Minecraft! Minecraft! Minecraft! | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. too this is stuff you should know that. in way over our heads. Additionally the help parents understand. what their child is doing in their room. all day Edition I hope so but I suspect. that more than just parents are going to.

listen to this and I've never been more. nervous about what a group of. 8-year-olds thinks of me than I am right. now cuz I know I I know too much about. Minecraft like I can go way too deep in. it but I also feel very clearly I don't. know enough to not get hate mail for. misspeaking yeah I would maybe not dig. too deep on this one because the deeper. you go the more you. risk being mad for sure but one of the. key things about Minecraft is like it's.

nothing but rabbit holes you you look up. one thing and all of a sudden that leads. to 10 other things and those 10 other. things lead to 20 other things each and. it's so fascinating how complex and. complicated this whole thing is. especially when you understand the. actual mechanics of how the these worlds. are built how they originate how simple. it is it's just I love it I I love. Minecraft a lot if I didn't get addicted. to things that I like um I would. probably start playing Minecraft but I.

know that that would ruin my life well. I'm glad you're addicted to podcasting. with me I totally am I can't get enough. of it yeah I mean if that wasn't clear. all that that we just said like this is. officially a COA like this will be a a. broad overview of a very very very dense. game that neither one of us play. so uh we're going to get stuff wrong. we're not going to dive into things you. want us to dive into so the email be.

disappointed yeah like I can't believe. you didn't mention blank like just save. [Laughter]. it and thanks to Ruby we got a little. help uh yeah sent some some questions. last night um that I guess you know. we'll pepper in it if they apply for. sure yeah there was a few things that I. just couldn't nail down and I was like. I'll bet Ruby knows this and sure enough. she did yeah well maybe I mean she. doesn't really play anymore she played. I'm kind of glad about this like. Minecraft is a wonderful game and we're.

go we'll go over the benefits of it. because there are many compared to most. video games um but it's also a game and. we'll go over the pitfalls uh it's also. a game that can really get under your. skin as a kid and and as an adult I. guess MH uh but what it's not great if. you're a kid and you have other things. like schooling to do uh if you have a. kid that's super super super super into. it and she never got that into it she. really enjoyed it but she's a kind of. kid if like you take it away or goes.

away for a minute she's like what all. right I'll just do something else which. is she just good she's not going to give. you the satisfaction of punishing maybe. I don't know honestly think she just. forgets oh cool because she was all into. the Roblox game which is a whole other. kind of game uh and like really into it. and as a punishment for something we we. wiped it off our iPad along with. everything else except for music like. were you yelling when you did it no but. we just clean the iPad free of. everything except for podcast and music.

and it's like the next day she was like. oh all right whatever that reminds me do. you remember Dr cats the 90s cartoon. with the squiggly lines of course it. loved cats and Dom marera was a regular. on that oh man he was he was a bit yeah. he is great he was talking about how. cats just never give you the. satisfaction yeah of like no matter what. you do to them they're not going to let. on that you've bothered them so like he. he gave the example of throwing a cat. through the air and the cat would be.

like thanks my man I wanted to go this. way. anyway into cats too so maybe that's it. yeah for sure she says she's part cat. there you go I think that's what it is. maybe so that's fine yeah for sure um so. I think we should give a little bit of. background on Minecraft for people who. don't know what Minecraft is surely I. mean at the very least most people. walking around know that it's a very. very very popular video game right yeah.

I mean I think so and we'll get into the. history but at its base it is a um you. know if you look at it it goes counter. to a lot of like the the re the way it. got popular is just almost astounding in. some ways could it it goes counter to. most video games these days which try to. make things very very reall looking and. Minecraft is very blocky and pixelated. in old school and it's sort of like an. interactive Lego game it's called The. Sandbox game where you can just go.

around and and build things you mine. things to craft with yeah I mean that's. the point and there's plenty of things. to do like it's not like there like. nothing happens yeah sure like like you. can because there are so few rules. because there's no real point to it. there's not like a game that you like. want to win or conquer or anything like. that like it's essentially up to the. limits of your imagination what you do. in this amazing blocky world yeah and.

and despite those blocks despite the. fact that there is no real plot uh it is. the best selling PC game of all time uh. second to Tetris as the biggest video. game in Tetris by the way that's coming. we need to do that's got a great story. to it okay so we need to do one of those. but um yeah it's it's one of the alltime. Giants and it was created by a kind not. very good dude named Marcus with a C a.

person of Sweden AKA. Notch yeah and he was a coder from way. back like he taught himself on a. Commodore 128 which came out in. 1985 not quite sure how old he was when. he was working on it but just suffice to. say like that's like you really had to. understand code to code with one of. those things. right so he was like a a a game. developer a coder from from the outset. essentially and he got a couple jobs at. some of the big um game companies in.

