Netflix has renewed its mysterious drama "The OA" for a second season.

The show's cocreator Zal Batmanglij, who also directed all eight episodes of the first season, told reporters on Wednesday that Netflix was the bravest of the different companies and networks the show (produced by Brad Pitt's Plan B) approached, two of which gave the creators pilot orders.

"We didn’t think there was any home for what we were making," Batmanglij said. "I think other networks would have ordered a pilot, but they would’ve never gone through [to series]."

He later explained what he loved about Netflix's reach.

"I think that the arthouse thing is an elitist idea. You release it, a small group of people see it," he said. "Netflix is the exact opposite. Netflix is so egalitarian. As a filmmaker, that’s so refreshig. Everyone can see it."

The first season followed Prairie Johnson (played by Brit Marling, also a cocreator of the show), who returns to her hometown after disappearing for seven years. That's just part of the mystery. As a young girl, Prairie was blind. But when she comes back to the town in her 20s, Prairie has her sight back. How that's possible and where Prairie was for those seven years become the big mysteries of the season.

Marling's costars include Emory Cohen of "Brooklyn," Scott Wilson of "The Walking Dead," and "Harry Potter" star Jason Isaacs.

Watch the teaser below:

SEE ALSO: Netflix's new Drew Barrymore zombie show 'Santa Clarita Diet' is a gory, disgusting mess

DON'T MISS: Bill Nye is back to blow your mind with science in his new Netflix show trailer

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NOW WATCH: Netflix and Marvel just dropped the first 'Iron Fist' trailer — and it looks incredible

On Tuesday's “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” the host used his "The Check In" segment to once again criticize President Donald Trump, but this time for an issue that's getting less attention than some others: poor treatment of veterans. 

The segment started with some clips of Trump bragging about his support of veterans during his campaign. Lines include “I love those vets” and “there’s nobody better at the military than I am.”

Before getting into the criticism of Trump’s impact on veterans, Meyers gave the president “serious credit” for donating over a million dollars to building a Vietnam Memorial in New York  City, which was completed in 1985. Meyers even gave him another compliment when addressing Trump’s concern with the Department of Veterans Affairs:

“Throughout his campaign, Trump constantly brought attention to problems at the [Department of Veterans Affairs], specifically how poorly it is run. And he’s right about that. One of the main problems at the VA is that many departments — including VA hospitals — are chronically understaffed. But one of Trump’s first moves as president was to put a freeze on federal hiring,” Meyers said.

Then Meyers dove right into the negative effects that Trump’s inauguration day hiring freeze has had on veterans.

“Veterans get preference when it comes to federal hiring in general. And according to advocacy groups, several veterans have already had job interviews canceled or postponed,” Meyers said.

Meyers told the story of a 30-year-old veteran who was supposed to start work at a government agency, but thanks to the hiring freeze, the start date was postponed “indefinitely.” After trying to follow through on a definitive start date, the verteran was told, "There's nothing we can do."

Meyers then suggested that Trump is signing executive orders without thinking about consequences and leaving “a trail of chaos.” 

You can watch the Seth Meyers segment below: 

SEE ALSO: Seth Meyers ridicules Trump for his 'bizarre' Black History Month comment

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NOW WATCH: The new 'Power Rangers' trailer finally shows off the Dinozords and they look incredible

Nintendo is considered the "Disney of video games" by millions of people. Iconic characters like Super Mario and Donkey Kong are instantly recognizable by children and adults the world over, just like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. 

But that comparison misses a fundamental piece of Nintendo's history: games made by companies other than Nintendo.

If you're like me and grew up playing Nintendo game consoles like the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES, Nintendo 64 and GameCube, you likely have fond memories of characters like Chun-Li and Ken from the "Street Fighter" franchise. 

Or maybe for you it was "Resident Evil 4" — an exclusive, believe it or not, back on the GameCube. It's hard to imagine now, but Nintendo was once known for more than its own games. Capcom, the Japanese game developer/publisher behind both the "Street Fighter" franchise and the "Resident Evil" franchise has largely moved on — both of those game franchises are made for Microsoft and Sony's home game consoles, but not Nintendo's.

If you've come to the Japanese console-maker in the past 10 years, though, you're forgiven for not remembering such a time.

Since the Nintendo Wii launched (and exploded in popularity) in 2006, Nintendo's been almost entirely reliant on its own software to sell consoles. And what sells game consoles? Games! Unfortunately, even a game-maker as capable as Nintendo isn't able to sustain its hardware entirely on its own.

