Timed Essay Question 1

 

Question 1:

Explain how ongoing audience interaction influences the production of video games. Refer to Minecraft to support your answer.

In this question I will be looking how an audience is able to influence and shape the production of video games and for this I will be using Minecraft as an example and how social interaction changed the game forever.

When Minecraft was first made, the software was never meant to be a game, rather a tool to help programmers and coders, there was never any intention of it to become a commercial game. However, the people who played Minecraft decided to post about it and show other people on blogs and places you can share gameplay videos like YouTube, this simple act is what changed this game forever. People started to watch and listen to the people who were posting their own Minecraft content and then got the game and started to play it because of them; these people were later known as “prosumers”, which is a mix between a consumer and a producer of content. Over time the game grew and more and more people started to post content of the game as a clear and defined community was created from this simple coding tool, showing how it evolved from a simple tool which was targeted towards programmers to one of the most successful games of all time and even having conventions about it (Minecon) as well as merchandise and a lot more products. This social interaction between fans allowed the community to both form and solidify simultaneously to both the advantage of Mojang and the community itself.

When Mojang (the company that created Minecraft) decided to turn Minecraft into a game they were at a standstill since they did not know what to add into the game, but the community were once again helping them as they all voiced their opinions of what they wanted in the game and they decided to take a lot of feedback and actually add a lot of the suggestions into the game. These people are known as an “active audience” who constantly talk about the product and voice their opinions to everyone while being active parts of the community; these people decided to join the community usually either for the social interaction or their love for the product, showing their dedication. As the game continued to get update, more people found their way into the community and that created a lot more ideas which in turn made more people find the game, this cycled continued for nearly its whole lifecycle and is still going on to this day.

Due to the active audience, there are now 17 different versions of the same game across a multitude of platforms and the product is on an even bigger commercial scale. This gradual expansion of the game allowed all people to play the game, regardless of what they play on or who they play with, making the game accessible to all people. Since more people had the ability to play the game now, more people joined the community and even more members of the active audience was formed, creating another (even bigger) cycle that just continued the game to grow and grow to the size it is today. And then in 2014, Microsoft decided to buy the rights to Minecraft for 2.6 billion dollars. They decided to buy the game then due to seeing how big it can get and seeing it as a safe investment. This allowed the game to be pushed even more by one of the biggest tech companies of all time, which skyrocketed the game to where it is today and allowing it to be one of the most popular games of all time. Due to the size and popularity, conventions now take place (Minecon) for the fandom to gather and show their love for the game and the community, showing why they found the piece of media in the first place.

Overall, Minecraft would never be where it is today without the small following that decided to stick with the game from the start and voice their own opinion and become apart of this active audience, showing the massive influence the audience had on the production of this game and the influence this game had over the market of video games and the community of people who play games.