Minecraft has been out for years now,
giving gamers endless hours of fun
and has led to thousands of creations,
thanks to the game's diehard fans.
But even the most insane of Minecraft fans
don't know everything
there is to know about the game's massive universe
and the secrets of the game's development.
Hi, guys, I'm Stephanie with ArcadeCloud.
And in today's video,
we are going to be taking a look at
all the facts about Minecraft that you likely didn't know.
Number 15: And on the seventh day,
he rested.
The Minecraft that we know today is a massive and expansive game,
which is amazing considering
how fast the first build of the game was made.
Markus 'Notch' Persson has gone on record as stating
that the first build of Minecraft
was completed in just six days.
Whoa. - You heard right.
Starting development
on May 10th 2009 and ending in May 16th.
Even though this was a very early build of the game
that lacks many of the features
that we have come to love about Minecraft,
this is not a lot of time to make any game,
and yet way, way better than Duke Nukem Forever.
Number 14: What the hell is Cave game?
Speaking of the first build of Minecraft,
during the early stages of the game's development,
the game went under the name of Cave Game.
During the six-development day cycle mentioned before,
the game underwent two more name changes
with Notch renaming the game
Minecraft: Order of the Stone and then just Minecraft
before the game's first public release
on May 17th 2009.
Bonus fact, the Order of the Stone name
was later reused
in Minecraft: Story Mode as a name
for a group of legendary adventurers.
Number 13: Minecraft's various inspirations.
Much like da Vinci had Mona Lisa,
Stephen King had The Stanley Hotel,
and Ride to Hell: Retribution had Superman 64...
Ouch!
When creating Minecraft,
Notch drew inspiration from all over the place.
These sources included
theme park creation simulator RollerCoaster Tycoon,
the construction game Dwarf Fortress,
and strategy game Dungeon Keeper.
You can see where Notch borrowed
from these titles
the Minecraft's own creation mechanics,
world exploration, and graphical design,
and it's safe to say
that Minecraft might never have existed
if it weren't for these groundbreaking games.
Even more obvious is the inspiration Notch drew
from Infiniminer,
a competitive game about destroying procedurally
generated blocks.
Ah, to stand on the shoulders of blocksy pixilated giants.
Number 12: The glitch that changed the game.
Minecraft's Creepers
are one of gaming's most well-known foes
as well as one of the most feared
with the little @#$%! sneaking up
on a player and their creations
and just blowing away all their hard work.
Now, the funny thing is
that these little Satan hellspawns
might never have existed
if it wasn't for a programming error.
That's right.
The enemy that we all love to hate
was a result of an error made by Notch
as he was trying to create a pig.
That'll do pig.
That'll do.
When changing the height figures for the model of the pig,
a glitch occurred, a glitch which ended up becoming
the basis for what is now known as the Creeper.
Number 11: An apple a day.
Not only are people able to create
their own world within Minecraft,
but they are also able to create their own avatars
that they're able to use within the game world
and during online play.
While every avatar is unique in their own right
as might be expected,
Notch's online avatar has a feature
that none of the others have.
When an avatar is killed,
they sometimes can drop materials
and other items
that can be pillaged by other people.
Notch's avatar is no exception, except for one thing.
When killed, Notch drops an apple.
Notch's avatar is the only one capable of dropping this item,
giving his character just a small special touch
that others can't have.
Is this a biblical reference
to the forbidden fruit taken from the Tree of Knowledge?
Does Notch know something we don't?
Or are we reading too much into this?
Maybe he just likes apple pie.
Either way, all we know is that for the rest of us, no apples.
Sorry. Number ten: Building a nation.
It takes some time and dedication
to create the perfect world in Minecraft.
It takes meticulous attention
to detail to make the perfect creation
more so than most have.
So could you imagine the kind of commitment it takes
to create an entire real-life nation in Minecraft?
Well, this is what the government of Denmark did,
creating the entirety of their country
brick by brick in Minecraft.
The reason that they did this was to use it
as a teaching tool,
believing that through the use of Minecraft
that they could get kids interested in geography.
This might have worked too,
except some @#$%! decided
to hack the server that Minecraft Denmark was on,
blowing up the creation like that jerk on the beach
that smashed your sandcastle's
when you were a kid into oblivion while laughing.
Yeah, that's right, Mitch from second grade.
I haven't forgotten, okay.
Number nine: Do your homework.
Speaking of using Minecraft to learn,
Minecraft is a part of a Swedish school's curriculum.
At the Viktor Rydberg Secondary School
in Stockholm, Sweden,
playing Minecraft is a required part of the learning experience
for their 13-year-old students.
The reason for this
is to teach kids to use their imagination
and creativity
while also teaching them about city planning
and environmental issues.
Now if we can only find a valid reason
to play Overwatch in schools, then we'd all be happy.