This is evident from a cursory glance at sales of the Wii U, Nintendo's most recent game console:

The Wii U is the worst-selling home console Nintendo's ever made, and it's not because Nintendo didn't make great games for it.

• "Mario Kart 8" is arguably the best "Mario Kart" game ever made.
• "Super Mario 3D World" is a true delight, and one of the best Mario games in history.
• "Super Mario Maker" is an entirely new concept from Nintendo, which enables players to create their own "Super Mario" levels from scratch. Incredible!

Despite all these great games from Nintendo (and many more that I didn't mention), the Wii U tanked.

While there are many reasons that the Wii U sold so poorly, prime among them is a complete lack of support from so-called "third-party" developers — game developers other than Nintendo. If you wanted to play the latest "Call of Duty" game in the last decade, there was no way to do that on Nintendo's consoles. That same statement applies to other major franchises, from "Grand Theft Auto" to "Mass Effect" to "Assassin's Creed." Since the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo consoles have existed solely to play Nintendo-made games.

And Nintendo's next console, the Switch, looks to be in the same situation.

Thus far, there is a single "big" game launching alongside the Switch: "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild." It's a gorgeous new entry in the long-running "Legend of Zelda" series (made by Nintendo, of course), which puts players in the role of an elfin boy named Link who's often tasked with rescuing a princess named Zelda. 

Outside of that game, though? It's slim pickings.

And that's a real problem when Nintendo's competition, Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4, have enormous game libraries, cost less, and are more powerful. Nintendo realizes this, of course, as do analysts that cover the video game industry.

During a recent investor Q&A, the question of third-party support for the Switch came up. Nintendo director Shinya Takahashi offered an answer that doesn't exactly instill confidence:

"Nintendo will keep on creating unique software. By doing so, I believe we will encourage third-party developers to create a number of quality software titles for Nintendo Switch."

Right.

The argument from Nintendo largely boils down to, "We'll lead by example, and hopefully third-party developers will follow our lead." It's a nice sentiment, but recent history indicates that it's unlikely to happen — the laundry list of excellent games made by Nintendo on the Wii U didn't spur third-parties to make games for the Wii U. 

More problematically, the Switch simply isn't as powerful as the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

While those consoles aren't identical, they share enough in common that game developers can make games for both relatively easily. When it comes to the Switch, however, it's different enough that blockbusters like, say, the next "Red Dead Redemption" game, aren't possible. The console simply can't power the same game that runs on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 — and that's going to keep the next "Call of Duty" from the Switch. 

Apply that same logic to the next "Mass Effect," the next "Assassin's Creed," the next [insert your favorite third-party blockbuster franchise here].

To be clear, there are some games from third-party software-makers coming to the Switch.

They're mostly games from years ago, re-released on the Switch. That includes "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim," which originally launched in 2011, and "Disgaea 5," which originally launched in 2015.

These are not the type of third-party games that I'm referring to above — the "Assassin's Creeds" and "Call of Dutys" and "Fallouts" of the world are what matters nowadays when it comes to third-party support. If you're in the market for a new game console — and you're not a crazy person like me, who buys all of the game consoles regardless of logic — you're looking for one to serve as many of your wants as possible.

If you're into Nintendo games and only Nintendo games, it makes sense to buy something like the Switch (though I'd still argue you should wait until the holiday season). 

It's entirely possible that Nintendo's got more to reveal about the Switch that will trump its complete lack of third-party support.

The new console's version of the long-running "Virtual Console" service, which offers access to Nintendo's incredible vault of games from past consoles, could prove to be a game-changer. If Nintendo can spin the nostalgic grab of its game library into, say, a subscription service — Netflix-style — that could be huge. As of right now, there's no indication that such a thing is happening.

Otherwise, if you're one of the millions of people who want a game console that does more than play Nintendo's own games, the Switch is a hard sell. And that doesn't bode well for Nintendo, its stock, or its investors.

SEE ALSO: Here's everything we know about Nintendo's new $300 console coming next month, the Switch

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NOW WATCH: We got to try Nintendo’s new Switch console — here’s what it was like

The Oscars are the most celebrated awards show in Hollywood, and they set the conversation about what's great in movies.

But that doesn’t mean that everyone wants to go, or even be in the running to win one. In the 89-year history of the ceremony, some of Hollywood’s finest haven’t been there to accept their awards or nominations, and some have flat-out rejected the envied award itself. 

