Well, it had to happen eventually…

Details have emerged that an unofficial Minecraft convention in Orlando, Florida, called Meeting of the Mines has provided a sub-par experience far from what was promised and seems to have aimed at making the organisers a lot of money off the backs of the thriving Minecraft community, especially parents and children. The stories now circulating the Internet are unbelievable and quite frankly appalling to hear.

MOTM was meant to have happened back in December 2013 but was delayed to March this year because of ‘red tape’ stopping them holding the event when it has been advertised. While it was supposed to have been a weekend event, many have said that the event was called off early because it had apparently ‘gotten out of hand’. Also a lot of advertised give-aways and competitions either didn’t happen or had the winners having their prizes rescinded after the event, with these cases usually being money prizes.

The kicker comes though when you hear of the specifics of the ‘StarCraft’ event. This contest had children compete to craft the best structures in the game with a fairly hefty prize at the end. A prize which can be quickly and easily summed up in two words – ‘Youtube stardom’. On par with that of CaptainSparklez and IcanHasCupquake (which they don’t even spell right in the contest text). The organisers promised for the 6 winners, their own Youtube channel, websites, branded merchandise and even ‘you first subscribers’ made up of the other attendees for the event. All set up within their ‘MOTM network’ of course. Since these things are often dreamt about by the younger viewers of such popular Youtubers, it just sounds like an almost shameless ploy to get kids to bug their parents to buy tickets for the event and make them more money.

Of course, getting refunds from the organisers has proven to be a difficult task with the organisers even beginning to accuse people of stealing the con’s décor. The MOTM website has vanished along with the head organiser’s Facebook, Twitter and pretty much every way to get in contact. Tickets have already been sold for another MOTM event supposed to be held in New York, but the venue has not been booked and no further details are available so it looks as if the organisers have taken the money and run with it. Since they took roughly $50k for the event that (sort of) happened alone, it is a LOT of money they have taken. The attendees for the event have even set up a Facebook group dedicated to sharing stories and doing their best to get their refunds or at least some sort of closure from the entire fiasco.

If you want a better, clearer picture of the entire event, BebopVox’s video sums it up pretty well (and also includes tips on how to spot conventions and events that could be potentially scams in disguise, as well as plenty of links to information in the description):

As I said above, it had to happen eventually to the Minecraft community, but that doesn’t make what happened any less terrible, especially as it has disappointed so many children. I can only hope the organisers of this event are found and made to pay for what they have done.

Meeting of the Mines Scam Group Page is here.

Copy of StarCraft event text is here.