Due to the coronavirus crisis, the University of Georgia canceled its graduation ceremonies, which were scheduled for May 8.
To try to give some of their fellow Dawgs a little pomp and circumstance, a group of enterprising UGA students have taken it upon themselves to build a virtual world, inside the Minecraft online environment, where graduating seniors can gather to celebrate commencement.
As reported in The Red & Black, junior psychology major Ivan Campbell and senior biology major Nick Miller followed the lead of an elementary school in Japan, where a group of youngsters also created a virtual gathering place in the popular Minecraft online world.
“I have a lot of friends who are seniors that are really disappointed about graduation getting canceled,” Campbell told the student newspaper. “So I thought to myself ‘what is something that can make them feel better?’ Well, we could build Sanford Stadium on Minecraft to have a ceremony just like the school in Japan.”
Minecraft is an open-world, multi-player online game that has sold 176 million units worldwide.
On the UGA sub-Reddit r/UGA gameplayers were quick to ask the builders: "Can you build north campus now so we can act like we're there" and "Are you gonna build memorial hall and Tate and all the stuff around the stadium?"
Campbell and Miller have drawn together a group of about 30 people to help work on the construction.
Campbell told The Red & Black that once the stadium is completed students can login into their own Minecraft channels and attend the ceremony.
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