Weirdly, Leonardo DiCaprio never boycotted the ceremony in protest of his many losses. Good thing he doesn’t have to worry about that anymore — and neither do we. 

Here are some actors and filmmakers who've skipped (or rejected) the Oscars:

SEE ALSO: RANKED: The 10 worst movies to win the best picture Oscar — and what should have won

Marlon Brando

Knowing he was a shoe-in to win best actor for his role as Vito Corleone in "The Godfather," Brando boycotted the Oscars in 1973. In his place, he had Native American activist Sacheen Littlefeather attend. She went onstage to accept his award, and when she read Brando’s speech about the mistreatment of Native Americans in film, she got booed.

Roman Polanski

The director didn't attend the 2003 ceremony that awarded him a statue for best director for his work on "The Pianist." But even if he tried, he likely wouldn't have made it, since he is still a fugitive in the US in a conviction for unlawful sex. Harrison Ford accepted the award on his behalf.

Michael Caine

Michael Caine wasn’t around to accept his first Oscar win for best supporting actor in "Hannah and Her Sisters," because he was busy filming "Jaws: The Revenge," a movie with a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Caine learned his lesson, and showed up in 2000 to accept his deserved win for a supporting role in "The Cider House Rules."

Oprah Winfrey has undeniably good taste.

The billionaire mogul reportedly sold a painting by Gustav Klimt for a cool $150 million sometime in 2016, according to Bloomberg. The painting was purchased by an unnamed Chinese buyer.

Winfrey purchased the painting, "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II," for $87.9 million at a Christie's auction in 2006. The purchase broke a price record for Klimt's work. It was painted in 1912 and depicts the wife of an industrialist and art patron in Vienna.

Klimt, a 19th-century Austrian painter, is famous for his symbolist style and for being a prominent member of the Vienna Secession movement. 

Winfrey anonymously lent the painting to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 2014, in a transaction arranged by David Geffen. 

The painting is currently on display in the Neue Galerie museum for Austrian and German art, which is owned by the billionaire son of  Estée Lauder, Ronald Lauder. It is shown next to its predecessor, the "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I."

The painting Oprah sold was originally found as part of a cache of paintings looted by the Nazis in WWII, and was given back to surviving members of the Bloch-Bauer in 2006.

Oprah is a noted art collector, but she started to offload some of her collection in 2015.

SEE ALSO: 15 crazy facts about the outrageous LA mansion that just listed for $250 million

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NOW WATCH: How Oprah Winfrey earns and spends her billions

The trailer for Sofia Coppola 's next movie, "The Beguiled," has been released online — and all we can say is we can't wait for the summer.

Starring Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, and Colin Farrell, the movie is set during the Civil War and follows an injured Union soldier (Farrell) who is brought back to health by a Confederate girls' boarding school. However, the man soon becomes romantically involved with the women there, leading to some disastrous results. 

Based on a 1966 novel, Clint Eastwood and director Don Siegel made it into a movie in 1971. But we're expecting a different version of the story with Coppola at the helm.

Watch the trailer below. The movie opens in theaters June 30.

SEE ALSO: The "John Wick" sequel is an orgy of violence that fans of the original will love

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NOW WATCH: Everything you need to know about 'American Gods' — a TV show that could be bigger than 'Game of Thrones'

Netflix is planning to jump into the lucrative toys and merchandise business, according to a report by Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw.

Netflix is trying to hire an exec to head up licensing for "books, comics, gaming toys, collectibles, soundtrack and apparel," according to a Netflix job posting.

Netflix has already conducted one test with "Stranger Things" merch at Hot Topic, and is currently in the experimental phase of its strategy, a spokesperson told Bloomberg.

Powerhouse Disney is the model for how to turn a hit show or movie into merchandise gold. But Netflix seems more focused on how merchandise can be used to keep interest in a show going.

"We are pursuing consumer products and associated promotion because we believe it will drive meaningful show awareness/buzz with more tangible, curated ways to interact with our most popular content," Netflix said in the job posting. "We want licensed merchandise to help promote our titles so they become part of the zeitgeist for longer periods of time. Last but not least, merchandising and promotion will be used as a marketing tactic to capture member demand and delight our member community."

As Netflix content boss Ted Sarandos said last year: “Kids carrying the backpack sells the show.”

Check out Hot Topic's "Stranger Things" online shop.

SEE ALSO: Disney's CEO says there are too many ads on TV

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NOW WATCH: People on Twitter are rallying around Elizabeth Warren after she was silenced by Republicans

Magic Leap is a startup valued at $4.5 billion, and it's building a pair of glasses that lets users see crazy things in the real world — like a whale jumping out of a floor, for example. 

