India, Dec. 29 -- With the conclusion of one chapter and the beginning of another one knocking on the door, Minecraft is due for a pause. It's not about reviewing changelogs or counting features but instead looking back on how players have responded to the changes made during the last year. Throughout this last year of "blocky days," players created an experience for themselves out of these updates that felt like they were individually created, surprising, and at times chaotic.

The latest Minecraft experience wasn't defined by a single update. It was more about how players discovered new systems that were added with the updates, how they misinterpreted the previous systems, and how the Overworld felt alive to them in unconventional ways....