Will Davidson and his Minecraft creation, modeled off the Santa Cruz Mission; Credit: Steve Henn

Minecraft is a deceptively simple video game. You're dropped into a virtual world, and you get to build things. It's like a digital Lego set, but with infinite pieces.

Its simplicity makes it a big hit with kids, like 10-year old Will Davidson. Last year, Will built a Spanish mission for a school report. He modeled his off the Santa Cruz Mission. "I made a chapel over here," Davidson says. "I also have a bell tower."

After he turned in his report, he added a few things. Like skeleton archers. "And zombies ... and exploding things, and spiders, that try to kill you," he said.

Minecraft is popular with kids because they're free to create almost anything, says Ramin Shokrizade, a game designer.

Also, kids aren't manipulated into clicking buttons to buy add-ons within the game. In other games, designers give players a special power for free at first, then take it away and offer it back at a price.

Zynga, the creator of Farmville, calls this fun pain, according to Shokrizade. "That's the idea that, if you make the consumer uncomfortable enough, and then tell them that for money we'll make you less uncomfortable, then [they] will give us money," he says.

Kids, Shokrizade says, are especially susceptible to this — and Minecraft has a loyal following, in part, because it doesn't do it.

Susan Linn, from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, agrees. She says a big reason she likes Minecraft is because after you purchase the game upfront, that's it.

"Parents don't have to worry that their kids are going to be targeted for more marketing," Linn says. "How forward-thinking!"

But Linn is worried. Microsoft bought Mojang, the company that created Minecraft, on Monday for $2.5 billion, and she says that any time a large company spends billions to acquire a smaller company, executives are bound start looking for new ways to get even more money out of it.

We reported last week that layoffs were coming soon to Warner Brothers, but how many positions will be cut is still unknown.  

A spokesman for Warner Brothers Entertainment, Paul McGuire, told KPCC there's no exact number yet. "There is no headcount reduction target, but there is a substantial financial target," Maguire said. 

“This is a budget issue, not a head count issue,” Dee Dee Myers, Warner Brothers Vice President of Corporation Communications told Variety.  The trade publication reports that Warner Brothers is expected to eliminate as many as 1,000 positions worldwide - or about 10 percent of its workforce:

Senior managers are currently assessing their businesses to come up with ways to trim overhead. Only at the end of that process will an exact reduction figure be known. It could be somewhat lower than the current numbers being speculated, but cuts are expected to be substantial.  

News of coming layoffs became public two weeks ago, when KPCC and other media outlets obtained an internal memo written by Warner Bros. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Tsujihara.   

"It pains me to say this, positions will be eliminated—at every level—across the Studio," Tsujihara wrote in the memo. 

Morningstar Analyst Neil Macker told KPCC that management at Warner Brothers is trying to protect the company from another takeover play by Rupert Murdoch.  In July, Murdoch offered to buy parent company Time Warner for $80 billion. He withdrew the offer in August. 

Suominen Corporation has reported Q3 2024 net sales of €111.6 million (~$120.53 million), up from €106.4 million YoY. The company suffered a net loss of €3.2 million (~$3.4 million) due to operational challenges. YTD sales reached €343.8 million (~$370.9 million), and the company expects a full-year EBITDA increase. Sustainability efforts earned Suominen a Gold Medal from EcoVadis.

[The Herald] THE Government has warned against smuggling of seed, fertiliser and agrochemicals to guard against spread of pests and diseases.

During his “Closer Look” segment on Wednesday night, Seth Meyers commented on President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks for several key roles, including Fox News host and Army National Guard veteran Pete Hegseth leading the Department of Defense. “While Biden’s looking for ways to accommodate Trump, Trump’s looking for ways to tear down everything Biden did. […]

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Navigating the harsh terrain of other rocky worlds has consistently been challenging. The Free Spirit campaign unfortunately failed in its goal to will the plucky Martian rover out of the morass it found itself in, despite two years of continual effort from some of the world’s best engineers. To combat this difficulty, other engineers have …

Continue reading "A Screw-Driven Robot Could Autonomously Mine Rocky Worlds"

The post A Screw-Driven Robot Could Autonomously Mine Rocky Worlds appeared first on Universe Today.

