Oh, Steve, how we’ve loved you. Steve has been the default player on Minecraft since it’s inception. It was originally intended to be a genderless block person, but when asked what the “Minecraft Guy’s” name was, creator Markus Persson jokingly replied “Steve” and it stuck. Today Minecraft is rolling out a free skin for you to choose on all platforms (PC & Consoles) they are calling “Alex”.
Alex has thinner arms than Steve, and sports a ponytail. She has been around on the PC version for a while now, but now she will be available to everyone. In a blog post Minecraft stated “jolly old Steve doesn’t really represent the diversity of our playerbase. For that reason, we’re giving all players opportunity to play with an Alex skin instead”
This really is great news for getting more girls interested in STEM fields, and getting them excited about playing Minecraft. While my daughter has loved Minecraft for a while now (and has long since ditched Steve to play as a dragon), I can see other girls being turned off to the game right at the beginning if they can’t choose a female representation of themselves.
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