Minecraft Case Study

 

click on images to enlarge

Production and Distribution

Minecraft is a massively commercially successful and critically acclaimed multi-platform ‘Open World’ game. In terms of genre (see ‘Genre’ below) it is a Sandbox Indie Game although key focus is on building, strategy and to a lesser extent survival. It was created by Markus ‘Notch’ Persson, a Swedish Computer Programmer who is not a traditional Games Developer which may account for its mathematical, formulaic interface – Minecraft does not attempt to impress with high end representational/cinematic graphics and instead chooses a grid based Voxel graphic format (see ‘Style and Format’) which allows for cuboid building. Persson spent years developing the game himself (thus reducing costs) but was assisted later in the project in projects by Jens Bergensten.
The game was first developed and published in November 2011 by Mojang, a company that was originated by Persson from the money made from an Alpha, developmental version in 2009 – between 15 to 20 developers now work on the game. As an indie game Minecraft is technically without a publisher as Mojang do everything from development to promotion. This is including encouraging distribution of the game and selling the game from their own Minecraft website, www.minecraft.net. With ‘Notch’ Persson so pivotal in the design of the game and as originator of Mojang, Minecraft has to be described as an auteur project. Minecraft makes clear intertextual references to Dwarf Fortress, Infiniminer and Dungeon Keeper which is acknowledged by the developer but by 2011 Persson allowed Bergensten to take over full creative control of Minecraft while he remained as developer, choosing instead to focus on a new project – a new space game also being developed by Mojang.
Minecraft was initially made for PC but now in its multi-platform format it is available on Xbox, iOS (Apple) and Android. The game has been critically successful as well as commercially securing five awards at the 2011 Games Developers Conference and numerous innovation and new game awards. It evidences commercial success with over 8 million copies sold on PC and 17.5 million across the above platforms. Reflected by this is the considerable profit margin made by Mojang with the game costing a one off fee in the UK of £20 – no subscription is required and you can play online or offline which is split 50:50 among gamers.
No extra money is charged for plug ins or add ons but if the gamer wants to spend money then servers can be purchased from £5 a month to £50 per month depending how many multi players you want, minimum PC specification for example would be 1GB of RAM. The cost is half the price of many other games. Some Minecraft players prefer solitary building (single player mode) while others enjoy the teamwork and building together and once one person has purchased the server you can link to it at no extra cost (as long as you are permitted to do so by the owner of the server). Online play is multiplayer only.
Minecraft has been described as the online version of Lego (there is now an unconnected version called ‘Minecraft Lego’) in that the primary objective of the game is to build, albeit on a grand scale – gamers often build entire cities for example, recreate sets from Harry Potter e.g. Hogwarts, sets from Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings (I am sure, as of writing in late December 2012 there are already Hobbit landscapes and builds) but the scale of the game has enormous potential – technically you can build a whole world that is 6 times the size of the Earth which is the limit of the game. Other builds can include statues, any form of replica or even art with the most interesting building project (by enthusiastic gamers) building a game within a game. In this regard it could be argued there are endless possibilities building whatever you want within the world you have.
Merchandising is an additional, again hugely successful area for Minecraft and Mojang – Jinx are the company who design and manage the marketing of Minecraft (and many other games) and also distribute it to online retailers like Amazon. Branded products include Minecraft bags, books and clothing ranges particularly T-Shirts which sell well. Examples of T-Shirts reflecting the more dedicated gamer include “No food, no sleep, just Minecraft”.

Marketing and Promotion

Minecraft inspired videos gained significant popularity on YouTube generating viral hype and talkability. The game was carefully marketed to audiences as identified above, as an online version of Lego and in doing so aligned itself with one of the most iconic ‘learning construction education products’ in history. The novelty of the game when first released was also used to develop interest and the fact that it was such an auteur project made it desirable and interesting as free from the creative control of major distributors. The words ‘create’ and ‘imagination’ were used in the marketing of the game and as such, have been used in education in the past two years to help with building and construction and arts based courses.
By May 2012 the hype developed from YouTube videos was evidenced by the fact that there were 4 million ‘Minecraft related videos’ about all aspects of the game. Many of these were parodies of the actual game for example; Minecraft Style which was a homage to Gangnam Style which by December 2012 had 2 billion hits on YouTube itself. Synergy is clearly evident here and further homage is paid to two phenomenally successful brands that have come from nowhere to achieve commercial success and become embedded in popular culture in under two years. Other YouTube videos include screen captures of ‘walkthroughs’ of the game illustrating various tasks. Mojang did use some above the line advertising to release Minecraft but a limited budget meant that its success spread via word of mouth and virally – gamers talked repeatedly about the iconic ‘look’ of the game which has gone on to inspire cloned games such as Ace of Spades and Total Miner.
It has been suggested that people don’t so much like Minecraft, they like the ‘idea’ of Minecraft and the possibilities and solutions it can offer – ‘Notch’ Persson has been described as someone who has duped 40 million people into understanding CAD CAM (Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing). Initially ideas about Minecraft being used to help build real world environments was ridiculed until projects started developing globally with the first being in Nairobi when young people have been using Minecraft to participate and become involved in upgrading public spaces. Minecraft is user friendly and lends itself to the mapping onto actual built environments such as public buildings and parks.
The success of Minecraft without a major publisher and without a significant advertising budget has been a real feather in the cap for indie games – it has showed that games outside of the conventional blockbuster format can change the industry. Even Hollywood have got involved by offering to produce Minecraft related television shows but remaining true to their indie roots, these offers were rejected by Mojang. Mojang stated that they would only be interested in the ‘right idea’ which at the moment suggests a form of purist, artistic integrity not dissimilar to Lego. The game is so popular now that other games like Borderlands 2 and Team Fortress 2, not even remotely like the format of Minecraft make clear intertextual references to the oxymoron that is the ‘indie giant’.

