Minecraft at the Opera House

On the balcony of our apartment

 The Minecraft event at the Opera House turned out to be a lot of fun. (I enjoyed just seeing the location -- the Opera House itself is a gorgeous building in a beautiful setting!) We knew we were in the right place because of the hordes of children around Matthew and James's age. :)

For the Minecraft day, they had different stations set up.  There was a merchandise booth, of course, where Matthew got a sword and James got a pickaxe, which provided them both with hours of enjoyment (and a few warnings not to swing them around in crowds!).  They also had a cool green-screen photo booth and  a chance to meet YouTubers Mr. Crayfish and Wyld.  (I'd never heard of either of them -- Matthew and James are fans of PopularMOS's Pat and Jen -- but Mattie had watched some of Mr. Crayfish's videos and liked them.)

They also met "Jeb", the lead programmer of Minecraft, and he signed their sword and pickaxe. :)  We had great timing for that one -- we had just come down to the lower level and they announced that Jeb was going to do photos and signings, and so we were third in line (and a huge line instantly formed behind us!)

We didn't have such great timing for the Virtual Reality Minecraft -- we had to wait in line quite a while for that one (although I had some nice chats with fellow parents).  The boys said it was really cool, though!

There was a competition as well (Battle Mode on X-box, which the boys had never played), but the slots were all sold out (somewhat to James's disappointment).

Opera House interior

All in all, a great morning!

With YouTuber Mr. Crayfish

In the theater

With Jeb, lead Minecraft programmer

Virtual Reality gear

Reflection in the Opera House roof

Vu Bui, COO of Mojang