Sweden and he was working at one of them. I think it was king.com when he was. inspired to kind of create his own game. and he was playing a game called infin. Miner right am I saying that right like. Infinity minor but without the tea part. yeah okay and essentially you mine. resources and you build stuff with these. blocks that you mine it's a mining game. essentially sounds very familiar and. he's not like shy about saying like this. was a a copy uh of a spoof basically of.

infin Miner but it was also inspired by. some other games like one called Dwarf. Fortress which is really simple but um. the all of the characters involved in. all the non-player characters kind of. have their own drive and decision so um. a lot of random stuff can happen in. there and then also Roller Coaster. Tycoon where you could just build your. own roller coasters so if you put all. those three three things together you. have kind of the rough outlines of of. Minecraft which he really started um.

releasing I think in 2009 yeah and I you. know I went. down a 20 second Rabbit Hole of cuz once. I looked up infinim Miner I was like. wait a minute did he just like literally. kind of steal that game MH and that is a. rabbit hole that I was loathed to go. down because I found myself on Reddit. and it's just like it's very contentious. of people who are like yeah he totally. stole that game and ripped it off and. people are like no he didn't he was in. inspired by it so I'm not waiting into.

that argument uh you can make up your. own mind about that right but yeah. however however it came out he released. it in 2009 and people just dug on it. very very quickly um I think uh that was. the Alpha version yeah the beta vers the. main release No the the and he was like. he just put the word out there and uh I. think he actually started charging. people $13 for just to play the Alpha.

version but he was also getting lots of. feedback and like blogging about it and. everything the whole thing was his side. gig um and but little by little it kind. of moved his main gig like off to the. side itself and then until it was like I. can actually support myself with. Minecraft I'm quitting my day job yeah. which uh finally in 2010 he founded uh. the company Swedish for Gadget it's. Mojang M OJ a NG G almost said g uh with. a couple of co-workers name and here's.

where I don't know whether to say Jacob. or yakob it's uh uh it's not ycob or. Jacob it's jackob it's Pap no it really. is jackob what was wrong with Papa I. didn't read that email closely enough. it's papala oh and I knew that and I. heard you saying it but I was just like. I guess he knows something I don't know. cuz that was such a wild stab I just. figured you were ahead of me you just. found it so enchanting.

anyway uh you said it is yob I forgot. already uh uh jackob jackob jackob porer. and Carl uh Mana MN eh uh they hired. some people they had a gaming company. all of a sudden and the beta version. came out um not too long after and they. went over a six-month period at the. beginning of 2011 to July of that year. they went from a million players to 10. million in that short time officially.

launching in November 2011 at minec con. which was a um it's still an ongoing. event I think they do it online now but. uh for a while it was a live event in. Vegas called Minecraft live yeah I think. they H they held the 2015 one in London. and it set the record for the largest. attendance of any convention in the. history of humanity I think it's big. stuff everybody it's huge I mean it is. enormous like I didn't see a any.

statistics on like what percentage of. the world plays it but I did see that at. at any point in time there's as many as. like 30 40 50 million people playing it. at the same time not necessarily all. together because as we'll see there's. different ways to play it by yourself or. with other people but if you just were. able to zoom out and look at what. everybody in the world's doing 30. million of them would be playing uh um. Minecraft at that moment woo boy uh so. starting in 2011 um there was a man name.

or and still is named Yin Jeb bergensten. as lead designer watched a few. interviews with this guy is it. pronounced Yin it's definitely Yin okay. but it's also Jeb and not YB okay it's. getting very confusing um Notch uh. stayed on on the Minecraft team um but. you know was basically sort of letting. yens run the show it seems like as far. being in the weeds he was developing.

other games uh nachas and you know kind. of living the high life cuz he got very. wealthy very quick yeah one of the first. things he did was buy himself a fedora. which became kind of like a trademark. look for him sure um and he started just. basically join the international party. set it was like how much how much money. does it cost to get in here they're like. you've got you got enough come on in so. that's how M it right so um he kind of.

got I got the impression that he was um. not not just distracted by this new. found wealth and all the stuff he could. do with it but that uh he was not really. interested in in seeing a game like. becoming a a massive globally dominating. Blockbuster and all the work that takes. and coordination and all that he was. more interested in developing games so. he stepped away like you said and handed. it over to Jeb um and then when. Microsoft came calling in 2014.

apparently Notch tweeted who does. anybody want to buy my share of Mojang. uh because I'm ready to move on with my. life apparently like all these companies. were like uh yeah we totally will and. that supposedly set up that Microsoft. deal for two and a half billion and at. that point he's like I'm I'm completely. gone now yeah Forbes had him as of like. last week at about a $1.2 billion net. worth uh and that seems pretty reliable. not like the the stupid celebrity.

network websites not too shabby for. somebody who wears a fedora in public. yeah yeah and he you know he he stayed. sort of associated with the game and the. company for a long time even after the. Microsoft purchase uh well not that long. about um five years-ish uh when they. basically stopped referencing him on the. loading page in 2019 stopped uh inviting. him to their uh Minecraft parties like. their 10th anniversary uh Ann iversary. celebration yeah he turned into Hooper.

