It kind of testifies to the sheer magnitude of Minecraft‘s influence that it has a convention exclusively dedicated to it. Even World of Warcraft has to share floor space with all the other Blizzard games when BlizzCon rolls around. Minecon started as Minecraftcon in 2010, when it was first held in Washington. Only around 50 people turned up to that one, but back then the game was still in the early embryonic stages and was the sole domain of clued-in PC gamers and people under house arrest.
The following year, when the game was actually released proper, Minecon debuted in Las Vegas to coincide. 4500 people turned up to that one. One of them was Deadmau5. The move to European soil was made the following year, when Minecon 2012 was hosted in Disneyland Paris. The numbers were about the same but the event garnered a lot more attention from journalists. The developers took the opportunity to announce the ‘Redstone update’ during the convention. In 2013 it hopped back across the Atlantic to Orlando. The attendance rose to 7500 and all three ticket batches sold out in a matter of seconds, basically breaking Eventbrite in the process. Interestingly, everyone who went to Minecon 2013 (or 11 or 12) was given an exclusive in-game cape, so if you say any caped players milling about online, you know why.
There was no Minecon 2014, but there will be one this year and they’re bringing it London. But what exactly is the appeal of a Minecraft dedicated, 2 day convention? Well, you can meet the developers, take in some live music and you’ll more than likely be subject to the full spectrum of creeper costumes, from the sublime to the clearly-made-in-less-than-an-hour. It also provides an ideal showcase for makers of the intricate and often astonishing sculptures and dioramas of in-game creatures and environments to display their work. The entrance to the 2013 event was made to resemble an obsidian portal, it even had purple smoke.
If it’s coming to the UK now, I’d say Minecon is unlikely to return in a hurry, so if you’re a diehard and London is within easy reach, I’d keep an eye on the Mojang website, since tickets are due to come on sale some time in February. The event itself will be at the ExCeL centre on the 4-5th of July.
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