Few people have tried it and spoken about it publicly, because everyone who ultimately gets a demo has to sign an NDA. 

One person who has tried the cutting-edge technology is Beyonce, former employees tell Business Insider.

Employees were told to create a "mermaid" demo for Beyonce, one person said. But the superstar was bored by the demo, and no collaboration was ultimately struck. 

Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz loves to bring celebrities into the company's office to check out its technology, former employees said.

Representatives for Beyonce were not immediately available for comment.

Check out the full story here. 

SEE ALSO: Engineers at $4 billion Magic Leap 'are scrambling' ahead of a big board meeting next week

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On Tuesday afternoon, I finally finished watching "Double Fine Adventure," the 20-part documentary series on YouTube that chronicles the San Francisco-based game development studio Double Fine Productions as it makes a brand-new video game from start to finish.

"Double Fine Adventure" is a rare behind-the-scenes look at how a single video game was produced: the critically-acclaimed point-and-click adventure from 2015 called "Broken Age," which is available to buy on PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Android, PlayStation Vita, and PlayStation 4.

It's incredible to watch all the effort that went into the production of "Broken Age," but I personally loved getting to know all the people behind the project. You meet all the key players: the directors, managers, producers, writers, game designers, artists, musicians, programmers, and yes, even those poor souls charged with finding and fixing all the game's bugs. I loved getting to know all of these people through their work and their on-camera interviews, which provided excellent context and color. By the time the documentary was over, it felt like I was saying goodbye to a group of friends.

If you've never heard of Double Fine, the studio was founded in 2000 by LucasArts veteran Tim Schafer, one of the most beloved figures in the video game industry. He's written and designed some of the biggest cult-classic games over the last three decades, including two of the beloved "Monkey Island" games for PC, as well as "Grim Fandango," "Brütal Legend," and "Psychonauts," which is easily my favorite video game of all time (and it's getting a sequel!).

Five years ago, in February 2012, Double Fine took a novel idea to the Kickstarter community: Schafer and his team wanted to make a classic point-and-click adventure game, in the same vein as the popular "Monkey Island" games that Schafer helped build at Lucasarts in the 1990s. Through Kickstarter, they asked fans to help back the project, setting a target goal of $400,000 to help fund development of the game. That money would also cover the costs of a documentary series, which was Double Fine's way of being transparent with backers about the status of the game's development.

Double Fine couldn't have predicted what would happen next: "Double Fine Adventure" raised over $3.45 million from over 87,000 backers to become the biggest crowdfunded video game at that time. But while "Broken Age" wasn't the monumental commercial success the company hoped for, the project helped establish Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms as viable alternatives to having publishers or venture capitalists bankroll video game projects.

Now, I wouldn't advise watching the whole documentary in one sitting — the 20 videos that comprise the "Double Fine Adventure" documentary span around 743 minutes in total, which is over 12 hours — but getting to know these people and seeing them manage the many challenges associated with creating a video game is downright fascinating. And it's great that Double Fine and 2 Player Productions, the video production company behind the documentary, didn't sugarcoat anything: Mistakes and setbacks are given equal treatment to progress and good news.

You really don't need to know anything about video games to enjoy watching these professionals in their element; it's educational as well as entertaining. (It also helps that Schafer is such a big personality, watching him work and collaborate with others is a joy unto itself.)

And so, even if you've never heard of Double Fine Productions before reading this article, or if you don't care about video games, put all of that aside: "Double Fine Adventure" is one of the best documentary series I've ever seen, and it's absolutely worth your time. You can watch it over your lunch breaks over the course of a few months, like I did, or binge-watch it all at home or on your computer. It's free to watch on YouTube, though you'll get even more content if you purchase the gorgeous-looking DVD box set for $30.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's the gorgeous trailer for 'Super Mario Odyssey' — the first Mario game for Nintendo Switch

Drew Barrymore really dedicated herself to playing a zombie for her new comedy, Netflix's "Santa Clarita Diet."

On the show, Barrymore plays suburban wife and mom Sheila, who inexplicably begins to grow ill and crave human flesh, among other symptoms of the undead. In the role, Barrymore vomits... a lot, tears into people with her teeth, and eats newly killed animals and human flesh.

Barrymore said she came to the role quite hungry, because she was on a diet for the job.

