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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Stuart Dredge

Minecon 2015: day one of the annual Minecraft conference - live

Minecon 2015 is a celebration of the Minecraft community.
Minecon 2015 is a celebration of the Minecraft community. Photograph: Stuart Dredge for the Guardian

And if you’re reading this on Sunday, day two’s liveblog is now up and running...

Actually, I’ll just leave these Vines here...

Time to wander off, get some food and queue up for the evening’s show: I’ll try to post some photos on the way home to wrap up this day one liveblog, before starting all over again in the morning.

The final panel at day one of Minecon draws a crowd: Geoff Ramsey and Matt Bragg of Achievement Hunter, a division of online video studio Rooster Teeth, that’s one of the longest-running games shows on YouTube.

Achievement Hunter's Ramsay and Bragg at Minecon.
Achievement Hunter’s Ramsay and Bragg at Minecon. Photograph: Stuart Dredge for the Guardian

They promise an “intimate panel”, by which they mean they haven’t prepared anything to talk about beyond asking the audience for questions. The first few don’t go hugely well - a man in a big bow tries to get the audience to shout his name for a video without success, and someone asks Bragg what three things he’d buy from Tesco (“Three bottles of whisky,” he says. Some parents leave with their children at a trot.)

What would they be if they weren’t YouTubers? “Do they pay you for sleeping?” says Bragg. “I would probably be a rocket scientist,” says Ramsey. “An astronaut maybe.” Although the more prosaic truth is he thinks he’d still be working in a “miserable” job in a tech support company.

Advice for people who want to work for a company like Rooster Teeth: “We have 102 employees at Rooster Teeth now, which is way too many! I don’t know 60 of them,” jokes Ramsey. But that now also includes audio engineers, animators, HR and finance people (“smart people, they use calculators to do accounting stuff”) and so on. He says the company tries to hire from within its community of viewers and fans.

What is the future of Minecraft on their channel? “Minecraft was never intended to be a flagship show for us. It was intended to be one single Let’s Play, and it turned out to be the grandest sandbox in the world,” says Ramsey. “There aren’t a lot of games out there that offer the same opportunities that Minecraft does... People like to complain that we’re bored of it, but really not... There’s still so much stuff that you can do in a game like Minecraft.”

If they could have any animal in Minecraft as a boss, what would it be? “How about Cerberus? You could tame it and have a three-headed dog following you around,” says Bragg. “I’ve always wanted to fight a unicorn,” adds Ramsey, putting a big smile on the face of the young boy who asked the question.

Imagine my relief when I clicked through and discovered this was a “parody account”. In fairness, most people here could simply craft their own gates of heaven as an alternative.

Look, one school of thought says this is £40 down the drain. But the other says if I’d brought my two sons it would have cost £258 for their tickets, more in food, they’d still have demanded the swords, and I’d have got about 10% of the liveblogging done. I feel I’m up in this deal.

I’ve just written a standalone piece about Minecraft: Story Mode, the new narrative-driven adventure game that’s the result of a partnership between Mojang and Telltale Games (of The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones adventure-games fame).

Telltale looked back to the 1980s for inspiration. “We wanted a story that evoked the classic film stories that we were passionate about,” said Stauffer.

“The movies we grew up with, the two tentpoles we called out were Goonies and Ghostbusters... movies that they just don’t make any more, not like that,” he said, before admitting that a more recent film, The Incredibles, has also been an influence.

“Roleplaying is pretty key. In a Telltale game where you’re driving the story, it’s literally roleplaying. You’re going to be able to play Jesse however you want to play him,” said Stauffer.

“You might have to decide which friends you want to be with the most, and which ones you’re going to have to leave behind. It’s about driving the story, role-playing as a character, and there’s a lot of tough decisions.”

Read the full story here.

In a session: “Has anyone here killed an Ender Dragon?” Every child within 50 feet of me puts their hand up, while mine stays down. Feeling so ashamed right now.

A lovely scene at the end of the last session: a mother next to me patiently encouraging her shy son to wave to YouTuber CaptainSparklez. When he finally plucked up the courage, and got a wave back, the child screamed and then flung himself into his mum’s arms. She wins all the parent points.

More tweets from around the show:

Here’s the teaser trailer for Minecraft: Story Mode that was shown earlier today at Minecon for the first time. It’s the more narrative-focused game being worked on by Telltale Games and Mojang.

I sat in on the panel session about live-streaming Minecraft on Twitch, with panellists including Chad Johnson (OMG Chad is his handle online), Matt Zagursky (Sevadus), Bacon Donut (real name unknown), Martyn Littlewood from British gaming network Yogscast, and Jordan Maron (CaptainSparklez).

