WEEKLY NEWSLETTER – MC Wiki, MC Live, Kibo

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The not-so weekly newsletter is back with another quick fire round of news and links. Inside: Minecraft Wiki is changing, MineCon 2023 is coming up and Minecraft’s art and architecture keeps impressing.

Minecraft Wiki has moved home

The Minecraft Wiki has moved it’s website URL. The old wiki was hosted on Fandom software, meaning there were limitations and forced sidebar/pop-up ads/Fandom accounts. The new wiki’s URL is a short and sweet Minecraft.Wiki and is a stand-alone website. The old Fandom website will continue to exist and rank high in search results, but users are urged to use and support the new wiki!

The new wiki features a modified custom theme with a useful navigation sidebar, bright updated design and better layout. More info, including on account migration from Fandom, can be found on the wiki.

Worth noting: Minecraft Wiki is not Officially supported by or affiliated with the developers – especially after Microsoft got legally involved. Nevertheless, the official Minecraft.Com (formerly Minecraft.Net) website navigates visitors to said Wiki, stating that these “players know the game way better than us“.

Long live MineCon: MC Live 2023

Last month Minecraft Live 2023 was announced with all dates. The Mob Vote is set to begin on the great date of Friday 13th October, while the Minecraft Live (formerly MineCon) is on Sunday 15th October. Microsoft is cutting costs, and has conveniently ceased organizing physical MineCon events since 2020.

Details of the Mob Vote are being released as the date gets nearer. So far we know of the Crab! Side note, Mojang has a rule that no real life animal can be added as a hostile mob (animal cruelty). Friendly crab! They will live in the new Mangrove swamps and their claws will extend the block reach of builders. One commenter suggests: “Would be nice if they could spawn in beaches, regular swamps, and oceans too”.

Update! JUST IN! Right as this post was being published, the second mob was revealed as the real life Armadillo. It will live in the Savannah and drop scute – used to make wolf armor to protect your dog.

Update! JUST IN! The last mob in the vote is the rumored Penguin. They will live in the stony shores and help your boat go faster, meaning they will act in the same way that dolphins make you swim fast. This option seems to be the usual highly desirable but generally useless third mob. Not that everything needs a purpose – this is your reminded that Bats exist.

As one commenter points out, even if a mob loses, that doesn’t mean that it’s respective theme or biome won’t be elaborated on in future updates. For example, the Desert biome which lost in the 2018 biome vote got camels, while some losing mobs from other votes were added to Minecraft Dungeons.

Kibo sculpture: MC as an art form

One great example of the beauty and technical possibilities of the game is Kibo Sculpture Competition. At the end of each year organic builders get together to make the best sculpture and compete for $200 – $1500 in prizes. The date for Kibo 2023 (Competition V) is approaching and likely to be announced soon.

In Kibo 2022 (Competition IV), the judging was done based off technique, creativity and clarity (message). The website directly refers to Minecraft as a “medium” – in the right circumstances, the game becomes no more than a 3D voxel painter, a medium to create art. The builders combine various programs and mods to create the final product, like Arceon, ZBrush and Blender. More from the Kibo website:

“Kibo is an organic builds collective within the Minecraft Building Community, focused on promoting and engaging creators through their art. (…) in collaboration with Builders Refuge, inviting organic builders from across the globe to participate in a head-to-head event.”

Minecraft architecture in a museum

Architecture is both function and form. And sculpture isn’t the only way to express beauty in Minecraft. Enter: architecture builds.

Re-creations of famous Minecraft buildings have been showcased in a few museum exhibitions around the world, such as Team Lyrah’s builds in the National Gallery of Paris back in 2015, or their 2017 Bauhaus workshop at the ADAMuseum in Brussels.

As BIG architect Bjarke Ingels himself put it, “architecture should be more like Minecraft” when talking about creativity. Minecraft YouTuber Alpine1 reflects on the influence of Minecraft on the new generation of architects in this video (sadly, the video has been renamed to “influence of MC on Gen-Z”.)

Other links and closing thoughts

Furthermore, here is a related video dedicated to builders of Minecraft art. And if you prefer to play with mods, Ultimate Immersion aims to enable players to create Blender-like photo-realistic builds inside their world. Terrain builders might appreciate Roudium’s guides or this terraforming jargon I came across.

I hope this post has been interesting. Stay informed on the Premium Minecraft blog. Thanks!