"I was so hungry when we started," she told reporters at a Netflix event on Wednesday. "I was trying to lose 20 pounds, that was my goal. I was 144 when we started and I ended up at 124. In order to do that, you have to eat really sensibly. Listen, she was eating humans. And if you’re on an all-protein diet, you would thin out. There’s just no question about it. So it gave me a goal line that I committed to."

But Barrymore said that the actual things she had to eat for "Santa Clarita Diet" were almost as gross as what viewers see on the show.

"It was always different stuff," she said. "Some days it was dehydrated apples made to look fleshy. Some days, it was this weird edible rubber that tasted like Jolly Rancher. Sometimes it was like a wet cake to be a fake piece of chicken. Sometimes, it was like a soup that had gone bad to portray vomit, that had actually curdled. It was always a fun cornucopia. Every day was interesting."

Of all that, the 41-year-old actress said there was one fake food that surprised her when it made her sick.

"The raw beef, that one almost made me yak in the sink," Barrymore said. "It had a cream and it curdled. It was fake raw meat. It didn’t taste very good. Weirdly, of all the things, the raw meat was one that got me. That was one that took me down and almost made me throw up."

A source from the show's production told Business Insider that the fake raw beef was made of "a yucky pasta."

SEE ALSO: Netflix's trippy mystery show 'The OA' is coming back for another season

DON'T MISS: Netflix's new Drew Barrymore zombie show 'Santa Clarita Diet' is a gory, disgusting mess

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NOW WATCH: Netflix and Marvel just dropped the first 'Iron Fist' trailer — and it looks incredible

Bill Nye is getting his own show on Netflix. A new trailer has been released that gives us a better glimpse of what the format of the show will look like. The trailer says Nye will cover climate change, sex, GMOs, technology, and alternative medicine. And will feature special guests Steve Aoki, Tim Gunn, Will Wheaton and Joel McHale. The show will air April 21.

Follow BI Video: On Twitter

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Keanu Reeves comes out with "John Wick: Chapter 2" on Friday. It's the highly anticipated sequel to the 2014 hit original, and Lionsgate has released a video showing off what the star had to go through to be ready for a movie this insanely action-packed.

From martial arts and rifle shooting to peeling out in a parking lot, getting the realistic look needed to make the movie work required Reeves to put in a lot of hours of training before filming.

Here's a brief rundown of what Reeves did:

SEE ALSO: Hollywood stars who rejected their Oscars

Keanu spent time fight training.

He had to brush up on his jujutsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and standing judo.

Also three-gun tactical shooting. He annihilates his targets.

Beyoncé is being sued for $20 million by the estate of a late internet star who's sampled in her song and video "Formation."

The estate of Anthony Barré, also known as Messy Mya, alleges in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday that Beyoncé used a sample of Mya in the popular single and its video without permission.

Barré can be heard as Mya in the video at the beginning, saying, "What happened at the New Wil'ins? B----, I'm back by popular demand."

The "New Wil'ins" quote comes from the below video by Barré, whose videos as Messy Mya have hundreds of thousands of views.

Barré is later heard in "Formation" saying, "Oh yeah, baby, oh yeah I, ohhhhh, oh, yes, I like that," from another video of his as Messy Mya. He's sampled along with Big Freedia, an artist in the New Orleans bounce scene. Barré and Freedia are both from New Orleans, which is used as a backdrop in the "Formation" video.

Barré was shot and killed in 2010 at the age of 22.

Interestingly, the sampling of Barré/Messy Mya is not heard in a digitally purchased version of "Formation" from Beyoncé's album "Lemonade." Both the song and the album are nominated in Sunday's 2017 Grammy Awards.

"The Estate of Anthony Barré alleges that Beyonce Knowles Carter, Parkwood Entertainment, LLC, Sony Music Entertainment, and others produced, distributed, publicly performed, used, and otherwise exploited the voice, words, and performance of the late Anthony Barré, also known as Messy Mya, without authorization in the extremely popular 'Formation' recording," the estate's lawyers wrote in a statement, according to MTV. "Barré was a well-known performance comedian, music artist, and MC in New Orleans. He is very closely associated with the bounce music phenomenon in New Orleans. There are more than a hundred videos documenting his performance, statements, comedic routines, etc."

If Beyoncé and Sony did indeed use the Messy Mya samples without permission, it would be odd given Mya's popularity online and how frequently pop musicians have been sued for copyright infringement in recent years.

Barré's estate is seeking $20 million in royalties from sales of "Formation" and other damages, according to MTV.