Humper yeah basically he he started uh. letting everyone know his his thoughts. about uh qanon and and far rightwing. politics and homophobic things and. transphobic things and sexist and. misogynous things it was sort of a. greatest hits of that kind of guy and he. went public with all of it and issued. some pretty pretty lame apologies for. some of it m um but yeah so that's what. happened and that's who he.

is yeah so um Minecraft just kept going. on without him and from what I can tell. like when Jeb took over is he still the. lead game designer like essentially the. showrunner for m so but I'm not positive. but I'm pretty sure is like it even if. he stopped like a couple years ago that. game really flourished under his like. oversight like he he's really creative. also really um and I think Notch was. willing to do this too but Jeb was um or. is really willing to be like hey some.

player some random person somewhere came. up with this amazing invention um we're. going to actually release it as a update. um or add-on or something to the game. like there and it's just it's a really. creative flourishing game still because. of that guy from what I can tell yeah. totally so there are three modes uh and. this is the the regular unmodded version. cuz as you'll learn you can modify it. all in all kinds of you know creative. kind of crazy ways yeah uh or vanilla.

mode but um if you're playing just that. regular version that my daughter plays. on the the PlayStation uh you can play. in survival mode hardcore mode or. creative. mode right um so survival mode is like. the the kind of like the where the game. part comes in like you can actually die. so you're doing all of the interesting. stuff that you do in Minecraft that. we'll you know talk about more. extensively but there's zombies.

attacking you or there's creepers coming. up and blowing themselves up and and. hurting you or you can drown underwater. fall off a cliff and when that happens. uh all of the stuff that you've gathered. that make up what's called your. inventory all the things you can use to. make other stuff all the stuff you've. made out of other things already that. you want to use to like extend your life. or jump higher whatever you lose all. that it actually stays in the location. that you died at in Minecraft world and.

but you are teleported back to either. where you started the game or your bed. if you've made yourself a bed and I saw. that if you can get there within five. like our reality minutes five minutes in. our reality you can go pick up your. stuff again but it can be very hard to. do if you're really far away from your. bed that's right uh and what happens is. you start basically with nothing um if. you're parent you've wandered through. and it looks like what is that blocky.

pixelated thing like punching everything. for um that's the gaml you start with. nothing and you basically go at the very. beginning and you punch a tree to get. some wood and what you're doing is you. know you're getting resources to build. stuff so you just keep punching and. digging things and uh finding new things. and then and transforming them into uh I. mean all kinds of things from you know. Farms to animals to buildings and oceans. and rivers and you know you're building.

you're literally building your world as. you go uh in all the modes from what I. can tell um you got hardcore mode is. next uh but you if you if you die um. like the the game is over which is kind. of a bummer I guess yeah because I mean. like you can get really far and develop. a lot of stuff so when you're walking. around like punching stuff like punching. a tree you're punching a tree to get. wood and when you collect some wood you. can actually turn it into say Lumber and. if you combine that Lumber with.

something else you've gotten I don't. remember why I think wool from a sheep. sure you put it together you build. yourself a bed it's one of the first. things you're supposed to do you're. supposed to build a shelter and um make. a bed in your shelter and the reason why. you want to make a bed is because if you. die in survival mode you basically um. it's called respawning you wake up. you're teleported back in your bed to. start over the problem is all that stuff. that you've accumulated All the lumber. and all the wool and all the things that.

you can make by combining those things. uh they make up what's called your. inventory and your inventory can get. pretty extensive the longer you stay. alive and play and do stuff in the in. the Minecraft world and you lose all. that stuff it's gone it's actually. physically in the Minecraft world where. you died and if you could make it over. there in time after you respawn you. could pick that stuff up but it can be. really hard if you're really far away. and then with hardcore mode like all. that's just gone forever you have to. start the game came over completely and.

the reason that I know that that's true. is because Ruby answered that. question that was actually the funniest. answer cuz you said hey if you die in. hardcore mode is like is that it it's. everything gone that you've ever built. mhm and she said yeah it's hardcore. Josh she doesn't play that mode though. she plays the third mode almost. exclusively I think uh when she plays. which is creative mode and this is the. super cute fun one that when you see. you know seven and eight-year-old.

daughter playing you're like this is the. greatest game ever because I sat down. with her one day and watched and she's. just like oh look this is my farm and. this is my garden and these are my sheep. this is my animal pin and this is my. house and look I've got a pool on the. top floor and I've got a deck and it's. just really creative and super sweet and. fun you can fly in creative mode like if. you want to get up to the top of your. thing uh you can fly up there um and the. best thing is you can't be harmed. there's no zombie coming to kill you no.

um yeah you just do fun stuff like you. said farm and it's not like oh oh I. built a farm and now this Farm's running. like you build the farm and then you. have to operate the farm to keep it. going it's like it's just amazing and. neat all the stuff that you can do in. this game it's just crazy and we'll. we'll talk about some of just the. mindboggling stuff that people make but. one of the cool things about it is you. can build this world by yourself or you. can work with others play with others.

people in your house using a local area. network or there's Minecraft servers to. where you're building a world together. and like other people can come in and. walk around your world and hang out with. you and sometimes mess with you in your. world too um because it's a giant shared. World whereas there's also another. version which I take it Ruby was playing. where that is like that's your world. nobody else can come in uh because it's. just on that one computer it's not being. shared with the rest of the world yeah.

