Minecraft
In the lesson, we learnt the basics about the background, history and economics of the game Minecraft:
-It's a sandbox game- this means that the gamer can roam a virtual world and change it to their preference and is created by Mojang. The game has 2 main modes- Survival and Creative.
-At first, the advertising for Minecraft was made by word of mouth from gamers. This meant they didn't spend any money on advertising.
- It was created by Markus "notch" Persson who started creating the game in May 2009. On its release, 16 million users bought it.
- In 2011, Minecraft was released across multiple platforms and by 2012, it was available on Xbox 360 and Xbox Live.
- Creating Minecraft on Java, making it possible for it to be cross-platform, running on Windows 10, Mac OS X and Linux.
-In 2014, Microsoft bought Minecraft for $2.5 Billion and currently over 176 million copies have been sold.
Independent work https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1745rc
-In 2009, Persson created an earlier version of Minecraft on the computer in his spare time in his house
-He started programming at 8 and always knew he wanted to make games
-he left his job to pursue a career in gaming and form a business
-He joined with his friend to create the company, Mojang.
-Started off as a game where you place blocks on a world where you can fall off the edge.
-3 million played the game from word of mouth
-He still, to this day, can't understand how millions of people have played Minecraft.
-"Minecraft helps day to day life"- it helps our imagination and our exploration of games.
-The team created an event called Minecon and thousands of people came to play the game, buy merchandise and meet the creators.
https://jamiedevivobu.wordpress.com/2016/04/20/introduction/
-Prosumers= producer + consumer
= youtube and twitch for fandom subcultures
-Minecraft allows you to mine and craft an adventure in your own world.
-In 2014, Minecraft was the second most searched item on youtube, behind music.
-Audiences’ engagement with texts has historically been recognised as being a passive ‘flow’ relationship; producers write texts and consumers read and accept them, along with any encoded meanings- Sherry Arnstein updated this and said that consumers fall at the top of the hierarchy of citizen power as having control because they are the owners in their own game.
-The ideology of having a consumer in control of what they do in games is out of the picture for some mainstream games, particularly those of high budget, however, Minecraft allows this which is a great way of encouraging genuine engagement.
-Minecraft surpassed one million users after a month of its release therefore, Minecraft have developed a huge fan following base: one effective way of viewing the fans of Minecraft is as a “cultural and social network that spans the globe”
-Prosumer ideology: The reality of this culture is that not everyone is a prosumer, only about 10% ever produce material, and only 1% of users regularly. So only about 90% of users are still only Consumers.
-In 2015, Youtube launched Youtube gaming, a website for "let's play" videos, where the audience can follow people playing the game. This trend became popular with Minecraft users- Today, Pewdiepie has over 100 million subscribers, so potentially, is he posts a Minecraft lets play video, 100 million people can see it.
-Minecraft has no official canon which lets the game be open as it lets the players be creative in what they read as meanings.
Industry:
How is the production, distribution and circulation of Minecraft affected by it being part of a specialised and Niche industry?
The industry is part and parcel of the technology world and so is fast-moving and developing more than any other. Its the simplistic and ruthless nature of Minecraft which seems to have maximum appeal across a range of audiences. It has become a globally successful phenomenon across all consoles and handheld devices; its now a multiplatform game across lots of devices which opens up new markets of profitability and increased exposure to new and existing audiences. However, modern versions of the game like Minecraft: story mode follows more of the recognizable institutional conventions of game development including tutorials.
Video Games started developing in late 1990's- graphics were improved with first person mode. Minecraft doesn't fit into the new developed gaming. It looks like it fits into the 1980's. This is because mine craft is so simplistic and rule less that it fits into simpler times. Its an open world exploration world with infinite play ability. It has a strong community, not limited by genre, fulfills human order to cause chaos in wilderness with a sense of imaginative and creativity.
What is the relationship between technological change and the production, distribution and circulation of Minecraft
In the original game, you didn't need a physical copy. When Xbox and Playstation versions were created, consumers got the game across Windows 10. This would promote Microsoft- users were encouraged to buy the game on cloud servers than physical copy which would incur more of the cost for the institution on the physical copy. Physical copies are often released after 6 months after the downloadable version, most likely to limit the impact of piracy, hacking and file sharing. Introduction to Minecraft realms (2013) has tried to give producers more control over distribution and circulation of the game since some pro-am consumers were creating their own virtual spaces and hacks across illegitimate servers e.g. Wizardhax.
Technological change=digital. (around 1995, TV and mobile phones converged and you can now watch videos, podcast and movies when your out and about).
Synergy- combining with other companies e.g. Nintendo.
How has Ownership affected Minecraft?
Mojang is now owned by Microsoft Studios. Other collaborations with game developers include telltale games who helped develop the Minecraft: story mode. The PlayStation versions were created by 4J Studios. When Facebook bought Oculus in 2014, Markus Persson said he wouldn't be developing a version with oculus because Facebook wasn't owned by grassroots game developers. However, when Microsoft bought out Mojang, plans to work on a VR version were renewed. The ideology of the game developers can often surrender their creative license to conglomerate to maximise profits.
How is Minecraft regulated and governed or monitored?
Regarded as being family-friendly and the initial Minecraft series was rated PEGI 7, however, the new series has a higher rating because of dialogue and narratives. Minecraft realms are promoted on specialised servers of Mojang and the terms and conditions are created i.e the player. There are stipulations by the company that they own everything created using blocks within these virtual worlds that accreditations for worlds and structures created by fans is not generated. In 2016, a market place was created for communities to trade maps, skins and texture packs.
Its placed PEGI 7 because of self regulation - mainly addiction in children which cause poor sleep and performance in school (terms and conditions).