Style and Format – Genre, Narrative and Representation

Official Minecon Trailer 2011

Minecraft Style

Textured cubes create a 3D generated world – this ‘blocky style’ is iconic to Minecraft and is a voxel based format.

It is easy to build with cubes and squares which allows for much of the designs but as with many objects of desire this simplistic interface has become instantly recognisable as a brand with its low resolution graphics and pastel colours. Music played during game play is normally a non lyrical form of ambient music by a German composer. In the above trailer and in ‘Minecraft Style’ we unusually see an upbeat, fast paced narrative when in fact during game play the whole idea of narrative is almost non-existent – the narrative for many players is ‘what do I want to build?’, ‘OK, I’m going to build this’.
Obviously Survival Mode is different in that players have to gather resources in order to develop certain blocks and items with monsters suddenly appearing making this a lot more difficult; still building but with ‘things’ making it a lot harder. There is even a ‘Health’ and a ‘Hunger’ bar charting your progress making this part of it similar to other games where you are challenged while trying to achieve tasks. In normal game play the default setting is first person typified by the ‘camera’ travelling with the gamer from behind as you move through space and worlds but there is an option to play in the third person. The core game play involves breaking and placing blocks and is in a grid format. Everything (more or less) is a cube and movement is normally vertical or horizontal. Whether in Creative mode or Survival mode even the characters are just blocks with arms and legs made up of rectangular blocks suggesting almost a retro appeal.
In terms of narrative at the start of the game the player is placed in their virtual world where they have the option of ‘walking through’ a range of different terrains including mountains, forests and caves, deserts and jungle with narrative time compressed – a typical 24 hour cycle is represented by 20 minutes and within this given time a player can come across a range of characters known as ‘mobs’. These are non players whose role within the narrative is to hamper or help the player as they can be hostile or non hostile ranging from cows, pigs and chickens that may be hunted for food or crafting materials to spiders and skeletons that spawn at night. Some characters are iconic to Minecraft, such as the Creeper which is an exploding creature that sneaks up on a player. Players explore the world using a ‘seed’ which is obtained from the ‘system clock’ when the world is created.
There is a form of narrative structure that although technically open ended recognises a beginning and an end although this is not reflected by traditional narrative closure – ‘The End’ is one of two alternate dimensions where the boss dragon, Enderdragon lives. If you kills the dragon it cues the game’s ending credits and players are then allowed to teleport back to their original ‘spawn point’ and will get an ‘achievement’. Another dimension is Nether which is a hell like environment accessed by player built portals (notions of having to travel through something to get to the other side). Travelling and movement are a key feature of Minecraft and the idea of ‘digging’ is fundamental to the creation of replicas, worlds, cities; whatever the player decides he/she wants to develop. This allows for a high degree of interactivity if engaging in online multi-play and suggests the need for logic and high end communication skills to achieve your objectives.
As well as defying the stereotype of a video game narrative Minecraft resists genre classification in the traditional sense – yes it is an ‘Indie Sandbox Game’ but that is as far as the game can go in terms of classification. The term ‘Sandbox’ simply implies a world where you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want, there are very few limits. The game is clearly hybridised with the format of strategy games as there is a need to develop a strategy and a plan to progress. Fantasy genre elements are referenced with the idea of dragons and non human characters but there are little other conventions in this regard. Minecraft is a functional game where you ‘do’ more than ‘experience’. There are also action elements but again only up to a point and it is ultimately up to the player if they wish to create a realist or a non realist world. Whole fictional worlds can be created from fantasy to science fiction, from Hogwarts to the Star Ship Enterprise but this does not identify the game as such as belonging to this genre, just the worlds. A completely realist representation (within a virtual world format) can be created with the only non realist aspect being the format of the game.