The live-streaming panel at Minecon 2015.
The live-streaming panel at Minecon 2015. Photograph: Stuart Dredge for the Guardian

Why live-stream? “One of the advantages is I can’t get bored because there’s always thousands of people yelling at me and commenting on how horribly I’m doing something,” said Johnson. “When I’m streaming it’s much more about the audience than it is about the game. I don’t have to be good at it, I don’t have to do it well!”

“I’m pretty bad at games, so I just try to compensate by being funny,” agreed Bacon Donut. “And I love being in front of an audience, because I can immediately tell if something is working.” Meanwhile, Maron said that he sees live-streaming as being “way more casual” than shooting and editing YouTube videos (which he still does as well). “I just play and have a good time and don’t really have to worry.”

Johnson talked enthusiastically about live-streams to benefit charitable causes, and Zagursky agreed. “To be able to take that kind of influence and to be able to leverage it for something good is amazing. We’re approached a lot to help out, and we always find a way to say yes,” he said. Yogscast runs charity live-streams every Christmas, with Littlewood describing it as an “overwhelming experience”. He praised charity Gaming for Good as one of the organisations spurring action in this area.

The panel were asked about embarrassing incidents while live-streaming. “Every few minutes I do something stupid,” said Zagursky. “I’ve kinda built a career out of embarrassing myself so it’s a little hard to pinpoint certain things,” agreed Donut. Most of the panel, it turned out, had accidentally started streaming when they didn’t mean to, several times. “I was asleep and my cat stepped on the home key, which is my normal hot key to start streaming. And there is 10 minutes of me asleep until my friend saw it and gave me a call,” said Johnson. “You could even see the cat at the beginning, rubbing his face on my mic and then chewing something he shouldn’t... That actually got television shows talking about it.”

The panel also talked about taking donations during their live-streams, and the ethics of people tipping to get shout-outs. “It’s an interesting line to walk between recognising people who are financially contributing and supporting the stream,” said Littlewood. “I never want to put that kind of paywall... but if somebody does pay, I will say thank you to them.”

What has doing online video improved about the panellists. “I definitely think YouTube, streaming all that stuff has helped with my ability to communicate,” said Maron. “Highly recommended to anyone out there: do some streaming!” Interestingly, when asked if they had to choose between YouTube and Twitch, several of the panellists said they’d pick Twitch - because they thrive on the live interaction with viewers. That would be why YouTube is beefing up its games live-streaming activities, then...

Updated

The Ender Dragon swoops on Big Ben. Which has given me an idea for a Doctor Who crossover episode...
The Ender Dragon swoops on Big Ben. Which has given me an idea for a Doctor Who crossover episode... Photograph: Stuart Dredge for the Guardian

Anyway yes, the Hololens demo. I bagged a 10-minute slot in Microsoft’s demonstration room at Minecon, where visitors are getting essentially the same demo that was shown at E3 (above) and tried by my colleague Keith Stuart at that show.

You switch between playing regular Minecraft on a virtual screen projected on the wall, and seeing a zoomed-out birds-eye view projected onto a table in front of you. The set-piece moment is crouching down to look under ground-level: a Dorling Kindersley-esque cutaway view that lets you pinpoint rare materials or interesting caves, mark them, and then explore using the normal view.

Aside from an awkward moment where I mistargeted a lightning strike and set swathes of scenery on fire that I wasn’t supposed to, it ran like clockwork: no obvious technical glitches. It is making me wonder how this kind of hardware will affect the gameplay though, with one player able to zoom out into a kind of “god view” while others scurry around on the surface.

That might actually be one good use for Hololens: the headset wearer playing vengeful deity while friends with regular joypads try to protect themselves and hide away. I sense this may be the next creative job for Mojang and Microsoft though: it’s technically possible to run Minecraft on Hololens, so how do they use that capability in interesting ways?

There’s currently a costume contest taking place on the main stage at Minecon, with added peril provided by the fact that half the children taking part are wearing boxes on their heads with not-quite-rightly-aligned eye-holes. Exiting stage left is a potential death trap *Lynne Faulds Wood face*

In other news, I bumped into Stampy on my way out of the Hololens demo room, and shook his hand. My sons are going to be excited by my proximity to fame OR furious at missing out. Place your bets now.

“I only swiped right on her because her profile promised an explosive date...”

