The hallowed nation of Denmark—well, the virtual one, anyway—has been beset by vandals, who used the banned substance of virtual dynamite to wreck chaos upon the pixelated land.
Pixelated land that was designed specifically for the education of children, by the way.
Feel judged, vandals.
Developed in the very popular world of Minecraft, virtual-Denmark is actually the property of real Denmark—the cyber replica was created by the Danish Geodata Agency, or DGA, who wanted a way to interest people, particularly children in the study and knowledge of Denmark’s spatial data. The DGA imported the topographical data of Denmark into the game, and users can download the data to their own private servers if they wish to use it.
“We’ve discovered children are more motivated to learn when they see something they’re familiar with,” said chief DGA press officer Chris Hammeken on BBC, who also adds that Minecraft has been a Danish learning tool for quite some time now.
The virtual vandals used virtual dynamite—which is specifically banned on the Danish server, probably to protect the eyes of children from unspeakable virtual carnage—to blow up small portions of the replica, destroying several buildings and damaging other areas of the playing field. They also planted giant USA flags at their starting sites, as well as huge “America” signs decked out in red, white, and blue.
Why Minecraft-Denmark was targeted by these flag-wielding Minecraft-criminals is unknown, but the DGA suspects they were merely attention-seekers. Users of the Danish server, whose downloads number more than 220,000 since the beginning of May alone, have already repaired the damage, replacing the shattered husks of exploded buildings with cheerful green meadows and flowers.
Look, unidentified vandals. Blowing up a whole virtual country that somebody painstakingly designed specifically to educate children for no discernable reason? That’s just bad form.
Source BBC
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