Above is a typical human representation from Minecraft – a male character but without clear form or traditional re-presentation. Every part of the body is square or rectangular which presents players with generic form which, like genre again resists a more traditional form of interpretation. Villagers are supposed to not be identifiable via gender, as are most characters and this was the intention of Notch Persson, to create a genderless game although it seems obvious that many of the characters are ‘male’. ‘Minecraft Guy’ is a recognised representation in the game. Persson argue that it is the blocky look that makes the character seem more male and that interestingly gender identification is perceived and constructed by the player, not the game developer. Persson goes on to argues that even the mobs are genderless and that they exhibits characteristics of male and female humans (cows have horns as well as udders). Breeding takes place between animals but there is no obvious gender role.
This lack of gender representation creates an interesting problem for the player – do they care about and reference gender or do they just want to build and survive? Minecraft is almost unique in this regard but academics have suggested by implication Minecraft is a male world and that ‘Minecraft Guy’ is a mutually agreed concept. If you study the above trailer and even the Gangnam Style parody gender representation is arguably clear – Minecraft Guy, in terms of his dress code looks like he is wearing trousers and a top which does not allow for the representation of more rounded, stereotypically ‘feminine lines’ although a few extra blocks here and there could construct gender (see Minecraft Style). It seems obvious but Minecraft Guy has no breasts and ‘his’ hair is short, he has a determined male gate as he travels through space and gestures and moves his body in a stereotypical male way. Some Minecraft characters are also given ‘facial hair’ through shading and studying the Minecraft Style parody it seems obvious that gender is subscribed and female representations are evident through longer hair and flared clothing representing a skirt.
The game on paper then suggests no gender, pale skin tone suggests a Caucasian identity while national identity is not obvious. Minecraft players would consider an analysis of representation to be ‘pointless’ which is the word used by Persson himself when challenged on this level although as with any media text, decoding is as important as encoding and sometimes during the process of encoding, more is apparent than perhaps was initially intended.

Target Audience / Positioning / Appeals

Players of Minecraft suggest an adventurous, curious and logical streak with the need to plan, communicate, create and build. Stereotypically a Minecraft player has a level of education that allows for this functional process and again stereotypically the game requires patience that is normally associated with older gamers – there is no quick fix in Minecraft, no immediate gratification, no real ‘wow’ factor in terms of graphics and representations. Minecraft audiences are interestingly young primarily in this regard, 14-25, ABC1, aspirational with a large body of players in their mid 20s. Strategy and challenge drives the player to achieve and a sense of self worth is bestowed on the player once a creation has been realised. Audiences are positioned into this feel good factor on completion by the format of the game play and one of the key appeals is to stand back and ‘look at what you have done’. Again, like Lego the act of construction is intriguing and the result is satisfying.
There is however, a lot more to Minecraft than this – some players buy into the whole cult of the game and its endless possibilities and because it is technically an indie game it has form of niche appeal in that it is not a generic blockbuster FPS game or an RPG. Players are predominantly male (reflecting the representations and stereotypes – see above) but with a secondary female demographic which should not be underestimated. Forums tend to attract the stereotypically ‘geeky’ male gamer though posting and sharing experiences within the game are not as commonplace as games like World of Warcraft. Entertainment values are less of an appeal with the game taking a much more functional approach which is reflected by its use in education and in recent real world projects identified above.

Minecraft has ‘taken off’ in a short period of time and has an individualistic, global appeal that crosses cultural boundaries. Gamers want to be at the coal face of a game that is still relatively new but hugely successful.

Mini Glossary of Terms

• Open World Game: A game where the play takes place in different environments.
• Voxel: A cube based format.
• Developer: The company or person responsible for originating the idea and concept of a game.
• Publisher: The organisation who provides the funding to release the game to the public.
• Plug Ins / Add Ons: Patches that are purchased on acquired to enhance game play.
• Auteur: Someone that has their own individually recognisable style.
• Screen Captures: Images of the game.
• CAD CAM: Computer aided design, Computer aided manufacturing – in Minecraft players uses a computer to design and create.
• Oxymoron: Words that seems contradictory when placed side by side.
• Ambient Music: Background music.
• Stereotypically ‘Feminine’ Lines: The stereotype that women are more curvy than men.
• RPG: Role Player Game – the game player takes on a role or character.
• Interactive: A two way form of communication between game and player.
• Brand: The established identity of a product.
• Stereotyping: When something is labelled as belonging to a group.
• Mainstream: Media consumed by mass audiences.
• Viral Marketing: Where a product is advertised using hype and a non paid for form of communication to a target audience. Viral marketing disguises the fact that it is an indirect form of advertising.
• Intertextuality: One media text that references another.
• Talkability: Something that people talk about – a form of viral marketing.
• Interface: The surface that the game is played on – what you see as a game player.
• Colour Palette: The colour scheme in front of you.
• Demographic: A word used to describe the target audience but in detail.
• Aspirers: Audiences who seek to improve their lives.
• Virtual World: A make believe world that is common in game play.
• Cult: Where audiences become so devoted to a media text that it achieves ‘cult’ status because it is disproportionately liked so much.
• Audience Positioning: Where and audience is deliberately meant to understand the encode meaning – they are ‘led by the hand’ or ‘positioned’.
• FPS: First Person Shooter – computer / video games like Grand Theft Auto.
• Convention: Something that is common to a genre.
• Open Ended Narrative: Where a narrative has no obvious ending.
• Narrative Structure: Where a media text has a beginning, middle and end.
• Encode: Meaning that is put in to a media text.
• Realism: The degrees or reality evident in a media text, e.g. a computer game.