Creeper selfies are being taken by the dozen today.
Creeper selfies are being taken by the dozen today. Photograph: Stuart Dredge for the Guardian

I’ve been wandering the expo, where there’s plenty to see:

I’m off for a wander, so there’ll be no updates for a bit, but check back for more sights from the show, panel reports and *whispers* thoughts on the Hololens Minecraft demo over the course of the afternoon.

“How much time do you spend watching Minecraft videos on YouTube?” asks the host of the session. “Years,” mutters a mother sat behind me. But then Stampy returns to the stage with iBallisticSquid.

It’s an interesting dilemma: if your job is playing Minecraft for videos on YouTube, what does that mean in a live setting? Playing Minecraft on a massive conference-venue screen, of course, using some of the challenges that debuted online.

To wit: iBallisticSquid tries to find the ingredients for a pumpkin pie and make it, while blindfolded, based on voice instructions from Stampy. A pair of young fans chosen from the audience are competing with them. The 2,000-odd children who weren’t chosen are initially a little flat, until encouraged to shout their own instructions out.

Stampy's session at Minecon 2015.
Stampy’s session at Minecon 2015. Photograph: Stuart Dredge for the Guardian

It’s taking quite a long time. “Shall we say ‘the first person to find a pumpkin wins?” says Stampy, with the expression of a man who’s just realised a.) this could go on for hours and b.) if he doesn’t let the children win, this might become a bad scene.

iBallisticSquid solves that by falling down a ravine. This could last longer than my regular three-hour-long sessions of trying to lose Top Trumps to my son. Happily, when time is called, the children prevail.

Updated

It’s notable how key the YouTubers are to Minecraft and Minecon now, and perhaps worthwhile contrasting Mojang’s approach to some other games companies, who’ve seen fan-made videos on YouTube as copyright infringement, or something to try to make money directly from.

Here’s how Mojang’s Vu Bui explained his company’s alternative approach to the Guardian last year:

“We have a whole slew of people who are making their entire living just off making videos about Minecraft. Just the economics of that – how many people are making a living off this one IP – is pretty awesome,” says Bui.

“That doesn’t take anything away from us, and I would say it actually adds value to Minecraft, to have people who are extremely talented and creative doing things. We’ve essentially outsourced YouTube videos to a community of millions of people, and what they come up with is more creative than anything we could make ourselves.”

There are limits: Mojang’s rule is that uploading videos to YouTube is fine, but selling them on iTunes or other video-on-demand services is not – the key being whether creators are charging fans.

“There’s no damage to us from YouTube. We might have some people who make content we might not agree with, but this is how the democratisation of media works. You put it out there and let the community decide,” says Bui. “If someone’s putting out rubbish, the community is not going to watch it, and it won’t rise to the top.”

People are beginning to explore the show (I’m still in the main-stage room waiting for Stampy’s session wearing my best “I’m a JOURNALIST that’s why I am taking pictures and don’t have children with me don’t freak out fellow parents” expression).

It appears to be all about the animals so far. And the odd winged beast attacking Big Ben, obviously.

Genuine quotes from young Minecon attendees sat around me over the last couple of hours:

  • “I’ve seen the lead Mojang developer, this is SO COOL!”
  • “Are we getting a Hololens? Why not? Can I have one for Christmas?”
  • “Yes that IS iBallisticSquid, Dad. He doesn’t have a squid head in real life. Obviously.”
  • “GET ME CAKE NEXT.”

Although I have to say, there was also a very involved discussion between two children sat behind me about the ins and outs of using redstone in Minecraft that was so above my level, I wanted to take notes.

Updated

Winters gets to the “boring” part of the opening session: explaining the rules: no running, no pushing, don’t hassle YouTubers and so on.

To make it somewhat less boring, she invites Stampy on-stage, who in turn is ambushed by fellow YouTubers iBallisticSquid and The Diamond Minecart. Several children around me explode in excitement at this point.

And they finish off with the previously-unseen trailer for Minecraft: Story Mode, the game that Mojang is making with partner Telltale Games. The show is now well and truly started.

“We want to talk about Minecraft on Microsoft Hololens,” says Bui, referring to Mojang’s owner’s augmented-reality headset. Minecraft was demonstrated on the device a few weeks ago at the E3 show in Los Angeles. Rather than talk about it, though, they show the video of the E3 reveal.

Minecraft's E3 demo working on Microsoft's Hololens.
Minecraft’s E3 demo working on Microsoft’s Hololens. Photograph: Stuart Dredge for the Guardian

More news? Winters invites Mojang lead developer Jens Bergenstein and Microsoft’s Hololens developer to talk about the new version.

