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Medicine Games

'Minecraft' Partners With United Nations For COVID-19 PSA Campaign (hollywoodreporter.com) 60

Posted by BeauHD from the public-service-announcement dept.
The sandbox video game Minecraft has teamed with the United Nations for a PSA campaign that aims to spread helpful information and health tips amid the coronavirus pandemic. From the Hollywood Reporter: In an official blog post on Tuesday, a spokesperson from the game's Swedish developer wrote, "At Mojang, we find that distributing factual information is incredibly important, as that information will help people make informed decisions, which in turn may save lives. One thing we're doing to help is teaming up with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and their partner, Heart17. Together, we'll spread the word under the banner of #TomorrowTogether."

The blog post noted that over the next week or so, Minecraft's social media channels will be devoted to sharing crucial health advice derived from the World Health Organization's safety recommendations. There will be three videos in the campaign that replay guidelines about practices such as handwashing and social distancing. "So if you suddenly come across a Creeper asking you to wash your hands, don't worry: their agenda has not permanently changed," the blog post continued. "In the game, they still want nothing more than to get cozy with you and proceed to blow up. But in our social channels, and for the time being, they also want to help put an end to the pandemic."
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'Minecraft' Partners With United Nations For COVID-19 PSA Campaign More

'Minecraft' Partners With United Nations For COVID-19 PSA Campaign

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  • Ending Cold War: fail
    Ending dictatorships: fail
    Ending world hunger: fail
    "Wash your hands": success!

    • U.S.A. (Score:1, Troll)

      by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 )

      I agree. We are much better!

      Starting Cold War: success
      Starting dictatorships: success
      Starting world hunger: success
      "Wash your hands": fail!

      Stupid U.N. just doesn't know how to define success!

      • Acting like triggered toddlers with autisic asperger's, who can handle neither reality nor a joke.

        Predictable as hell. And easily controlled by their master for exactly this reason.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      Ending world hunger was a resounding success. Activists had to rebrand their efforts from "ending hunger" to "ending food insecurity" and define "food insecurity" as something which included things like "skipped breakfast" to continue funnelling money from donors.

      Many of those morbidly obese Americans? They're food insecure because they often skip breakfast in favour of snacking many times later on. Word hunger is beaten. But you should still keep on paying.

      • The March of Dimes was started to fight polio. After polio was cured, they had a whole set of barnacles built up and an operation to collect funds. So instead of shutting down they 'repurposed' to 'fight' birth defects.

        Never tell a do-gooder that they did good and should move along. They've got a salary to collect.

        • Ending world hunger was a resounding success. Activists had to rebrand their efforts from "ending hunger" to "ending food insecurity" and define "food insecurity" as something which included things like "skipped breakfast" to continue funnelling money from donors.

          Yes, people fail to notice when things go right; they only notice when things go wrong. The fight against mass starvation turned into the fight against "hunger", and nobody noticed. The fight against people literally dying from no food turned into the fight against "food insecurity", and nobody paid attention. Most of the world starvation that happened in the 1950s and 1960s was solved -- and the predictions of hundreds of millions of people starving in the 70s and 80s didn't happen. And nobody cheered

        • Never tell a do-gooder that they did good and should move along.

          They did move along you idiot.
          Going from polio to infant mortality is moving on.

  • Minecraft is still Microsoft, right?

    • Are you asking if it's okay to hate Minecraft because Microsoft bought Mojang?

      • I think they're asking if the headline translates to "Microsoft partners..." and the answer is absolutely yes. My brain actually translated it for me, I literally thought that's what it said. And effectively, it does.

      • There is still a cross platform java version of the game. But Microsoft is working hard to push the console and Windows 10 versions of the game, complete with oodles of paid-for DLC and whatnot.

        The hard core fans are sticking with the mod-able java game, though.

    • Technically, yes, and Bedrock Edition definitely so. Mojang still runs Java Edition and Microsoft took a surprisingly good and thorough hands-off approach.