A representative for Sony Music, Beyoncé's label, did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

SEE ALSO: 50 movies that critics really hate but normal people love

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NOW WATCH: Everything you need to know about 'American Gods' — a TV show that could be bigger than 'Game of Thrones'

"Minecraft" is this generation's Super Mario. It's an international phenomenon. Unless you've been living on the moon, you probably already know these things.

It's on computers, phones, tablets, and game consoles. It's at your local mall, occupying kiosks with plushies and T-shirts. There's a semiannual convention ("MineCon") and an education initiative that's got it in schools (MinecraftEDU).

But why is it so popular? We're talking about a game that looks like this:

Keep in mind that there are games coming out on modern video game consoles that look like this:

And what do you actually do in "Minecraft?" Build stuff? Perhaps you've seen some of the incredible worlds people have created from within "Minecraft," like this one of King's Landing from "Game of Thrones":

Not bad! So how does a world go from a flat, grassy meadow to a pixelated re-creation of Westeros' capital city? The answer to that question is half of the reason people love "Minecraft": creation. The castles above were built block-by-block.

Think of "Minecraft" as virtual LEGO. LEGO does.

It's a system for fitting pieces together to create something — sometimes amazing somethings — from nothing. "Minecraft" provides endless building blocks and a blank canvas. It's up to you to create something incredible, or silly, or referential, or whatever, using the tools it provides. The tools are blessedly user-friendly, as are the systems for employing those tools.

The most basic unit of measurement is a single block. This is a dirt block:

This is the literal and figurative building block of the game. You start with nothing but fists and a massive, unexplored world, ripe for creation. You walk forward; you punch the ground below you and it begins to crack. Why is it cracking? And suddenly, POP! Where the ground once was is now an empty, square space. It looks like this:

The word "minecraft" is a portmanteau of two verbs: to mine and to craft. Punching a dirt block and retrieving a dirt block to build with is the first verb — the mining. When you start "Minecraft," it's the first thing you should do.

Once you've retrieved enough blocks, the second thing you'll need to do is craft: combine the resources you've mined to create more complex tools. "Mining" for wood (punching a tree) enables you to create basic tools. Those basic tools enable you to mine more complex resources, which enable you to create more complex items and tools.

It's this highly satisfying cycle of mining resources and creating from those resources that draws in millions of players around the world. And that's the most basic level of "Minecraft."

The other side of "Minecraft," sadly not encompassed in the game's title, is exploration. Every time you start a new world in "Minecraft," it's unique. That is, levels are randomly generated based on a set of parameters. There are some constants:

• The levels always contain the same materials (dirt, trees, water, etc.)
• There is a day/night cycle
• At night, enemies appear and will attack you
• You can only dig so deep below the world's surface before hitting bedrock
• The world that spawns always has stuff to discover, whether it's crazy jungles or mountains or underground caves or whatever

Yes, there are enemies. You've almost certainly seen the iconic "Creeper" at your local Hot Topic. This guy (or lady?):

These green, exploding monsters are exclusive to the "Survival" mode of "Minecraft" — if you just want to create ad infinitum, there's a "Creation" mode that enables exactly that. No day/night cycle. No enemies. No mining if you don't want to mine. Just endless creation. 

But be warned: If you don't choose "Survival" mode, you'll never experience the joy of discovering a labyrinthine cave network by accident, full of rare resources (diamonds!) and life-threatening lava. You'll never know the thrill of narrowly escaping a mob of spiders, zombies, and Creepers into the ramshackle hut you've composed just in time to hide for the night. You'll never know the heartbreak of a Creeper sneaking up and exploding the side of your carefully constructed homage to John Travolta's face. Up your nose with a rubber hose, Creeper.

So forget all the hype. Forget the billions Microsoft spent buying "Minecraft" from its creator, Markus "Notch" Persson and his team at Mojang.

"Minecraft" is so incredibly successful and popular because it's delightful. It's relaxing. It's joyful. It's goofy. It's an amazing interactive canvas to build anything you want.

Yeah, you're "just punching blocks and placing them in different combinations." And here's a re-creation of Frank Lloyd Wright's famous "Fallingwater" home:

You can play "Minecraft" online with friends, with strangers, or all by your lonesome. Some of the more complex worlds were created by whole teams of people working for months. Westeros wasn't built in a day, you know!

Personally, I prefer the relaxing experience of playing it alone while listening to podcasts. The game's music is a mix of soft, atmospheric melodies that can be easily kept at low volume, leaving me to concentrate on the project at hand. 