Microsoft is running 15-minute demos of Minecraft on Hololens for 25 “golden ticket” winners throughout Minecon. “Everything you saw works,” stresses Bergenstein, of the E3 demo. “From now on, it’s about getting the experience perfect,” adds the Microsoft man (whose name I didn’t catch, apologies).

The best features? Playing on a nearby wall, and using lightning strikes he says. Bergenstein: “Just to be able to see the world from an ant-farm perspective, where you can see and look around a miniature world. It’s quite amazing.”

Bergenstein will be showing off some new features for future Minecraft updates in a panel session tomorrow, at the show, he adds before leaving.

A man from the UN is up next to talk about the Block By Block project between Mojang and the UN, which aims to involve citizens in public space design. “We are incredibly proud of the work we’ve been doing with UN Habitat,” adds Winters.

Vu Vui and Lydia Winters on-stage at Minecon.
Vu Vui and Lydia Winters on-stage at Minecon. Photograph: Stuart Dredge for the Guardian

She introduces Mojang COO Vu Bui to show a quick video about Minecraft in education - there’ll be panels on this over the course of the weekend - and to introduce some of the other themes and sights from the show.

That includes showing off Mattel’s stop-motion Minecraft movie-making app that I wrote about earlier, and promising some spectacular artworks from artist Greg Aronowitz, who’s worked with Mojang at several Minecons to create physical Minecraft art.

Updated

Minecon's opening ceremony gets underway

Mojang’s Lydia Winters takes to the stage, accompanied by fireworks, quickly segueing into an introductory video showing Minecraft characters exploring London with all the landmarks you’d expect.

Winters says 73 countries are represented in the audience, with the furthest-travelled attendees having come from New Zealand.

A man from Guinness World Records joins her, to explain that Minecon has just set the record for “the largest convention for a single video game” with its 10,000 ticket sales.

Updated

Minecon 2015 opening ceremony begins

I say “about to kick off” - the start has been delayed so everyone can get in from outside the cavernous main-stage room.

I’m experiencing the odd connectivity problem so if that continues, I’ll write up the main bits from the opening ceremony and publish at the end. This is less a minute-by-minute liveblog, more a byte-by-byte-when-I-can-transmit-them one...

The opening ceremony is about to kick off. If you want to watch live, it’s also being streamed on Twitch.

In size, the main-stage room at Minecon feels similar to the big room at the Moscone West venue in San Francisco where Apple holds its WWDC keynotes.

In atmosphere, though, the only thing I can compare it to is a Nintendo press conference at the E3 show a few years ago. I was sandwiched between a man dressed as Mario and a man dressed as a mushroom. Everyone in the room was a professional journalist.

It’s hard to judge the mix of ages in the room: I’d say maybe a sixth are children, perhaps more. I’ve heard a range of accents while queuing to get in too: families have flown to London on their holidays to attend.

The UK’s minister of state for culture and the digital economy Ed Vaizey is tweeting about Minecon:

I’m not sure if he’s here or not. Maybe he’s come incognito in an Enderman costume.

Possible sources of unrest at Minecon 2015:

  • Children bumping into things when their cardboard-box Steve heads slip.
  • Parents realising their phones are out of battery by lunchtime because they let their kids play Crossy Road in the queue.
  • Sudden, crushing realisation that Stampy isn’t a cat after all.
  • Ejections from the Excel building after tunnelling into its walls looking for diamond.

Last weekend I was dancing in the dark to loud dance music at the Block 9 complex in Glastonbury, surrounded by excitable people waving glow-sticks. Now, I’m sitting in a dark room listening to loud dance music at Minecon, surrounded by excitable parents and children waving replica Minecraft axes. It’s a little bit frightening.

I’m also craving some noodles and a pint of head-spinningly strong cider, but I suspect I’ll have no luck finding those this weekend...

While we’re waiting, this beautiful piece by my colleague Keith Stuart is worth a read, if you’ve not seen it before.

It explains why for a lot of children and parents - especially those like Keith whose children have been diagnosed with autism - Minecraft is much more than just a game:

“I knew Zac better, I understood him a little. He was telling us more. Minecraft seemed to have given him both a vocabulary and the confidence to use it. So when the documentary producer asked me about that game, I just gushed; I talked about how it was being used in schools to help teach kids everything from physics to architecture, but most of all I talked about how it created a safe and creative space for a lot of children who may struggle to find safe and creative spaces elsewhere. “I’d love to shake the hand of the guy who designed that game,” I said. I think the emotion behind that sentiment was palpable on screen. And then they stopped filming, and I suppose I was crying a little bit.”

