As Minecraft is a sandbox game it appeals to a variety of different age groups. It introduces certain social aspects by playing multiplayer online. As well you are able to play different game modes so it suits the different ages to what they want to do. For example, you can play more passively and just build and design buildings. As well you can play a survival game mode to give a more competitive advantage.
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Task 2
Create a 1000 word essay discussing the evolution of Minecraft. As part of the essay you will address
• How the ownership of Minecraft has affected the games evolution
• How Minecraft is marketed to a variety of audiences
• How users interact with the game including how they create their own content
Minecraft is an online video game that can be played on all platforms and consoles. Minecraft is a sandbox game, which offers users the opportunity to let their imagination run wild, and build/construct whatever they want as well as playing an interactive survival mode, which is available on multiplayer to enjoy a social aspect of the game. Minecraft vast success has come from the fast evolution of the game and the different marketing techniques they used.
Minecraft is the second most successful video game of all time behind Tetris. Minecraft was originally created and designed by Markus Persson a programmer who also developed and published the game through his company Mojang. Markus Persson and a small company he founded with two other friends started working/creating the game in May of 2009 having been inspired by similar games to Minecraft such as Dwarf Fortress, a single-player construction and management game. Markus’s goal was to produce a Role Playing Game variation. But despite Minecraft’s success, its initial reception wasn’t commercially viable and was seen as more of a niche product for players with expert knowledge of computers and programming. Some players of the game in the early stages helped with early bugs and there was a lot of room for audience interaction as it was open for people to modify the code. The game was available in a downloadable cloud version, which allowed the game to be constantly updated with new features and bug fixes, thus allowing the game to work with minimal glitches. However as time went on Minecraft has increased popularity and has grown exponentially. During development Minecraft was developed as a multiplayer game using JAVA code (c++). In September of 2013, Microsoft bought all rights to Minecraft from Mojang for $2.5billion dollars.
Minecraft’s growth is proven as to date they have sold well over 121 million copies across all platforms. This is including over 27 million PC copies, making it the biggest selling PC game of all time. One of the first largest changes that Minecraft conducted was the introduction of cross platform gaming. This allowed PC gamers to join games with Xbox users and now recently PlayStation and Nintendo users. Xbox and Windows 10 are both owned by Microsoft so it enabled Microsoft to make Minecraft available for these two platforms first. This is a very rare function as only two other games are known to have this function (Fortnite and Rocket League) this furthered the sales of Minecraft. Minecraft also partnered with Oculus to create a VR version of the game to further draw in consumers.
Minecraft is marketed to a variety of audiences through number of strategic and calculated ways to maximise Minecrafts full capacity. In the beginning though, the main way Minecraft was advertised and marketed was through word of mouth. The word of mouth between gamers and being featured on sites such as the Penny Arcade web comic to generate even more interest amongst gamers. By being featured on Penny Arcade web comics Minecraft was also able to generate interest from an older generation, as that web comic is known to be more expletive and read by older audiences. By the time it was January 2011, the beta-version of the game had passed over one million purchases in just only a month and by the time it was April of that year Persson estimated that $33 million of revenue had been made after 3 months of the beta version being released.
Another significant way Minecraft marketed their game was through YouTube. As the game inspired many content creators to apply Minecraft in their videos this gained significant popularity within the community and this generated further hype and ‘talk’ around the gaming community as a whole. Popular Youtubers such as Stampy and Sky Does Minecraft gave fans of the game insights and special features. This further grew Minecrafts popularity as more popular influencers are playing the game and this allowed more users to play the game.
Minecraft also carefully marketed to audiences aged 8 and above by collaborating with Lego. By aligning themselves with one of the most iconic learning construction education products in history. This gave Minecraft the ability to appeal a younger audience as well as the more mature and thus introducing a wide age demographic for the game. Minecraft also introduced a schools initiative in order for schools to use Minecraft for educational purposes and to introduce the young generation to computer programming and engineering games.
Audiences can interact with the game by producing their own content. As Minecraft allows users to express the creativity. A lot of gamers/ users of Minecraft have decided to post their creativity through social media. The main site to find Minecraft content is YouTube. Where it allows Minecraft fans to interact with their favorite gamer or even view other people’s works. This allowed Minecraft to further their popularity. By using YouTube, fans of Minecraft were able to replicate their favourite Minecraft you tuber into their own gameplay. This became even more popular and common within the community and got to the point where Youtubers were earning large amounts of money through playing Minecraft and uploading it online.
Also Minecraft fans were able to visit different forums and websites to research new features about the games or different hacks and game modes in order to have more fun within the game. As well Minecraft are well known to listening t their audiences as they regularly conduct polls to see what audiences want updating in the game. This audience interaction gave more enjoyment to the fans as they are able to put their own input into the game.
Minecraft has universal appeal. It is useful to explore how such a game can appeal to different ages, genders and audiences from different social and cultural backgrounds. The variety of different modes is certainly a contributing factor to the game’s success, but also the way in which audiences can control and shape their own worlds and create new identities through mods and altering textures, maps and craft kits.
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