Students at the Bowling Green State University get to play games like Minecraft in their art degree classes, student newspaper BG News reports.
Video games are treated as a new form of expression, and instructors in the School of Art Anthony Fontana and Bonnie Mitchell have been using games like Second Life and Minecraft to create their artistic worlds through games.
Students attended online classes with their avatars over the summer. Teachers check the art galleries of students' artworks and even go on virtual tours to places like the Sistine Chapel. Students have also created an Angry Birds level in Minecraft.
Minecraft lets players use square blocks to build 3-D constructions.
Students have even hosted a Minecraft contest where participants had to build with a given number of blocks and within a stipulated time.
"Minecraft is a great tool for art because there are infinite possibilities of things to build," said Senior Chris Bailey. He added that it was a very popular game and he will go into Internet pop culture class to explain Minecraft.
Freshman Michael Reasoner created his campus buildings on Minecraft for his methodology project.
Minecraft makes people come up with all sort of crazy things, he said.
"It takes time and talent to do that; you can't just walk up to a pottery wheel and make something perfect," he added.
Minecraft was developed and published by Mohang, and was released into markets Nov. 18, 2011. It was created by Markus "Notch" Persson.
The game is available on Android- and iOS-based devices. It has also been released for Xbox 360. The game sold four million copies on Xbox 360 as of Oct. 1, and more than seven million units were sold for the game's PC version, SlashGear reported.
