, designers, and game programmers, both experienced and beginners, can share their ideas and support each other. In instances like these, everyone learns and contributes to the overall collective effort, which actually mirrors how collaboration as a whole solves real-world problems and issues.

These are but a few of the results that have come out of the initiative as there are more that are coming out over time. Regardless, the goals of the initiative is to make the public aware of the importance of relevant gaming and the positive results it can bring to the masses.

For those interested and intending to join the initiative, may we suggest paying a visit to buildersfans where one can find lots of ideas on building in the Minecraft environment.

Better Worlds

Here are a few topics, issues, and realities that have been ported over to the Minecraft universe by content creators through the "Build a Better World" initiative.

Experience life as an animal in the different environments on the planet. Live as a whale, a penguin, a polar bear, or any other animal in the Arctic and Antarctic. These will give insights on how global warming and climate change are impacting their lives. Animal life in warm and hot places like the deserts or the temperate equatorial jungles, rivers, and seas can be experienced as well. There are already maps and games on the platform that focus on these relevant issues.

A good example of the initiative is the Mangrove Restoration Project titled "Booted Together", a Minecraft world that explores the Mangrove environments in temperate swamps worldwide. The game simulates and encourages the activity of saving global Mangrove areas from climate change as it brings the environment and relevant issues in game form.

Another one is "Latine Explorers", an experience that delves into community and societal everyday life. Created in partnership with the "Hispanic Heritage Foundation" to help young gamers build leadership skills, as well as inspire everyone to positive local action. Players are confronted with a number of issues and available courses of action, from saving endangered animals to delivering medical supplies.

Also, there is "Peace Builders", an experience that lets the player build for peace, whether it's actually building relevant structures like churches, city halls, hospitals, and others, or taking part in relevant movements across the globe like stopping wars and even picketing for a worthy cause. The game has a diverse choice of actions to take all towards the end goal of reaching peace for all men.

There are many more and these are just a few examples of what is being done with the initiative. As these has been going on for some time, many relevant issue games and experiences are now available on the platform for Minecraft gamers worldwide to experience. Hopefully, this will encourage many, if not all, to start building a better world for real and make a difference.