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Minecraft's Wonder Children: This is how 13-year-old Israelis earn money from playing on the computer Israel today

2021-10-27T03:20:23.310Z


The streaming world has become increasingly popular in recent years. Gaming content creators around the world have started making millions of dollars from a field that until a moment ago was still in its infancy. This success did not miss Israel either and we talked to the young people who want to take over this world


Most of them are under 18 years old.

A group of talented boys and girls, who like others such as Anna Zack and Noa Kirl, developed a career at a young age.

However, this time it is not a career from Instagram, but from computer games.

Until a few years ago, most of you would look at this sentence with doubt and disbelief.

Today, however, the group of content creators "Parliament" has become another story that shows how young people are taking over the world in completely new ways.

These content creators have become famous in recent years for posting videos of the game "Minecraft" on YouTube.

Today, they have a fan base of tens of thousands, and every video they upload receives tens and hundreds of thousands of views - not a trivial matter in the world of Israeli content creators.

Minecraft is without a doubt one of the greatest computer games in the history of the gaming world.

In 2014 the company reported over 100 million registered users.

Just a few months later, Microsoft acquired it for a record $ 2.5 billion in the industry.

These are numbers we are used to hearing from much more popular services like Spotify and Netflix, certainly not in the world of computer games.

Today the game has over 600 million registered users and almost 140 million active users every month.

In the gaming world these are numbers that very few games manage to reach.

And there is another important thing to note - Minecraft was first released in 2009. This means that even 12 years after its launch, it is more popular and relevant than ever.

The Minecraft game is made up entirely of different blocks, like large pixels on the screen.

These blocks can do a wide variety of things and can be used to create completely new blocks, the purpose of which is to help the game progress.

The game has many modes ranging from "survival" mode where the player has to survive, gain resources and blocks to progress to a "creative" mode, where the player has an infinity of resources and can build and create his own new world, his own imagination.

Since its release in 2010, Minecraft has garnered many awards and is even considered an educational game that sharpens the ability to "solve problems" of children, and therefore, education systems around the world use it in their studies.

Thousands of YouTube content creators have already become a real industry.

They gain millions of followers and viewers, and sums of money that continue to break a record from year to year.

For example, content creator Dream, which became particularly popular during the Corona months, reportedly earned about $ 3 million in 2020. Dozens of his game friends earned similar sums, all from posting videos of the game on the platform.

Although in Israel the numbers are much lower, it is impossible to reduce the value of the power that the parliamentary community has accumulated in recent months.

In a conversation I had with Ariel Asa, a 23-year-old YouTuber known to his viewers as "Stinger Israel," he shared how he built the community together with his friend David Sasson.

Since 2016, they have been trying to lead the field of minecraft in Israel.

Over the years, Asa and Sasson have integrated 22 players into the server they built in the game, known as "MPs," each with their own story and plot line.

Their followers, similar to watching a TV series, watch videos they upload to the web and follow the story of the characters.

The ultimate goal of the two is to build an entire city, alive and functioning, within the game.

There, they legislate laws and present a completely virtual life of the YouTubers and the characters they embody.

"We have seen a very steady and beautiful increase since our inception, both in our audience and in the audience of players on the public server we opened to all our viewers. In the last year we have been exposed to a very sharp increase we have never experienced. Suddenly, every week thousands of players turn on their computer. "Even YouTubers like Mr. Shibulat and Makrita who film their actions on the server as a network series with hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube," Asa told me.

"Minecraft is a game of creativity, one in which you can realize almost all your dreams. With enough desire you can do everything there. If you are missing something in the game, you can add it yourself and continue to develop it," he added.

The story of the parliament is interesting mainly because of the community we built and the youth who admire it.

In recent months, Asa and Sasson have recruited a number of children and youth to manage and maintain the server.

Those same kids are mostly responsible for building new structures on the server.

It is important to say that these are not ordinary buildings, these teens specialize in restoring buildings accurately, no matter how complicated and large they are.

"They're talented and have insane building abilities. I've been playing Minecraft since 2012, but this team builds things I was never able to build myself," Asa said.

Just a few weeks ago, the parliament and their construction team were hired to build an exact replica of the branch of the Yes Planet cinema in Rishon Lezion in honor of the rise of the film Shang Chi.

In a video they uploaded to their YouTube channel, you can see how the group of children builds the branch to the smallest level of accuracy, from the location of the trees and the design of the parking lot to the river that is on the edge of the cinema.

Alongside the construction of the exterior structure, another team built the interior of the cinema, including the columns and cafes that make up the building as well as all the various halls, including the IMAX hall.

It is hard to believe that a group of children has managed to do such an impressive job in so little time.

Noam, a 13-year-old from Jerusalem who took part in the construction, told us: "I'm just going up to eighth grade and I've been playing the game since I was 7. I love a game that is endless. There are always more things to build, more things to try, and every time it's fun. Whether it's building buildings, trees, or buildings from reality like His Planet, it's one of my favorite things. It's important for me to say that such a project takes us quite a bit of time. The builders who build and help us. "

Noam also shared a slightly different perspective on the game.

"It's just a profession that interests me. I like to build buildings and design them in reality as well, and not just in the game. I aspire to learn it professionally and in the future work in that profession. Ultimately Minecraft is a great start for me to specialize in it in the future."

The community in the game is growing day by day, and Noam tells us that as the number of boys who play the game, there are also girls actresses.

"Another thing I like about Minecraft is that it's a game that suits all genders. It's rare to find a computer game that combines almost the same amount of women and men, and the gender ratio only decreases from day to day. Can build or do something just because I'm a girl. "

Dolev Halevi, 13, from Mazkeret Batya, also participated in the big construction campaign.

"I like most that there are endless options and options for how to play this game. There are players who want to beat the main characters, there are players who want to finish the game in as little time as possible and there are those who just want to build beautiful homes, explore the world, and enjoy this experience." Told us.

“You can play with people from all over the world and you can play with friends, you can enjoy a virtual world that has an endless supply of resources and you can build spectacular structures in it.

We have been hired quite a few times to recreate structures from reality in the game and this can take us between a few days to a few weeks even.

There are cases where it is a very complicated structure and you always have to invest down to the smallest details in order for it to come out realistic.

We like that it opens up our imagination and gives us freedom of expression. "

Like Noam and Dolev, your kids have probably heard of Minecraft and probably also play it - whether on a computer, console or smartphone.

Personally, I have seen the game fade in popularity countless times, and always a few months later return hugely to the top of the list of games.

Today it is considered the most watched game on social media and streaming sites YouTube and Twitter and there is no sign that it will stop soon.

In a sense, it could be called "the children's game that has become an empire," and they, the children, will soon take over this world completely.

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2021-10-27

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