Minecraft: Institutions and Audiences which explores all these things in written form, with images, videos and links usig your findings from the reading.

 How is Minecraft different to other video games?

Minecraft is a first person role play game, the difference between it and other standout games on the market is that Minecraft allows their players to design, create and destroy the world that they create. Minecraft pushes the boundaries to how the player can interact with the game personally. The higher levels of personalisation has made Minecaft unique and therefore a stand out game for players who want to immerse themselves in their own fantasy world with the option for multiplayer interaction via the internet. Minecraft was created to produce a game that had a accessibility for gamers of all abilities and first and for most to create a game that brings enjoyment to their audience. Minecraft was not created to create money, the creater Markus Persson create the game as it was a hobby of his. Persson never believed the game would have spired into a company worth multiple billions. Minecraft has no set rules that players need to follow, Within their world they can do what they choose, giving gamers full control over the world that they have created.

How and why was its appeal so effectively spreadout without professional promotion?

In 2009 when Markus Persson developed Minecraft with a small video game developing company called Mojang, he believed that he was creating a small, independent game that gave players the freedom to role around a virtual world, personalising it, to how they like. He never dreamed it would turn into a multi-billion dollar company, which revolutionised the gaming world, due to it simplicity and effectiveness to target gamers of all ability. YouTube, which was founded in 2006, played a significant role in increasing the popularity of the game. From around 2010-11, PC gamers started to upload walking through videos of Minecraft gameplay, which became hugely popular across the world accumulating in billions of views. The leading Minecraft You Tubers are  'TheDiamondMinecraft',' PopularMMO's. 'sky' and 'TheSyndicateProject'. These YouTubers created a platform which fans of Minecraft could watch and appreciate their creations in their own personal worlds within Minecraft. Leading YoutTubers have a fan base around Minecraft, which allows them to influence their audience, which is generally positive for Minecraft and increases the popularity of the game. Since 2011 Minecraft has been made assessable on 19 different platforms. This is significant in the games appeal, as it leaves room from Minecraft to have the largest possible audience, due to the sheer volume of platforms that Mincraft is available on. The game started on PC but quickly started a new platform on Xbox and PlayStation due to the large amount of gamers who use these consoles, which gave Minecraft an opportunity to move into the mainstream gaming industry and then Mincraft could compete against the market leading games such as FIFA, Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto. This move came in 2011 and was hugely successful for Minecraft and Mojang and lead to the game winning five awards including, The innovation Award, Best Downloadable Game and Best Debut Game.


The idea of making profits from Minecraft was not at the for front of the game. The Minecraft community and the game came before money. This ideology was ardently followed by all eight employees at Mojang in Stockholm. The initial idea of selling Mojang to Microsoft was not well received leading to employees working at Mojang stating to the media 'people felt like the world was coming to an end'. The eighty employees were immersed with the game and felt betrayed by Markus, as he was friends with nearly all eighty employees and kept this secret from them putting all their carers at risk and producing uncertainty for the game that they all loved.  Jens Bergensten the developer of Minecraft had a conversation with Markus Persson to discuss how their loyal and dedicated audience would react to the news and if selling was the best option, but Persson had had enough of the internet and needed time away from the game, which had dominated his life for the past five years. Initially, the  sale was not well received by the core audience of Minecraft, but the game was being sold to one of the wealthiest corporations in the world and a leading business in the game world, due to Microsoft owing Xbox and Windows.  

Microsoft however did not intend to drastically change things at Mojang. They offered all eighty employees at Mojang $300,000  if they stayed for six months after Microsoft took over. This was a shrewd and calculating proposal by Microsoft as Matt Booty knew that if the $2.5 Billion investment was to be a success continuity was needed so that the core Minecraft audience did not become alienated by Microsoft. Since Microsoft bought Mojang for $2.5 Billion Microsoft has been keen to increase the quality of the game for Minecrafts audience which stands around 100 million users world wide. Microsoft has invested hundreds of millions to bring more interactive game play such as combat mechanics, which  will make fighting within the game more interesting. The sale of Mojang, ultimately has been very successful and Microsoft has not alienated Minecraft core audience still leading to large profits being made each year of Microsoft.
 

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