-It's a sandbox game- this means that the gamer can roam a virtual world and change it to their preference and is created by Mojang. The game has 2 main modes- Survival and Creative.
-At first, the advertising for Minecraft was made by word of mouth from gamers. This meant they didn't spend any money on advertising.
- It was created by Markus "notch" Persson who started creating the game in May 2009. On its release, 16 million users bought it.
- In 2011, Minecraft was released across multiple platforms and by 2012, it was available on Xbox 360 and Xbox Live.
- Creating Minecraft on Java, making it possible for it to be cross-platform, running on Windows 10, Mac OS X and Linux.
-In 2014, Microsoft bought Minecraft for $2.5 Billion and currently over 176 million copies have been sold.
Independent work https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1745rc
-In 2009, Persson created an earlier version of Minecraft on the computer in his spare time in his house
-He started programming at 8 and always knew he wanted to make games
-he left his job to pursue a career in gaming and form a business
-He joined with his friend to create the company, Mojang.
-Started off as a game where you place blocks on a world where you can fall off the edge.
-3 million played the game from word of mouth
-He still, to this day, can't understand how millions of people have played Minecraft.
-"Minecraft helps day to day life"- it helps our imagination and our exploration of games.
-The team created an event called Minecon and thousands of people came to play the game, buy merchandise and meet the creators.
https://jamiedevivobu.wordpress.com/2016/04/20/introduction/
-Prosumers= producer + consumer
= youtube and twitch for fandom subcultures
-Minecraft allows you to mine and craft an adventure in your own world.
-In 2014, Minecraft was the second most searched item on youtube, behind music.
-Audiences’ engagement with texts has historically been recognised as being a passive ‘flow’ relationship; producers write texts and consumers read and accept them, along with any encoded meanings- Sherry Arnstein updated this and said that consumers fall at the top of the hierarchy of citizen power as having control because they are the owners in their own game.
-The ideology of having a consumer in control of what they do in games is out of the picture for some mainstream games, particularly those of high budget, however, Minecraft allows this which is a great way of encouraging genuine engagement.
-Minecraft surpassed one million users after a month of its release therefore, Minecraft have developed a huge fan following base: one effective way of viewing the fans of Minecraft is as a “cultural and social network that spans the globe”
-Prosumer ideology: The reality of this culture is that not everyone is a prosumer, only about 10% ever produce material, and only 1% of users regularly. So only about 90% of users are still only Consumers.
-In 2015, Youtube launched Youtube gaming, a website for "let's play" videos, where the audience can follow people playing the game. This trend became popular with Minecraft users- Today, Pewdiepie has over 100 million subscribers, so potentially, is he posts a Minecraft lets play video, 100 million people can see it.
-Minecraft has no official canon which lets the game be open as it lets the players be creative in what they read as meanings.
Industry:
How is the production, distribution and circulation of Minecraft affected by it being part of a specialised and Niche industry?
The industry is part and parcel of the technology world and so is fast-moving and developing more than any other. Its the simplistic and ruthless nature of Minecraft which seems to have maximum appeal across a range of audiences. It has become a globally successful phenomenon across all consoles and handheld devices; its now a multiplatform game across lots of devices which opens up new markets of profitability and increased exposure to new and existing audiences. However, modern versions of the game like Minecraft: story mode follows more of the recognizable institutional conventions of game development including tutorials.
Video Games started developing in late 1990's- graphics were improved with first person mode. Minecraft doesn't fit into the new developed gaming. It looks like it fits into the 1980's. This is because mine craft is so simplistic and rule less that it fits into simpler times. Its an open world exploration world with infinite play ability. It has a strong community, not limited by genre, fulfills human order to cause chaos in wilderness with a sense of imaginative and creativity.
What is the relationship between technological change and the production, distribution and circulation of Minecraft
In the original game, you didn't need a physical copy. When Xbox and Playstation versions were created, consumers got the game across Windows 10. This would promote Microsoft- users were encouraged to buy the game on cloud servers than physical copy which would incur more of the cost for the institution on the physical copy. Physical copies are often released after 6 months after the downloadable version, most likely to limit the impact of piracy, hacking and file sharing. Introduction to Minecraft realms (2013) has tried to give producers more control over distribution and circulation of the game since some pro-am consumers were creating their own virtual spaces and hacks across illegitimate servers e.g. Wizardhax.
Technological change=digital. (around 1995, TV and mobile phones converged and you can now watch videos, podcast and movies when your out and about).
Synergy- combining with other companies e.g. Nintendo.
How has Ownership affected Minecraft?
Mojang is now owned by Microsoft Studios. Other collaborations with game developers include telltale games who helped develop the Minecraft: story mode. The PlayStation versions were created by 4J Studios. When Facebook bought Oculus in 2014, Markus Persson said he wouldn't be developing a version with oculus because Facebook wasn't owned by grassroots game developers. However, when Microsoft bought out Mojang, plans to work on a VR version were renewed. The ideology of the game developers can often surrender their creative license to conglomerate to maximise profits.
How is Minecraft regulated and governed or monitored?
Regarded as being family-friendly and the initial Minecraft series was rated PEGI 7, however, the new series has a higher rating because of dialogue and narratives. Minecraft realms are promoted on specialised servers of Mojang and the terms and conditions are created i.e the player. There are stipulations by the company that they own everything created using blocks within these virtual worlds that accreditations for worlds and structures created by fans is not generated. In 2016, a market place was created for communities to trade maps, skins and texture packs.
Its placed PEGI 7 because of self regulation - mainly addiction in children which cause poor sleep and performance in school (terms and conditions).
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