It began as a game in a community forum and then became the top-selling video game of all time However, now Minecraft is being used for something even its creator would not ever have imagined.
The iconic game based around placing Lego-like blocks with more than 145 million people playing each month has been turned into a center for free speech.
A virtual library has been meticulously created to host the articles of journalists which were censored online.
Work of Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist killed by Saudi agents in 2018, can be found among the many books in the library.
Minecraft has refused to comment.
Reporters Without Borders, a non-profit organization that aims to protect the freedom of information around the world has created the project. Blockworks, the design studio responsible for the Minecraft library, developed it.
Christian Mihr, executive director of Reporters Without Borders Germany, told the BBC that Minecraft was a good choice for the project because he believes that it isn't considered a threat by the governments that restrict their media.
"We decided to go with Minecraft because of its global reach," he said. "It is accessible in every nation. The game is not subject to censorship as other games that are suspected to be political.
"There are large communities in every country featured and that's the reason the idea was born - it is a loophole for censorship."
He stated that the authors were chosen to represent countries in which press freedom was restricted so that people in those communities could access their work.
He clarified, however, that permissions must be sought prior to publishing in a library.
"We didn't put any content in the library without the approval of respective authors themselves - if they are alive.
"In the Jamal Khashoggi investigation we spoke with family members - regarding the safety of deceased relatives and the safety of their families."
Nick Feamster, Neubauer Professor of Computer Science at the University of Chicago Nick Feamster, Neubauer Professor of Computer Science at the University of Chicago, told BBC that the library could be effective at beating the censors, but he was concerned about how governments may respond.
He said that it was an interesting concept however there were still issues. The government will be aware of this and the articles are being circulated all over the internet. It won't be foolproof against a determined enemy.
He claimed that the strength of the library comes from its use of entanglement, which mixes the censored materials with the video game in the eyes censors.
He said, "By entangling the two things you force them all to share content." "You cannot censor one without the other."
However, Helmi Noman who is a Research Associate of the Berkman Klein Centre for Internet & Society He said he felt the library would likely to be able to attract an audience that is limited.
"The content that is censored is constantly changing diverse and distributed," he said, adding that in his research "the users prefer approaches that don't pre-select and compartmentalise content from certain online spaces.
"Any strategy that doesn't result in a seamless and secure experience for browsing the entire internet including social media, direct messaging apps will have limited success."
Due to the large number of players trying to log in simultaneously the server could not be accessed frequently. Despite this cap on simultaneous users, the server has been visited by 3,889 users from 75 different countries. It has also been downloaded more than 7,000 times.
After two hours of attempting, BBC finally visited the virtual library and asked its users what they thought of it.
SoulfulGenie said that they believed it needed more books, including an area on North Korea. Another user described it as "ingenious" and claimed that the library could be downloaded and then reuploaded by other users. Leaves farm "It is simple to replicate and therefore difficult to kill."
ReduxPL said that the library "looks amazing indeed".
The design of the library developed by Blockworks was no small feat, taking 24 people from 16 countries for 250 hours to construct.
James Delaney, Managing Director of the design firm, told the BBC that the aim was to create a classical design that was "on the edge of fantasy".
"It is plausible as a building," he said, "but is pushing the limits of what is feasible.
"We picked a design that is in the neoclassical style. It's very like the British Museum or New York's public libraries.
Outside of these influences he said Minecraft was improvisational at its core, so the builders did not have to adhere to established plans.
He said that when there are many people working on the same project individuals can observe each other's work and must respond in real-time. This is a highly reactive method of working, and that changes the look.
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