After a long time coming and many snapshots, Minecraft 1.8: The Bountiful Update has finally released on the launcher today.

It’s been well over 300 days and 10 months since Mojang began working towards what is possibly the largest update to the popular sandbox game since its full release. The reason for this is that a great many of the core mechanics of the game have been reworked, replaced or just generally improved. This includes some tweaks to world generation (including a whole new way to allow players to generate a world based on what they want) and a new skin system that saw the ‘hat’ layer extended all over the surface of the player avatar and the possibility of finally being able to have limbs that weren’t mirrors of each other.

And while a lot of the updates were meant for the mapmakers or ‘invisible’ to the player, there were many updates to Survival mode as well. This included the addition of new blocks, such as the fall damage-dampening slime block; the three new stone types: andesite, granite and diorite, all naturally occurring and also craftable; red sandstone; prismarine; sea lanterns; wet sponge and more. There are also new mobs added in 1.8, the most prominent being the rabbits who are often tame but can rarely spawn in a ‘killer’ variety.

There are also some building tweaks such as moss stone now being craftable (vine and cobblestone), all wooden fences now join together (but nether brick fences still won’t), fences crafting recipe has changed to be the opposite of crafting a gate (4 planks and 2 sticks) and the different woods now make different doors. Banners are also now available, being crafted much as you would a sign but with wool instead of planks (6 wool and a stick).

There’s a reason it’s called the Bountiful Update and that’s because there’s so much added that it’s impossible to fit all into one article. Check out the blog post linked below for the full list of features and download the 1.8 update from the launcher to play with it yourself.

“Minecraft 1.8 Pre-release 3 – The Bountiful Update” – [x]

You may or may not have heard of the practice of “swatting”. Recently, it’s been in the news more and more. And it begs the question, how far is to far when you’re having a bad day online?

Let’s start with the basics. “Swatting” is the act of calling in a report to the police of a shooting or other crime in the hopes that a SWAT team will respond. It is usually carried out against streamers – broadcasters who stream live gameplay to their audience. The prankster calls in the report hoping to see the streamer arrested live on stream.  Which is exactly what happened to The Creatures founder Kootra recently. While playing a game of Counterstrike, he says “They’re clearing rooms. I think we’re being swatted.” Shortly after, several heavily armed police officers enter the room, ordering him to the ground and handcuffing him. They were responding to a call of multiple shootings. Naturally, they were in a heightened state of tension, as they believed an armed criminal was waiting for them.

Stop me if I’m wrong, but I don’t see anything funny about this. Recently, swatting has become more and more prevalent, and following the Kootra incident a fake news article appeared online claiming that a Louisiana teen guilty of swatting had been sentenced to 25 years in prison. The story was fake, and sadly the picture used in the story is actual that of a teen convicted of a much more heinous crime – beating his girlfriend’s infant brother to death. I considered using that exact picture in this article, but I cannot, in good taste, do so.

The crux of this issue is that some on the internet have taken it upon themselves to vent their petty frustration and anger (or need for attention) in such a way as to place the lives of innocents in danger. In the case of Kootra, nearby schools were placed on lockdown for several hours. Given that the police were fully armed with assault rifles, it’s fortunate that the ending to this story is a happy as it was: The lockdown was lifted and Kootra was released from custody several hours later. However, the point here is not that there WAS a happy ending. No, the point is that the practice of swatting is dangerous and reprehensible. Police officers going into what they perceive to be a high threat environment are much more likely to shoot first and ask questions later, even with high levels of training. This isn’t an indictment of what some are calling the “police state” of America. It is, instead, a simple acknowledgment of the fact that a human being placed into a life or death situation is going to react quickly, and potentially lethally in this case, to an assumed threat.

Which, to me, makes the appearance of this fake news article all the more egregious. Yes, swatting needs to be stamped out. Preferably before someone gets injured or even killed. All of us who are rational gamers would do well to denounce the practice as loudly as possible. Sing it from the rooftops if you like. But a blatant attention grab such as this article is even worse. In the article, it is stated that during the purported incident, the victim’s father was shot and critically injured. I understand the concept of parody. I even understand the concept of the attention grab. But there is a line of poor taste and the site in question (I have not and will not be naming them specifically, because I do not wish for them to receive any more traffic to this so called “news story”) crossed it. With abandon. Making light of a trend that I am firmly convinced won’t be stopped until blood has been spilled is beyond the pale for journalists, or anyone selling themselves as a journalist. Even more so when the story was received with praise and even joy as many saw it as a sign that a legitimate precedent had been set where swatting was concerned.

I’ll end with this. To those that published the piece in question, shame on you. To all the swatters out there, even more shame on you. Is having a laugh or getting revenge on someone for a perceived digital grievance worth someone’s life? Leave your gaming ego in cyberspace where it belongs.

Seems that Hearthstone’s rather appealing and generous free-to-play setup wasn’t done by accident. It’s recently been revealed that the structure was planned out by Blizzard with the game’s long life in mind.

We’re here for the long run,” said producer Yong Woo. “We’re not here to make a quick buck. I want to be playing and working on Hearthstone 10 years from now… Instead of focusing on maximising immediate profit, Hearthstone is really about being able to play it how you want to.”

Production director Jason Chayes echoed the same ideals while elaborating “When Blizzard approaches a game it’s with the intention of making something that’s going to be around not for a month or two or a year or two but something that we’re really into for the long haul. A game that we plan to support for many many years to come, and that’s certainly the case with Hearthstone.”

Recently Blizzard also announced that they’d expansions planned for their other game World of Warcraft that would also hopefully carry the game forward until 2024.

Seems that Korea’s revision of their anti-gambling laws have smacked even the ‘casual’ games. A few days ago the country quietly blocked all microtransactions on games in Facebook, pending review by the country’s Game Rating and Administration Committee.

Under the new laws, any new games and existing unreviewed games will now need to pay to have their games reviewed, waiting up to 15 days for a decision. The law called the Game Industry Promotion Act states that games must be rated by a panel of nine experts, made up of professors, attorneys and industry watchdogs. Until then the games are available to be played by residents of the country, but all levels and unlockables must be earned through playing through the game; through ‘grinding’ basically.

The new law comes as part of a crackdown on social casino games by Korea, games that had previously escaped being covered by the laws covering gambling in the country.

It’s that time again, so let’s see what goodies Major Nelson has unleashed for us lucky XBox Live gold subscribers…

Xbox Live Games with Gold for September 2014

Coming up in September, Xbox Live Gold members can look forward to three new free games on Xbox One and Xbox 360. Super Time Force is coming to Games with Gold on Xbox One as a free download, replacing Strike Suit Zero (so grab it now if you haven’t already). Crimson Dragon will continue to be available for Xbox Live Gold members as a free download for Xbox One.

    

Then, on September 16th, Xbox Live Gold Members can download Halo: Reach (normally US $24.99) for free through September 30th.

    

*Titles are available as free downloads for qualifying Xbox Live Gold members in all markets where Xbox Live is available. Some regions may offer different titles depending on market availability.

Woah…   HALO Reach for free?    Well I know what I’m getting (and trading in my disc copy)