      At one point one of Mojang devs bitched on Twitter about problems running the game after Windows 10 installed some updates. Once I reminded him he's technically a Microsoft employee, he had a bit of 'whoah' moment.

  • Their statements are at odds with themselves (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Sumguy2436 ( 6186944 ) on Wednesday April 22, 2020 @03:36AM (#59975336)

    At Mojang, we find that distributing factual information is incredibly important

    Minecraft's social media channels will be devoted to sharing crucial health advice derived from the World Health Organization's safety recommendations

    Which is it? Factual information or WHO recommendations? The way they handled this pandemic means you can only have one of the two.

    • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by Admiral Krunch ( 6177530 )

      Which is it? Factual information or WHO recommendations? The way they handled this pandemic means you can only have one of the two.

      If your only choice of information was Trump or the WHO. Which would you choose?

      • Probably the one under a hell of a lot more scrutiny. Luckily the world isn't as black and white.

        • Probably the one under a hell of a lot more scrutiny. Luckily the world isn't as black and white.

          So you can't even bring yourself to admit the WHO gave better advice than Trump.

          You know Trump is just using it (and you) to deflect attention away from his own failures.

          • Trump didn't "give advice", he closed the border. To great effect.

            But it doesn't matter. You buzzsaws are going to rip away at Trump as your primary objective until you get some Democratic stooge into office.

            I almost dread Trump getting re-elected because it means anti-Trump crapflooding from you tards for four more years.

            Biden is the new Bob Dole, though, so we'd better get ready for it.

            • Trump didn't "give advice", he closed the border. To great effect.

              You're delusional.

              But it doesn't matter. You buzzsaws are going to rip away at Trump as your primary objective until you get some Democratic stooge into office.

              You're also trying to deflect from Trumps obvious incompetence.

              I almost dread Trump getting re-elected because it means anti-Trump crapflooding from you tards for four more years.

              Biden is the new Bob Dole, though, so we'd better get ready for it.

              Trump is excellent at getting his followers lining up behind him and defending the indefensible. Just as you are here. He probably will win the election.
              Don't pretend for a second that that is the same as being a good leader, or even being capable of making good decisions.

              • No. It is the same as one or two more supreme courtappointments, though.

                And those of us opposed to a 'strong executive ' powerful Federal govenment get four more years of a mediocre president, so that the powers of the executive will be reduced more and more by the rest of the government. Having a guy like Trump in office is an excellent motivator for reducing the power and reach of the Federal executive, something all real conservatives support.

      • Given the choice between trusting a democratically elected official directly accountable to the people and an unaccountable international organization run by the servant of a dictatorship appointed by other dictatorships, it's really a no-brainer.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by VMaN ( 164134 )

      Looks like someone took the blame bait

  • For about a month now the 'splashes' (diagonal yellow text that appears on top of the Minecraft logo in main menu, normally chosen from a couple hundred (or thousand?) catchy phrases), display various advice regarding the coronavirus situation. Short little things, 2-4 words, like "Wash hands" or "stock up but don't hoard".

  • We are talking about health safety information delivered through the social media outlets for a video game. That means the bulk of the audience will be in developed nations where people have reliable access to social media and can afford hardware to run the game.

    So, why the hell would the UN Development Program be involved? Is that how it's supposed to use its resources? Is there a rational relation to it's purpose? Are they a gatekeeper for WHO recommendations and guidelines, or operating outside th

  • This is the most deplorable kind of propaganda. Targeting children. How about teaching some basic math like calculating a percentage.

    Here's one:
    ( 179,725 global COVID-19 deaths / 7,800,000,000 global population) x 100 = 0.00230416666

    Yes that's ONLY 0.0023% of the world population; a rounding error at best.
    Note: The deaths are known to be exaggerated as many are counted without testing to confirm.

    World Confirmed: 0.033 %
    World Deaths: 0.0023 %

    US Confirmed: 0.25 %
    US Deaths: 0.014 %

    Meanwhile in the ONLY count

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