and we just didn't know enough about it. and said that's the only version you can. play MH because the last thing I wanted. was some you. know you know I know I don't I don't. want her meeting those people so uh I'm. sure there's a lot of fun that can be. had on those uh you know multiplayer. private server games I'm I'm sure it's. great in most ways yeah um there are. some very cool uh versions of that uh. there's one called. pixelmoncraft where where you they have. recreated the gameplay of Pokemon within.

the Minecraft world which is super cool. yeah uh and some of these are like. full-on companies Livia found this boy. God bless Livia for the the breadth of. things that she helps us with yeah for. sure it's like how about philosophy and. then Minecraft right uh but there's one. called Hypixel which has like 40. developers on staff and got bought. themselves by Riot games one of the big. companies in 2020 and uh you know these. are all just modifying this game that.

was so popular already it's really. really kind of nuts yeah I I would say a. cottage industry is grown up around it. about like 50 different cottage. industries have grown up around it with. a bunch of different companies in each. that Hypixel to give you an example they. make like games you can play in the. Minecraft world yeah so like there's one. called Sky Block where you start out on. just a little patch of ground floating. in the sky with a single tree and a. couple of resources and you have to. build your way out of that you have to.

expand it um with way more limited. resources than you would get normally. there's a one called Bed Wars where your. point is to like um destroy your. friend's bed so that they can't they. can't respawn in their bed again they. have to go back to where they started. the game yeah it's fun stuff but that's. on their server and they M they modified. Minecraft and the makers of Minecraft. Mojang don't Sue those people because. you put it all together and it's this. it's almost like the Wikipedia of games.

where the entire world has collaborated. on making this amazing game that is. Minecraft I wonder if because he so. heavily borrowed let's say from Infinity. minor or infin minor that he was like. yeah maybe I'll just s sit back and be. super wealthy and not worry about these. people that are doing this stuff maybe. but also the mindboggling thing is now. Microsoft owns it and they don't Sue. other people who create mods it's yeah. it's nuts there's something weird going.

on here man all right well let's take a. break um and we'll be right back to talk. about who who the heck is playing this. game and more about the world right. after. [Music]. this. [Music]. shock so there's a lot of uh video games.

where you pay monthly subscription fees. sometimes you like buy the game but then. also subscribe monthly to get extra. stuff or whatever sure um new additions. of the game things like that but. Minecraft has always been pretty great. in that you buy the game and that's it. you own the game the game is updated for. free the updates just roll out a lot of. games do that uh as well it's not the. only one um but it was sort of the core. business model which is um you buy this.

game and whether it's PC or PlayStation. or whatever and that's your game for. forever you've got that Minecraft game. and kids can grow into adulthood like. playing the same uh game that you you. know insert the disc into the player. right um so there are other there's like. in-game purchases and add-ons and stuff. you can buy um I think the big hubub. that I picked up on is that um a. SpongeBob Bikini Bottom. biome is coming along I think in August.

so you can play as SpongeBob and yeah it. it it looks like it's going to be pretty. cool um there's other like things called. textures which take this the the very. standard um like recognizable Minecraft. look and do all sorts of things to it. some make it way smoother some add. different kinds of shading there's one. called pastel that changes the color. palette and makes it much Pinker and. happier um there's just a ton of stuff. you can get an add-on that like is a it.

it just you're it's a mansion like. you're you don't have to build it. yourself it's just now you can buy a. mansion rather than build it it seems. counterintuitive or counter against the. point I guess but I'm sure some kids are. like I just want to buy the mansion and. farm instead I don't want to waste my. time building my Mansion you're rabbit. holing sorry uh but yes my point is. there's there are stuff you can buy but. a lot of that stuff is free too a lot of. the mods are free yeah yeah um it's hard.

to get great statistics on who's playing. it but liya did found a survey from gez. like seven years ago from Australia uh. where and you know I bet it's pretty. indicative of of who's playing worldwide. uh 54% of boys ages 3 to 12 were playing. it uh 32% of. girls um all of them raised on Fosters. [Laughter]. beer uh and early on it started out is. is more sort of young adult men or or.

older teenagers but it has since crept. down in age and I'm sure you know people. of all ages still play it but um you. know it's a game that a four-year-old. can kind of start playing if they're. good with their fies MH um there are two. different default players uh from the. early years um Steve well he was the. only default player in the early years. and then in 2014 they added Alex uh they. added a man and a woman and then they. rolled out seven more in. 2022 uh with different outfits and.

different skin tones but uh you can skin. your character you can create the stuff. yourself and I believe you can probably. buy stuff and get skins that other. people have created to make your player. uh look more like you want them to look. yeah be more like you even like there's. clowns Japanese demons. scarecrows um there's a lot of cool. skins out there for sure you just. stopped yourself I know on that list.

um so I guess we should talk about the. fact that and this is another really. cool part of it when you when you start. out you know I said you start out like. and you just punch that tree you start. out with one chunk of landscape that is. a 16 by6 block Square block MH and once. you reach those edges you start creating. like you build as you go and it's. procedurally generated as you go and. eventually if you're asking like is. there even a Li MIT uh yes 60 million.

