This week, hackers attacked a massive virtual model of Denmark that had been built by the Danish government as educational tool within the wildly popular online video game Minecraft, IGN reported. Despite such weapons being ostensibly banned from the simulation, the users were apparently able to deploy in-game explosives to destroy areas even as they made new additions of their own, according to The Huffington Post. Due to the sheer size of the model, which takes up a mammoth 1TB (1,000GB) if downloaded in its entirety, this damage is relatively small compared to its total size and is apparently not causing significant concern for its Danish administrators.

Denmark was incorporated into the Minecraft world, the first country ever to be so included, because its government hopes to provide a fun way to teach students about the country and other subjects. A sequence of lesson plans was even created to assist teachers incorporating the virtual version of Denmark. Kirsten Brosbøl, the Minister for the Environment of Denmark, said that building Denmark into the Minecraft game will challenge the imaginations of Danish schoolchildren. "It is our way of creating a link between the digital and the natural worlds," added Brosbøl. Katrin Kristensen, a Ørestad school teacher, said that teaching Math was already tried using Minecraft and the results were excellent. She stated that children will be more encouraged to learn with the incorporation of their country in the Minecraft world.

Although earlier reports indicated that large areas of the model were flattened, including major cities, these claims were later refuted by Chris Hammeken from the Danish GeoData Agency. He declared that only minor areas were ruined and not entire cities. He added, "We consider that as a nature of playing Minecraft -- elements are broken down and new are being created. Therefore, we will not reboot the demonstration of Denmark in Minecraft." Hammeken also said that minor areas will be reconstructed periodically, particularly if if no new buildings are constructed after structures are eradicated.

The project was created by Simon Kokkendorf and Thor Bjørn Nielsen from Geodatastyrelsen, the mapping arm of the Danish government. Both used the available public data about Denmark -- "from elevation models to data about roads and buildings" -- and interpreted it into the distinctive bricks of the Minecraft game. They also created a navigation system that allows visitors to find their own area in the model easily.