Some tweets as we await the start of the opening ceremony:

And a strong early contender for the Minecraft costume contest that’s happening later, perhaps:

Joseph “Stampy” Garrett is one of the big draws on day one of Minecon. The YouTube star will be joined by some of his friends (Sqaishey Quack, iBallisticSquid, AmyLee33, AshDubh and Netty Plays) to play Minecraft live on-stage from midday.

Joseph Garrett at the launch of Wonder Quest in Los Angeles.
Joseph Garrett at the launch of Wonder Quest in Los Angeles. Photograph: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for YouTube

Here’s an extract from the Guardian’s recent interview with Garrett about his Wonder Quest show on YouTube:

“It’s all my friends. People on the street might not know who they are, but if you ask a fan of YouTube or Minecraft, these are superstars!” says Garrett, who says he relishes the fact that this group of creators have managed to become big stars for their viewers while remaining under the radar in the wider media world.

“It’s fun being in that position of not being completely mainstream. I can come up with an idea for a video, and I don’t need to pitch it to anyone or get approval. If I’m tweeting or replying to someone, it’s me: there’s no PR company talking about what I should say,” says Garrett. “Mainstream approval is something I’m not interested in.”

And here’s the first series of Wonder Quest as a YouTube playlist, if you’re looking to catch up:

Here’s our story from earlier in the week about what to expect from Minecon:

“Highlights include panels and live “let’s play” sessions featuring the creators of Minecraft-focused YouTube channels Stampy, The Diamond Minecart and Captain Sparklez, as well as sessions giving a glimpse at what’s next for Minecraft.

The latter includes members of Mojang and fellow games developer Telltale Games teaming up for a talk about their plans for Minecraft: Story Mode - a new “narrative-driven” game set in the Minecraft universe.

Mojang staff will also host a session talking about “upcoming features” in the main game, while YouTube will run one giving advice to players who want to find their own online-video stardom through Minecraft.”

Everything kicks off at 10.30am today with the opening ceremony, although Mojang has been keeping the details of its contents close to its chest.

Lost children can go to the information desk to be reunited with their parents. But perhaps the conference is tackling this the wrong way round...

Steve! Steve! Steve!

Minecraft Steve mini-figure from Minecon 2015.
Minecraft Steve mini-figure from Minecon 2015. Photograph: Stuart Dredge for the Guardian

Mini-Steve with his Minecon cape. Incidentally, Mattel recently launched a smartphone and tablet app for children to make their own stop-motion movies using Minecraft mini-figures. It’s officially licensed - some of the Mojang team made their own demo video for it - and is available for Android and for iOS.

I will hazard a guess that the average nine year-old could easily outdo my first effort yesterday:

From yesterday’s preview of Minecon, here’s Mojang’s Vu Bui on why the conference is all about the community, rather than the company that created Minecraft:

“If you ask people what their favourite things are to do in Minecraft, the majority would have been created by people outside of Mojang,” he said. “Some people just like to watch Minecraft videos on YouTube, and others play ‘mods’ created by the community. This is not just about a game you download: it’s about the people in the community who are creating on top of it. And this is the one time of the year we get to bring that community together in the real world.”

When I spoke to Bui earlier this week, he promised a few surprises over the course of the weekend, but warned against expecting major announcements. He could have been throwing me off the scent, of course...

Minecon 2015 swag for every attendee.
Minecon 2015 swag for every attendee. Photograph: Stuart Dredge for the Guardian

Every Minecon attendee gets a goodie bag when they register at the Excel venue. The bag itself is pretty nice, but it also includes a pen, a notepad, a lanyard, a pin-badge, a commemorative medal, and an exclusive Steve mini-figure wearing a Minecon 2015 cape.

Welcome to Minecon 2015

In 2009, games developer Markus “Notch” Persson released the first version of Minecraft. Six years on, it has sold 70m copies across computers, consoles and mobile devices, becoming a cultural touchstone for a generation of children in the process.

Minecraft is a merchandising juggernaut; the engine driving the careers of some of YouTube’s biggest stars; expanding into the educational world; and it persuaded Microsoft to buy Persson’s Mojang studio for $2.5bn in 2014.

But most importantly, Minecraft is a global community of players. Once a year, thousands of them come together for the Minecon conference, and this weekend sees Minecon 2015 lay down its blocks in London.

I’m going to be here all weekend reporting on the panel sessions, exhibitors and the general sights and sounds of Minecraft culture - so check back regularly for updates from the show.

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