blocks per side which is seven times. larger than the Earth's surface yeah if. you if you consider a block a square. kilometer of Earth it is it's about half. the size of Neptune and twice the size. of Earth isn't that. nuts yeah that's just one world so I. read this um amazing post by a guy named. Alan zucconi called uh the world. generation of Minecraft I'm going to. just dance just along the top of it but. if you're at all interested in how the.

actual world is generated and it's quite. fascinating go read that but essentially. what they start with is what's called a. seed it's 64 bits of. information right which is nothing. that's so small but just following a. couple of algorithmic rules the whole. world generates from there and because. these 64 bits are you know slightly. different in each seed there's something. like um 18.4.

quintillion possible worlds that can. develop from a seed there there's that. that's how many seeds are possible out. there right well tell them what a seed. is so a seed is that 64 bits that create. the world and when you have a game like. Ruby's game where she she bought that. game she bought a seed so she I bought. it okay sorry her dad bought it for her. yeah and so if she started over uh when. she started the game every time that. same world is going to be built because.

it's the same information following the. same rules so it's going to build the. same world but if she went and bought. another one the seed that that it grew. from would create a totally different. world and it follows these really simple. rules like if the temperature is this. and the altitude is this this is the. biome it's going to create like a desert. or a tundra or a forest or something. like that and so if you've created a. forest biome now in this spot that means. it's going to have trees and certain. kinds of animals running around um if.

it's underwater what's the water. temperature um and depending on the. water temperature there's going to be. different animals in that biome too and. it's just following like if then rules. that create a world from 64 bits it's. nuts what they've they've done and the. other thing about it too is people play. this so much that they'll actually go. out and buy another copy because they. know that world so well. can you.

imagine uh can't you just start over you. can but it's going to be the same world. that's what I'm saying oh no I mean as a. different character or. something I mean yeah you could start. over but you're going to be exploring. the same world that you did you know. before you could buy another copy and. it's going to be a totally different. world Oh I thought if you started over. as a new like if I logged in as me in. her game I could just start as whatever. I wanted no because it's the same seed. yeah you could be a different character.

skin it or whatever but the world from. scratch yeah the world will still be the. same because it's growing from the same. seed I should probably caveat this that. um this is Alan zuccone talking I'm just. I'm just amplifying what he's saying. well let's talk about those biomes. they're 64 biome types um 53 in the. Overworld which is where you know that's. sort of the the main gameplay area uh. and then they have a couple of other. areas the nether. which was added in 2010 um which is.

pretty scary like hellish place um and. then the the end which is um that was in. 2011 that's a very very dark um very. Bleak Place very Bleak landscape it's. kind of Metroid yeah you can you can. actually win that game uh if you defeat. the Ender Dragon but I believe there are. 53 um biomes in the Overworld um five in. the nether five in the end and then one. that I didn't completely understand so.

I'm not even going to get into it but it. gets really really detailed like you. said you know if you go to the ocean and. the water temperatur is this like there. are nine oceans you can do like warm. water ocean Frozen ocean cold water. ocean right um it just and you know the. different Forest you you can drill down. very very specifically within those 64. biomes uh which is like only lends to. the creativity I think uh kids can just. not only are they like being creative. but they're they're learning something.

about these biomes for sure you know. maybe not the most detailed stuff but. they know that hey in this kind of biome. these are the plants and trees that. you'll have right there's kids walking. around that are like yeah if you go. under the ocean you'll find abandoned. cities that the ancient Builders. created that's what they're learning. Chuck uh mobile entities is another. thing uh or mobs um these are like the. animals and the monst and stuff M um.

when they're killed they can drop things. that you can pick up uh sometimes you. can tame them um they if you get updates. these mobs expand I think they're more. than 75 now but the things I've seen uh. walking through the room are like sheep. and pigs and things like that those were. the the first animals kind of created. that you can use that you can you know. get wool from them uh if you want to. make that bed you're going to have to. get that wool from that sheep. right so and you talked about different.

biomes having different animals and one. of the reasons to go to the biomes is. not just to explore new cool things but. you can get different things out of. different mobs right so if you went to a. warm water ocean you would find. pufferfish and if you get a puffer fish. um and you combine it with something. else I don't remember um you can create. a potion that will let you breathe. underwat so you can walk around and. explore underwater so everything that. you encounter that's a mob which is. essentially another term for a. non-player character you can get.

something from and you can combine it. with other stuff that you got from other. mobs or from punching a tree or from. digging up ore with your pickaxe to. create new things to do new stuff with. that's what people are doing when. they're playing Minecraft one of the. other things that you can find are. zombies uh very big part of the game um. they are kind of like most zombies are. pretty easy to take care of and defeat M. um they different variations of zombies.

uh creepers are kind of a fun mob. because creepers were were a mistake um. I believe that uh what's the guy's name. again Marcus person yeah he was trying. to make a pig but he coded it wrong and. it stretched out tall instead of wide. and he thought it looked creepy he liked. it um and so creepers became a a very. sort of popular monster in the game. because he just said I love that mistake. let's leave it and they're con. considered Hostile Mobs right because. they'll attack you yeah yeah and they.

