From the chatter among the alumni, it was apparent that people were bummed out that incoming freshmen weren’t going to get a walk through of the UST campus. We didn’t either, back in the late late 80’s (or that could have just been my Institute), but apparently, the freshman walk through has become something of a cherished tradition. But, well, COVID. And then this happened:
https://youtu.be/6J0Ncm3JMfM
As it turns out, a bunch of kids – led by Charles Nobleza, a sophomore at UST’s Institute of Information and Computing Sciences (IICS) – had taken matters into their own hands and painstakingly built a model of UST and its environs using Minecraft. Today, I had a chance to spoke with Charles.
(lightly edited for space)
jabjimenez: Whose idea was this?
Charles: “The idea was spear-headed by me po and I had the help of other volunteers when I posted it on twitter. Now it is managed by the UST Minecraft Team with me as it’s Founder and Team Leader po.”
j: “How did you guys do it? Can you like, walk me through your process?”
C: “I was playing Minecraft with some friends, then we saw the Official Academic Calendar. Nakita po namin na (the activities would be) done through online.We wanted to add a spice on it para maging maganda naman yung impact and yung tradition namin for the freshies.
“So I decided to (take the) initiative to build the Arch of the Centuries, Benavides Park, and the Main Building. While I was building, I saw na this will be a potential thing for the university and I couldn’t do it alone, so I posted the pictures of the 10% builds to ask the help of the UST Community.
“A lot joined po, like 35 then ayun we continued. We made progress daily as (as much as) possible since we (wanted) to propose this first to (the UST Central Student Council) and lastly the UST Administration. It became a success and we (gathered) a lot of expert students in their respective fields to accomplish our project.”
j: “Ang husay! So all of this was built by volunteers, working from their own homes, on a shared server?”
C: “Yes po. I bought a mini-server for us volunteers to accomplish this, then transfer it po to the main server.”
So these kids got together and built this awesome Minecraft walk through for their incoming Thomasian brothers and sisters to see the UST campus in all its virtual glory, and I say, right on!
As a bit of a Minecraft enthusiast myself – from all the way back when it was still being beta-tested actually (wala pang chikens ata nun LOL) – I can totally appreciate how difficult this thing is to do. Just getting the proportions right is crazy hard, so for them to have done this for all of the UST’s main buildings and features is just amazing.
Obviously the Main Building is a work of art, but so were the Santissimo Rosario Parish and the Arch of the Centuries. I didn’t see the Med Building tho, where I spent 5 years as a P.T. student, but this is just a teaser and I’m sure the whole thing will be complete, right Charles?
Charles: “Yes the whole University is done and set for the tour. We’re still adding more details by adding the features on the four streets as well of the University. Hindi lang po yung University meronkundi yung mga food stops and condominiums around it po.
Because of the crazy amount of detail their building into this Minecraft version of UST, Charles seemed hesitant to give me a definite release date. But, like he said, they’re looking to release this in time for the freshies, which sort of gives us an idea of the timetable (hint: it’s gonna be soon).
And because I felt that the dude had earned the last word, I asked Charles what he would like to tell the freshies when they finally arrive.
Creativity can be made by a single spark of passion and once it is lighted it can inspire and influence others to join and follow you. If you have the creativity to do something extraordinary, do it to make it possible and also who knows your project might be the next big thing!
To my fellow Thomasians, enjoy our temporary home for the mean time amidst the Pandemic.
