Minecraft— The KHCPL will host a Minecraft player vs player tournament on Nov. 18, the day of Minecraft’s 10th anniversary..
The Kokomo-Howard County Public Library will host a “Minecraft” player vs. player tournament on Nov. 18 at the library’s main branch, 220 N. Union St.
The video-game tournament brackets will consist of two divisions, one for ages 10-17 and one for 18 and older. The first two rounds will take place within an arena, with players given equipment to use in battle with one another. Round three will switch things up by allowing players five minutes to hunt and craft their weapons before they are warped into the arena. The championship match allows players to pick their equipment before battle. And they should pick wisely. The arena they compete in will also be filled with monsters.
The tournament idea is the brainchild of Adam Rood, an information technician/facilities assistant with the library, who used to go to local video game tournaments when they were offered in Kokomo. The library encourages employees to come up with ideas for programs and events, so Rood wanted to try to bring a tournament to the library and see what happened.
Using “Minecraft” for a public event made sense to Rood. The video game turns 10 years old on Nov. 18. In the game, players are dropped into a randomly generated world and must build their own utilities such as weapons, armor, boats and housing using the environment around them. They can also farm and garden. Players have built ornate castles, replicas of real world cities and even more within the game. The possibilities are endless, and Rood said that is one of the reasons “Minecraft” has endured.
“It appeals to your sense of creativity,” he said. “With most games, you play through them once and they don’t have any replayability. But ‘Minecraft’, there’s not really a big overarching goal. You just get to express your own creativity. It gives you what is truly close enough to the big sandbox we all wanted in a video game when we were a kid, just the ability to do whatever we wanted.”
“Minecraft,” developed by Swedish gaming studio Mojang and now owned by Microsoft, boasts of more than 140 million players a month. It is available on every gaming console. It can even be played on a phone or tablet. There are toys, books and even Lego sets. The only thing missing is a cartoon series and a film franchise starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the game’s main character, Steve.
There’s also an education edition that has been used in classrooms that focuses on resource management. For example, if you chop down too many trees in an environment, then there won’t be any trees unless you plant more, Rood said.
“It teaches you the basics of conservation,” he said.
The library has made a push in recent years to become more digitally oriented and with that push has come a growing collection of video games available to checkout, including a wide selection of games for newer consoles like the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X. Games can be kept for one week.
“I feel like books and games really go hand in hand,” said Rood. “They both tell a story, just in a different way. One you read and the other you get to play through and experience. It’s kind of like a book that you plug into a console.”
Rood believes library events are a safe place for children to begin exploring games. The events will never include anything violent, especially if it’s listed for kids ages 10-17, he said.
“It will just give them a friendly environment for them to learn and see if they like video games,” said Rood.
He hopes to do more “Minecraft” events in the future, both competitive and educational, and encourages both players and fans to come out to the event.
“Even if you aren’t competing in it you can still come watch, come support,” he said. “If you don’t understand ‘Minecraft’, I feel like like this would be a great experience for you. You can come out and see what it is all about.”
The tournament will run from 5:30 p.m. until 8 p.m. and is for ages 10 and up. Participants can register online at https://khcpl.libnet.info/events. Search for Minecraft PvP Tournament on Nov. 18 and then click the register button.