they do that by blowing up I think we. said earlier yeah there's also something. called Enderman which is kind of a play. on Slender Man and they're these creepy. entities that may or may not attack you. depending on whether you look at him or. not so there's like a there's definite. like gameplay to this right like there's. like you can go off and like defeat. these things and fight them and protect. Villages and stuff like that um but. there's also like you can also just farm.

and once in a while you have to defend. your farm against some zombies or. something yeah uh you'll also come up on. VI uh villagers and Villages uh where. they live and um these you know look. like they don't look like they look like. humans I guess or their version of. humans right and you can get things from. them you can trade with them they have. different jobs you can change their job. if you want to if you need like food or. something uh you can make them. unemployed by destroying their job and.

then giving them a new job then all of a. sudden you got somebody giving you food. right exactly and you like it's just. crazy the like people have village farms. essentially where they're breeding. villagers to make them stuff that they. want um it can get really really. complicated really fast but in the most. basic version you're just you know. trading with the Villagers giving them. you go get emeralds and you come bring. them to the villagers and they give you. food or wool or something like that uh. yeah and you know you learn where to. look for different things that you need.

um like if you want coal you know you. can dig down not too deeply for coal if. you want this thing called red or if you. want like diamonds you got to deep uh. dig really really deep to find the. diamonds just like the real world uh and. then Livia pointed out this thing called. Redstone uh which was uh I believe it. was an update to the alpha so it's been. around basically from the beginning um. but it has a lot of different kinds of. functions but it mainly functions like. electrical wi so you can build and. automate things yeah it g it makes.

things go empowers them right um like. everything from Pistons to doors opening. to whatever people make crazy machines. using Redstone there's a kid who made a. functioning calculator by arranging. Redstone and other items in a certain. way like he made a calculator in. Minecraft and it's kind of one of those. things you have to see to really. understand how crazy that is but that's. really it's neat and I think it'd be I. don't know how well the game would work. at all if there wasn't such a thing as. red stone or if you know you could just.

make things work just by pressing them. rather than having to go mine red stone. and using it to make the specific thing. work the specific way that's how Point. that's how detailed and involved it is. because of choices like that and the. development totally um should we take. our second break sure all right we'll. take that break and we'll talk about how. this is sort of taking over YouTube as. well right after this.

[Music]. [Music]. josua okay Chuck so you mentioned. YouTube and that is basically the. official outlet for Minecraft that's. where Minecraft pours out into the rest. of the. world yeah uh you know we'll go over. some of the ways you YouTube is utilized. um it it's very very um I mean YouTube.

is full full full of Minecraft stuff but. one of the things that sort of alarmed. me and kind of disappointed me with this. and Roblox is that kids will just sit. around watching people play this game on. YouTube yeah um sometime it's like to. learn how to do things but with Ruby and. her friends I will see them just sitting. around and watching it instead of. playing it and I'm always like as a. parent I'm like oh God can you you know. can you play the game and like get.

involved and you know but I try to pick. my battles and uh just limit it you know. well they've really turned things around. on their head if you're like man can you. please play the video. game it used to be can you go outside. now it's like can you play the video. game rather than watch other people play. yeah that's a good point That's How Far. We've slipped I get it though it's like. essentially she's watching um an. unscripted. TV show or movie or something like that.

and there are people that do that. there's um something called survival. multiplayer channels there's one called. dream smpp I think they disbanded but. essentially they had Loosely scripted. story arcs that they acted out in. Minecraft world as like kind of. fictionalized versions of themselves. like our stuff you should know TV show. um and there were just plots that that. took place and people would watch. YouTube videos of these essentially. shows created in.

Minecraft yeah there's a one guy named. PewDiePie PE w d i e p i e it's got 111. million subs and is a very very very. wealthy man yeah he was one of the first. like genuine YouTube Stars I think he. was as big as it got for a while and. good for him I'm not knocking it by the. way he was toppled by an um I think a. Bollywood record label there was a. competition a four-year-old from Taiwan.

right exactly who opened Minecraft Lego. gift sets yeah um but yeah so PewDiePie. got very very wealthy just essentially. from starting out from playing Minecraft. videos and you said people watch people. playing Minecraft they'll watch speeduns. see how fast they can go um there's. parody music videos set in the Minecraft. world like I think it's one of those. things where like you can't get enough. Minecraft once it gets under your skin. to we if you're like I don't feel like. playing today I'm going to watch. somebody else play and that will satisfy.

that edch yeah and you know what now. that I've said that save your emails. everyone because. yes at home I used to sit around and. watch my friends play Adventure when. they played and it was their turn and I. would hover over the shoulders of my. friends at arcades and watch them play. the games so we did the exact same thing. and I take it all back yeah but that's a. little different because you're sitting. there like will your friend to hurry up. and die so it can be your turn you know.

