Polish Landmarks from the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship Ready to be Visited in Minecraft
Landmarks of Kujawsko-Pomorskie, a voivodeship in northern Poland, can now be admired online while playing Minecraft.
An in-game model of the entire region, featuring 15 of the voivodeship’s landmarks, was prepared by students of the Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz and has since then been developed by gamers. The model not only features important buildings from the region but also interactive elements such as quizzes, educational games and battle reconstructions.
A Nearly 18,000-Square-Kilometre Region
Minecraft is a popular video game in which one can construct whole worlds from simple blocks representing various substances such as wood, water and brick – a kind of virtual Lego. Recently, on occasion of the Holiday of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship that takes place on the 7th of July, the Marshal’s Office of this voivodeship launched a project meant to promote this region, a 1:10 Minecraft replica of the nearly 18,000-square-kilometre area.
The map of the region was created by students of the Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz under the supervision of the university’s lecturers and on commission from the Marshal’s Office. Working for the Office, students overseen by their lecturers provided the replica with 15 models of landmarks from the voivodeship. These 15 models include, amongst others, representations of an archaeological site in Biskupin, a reconstructed 7th century BC settlement, the city-hall tower in Żnin – a Gothic 15th century monument – and the Włocławek Cathedral, one of the oldest Gothic cathedrals in Poland. The project was made accessible online to the public on the 1st of June 2015 and since then all people visiting the Minecraft replica of the voivodeship are allowed, under certain conditions, to construct their own structures on the map prepared by the students. The project is coordinated by Dr. Michał Mochocki of the Kazimierz Wielki University.
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I Like Being Here
By the end of June gamers had enriched the map with over 180 additional landmarks from the voivodeship and numerous structures that do not exist (the building of fictitious constructions in designated places is allowed by the administrators of the project). Developing the map by building structures on it isn’t the only way a gamer can interact with the replica. The Minecraft model of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship features a number of other interactive elements such as quizzes, educational games and battle reconstructions.
For example every Saturday visitors can take part in a reconstruction of the 14th century Battle of Płowce in which Polish forces defeated the Teutonic Order. In the model, gamers can also, for instance, go on a tour through the Bory Tucholskie forest during which they can also take a quiz about plants, animals and ecology. The project, which runs under the slogan Lubię tu być / I Like Being Here is set to operate until September. It’s creators assure that apart from providing entertainment it will also give plenty of opportunities to learn about history, geography and biology.
Minecraft Tourism
The Minecraft replica of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship can be seen as a part of an international trend of Minecraft tourism – visiting real-life sites reproduced in the game. The growing popularity of this trend has encouraged many people to create publicly accessible in-game replicas of a number of places from across the world. A custom scaled Minecraft map of Brisbane including models of numerous architectural icons of the town was developed by the Brisbane City Council. The Danish Geodeta Agency has created a 1:1 Minecraft replica of the entire country of Denmark. A model of the Taj Mahal can also be visited in the game. The I.P. of the server that hosts the Minecraft replica of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship is 37.59.24.236:25815. The model of the Polish region has a dedicated website at www.lubietubyc.pl.
Written by Marek Kępa
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