Minecraft revision lessons 5&6

 Example question:

Explain the significance of economic factors to the gaming industry. Use Minecraft to support your answer (15)

1. Ownership affects a product's production, distribution and circulation

• The process of production, distribution and circulation by organisations, groups and individuals in a global context
• The significance of patterns of ownership and control, including conglomerate ownership, vertical integration and diversification
• The effect of individual producers on media industries

2. New technologies mean that producers can target audiences differently in a low economic context from how they target them in a high economic context

• The relationship of technological change and media production, distribution and circulation
• The significance of economic factors including commercial and not-for-profit public funding, to media industries and their products
• How media organisations maintain, including through marketing, varieties of audiences nationally and globally
• The impact of digitally convergent media platforms on media production, distribution and circulation, including individual producers
• How media producers target, attract, reach, address and potentially construct audiences
• How media industries target audiences through the content and appeal of media products and through the ways they are marketed, distributed and circulated
• The role and significance of specialised audiences, including niche and fan, to the media

3. Audiences interact with products differently, depending on the economic context

• How audiences interact with media and can be actively involved in media production

Ownership affects a products production, distribution and circulation:

When Markus Persson first produced the game in 2011, he had little economic context due to the small nature of his company, Mojang. This ownership only relied on word of mouth advertising between gamers, despite it being an international success months after release. He was able to produce Minecraft using Javascript, allowing the game to be cross-platform, which attracts different audiences for Minecraft too. Now that Minecraft was acquired by Microsoft in 2014 for $2.5 billion, it became a global phenomenom in which Microsoft had a vision for Minecraft. This new ownership of Microsoft menat Minecraft cemented its position as a top-brand selling video game. The takeover enabled Minecraft to extend its reach further and secured its distribution to smaller ones such as the Xbox live marketplace.  

New technologies mean that producers can target audiences differently in a low economic context from how they target them in a high economic context:

Mojangs low budget could only allow them to target a niche audience of programmers and players who had expert knowledge on coding computers, through their budget on production and distribution. For example, its simple instructions and ruthless nature of the game modes attracted these types of audience as that is their experience, and the advertising between them on platforms such as Twitch allowed them to create a small following for Minecraft. Compared to Microsofts ownership, Minecraft was able to develop significantly with the use of a high budget, as Microsoft is a conglomerate structure. This allowed Minecraft to struct deals with other technology companies such as Telltale Games in which they produced Minecraft: story modes and there is a VR version in the works, illustratinig the change of audience to a new modern one. This change of technological advancements means that different economic contexts can target audiences differently.

Audiences interact with products differently, depending on the economic context:

Audiences would be involved with Mojang and Minecraft by publishing fan made videos on youtube, which would attract similar audiences, since Mojang had a small budget to work with and did not spend money on advertising, they relied mostly on fans and their small community. On the other hand, Microsoft's high budget allows fans to activley participate through merchandise, conventions, synergy, which wouldn't have been possible with Mojang's low budget. This shows that the bigger the economic context, the more audiences are interacted.

The game has developed cross-play between platforms to encourage more audience interaction

Minecraft has developed the ability to be cross-platforms on Xbox, Sony and Nintendo for example to delve into more audiences and encourage more audience interaction for the game. This also allows multiplayer mode so that audiences can join and play together, this also does bring in more audiences, as they can create their own worlds together. Minecraft became a multi-platform game aimed not just at PC gamers but those who own smartphones, Microsoft X Box consoles and handheld devices, for example with the advancement of digitally convergent media too. This enables a wider reach for non-traditional gamers, therefore maximising audience interaction.

Prosumers create content for platforms such as YouTube discussing Minecraft, offering tutorials or showing gameplay, such as DanTDM and Pewdiepie which enables audiences to become activley involved with media production by becoming a prosumer

Youtubers, who are now known as Prosumers in the video game industry, have shifted power in the media from the producer to audience. This market liberal approach suggests that the audience holds the key to Minecraft's success and it identifies that without social media, the game wouldn't have been as successful. The ability for audiences to become actively involved with media production emphasises how much of a free market and open world Minecraft is, and these prosumers who share content on social media sites such as Youtube, are able to gain more of a mass audience for Minecraft globally.

The significance of programming using open-source software leading to an ever-expanding degree of content and realms for audiences to create and maintain, encouraging long-tail growth for Minecraft and its audience

Minecrafts ruthless nature and creativity allows audiences to interact with the video game freely. Minecraft has delved into the potential of the audience to ensure that the audience were engaged in its development. Minecraft allowed users to create new in-game content via beta testing processes, producing shareable, downloadable game modifications, called mods and producing texture and resource packs, such game development at the level of exchange is made possible by a cloud based platform where the transfer of data is now two-way and quick. This shows that the nature of using open-source software encourages audiences in lots of ways, which ultimately makes the game quite successful.