The game must go on!

Do you know what Adamantis is It is a city built using sixty million blocks by gamer jamdelaney1 who spent three months creating it Itrsquos much like Legos on steroidsThatrsquos the beauty of Minecraft You can literally build anything your mind can conjure from towering skyscrapers to sprawling underwater cities or a replica of the Taj Mahal or the Sistine Chapel The possibilities are endlessThe game is a playground for anyone with an imagination ldquoItrsquos like having a second life which you can build using blocksrdquo says Mithilesh Patankar Popular by his gaming name Mythpat who has over 14 million subscribers on YouTube Patankar began playing Minecraft only in 202021 He says that audiences enjoy streaming Minecraft gaming videos because no two Minecraft stories are alike ldquoI began playing it in the lockdown and I think I must have got easily five to six million subscribers only because of the Minecraft videosrdquo he adds He admits he began playing it for the views but soon started enjoying the game Although he says he has no set playing style ldquoI think I play it quite badly and the audience enjoys seeing me fail and exploring the gamerdquoGamer Mythpat Mithilesh Patankar who has 14 million followers on YouTube started playing Minecraft in the lockdown ldquoPeople enjoy watching me fail and explorerdquo he saysBut Minecraft has become more than a game According to YouTubersquos official blog the gamersquos streaming videos alone have more than 15 trillion views on YouTube We have all spent hours watching pixelated adventures unfoldmdashfrom survival tutorials to elaborate server builds therersquos something for every kind of viewerFor a gaming YouTuber the draw towards the game is perhaps the ability to create worlds tell stories and joke aroundmdashall of which makes for excellent streamable content But for many others itrsquos Minecraftrsquos simple graphics and free form and the availability of several devices that keeps the game excitingMinecraft was released to the public on TIGSource forum a hub for independent game creators in early May 2009 Shagun Shah an experienced and wellknown game developer and investment professional first played the game when it was initially released He bought it with fellow avid video gamers to test it out ldquoVideo games then had heavy RPG and were curated experiences Minecraft on the other hand was a freeform sandbox game At the time when it was released there wasnrsquot anything quite like it on the market It was essentially like digital Lego so it was easy for people to pick it uprdquo he says Anshu Bisht Shagun Shah Kashyap Reddy and Saumya IyerMarkus ldquoNotchrdquo Persson the gamersquos creator incorporated feedback from internet gaming forums to refine the experience This version is now known as Classic and over the next few months there were further updates before the significant Alpha update arrived in June 2010 This marked a turning point as Minecraftrsquos popularity began to snowball By December 2010 a Beta version was availableNotch founded the video gaming company Mojang with a few others and continued to develop the game Minecraftrsquos full version was released in November 2011 and eventually Mojang and Minecrat was bought over by Microsoft in 2017Speaking on the popularity of the game Saumya Iyer who currently works as a mobile games producer and has been playing games since they were on DOS says ldquoA lot of it is because it offers so much to players They can express their creativity where players feel like they are creating the game And the game developers are very supportive offering constant updatesrdquo Iyer adds that some players build fantastic architecture in the game Some examples you can see across the globe include a render of the Titanic Minas Tirith among othersAccording to Mojang Studios over 200 billion blocks have been placed in the game The everevolving world of Minecraft sees players of all ages With constant updates and a thriving modding an act or instance of modifying something community the game offers fresh experiences even for seasoned players ldquoItrsquos my alltime favourite game I donrsquot think Irsquoll ever stop playing Minecraftrdquo says Anshu Bisht who is better known as Gamer Fleet on YouTube and has 39 million followers Initially he would only stream other creatorsrsquo Minecraft videos but now the game has helped him make new friends Now his own games garner over 100K views with his humorous commentary adding an edge ldquoI kill everyone in the gamerdquo he says laughingWho knew battling creepers and mining for diamonds could be so addictive But perhaps the most special aspect of Minecraft is its ability to connect people ldquoMinecraftrsquos community is extremely strong worldwiderdquo mentions PatankarWhether yoursquore building a magnificent castle with friends online or introducing your child to the wonders of redstone engineering the game fosters a sense of community and shared experience Kashyap Reddy CEO and cofounder of Hitwicket says ldquoI have noticed that kids generally tend to play with kids of their own age but thatrsquos not the case with Minecraft The gamersquos community aspect brings everyone together Such games also spark an interest in computers My nephews play the game and it got them interested in codingrdquoFifteen years on itrsquos remarkable that Minecraft has managed to keep gamers regardless of age interested What truly makes it stick ldquoEvery once so often you have a game that is a genredefiner Minecraft was the spark for a whole set of creative sandbox games which eventually lead to something like a Fortniterdquo says Shah He lists another example of this PUBG Battlegrounds a battle royale game based on modifications created by Brendan ldquoPlayerUnknownrdquo Greene for other games ldquoRelease of certain games are watershed moments where they have tried something so new and it comes together so well at which point itrsquos purely organic downloads And then you back that up with a marketing apparatusrdquo adds ShahFor fans of the game and gaming YouTubers want to see more ldquoI want to see Minecraft as a sport in India As a creator I will try my best to make this happenrdquo concludes Bisht15 trillionViews that Minecraft streaming videos have garnered on YouTube since its inception in 2009