Unlike so many other games, "Minecraft" enables an outlet for artistic expression — however shallow — that makes time spent in its worlds feel meaningful.

SEE ALSO: I spent the weekend playing Minecraft with a 9-year-old, and now I get why Microsoft paid $2.5 billion for it

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NOW WATCH: Here's Video Of That Bonkers $70 Million Mansion That The Minecraft Creator Bought, Outbidding Jay Z And Beyoncé

On Wednesday, Netflix announced a bunch of release dates for a slew of its original shows coming in 2017.

We now have a good picture of timing for old favorites coming back, like "Orange Is the New Black" and "Chef's Table," as well as release dates for many new shows like "Bill Nye Saves the World."

Netflix also revealed it had picked up sci-fi hits "The OA" and "Travelers" for second seasons.

Netflix has said it will release a whopping 1,000 hours of original shows and movies in 2017 (and spend $6 billion to do so). That's up from 600 hours in 2016, and means you'd have to spend 41 days binge-watching Netflix to see it all. 

To help you keep track, we've updated our list of shows Netflix has confirmed — for certain — are coming out in 2017. This excludes movies and kids' shows, and things that might not come out until 2018 and beyond.

Here are the 30 shows we know for sure Netflix is putting out in 2017, along with their release date if available:

SEE ALSO: It would take you over 41 days to binge-watch all the original shows and movies Netflix will release in 2017

'Chef's Table' (Season 3) — February 17

Netflix description: "Gifted. Eccentric. Visionary. When these chefs from around the globe cook, they don't see rules. They see possibilities."

'Ultimate Beastmaster' (Season 1) — February 24

Netflix description: "Each hour-long episode will feature 12 competitors, two from each country, who will take their shot at running one of the most physically demanding obstacle courses ever devised, 'The Beast.' At the end of each episode, a ‘Beastmaster’ will be crowned and in the final episode of the season, the nine individual winners from each episode will compete against each other for the chance for one contestant to become the Ultimate Beastmaster."

'Love' (Season 2) — March 10

Netflix description: "It's awkward. It's impossible. It's infuriating. And it may just be the best thing that's ever happened to them."

"CNN had a good day." That's how Samantha Bee opened Wednesday's episode of "Full Frontal."

Bee was referring to the 24-hour news channel's big day earlier this week when it granted President Donald Trump's senior adviser Kellyanne Conway time on the network after a brief ban. And it didn't turn out to be a good segment for her.

Conway went on with Jake Tapper, who peppered her with everything from her Bowling Green massacre gaffe to making her admit that CNN isn't fake news.

Or as Bee put it, Conway was thrown "into Jake Tapper's cage, and they haven't fed him this week."

Then Bee gave props to CNN's debate later that evening between senators Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz on the fate of healthcare in the country.

"This event that we expected to be a pointless trainwreck actually ended up being a semi-thoughtful debate on the merits and flaws of America's healthcare system," Bee said. "We were watching CNN, and not just in an airport bar with the sound off, and we saw you serve the public interest for almost half a day."

Watch Bee's opening below:

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NOW WATCH: 'It's a lie': Jake Tapper calls out Trump during a fiery interview with Kellyanne Conway

Before Steve Bannon became a chief strategist for President Donald Trump or headed up media outlet Breitbart News, he was best known as a filmmaker of right-wing projects and a major figure in the small conservative community within the movie industry.

Some of the projects he made included the Ronald Reagan documentary "In the Face of Evil," the Sarah Palin doc "The Undefeated," and a movie in 2010 called "Fire from the Heartland: The Awakening of the Conservative Woman."

But it's a project that's been on his shelf for years that looks to be one of his most radical.

The Daily Beast reports that Bannon shopped an 11-page outline around Hollywood in the early 2000s titled "The Singularity: Resistance Is Futile" (the alternative title was "The Harvest of the Damned"), a documentary-style movie that touches on everything from Adolf Hitler to mutants and cloning.

And according to the story, Bannon's longtime writing partner Julia Jones says Bannon even met with Mel Gibson in hopes that the star could get the movie made.

The movie, for which Bannon was to be writer, producer, and director, would be a mix of science, history, and politics that looks at arrogant scientists trying to perfect mankind, forced sterilization, and modern biotechnology.

The outline is spread out into 22 segments across four sections. The Daily Beast reports that one part opens with two minutes covering Nazi theories and practices of racial purity. Segment 12 reads: "The perfectibility of life through a human-controlled elite race that will bring about a better world." 