yeah that's it's a little different true. yeah you're you're up next that's the. reason and what else are you going to do. you know you're on your eighth Orange. Julius you're not going to go get. another one of those so you might as. well stand around and watch yeah and. your quarter sitting there uh flat on. the on the screen of the arcade game so. you're definitely next oh man those were. the days uh what else you want to talk. about the Lord doll or move on uh yeah. well I mean I think it's kind of cool in. that if if you have a world like this. you're going to you're going to get some. stuff like fanfiction even though.

technically Alex and Steve are sort of. uh until they release the other ones. were the only two kind of characters um. so it's you know it's a little weird to. have fanfiction about these two blocky. people that really have that you know. nothing about personality-wise sure or I. guess that's the point of fanfiction um. they've also come up with this stuff. this sort of like fanfiction you know. where you talked about the ancient. Builders like they they created this. backstory sort of of the ancient ones. who who created the original structures.

in the game uh and like where did they. come from so like the the creativity is. really off the charts you know yeah it's. yeah yeah that's the thing about it is. we'll see like one of the big benefits. of it for kids but also for anybody is. it it really gets your imagination and. creativity going along with some other. stuff too what about herob Brian uh. herob bran is a legendary character from. what I I saw Notch said unequivocally. that Herobrine doesn't exist yeah mcraft. World there was acham post from years.

back where somebody claimed to have. encountered Steve but it was Steve with. all white eyes and he was a weirdo doing. weird stuff following him uh around the. Minecraft world and that became the. Legend of Herobrine this this character. that supposedly is the ghost of Notch's. dead brother right but Notch is like I. don't even have a brother I have a half. brother I've never met so no there's no. Herobrine sorry to to bust that bubble. yeah and I believe like in mods and.

things people have created that kind of. stuff but in the official Minecraft game. there there never has been one even. though people swear that they've come. across he roine exactly yeah um so. there's a lot of ways that you can. modify Minecraft yourself again one of. the cottage industries is creating. editors to let Minecraft players modify. the game to their own specifications to. let them do things like you know jump. really high in survival mode or fly or. whatever you want to do um but one of.

the things that people have done uh is. build stuff with or without. modifications and the more the less you. modify the more impressive your build is. is what they're called or builds um for. example one kid named atmospheric beats. this is incredible who who may or may. not be Travis Hicks I found a YouTube. video and a Reddit post who's that I. can't I can't imagine there's too many. people running around making one toone. scale models of Kansas City in Minecraft.

either way there is a one:1 scale model. of Kansas City every building every tree. every street and you can go inside every. building it's just completely true to. life in Minecraft somebody built that I. want that for Atlanta because I would. have fun running around there well. there's a whole group called build the. Earth where people around the world are. creating like um faithful to life. Recreations of buildings the the point.

is to recreate every building on earth. so you can do. that okay maybe I will one day uh it. gets even cooler if you're like all. right Kansas City one to one scale model. not bad um scale model of the entire. Earth not pretty impressive uh there's. an 18-year-old this is couple years ago. so I guess he's 20ish now uh a YouTuber. named Christopher. Slaton um I think his real name is Chris. uh dacal or is the other probably the.

other way I thought Slayton was the. madeup thing not daal. Slaton if it was like slay Tor maybe. yeah I had that reverse but he made a. model of the observable. universe did you see the video of this. of his explanation yeah he it wasn't. like he was like oh I'm going to draw. this in Minecraft the kid did the. physics required to create the models of. the UN I mean like everything from like. nebula to galaxies to the sun like you.

can zoom into pixels on the sun it's. just one of the most impressive things. I've ever seen in my entire life would. that be a. photon I guess so it'd be a 1 kilometer. Square. Photon uh if all that wasn't cool enough. in 2020 uh the group reporters Without. Borders um started a project called. uncensored Library M and this this is. amazing in places like uh Saudi Arabia. and Russia where um the real news is.

like uh censored or or you don't have. access to these news sites they are. burying news inside the Minecraft world. because you can play Minecraft there. yeah they they write books or they. create books that have these articles in. them Isn't that cool unbelievably cool. there's another thing too I mentioned a. kid who made a calculator uh you can. arrange these Redstone um this like ore. basically and make things into um logic.

gates on off if then that kind of stuff. and if you make if you arrange different. logic gates together you can create. computers and there was somebody who. created a computer that plays Minecraft. in Minecraft like you go on to Minecraft. go over to that computer and play. Minecraft on that computer that exists. only in Minecraft I just want to make. sure it's totally clear what I'm saying. here and it actually works it's not some. it's not a drawing it's like it's. operating on logic gates that they.

created with Arrangements of redstone. ore incredible so let's talk about this. because I think it's pretty clear Chuck. that there are a lot of benefits to. playing this like yes it would be really. easy for a kid to become addicted and. that really can happen and I've seen. that that actually is an actual thing. and you have to look out for it but. there's also some real benefits to this. to to playing this especially as a kid. yeah I mean you know if you're a parent. keep an eye on your kid. monitor their their uh how long they're.

