Minecraft
Advent Calendar Book Collection.
Farshore/HarperCollins. $28.99.
The Minecraft phenomenon needs no explanation whatsoever to players of
the game or their families – and anyone for whom it does need an explanation is certainly not the target audience for
the Minecraft Advent Calendar Book
Collection. The title is as large and unwieldy as the “calendar/book”
itself, which measures 12½ inches horizontally and 14½ vertically. It is big, and not only in size: this is an
item designed to engage Minecraft players even more fully in the game, to the
tune of many, many hours of accomplishing the tasks laid out in the books
within the calendar.
OK, that requires a bit of
explanation. Advent calendars have a sacred origin that has long since been
co-opted for secular purposes that involve marking the Christmas season with
the same 24-to-25-day anticipation inherent in the original Advent concept –
but building up to a family gift-giving holiday rather than (or in addition to)
a churchgoing one. The Minecraft Advent
Calendar Book Collection takes things even further: its 24 elements are all
tied to the Minecraft video game and offer everything from tasks to accomplish
to rather lame jokes to enjoy (or groan at).
There is some disagreement over whether Advent calendars should begin
with 1 or 24 – that is, whether they should count up or down – and the Minecraft Advent Calendar Book Collection
evades the issue entirely by having its pockets scattered randomly, so players
can decide whether to count up or down or in some other way. The innards of
this oversize offering are indeed pockets: there are 24 numbered, neatly folded
envelope-like packages, each bearing a number and each containing a, well, something.
Yes, many contain mini-books (hence that part of the title), but in some there
are individual cards used for real-world projects. For instance, one envelope
contains two cards to be cut out, slotted together and turned into a “creeper
bauble” (one of the cards is careful to say, “Ask an adult to help!”). Another
package contains two cards that can be assembled into a “pig bauble.” Other
packages contain “challenge cards” with activities such as “create a festive
song with note blocks” and “build the biggest – and cutest – snowman.” In still
other packages are pages of various sorts, such a “would you rather” page with
mildly unpleasant, suitably illustrated alternatives: “Would you rather receive
a full inventory of gifts, but pigs have eaten your Christmas dinner…OR …a fox
has stolen all your presents, but every food item is on the dinner menu?” A
different page shows how to draw a snow golem and provides space on the back of
the page to practice.
The most-engaging parts of the Minecraft Advent Calendar Book Collection are the actual books. Some are miniature activity books that may include a biome wordsearch, anagrams to unscramble, puzzles and quizzes. Others – the most-involving items of all – are “build books” that explain how to create, within the game, items such as a “snowman igloo” and “pudding bauble,” and estimate how long it will take to assemble each construct. And there is one book that stands out for sheer silliness: it is called “Festive Funnies” and includes such jokes as, “Why do ocelots ruin holiday movies? They keep pressing paws.” The Minecraft Advent Calendar Book Collection is a very neat “take” on the secular Advent-calendar concept and a well-done tie-in to a game that has retained and expanded its popularity for 13 years, is now the best-selling video game of all time, and was bought a decade ago by Microsoft for $2.5 billion. Given those financial circumstances, the Minecraft Advent Calendar Book Collection, which in effect is both a Christmas card (or set of cards) and a gift, seems like a bargain – and an annually reusable one, as long as everybody is careful when opening those fold-over envelope packages.
No comments:
Post a Comment