Video Game = Game played by electronically manipulated images produced by a computer program on a monitor or another display.
Examples:
Call of Duty
Sims
Micro Cart
Fifa
Club Penguin
Spiderman
Types of games:
- Sports
- RPG
- Strategy
- Action/Adventure
- Construction/Strategy/Building
- FPS
- Simulation
- Horror
- Puzzle Solving
- Children games
RPG = Situation that is unrealistic
FPS = First person shooter
Platform = Different types of digital technology you use
Minecraft:
Multi-platform
Open sandbox
Started an an 'Indie' film
Critically and commercially successful
From independent to mainstream
Created by Marcus 'Notch' Persson and developed by Mojang
Minecraft is one of the largest video games in the world,
which enables their players to create and build their sandbox worlds using
their imagination and excitement. The game was designed and created by a
Swedish programmer named Marcus Notch Perrson in the year of 2009. It was then
fully developed by Mojang in 2010, reaching more and more sales at this point.
The creators wanted to produce a game that allowed people to
build a 3D generated world, whilst surviving and exploring the terrains with
online players. It involves action and adventure and has a wide targeted
audience – ranging from all kinds of ages. Therefore, benefiting the Minecraft
business for the reason that their profits will increase because lots of
consumers are showing an interest in the product. It isn’t limited in themes;
meanwhile capturing people’s thoughts and ideas – enabling the game players to
create different worlds every day. This is influenced by the Youtubers that
upload videos and tutorials of worlds and buildings they have made. It is a
method of teaching and giving people more experience with the self-taught game.
Furthermore, Perrson decided that creating and distributing his game would not
be done through advertising or publishing the game to the internet or app
store. He first began making basic terrains with one mode. Following this, came
showing it to his friends to see how well they got on with the video game and
to see what they thought. Positive feedback began to show which gave Perrson the
confidence to improve Minecraft and potentially grow it into something bigger.
A month after creating the simple outlined game, Perrson
started to charge players £8 to download the game. By the end of the first
weekend, 40 copies were sold. As you can imagine, the more feedback he received
and people that purchased the game, the more updates were made, increasing
features along the way. Minecraft is set in infinitely-generated worlds of wide
open landscapes; this includes icy mountains, swampy bays, vast and desolate
deserts.
Reasons for the appeal:
-Multi-platform video game – Minecraft can be
downloaded and bought for numerous devices. Some of these examples include:
PlayStation, Xbox, Windows Phone, Android, Wii, iOS. This benefits Persson
because the more platforms that are available to play the game, the more
customers will purchase the product. Therefore, the game
The following two extracts are from the documentary Mojang: The Story of Minecraft which can be found in full on Youtube. Watch the extracts carefully and answer the questions.
A Youtuber’s experience (Interview with Ali-A (additional comments by …) . Time 24.34-33.56:
1) How many subscriptions does Ali-A have for his Youtube channel? Ali-A started posting videos on Youtube in 2009. he has over 5 million subscribers.
2) How many years have he been doing this?
3) Why did he start playing Minecraft? Because he was asked to play Minecraft and make videos for the game, as he previously made YouTube videos for Call of Duty. He then started a survival series and eventually made a second YouTube channel dedicated to the newly introduced Minecraft game.
4) What does he say he is trying to do with his content? Ali-A explains that YouTube and game playing becomes a daily routine and is a major part of his life. He stated that every morning when he woke up he had to think of something to create that day, something better than he had made the day before. As his subscribers are going to want to see new things. It is constant reinventing.
5) Describe his average working day Ali-A stated that he wakes up between 12-2pm, sets up the computer, gets ready and by 3-4pm make 3 videos throughout the day. 2 videos on the minecraft channel and 1 video on his call of duty channel. 1st video by 7pm 2nd video for 10pm 3rd video for 1am
6) Why might we watch Youtubers?
Some people might watch Youtuber's videos because they want to improve their gaming skills or learn what they can do to have more fun when playing. Different players will have be at a variety of levels of practice - some will be more experienced. Viewers like to get new ideas created by well known Youtubers for their own worlds made on their devices.
7) What is Twitch and what is the average time spent on it by a viewer? Twitch is a live streaming service which allows viewers to watch other people play video games live. The average viewer spends 4 hours doing this.
8) How much do you estimate that Ali-A earns in a year? Ali-A earns roughly 2.5 million dollars in a year.
9) How much was Minecraft purchased for? Minecraft was 2.5 billion when purchased.
10) What are 3 reasons behind Microsoft’s purchase?
a) Money
b) To expand and capability of using different devices
C) It created a new audience to Microsoft
11) How might this affect the game? This would affect the game in the long term by developing the company, making more money and offering more support for the company and their ideas.
12) What is Minecraft’s biggest asset? The community is Minecraft's biggest asset for the reason that so many people play the game - so people are able to communicate and connect with people all around the world; as well as building relationships with current friends and the imagination used in the created worlds. 6 reasons why Minecraft is popular? - Sandbox game - Strong community - Platform is huge - Co-opted by children - Not limited by genre - Infinite replayability