playing this game because it it is great. and we're going to talk about the. benefits for sure but like if they don't. want to do anything but Minecraft and if. it seems like they're never satisfied. with the amount that they're playing and. they're lying about they're playing and. if they don't have it they're you know. experiencing you know the withdraw. symptoms of of anything else and they're. grumpy and irritated or depressed like. seriously get involved because it's a. real danger um the benefits you know. we've been talking about how creative it.

is it's not only is it going to. encourage you to just use your creative. brain but you're problem solving you're. using math you're working with other. people like teamwork potentially. learning to code like there this is the. one game I believe I asked Hodgman. because I knew his son played and I was. like hey is this Minecraft thing and he. was like that's kind of the one game. that it's it's okay for kids to start. playing cuz it's got a like plenty good. benefits yeah and even more esoteric. stuff like managing resources like it's.

not like the kids like oh I'm learning. to manage resources this is great just. by virtue of playing Minecraft you have. to learn to manage resources you have to. keep up with your sheep and make sure. that they're breeding so that you can. get enough wool um like like you have to. know what to use where where to go get. it and then how to use it um smartly so. that you can get the most out of it like. that's a huge part of playing Minecraft. and that's a great thing to learn. um it also teaches kids to like focus on. a goal you know well you want to raise.

some sheep I know I keep going to that. well but it's a good one you have to go. you have to farm the food to feed the. sheep and then you have to Shear the. Sheep to get the wool and then you use. the wool to do God knows what with and. you have a goal and it's not just that. one goal that goal is made up of a. series of sub goals too and that's a. great thing to learn early on yeah and. you know your kids aren't coming to you. and asking you how to do it unless you. happen to be a parent that really KN. knew Minecraft cuz I'm sure you know.

that exists now it's been around long. enough um but generally like your kids. probably in the other room figuring this. stuff out um maybe they're asking. friends for help maybe they're not uh. they're they're learning as they go and. making like what they think are like. smart decisions to do better in the game. in real time um my advice to to a parent. is like it's really easy just to sort of. walk by anytime your kid is doing this. with zero interest but just maybe once. or twice sit down and ask them to tell.

you about their world for 15 minutes. just like sit there with them while they. play for like 15 minutes and say show me. your world I did that a couple of times. and it's incredible to see I mean she. was like five or six at the time oh wow. to see a kid really like I was like oh. my God and you figured out that and you. figure out you needed to do that to get. that and to them they're just like yeah. Dad that's duh that's the game but I'm. over here going like this is incredible. like you're you're learning like keep at.

it that is cool and I'm glad she stopped. playing it at the same time there you go. I feel like we uh would be grossly. remiss if we didn't give a shout out to. our little friend from the uh Medford. show yeah that's right who requested. this I don't remember his name and I'm. very sorry for that but there was a kid. a guy a young dude um at the Medford. Show recently I think in May who during. QA asked us to do an episode on. Minecraft I think the whole thing.

started with him asking us about mobs. and we're like what is a mob yeah and. that kind of kicked the whole thing off. so that's why we're where we are right. now that's right and if you hear this. kid and parent and you want us to set. the record straight and and get that. name on the air like email us and we'll. we'll include that in a future. correction for sure and uh speaking of. email I think Chuck it's time for. listening. now uh yeah this is about um salsa we. got a lot of good salsa emails people.

love salsa people like to say salsa. saying and eating um boy that did you. see the one uh woman who sent in the. black salsa from that restaurant in. Chicago no I didn't see. that it it looked good I think it was. the last couple of days she posted a. picture and it's like charred Peppers. basically nice um boy did it look good. uh Hey guys great job on the recent. episode on salsa I was born and raised. in Northwestern Mexico uh being Mexican. I was very interested on how you guys. would tackle this uh Josh got it right. about the fact that salsa is a condiment.

mostly um but he did get it wrong that. it is in fact served at most restaurants. in Mexico uh along with tortilla chips. called. totopos um or like the tostadas like. Chuck mentioned being broken apart uh it. is not an appetizer nor do you need to. order it it's just served and you can. also use the salsa as a condiment with. your food um and I saw someone else. wrote in um uh a Mexican woman that said. a lot lot of times that's a good way to. to test the.

salsa to test taste test sort of the. salsa uh or the different Salsas you get. to see which one you do want to use as a. oh I see I got you which makes sense um. sorry but the only thing that you that. was in innovated in the US was to charge. for something that comes free with your. meal in Mexico boo boo indeed uh also. guys tortilla chips go back to the. prehispanic ERA with the Mexican word. for tortilla chip uh again to coming. from a uh nahuat word meaning to toast.

or brown and finally for Chuck uh Pico. de Mexico's any sort of mixed or chopped. fruits and vegetables Pico de that he. referenced in the US is usually called. Salsa Fresca I knew that I don't I don't. know why I didn't say it or salsa. bendero uh Bandera meaning flag and the. Chili's onion and tomato are green white. and red like the Mexican flag very nice. great email that's from uh Ricardo. llamas vidales thanks a lot Ricardo we.

appreciate that it's nice to hear from a. local expert uh and if you want to be. like Ricardo and set us straight on some. stuff we would love to hear that you can. send it off to stuff podcast. iheartradio.com. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts ihart. radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite shows.