One of the most challenging aspects of astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is anticipating what life and extraterrestrial civilizations will look like. Invariably, we have only one example of a planet that supports life (Earth) and one example of a technologically advanced civilization (humanity) upon which to base our theories. As for …

Continue reading "New Study Examines How Extraterrestrial Civilizations Could Become “Stellarvores.”"

The post New Study Examines How Extraterrestrial Civilizations Could Become “Stellarvores.” appeared first on Universe Today.

Concerned residents of Stilfontein rolled up their sleeves under police watch, and by 13:00 on Wednesday had pulled out three illegal miners among the estimated thousands who are stuck underground at the closed gold mine.

An investigation by NPO Open Secrets has accused heavyweight South African estate agents and law firms of facilitating money laundering - allegedly helping African kleptocrats use dirty money to acquire luxury properties in the country.

Mike Waltz, named National Security Adviser by President-elect Donald Trump, emphasised that he was excited about the enormous momentum in the partnership between US and India - the oldest and the largest democracies in the world.

The National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, has warned that obstructing security under President Bola Tinubu’s administration will not be tolerated, the News Agency of Nigeria reports. He said this at the Comptroller General of Customs Conference in Abuja, on Wednesday, emphasising the President’s determination to eliminate bandits, terrorists, and other security threats. According to Ribadu,

After 19 months of conflict, the ongoing Sudanese Civil War continues to deteriorate living conditions for millions of Sudanese people. Intensive conflicts between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have greatly exacerbated nationwide levels of famine. Numerous civilians have been caught in the crossfire, leading to a rising death toll. […]

[IPS] United Nations -- After 19 months of conflict, the ongoing Sudanese Civil War continues to deteriorate living conditions for millions of Sudanese people. Intensive conflicts between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have greatly exacerbated nationwide levels of famine. Numerous civilians have been caught in the crossfire, leading to a rising death toll. Sexual violence and rape have been used as weapons of war, with thousands of cases going unreported due to a pervasive state of fear. Sudan

[Dabanga] Adré / El Fasher -- The World Food Programme (WFP) has appealed to Sudan to keep the Adré border crossing open, as a convoy carrying crucial humanitarian aid heads toward the Zamzam camp for displaced people in North Darfur, where famine was confirmed earlier this year.

[allAfrica]

Jude Law on signing up for 'Alfie', 'bad move' Jude Law regretted making that one “bad move” that pulled him down from a “strong position” in Hollywood.In an interview with GQ Magazine UK, Law revealed that taking on the lead role in 2004’s Alfie was a “bad...

The Texan is a living fossil of the Bush era.

Named Bathydevius caudactylus, the new species is bioluminescent and represents the third independent origin of bioluminescence among sea slugs.

The post New Species of Bioluminescent Sea Slug Discovered appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Peter Beckett was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2017, but his conviction was overturned in 2020.

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security and its disaster agency has said people aren’t driving temperature increases and declined to accept federal climate money for disaster preparedness as governor of South Dakota

Yurika Kubo, Daisuke Kasuya star in anime from Liden Films

Candidates who rebelled against party diktat stand out with strong support at the ground level and also have high chances of winning the seat

Former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, who served two Republican presidents as one of the country's best known conservative lawyers and successfully argued on behalf of same-sex marriage, died Wednesday. He was 84.

Here's a new phenomenon to consider: "Post-election season stress." This term comes to us from the University of Southern California's Center for Health Journalism, which released on Wednesday a brief study titled "Reflecting on the Election's Toll on Journalists."

Fustic, M; Nair, R; Wetzel, A; Siddiqui, R; Mathews, W; Wust, R; Bringue, M; Radovic, J. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology vol. 564, 110187, 2020 p. 1-17, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2020.110187
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