Other segments touch on Christianity, Enlightenment, and a new Garden of Eden that features "clones, mutants, and designer humans."

According to Jones, the outline was written soon after "In the Face of Evil" was made, "but nothing ever came of it."

However, Jones confirms that Bannon did talk to Mel Gibson about securing financing for the movie.

"At one point, Steve came [into the office] and said he met with Mel. 'We're gonna do a cloning documentary with Mel Gibson,' he told me," Jones told the Daily Beast.

Bannon's spokesperson told the Daily Beast that he was "super busy" to comment. Gibson's publicist told the site the story is "fake news."

This is not the first time a story has surfaced of the kind of movies Bannon tried to get off the ground. Last week the Washington Post published excerpts of a draft for a Bannon movie about how Muslim extremists could try to turn the US into the "Islamic States of America."

Other Bannon-led projects that have been revealed include a Shakespearean hip-hop musical about the 1992 Los Angeles riots and an adaptation of "Titus Andronicus" set "on the moon with creatures from outer space."

Business Insider has reached out to reps for Bannon and Gibson, we will update this story accordingly. 

SEE ALSO: Steve Bannon's obsession with a dark theory of history shouls be worrisome

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Stephen Colbert slammed President Donald Trump for his comments about Nordstrom after the department store dropped Ivanka Trump's clothing line last month due to declining sales.

"Evidently, not a lot of women wanted to buy clothes that made them attractive to their fathers," CBS's "Late Show" host said on Wednesday's episode.

"Dropping an underperforming brand is a decision any businessman would understand, except one, " he added.

Though Nordstrom defends its decision to drop Ivanka's line as a typical business move, the president took it personally. First, he slammed the retailer on Twitter, writing "My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!"

Then on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that Nordstrom's move was an attack on the president and his policies.

Colbert believes that President Trump's strike against Nordstrom is tremendously unethical.

"This is crazy! This is insane," Colbert said. "You can’t use the power of the office of the president to protect a family business, all right? That would be like Jimmy Carter making all of us drink Billy Beer. That would be like George Bush invading a country that had oil. You can’t do it."

Watch Colbert comment on Trump's war with Nordstrom below:

SEE ALSO: Stephen Colbert puts Trump on notice for 'stealing' his act

DON'T MISS: Stephen Colbert burns Trump for his feud with Arnold Schwarzenegger

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NOW WATCH: 'It's a lie': Jake Tapper calls out Trump during a fiery interview with Kellyanne Conway

Facebook wants to create its own original shows, and now it's hired an executive from MTV to help.

Former MTV executive vice president Mina Lefevre is joining Facebook as its new head of development, she announced in a Facebook post on Wednesday night.

"I have always been drawn to the idea of building something and the idea of being part of the team that helps build Facebook's original content ecosystem...well, that just seems like a dream!" she wrote.

Lefevre was MTV's head of scripted programming, and at Facebook she'll be working with CollegeHumor cofounder Ricky Van Veen, who is leading the social network's efforts to bankroll original shows.

During Facebook's last earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company is starting to experiment with funding shorter, episodic videos to push into its News Feed.

The move is a way for Facebook to capitalize on video ad dollars and compete with ad budgets currently focused on competitors like YouTube. Facebook is starting to let publishers show mid-roll ads in the middle of their videos, and it recently tweaked the News Feed to promote longer videos.

SEE ALSO: Facebook is building its own TV app to show longer videos

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"Minecraft" is an incredible game. It's basically virtual Legos, and you can play it with dozens of friends. And sometimes, friends who play "Minecraft" together become people who create something magical in "Minecraft" together.

Such is the case with "Pokémon Cobalt and Amethyst," a "60- to 80-hour" Pokémon game built entirely within "Minecraft." For real! Just look at this:

We're talking about the good stuff: finding, battling, and capturing Pokémon — and then battling other Pokémon with the ones you've enslaved. There's a full story, various locales to explore, and much more. Better yet, it's entirely free! All you need is a copy of "Minecraft" on PC or Mac, and about 15 minutes.

Here's the deal:

SEE ALSO: One man spent 5 years creating an incredible 'Minecraft' universe

The game is called "Pokémon Cobalt and Amethyst" — a nod to the naming convention of the Nintendo-made Pokémon games:

It's a full-on, brand-new "Pokémon" game — albeit one that isn't officially supported by The Pokémon Company or Nintendo.

The game took a remarkable 31 months to build; a small team of dedicated volunteers tackled the work. Rather than use existing Pokémon, there are 136 new ones created just for this game.