Gaming Industry - Minecraft Article

Meet the blockhead: a rare glimpse inside Minecraft's HQ

     1. According to the writer, why might autistic children such as his son, be attracted to Minecraft?

I think that having autism is something that restricts you from being yourself and being able to play a game like this certainly has the calming environment and calming mechanisms to people who are autistic. So, if you were to feeling down you can always start to play and feel peaceful and safe. Autistic children might find a way to start living freely through this game and be able to interact with others without a worry, since they feel like they won’t be judged as the ‘strange kid’. Since the writer child, Zac, loved technology it was inevitable for him to play Minecraft, it also built on his communication skills as he stated to talk more than before.

I think that being able to play this game is a gateway to many things, where you can learn so much and grow through this game even if you are autistic or not. Having Minecraft tackles small issues as poor communications skills brings out the best of the game and truly shows how anyone can play this game. For him to go “from grunted one or two-word responses to lively zombies, naughty pigs and wildly ambitious building projects. It was revelation.” This just shows how much Zac had changed by having full on conversations about the game that her loved played, it also shows the positive outcome that a game could actually have on people for the better.

2. Which features are included in the education version of Minecraft and how useful do you think they might be as an educational tool?

The features include, where students build scale models of their own towns: they learn about geography, agriculture, architecture and psychics.  I think its quite useful to have an educational version because there’s so much you can learn from. I think that’s children can interact more with a game rather than sitting in a classroom and listening to what teachers say, because it more captivating to play a game.

Being able to play an educational version surely makes it better for schools as well because they’ll have students who will learn these new skills and discuss about them to their peers and teachers about what they did. It definitely helps children start conversations in a healthy way about life and educational skills.

3. Why does Bergensten suggest, have copycat versions of Minecraft been less successful?

Because they don’t offer the same kind of simplicity that Minecraft does which is why copycat versions can’t level up to Minecraft or be successful. Since clones tend to have lots of visual information to the features people don’t want to play a game that’s so perfected because you feel more conscious about what you make and create in Minecraft.

People want to enjoy playing a game where they don’t need to stress and worry about things being perfect, mainly because people may use games as a resource to become stress-free or be relaxed. Which is why these copycat versions being as better than Minecraft because Minecraft is the simple and straightforward to play.

4. What is meant by “modding” community?

Modding refers to the act of modifying hardware, software, or virtually anything else, to perform a function not originally conceived or intended by the designer, or achieve a bespoke specification. The term modding is used within the computer game community, particularly in regard to creating new or altered content and sharing that via the web. 

5.  How important is the “sense of ownership” cited by Bergensten, for the audience for Minecraft?

“The sense of ownership that player have is vital – it’s the heart of the game.” I think that having the freedom to this game is what makes it feel like it is something that you own because you are the one who makes the rules, you’re the one who creates this world by yourself. So, this sense of ownership that the audience has and feels is what makes this such a great game because ‘WE’ are free to do what we want, which makes Minecraft different from other games because they have endless number of rules and regulations that you must follow. I think living in this day and age people tend and love to break the rules rather than obey them, so playing a game that have hardly any rules makes the game much easier than to be chased after by breaking a rule.

6. How has Minecraft extended its brand beyond gaming and into other products?