Minecraft - Institutions and Audiences

Minecraft – Institutions and Audiences

Minecraft certainly varies from other games in the way that is has formed a respectable and large cult following from such basic foundations. The game lacks the vast creativity as others in the market and places the creativity in the hands of the gamer. This creates an intense connection between the audiences and the game itself. This constructs a form of audience participation that is almost boundless with the gamer having complete control of the finished product. This allows for gamers to become somewhat obsessed with the game as it offers them a relationship with a media product. Overall this creates a fandom culture which distinguishes Minecraft from any other game. The fandom and participation culture which Minecraft are blessed to have may have been difficult to cope with when the game transitioned to Microsoft. Many fans may have felt betrayed by this move. While Mojang stands for independence and niche gaming Microsoft is a large company which has an agglomeration of games. This could have deteriorated the individuality and personality surrounding Minecraft and to its fans it became another big game owned by an even bigger company.

“It’s a game where we don’t stop you – you can do whatever you want. A big publisher would never have done that.”

Jens Bergensten

This quotation truly evidences the importance of Minecraft to its community. This statement is from a Mojang employer. For many employees, their occupation may be a way of creating income in able to support their life yet is segregated from any intimate emotions. This is clearly not the case for Jens Bergensten. He is obviously devoted to his occupation and cannot comprehend the Microsoft takeover. Jens felt personally involved with his job and this distinguishes Minecraft with its competitors. Where for other games corporations a job may be seen as temporary and for creating money, Jens is extremely involved with the future of the business. Once more this differentiates Minecraft from anything alike.

“He could hear what Carl was telling him but his brain was unable to process what it meant.”

Jens Bergensten

A firm advantage of being an independent, yet successful, business is that it offers freedom, creativity and essentially the ability to not have to meet strong and restrictive guidelines. The small company were able to listen to and respond to their audience where larger companies tend to shun their audiences. A company like Microsoft would tend to lack the creativity as they are a large corporation. A small, independent company such as Mojang would pride themselves of their creativity and make this their unique selling point. Bergensten also alludes to how Mojang were passive to their game to surface illegally over the internet. This appears to be a canny move as this sequentially acted as great publicity for Minecraft as the public became aware of the game very well. Minecraft also relied greatly on the word-of-mouth for their game to spread.  Minecraft were also fortunate to benefit from a large YouTube community which posted videos around the game and acted as incredible publicity for the game. Many youtubers have a following of millions of young fans.