200 people virtually come together to build a massive starbucks island in minecraft

with over 176 million copies sold worldwide, minecraft is the world’s best-selling video game of all time. released in 2011, the game is about building with blocks (colored, textured, you name it) to create a 3D-procedurally generated world. and as the gaming industry continues to exponentially grow, and gamers are becoming modern celebrities thanks to apps like twitch — a livestreaming video platform — new ways of communal playing have surfaced.

the latest example of this saw gaming personality daniel ‘RTGame’ condren congregate 200 of his stream viewers in a single minecraft server to transform an entire region into a massive starbucks. ‘I wanted to involve my viewers more,’ condren explained to the verge. ‘I’d see these major streamers playing a game by themselves and not even attempting to interact with their chat. it always felt like a waste of potential — you have thousands of people here excited to see you, but they might as well be watching a pre-recorded video. so I wanted to present something more engaging that my viewers could actually get involved with and take part in.’

the final result can be found on the pictures above while a summary of the endeavour has been revealed on the video. but what’s more interesting here, apart from the incredible structure, is the way people have collaborated without speaking to one another. condren does say that he has moderators that help him make sure people are following the theme but that doesn’t guarantee that it won’t be a bit messy.

‘part of the comedy of the streams is taking a tacky theme and trying to make it look impressive,’ condren continues telling the verge. ‘we had another session where we tried to build a mansion and it turned into yelp’s review headquarters, and another where we just dug a hole for two hours. the stream was one of my favourites. the end result just oozed creativity.’

‘I’m glad it does resonate with people,’ he concludes. ‘it definitely makes life more interesting, and I’m thankful for it.’