The Latvian capital city of Riga has turned to a novel way of getting young people to think about the future of their city – the gaming platform Minecraft.
Educators created a digital twin of Riga that all pupils across the country can access via the game’s education edition. Launched in 2011, Minecraft is hugely popular with young people and has 170 million active users worldwide. The 3D sandbox game allows users to build their own worlds, from simple houses to fantastical structures and landscapes that defy the laws of physics.
The game’s enormous popularity among Alpha and Gen Z users provides a huge educational opportunity. It allows these younger cohorts to engage with town planning in a medium they are familiar with, dispensing with jargon and instead allowing them to focus on fostering a sense of community and pride in the future of the city.
As part of an extracurricular pilot project, teams of students visited 20 existing buildings in the city centre including the Latvian National Opera and the Radisson Blu Hotel, and were given 12 days to redesign and reconstruct the building and its surroundings on Minecraft.
With 81% of Gen Z playing video games, according to Newzoo, companies and institutions are exploring how they can use virtual platforms like Minecraft to convey complex information and reach the next generation.
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