Defend the objective.
Mercy! I need healing.
Hanzo, stop doing whatever it is that you're doing.
See, there are skills
that could be applied to real life.
Number eight: The Far Lands.
Minecraft may seem like an endless expanse
that the player can explore,
but it isn't as infinite as it seems.
At the far edges of the map,
the terrains start to glitch and become distorted.
See that shadowy place, that's beyond our borders.
You must never go there, Simba.
This place has been dubbed by Notch as the Far Lands,
and despite their glitchness,
Notch had no plans to patch the Far Lands
as he determined that no-one could ever make it
that far.
Well, as is the Internet's penchant,
when you tell them they can't do something,
someone will try and do it anyway.
After Notch made the aforementioned claim,
Gamer Kurt J Mac started a more than three-year journey
in search of the Far Lands.
While documenting his journey on YouTube,
Mac's quest has done some good,
raising a bunch of money for charity
during live streams along the way.
Number seven: Enderman language.
Much like their inspiration, the urban legend Slenderman,
the Endermen are some of the creepiest enemies
you can encounter in any game,
making disturbing and odd noises as they attack your player.
As creepy as the sounds the Endermen make can be,
the origin of their sounds
is not as strange as you may think.
The sound that the Endermen make are in reality various phrases
in the English language slowed down,
distorted, and reversed.
Knowing this doesn't make
the Enderman any less frightening.
However, as when the phrases
are reversed back to normal English,
they sound even more like
the growlings of a demon than they did before.
Number six: Ghastly cats.
If you find
the origin of Enderman's language intriguing,
it has nothing on the origins of the monsters known as Ghast.
Daniel Rosenfield accidentally woke up his cat
during a recording session
and the mike picked up the sound it made.
While these sounds were going to be used
for the ocelots in the game,
the sounds the cat made were deemed to be too tame
and were instead given to the Ghast,
which made those enemies all the more adorable.
Number five: By the numbers.
To date, nearly 26 million people
have bought Minecraft for PC and Mac devices.
This number does not take into account the number of sales
for home consoles or mobile devices
and by itself is more than the population
than the entirety of New York State.
Also, it is estimated that at any given time,
there are around
one million people online playing Minecraft.
That's a lot of bricks, people.
Number four: Minecraft on YouTube.
If you ever wondered how to make content
that will get viewed on YouTube,
making Minecraft videos is definitely the way to go.
According to a 2014 article by the website Tubular Insights,
Minecraft videos on YouTube
have garnered a combined 31 billion views.
Yes, that's billion with a B as in boy.
This outranks
any other popular game on the website
with number two, Grand Theft Auto,
falling behind by nearly 20 billion views.
These numbers have grown since.
And with the limitless potential
for creating new content in the game,
it shows no signs of slowing down.
Number three: Getting the message.
Anyone who has played Minecraft knows
that on the start screen for the game
a little yellow message will accompany the title
with witty little lines such as, "Treatment for your rash"
among others.
There are over 350 of these little splash messages
that can appear when you boot up the game
with even more having been added through updates.
This makes it likely that you will find
a new message every time you boot up the game
and makes Minecraft kind of like a little,
I don't know, souped-up videogame version
of those quote-a-day calendars or your personal fortune cookie.
Number two: Bouncing Beyoncé.
Many people are aware
that Microsoft had bought the Minecraft brand
from Creator Notch for a whopping $2.5 billion.
But do you know what
Notch ended up doing with that money?
For $70 million out of what he earned,
Notch bought himself a manor in Hollywood,
reminiscent of a mini castle.
That must be really nice.
Notch earned this enormous domicile
by outbidding none other than Beyoncé
and Jay Z for the place.
Yes, that Beyoncé and Jay Z.
The fact that we live in a world
where a man who created a video game
in six days can outbid
one of the biggest recording artists of all time
for anything at all is just really awesome.
Number one: It all started with a tweet.
So what was the catalyst that led Notch to sign
to Microsoft and, as a result,
outbidding Beyoncé and Jay Z for his Hollywood mansion.
Well, it all started with a simple tweet
claiming that he had had enough
of corporate @#$%!.
Notch sent out a tweet in June of 2014
stating that he was gauging interest
in a potential buyout for his shares
in Company Mojang stocks.
This was the first time he had stated this publicly.
Three months later,
Microsoft came knocking on the door
with a cool $2.5 billion offer,
and well, the rest is now gaming history.
There you have it, folks, the Minecraft facts
that you probably didn't know.
Do you have any little known or obscure facts that you know
or Minecraft stories you want to share?
Let us know in the comments below.
And if you liked this video, be sure to slap a like on it.
And if you want to see more content like this,
smack that Subscribe button
to be the first to know
when new videos will be dropping.
And be sure to like us on Facebook,
you'll find the link below.
Thanks for watching.