Discuss the ways ownership of Minecraft has influenced the game and its development

Initially, Notch wanted the game to be more based around the simpler side with no major story, and wanted fans to have a large say in how the game is operated and development of there own modes and mods. He was not a fan of synergizing with big corporations such as Facebook. However, one the game had been bought by Microsoft for $2.5 billion, the whey the game was operated was changed. Microsoft used the name to sell merch as well as synergizing with companies like Oculus to create more VR games. Minecraft's marketing strategies also changed as it went away from the word of mouth marketing which gained it so much popularity and chose for trailers and advertisements for updates and modes. Furthermore, under Microsoft the development of a Minecraft story mode was produced by TellTale games

Explain the success of Minecraft, with reference to its development

1.Massivly accessible, not big game. Multi-platform

2. Simplicity of the game makes it fun

3. younger audience so influential, parents are happy with it

4.

Minecraft-Industry

 The emergence of digitally convergent platforms

 brought about a huge surge in opportunities for

 synergy in the gaming industry.

This can be seen through the use of skin and texture packs in Minecraft which players could buy to blend have worlds and characters look like. They synergized with oculus to create Minecraft vr game

Minecraft developed online distribution which saved them on costs in sales. The got deals with Nintendo and Sony to produce the game for PlayStation and Nintendo switch. 

Was globally marketed through its own community

Sold merchandise on mugs, t-shirts, hoodies, keychains and more

synergized with Lego to make toy sets

Convergent platforms greatly increase distribution opportunities

Minecraft sells it packs and realms on its own store, its use of digital convergence allows it to maximize there profits

Steam which acts as the online shop for games produces Minecraft Story Mode

Consumers using convergent platforms

The online community is vocal with Minecraft and contribute to the development of updates through provided beta-testing's and feedback to developers. 

The use of engines like Twitter to keep fans updated on changes and production of Minecraft products allow people do give feedback

With digital convergence the biggest threat to video games is piracy that can be played across multiple platforms

Due to the low price of Minecraft as well as its platform accessibility, the threat of privacy is not an issue for Minecraft.

The game provides much more with its sales of the game that just the actual copy but provides free updates

With the acquisition by Microsoft and development of an oculus vr game, the game has became a lot more 'premium' game making piracy harder as it cannot be copied digitally.

Key words 

Vertical integration- Where parts of the production process is done by the producer instead of outside contributors such as suppliers.

Technological convergence- Where forms of technology merge, the combination of computing, communication and content across media platforms

Conglomerate- A company that owns several other companies

Mass audience- An audience that is considered main stream, mass appeal

Niche audience- Audience who are more specific in what they enjoy 

Diversification- Where a company branches into many forms of media eg toys, games, merchandise. a company expanding there audience through producing a wider variety of products

August 2010

The fist minecon took place in Bellevue Washington

Minecraftcon 2010 was a spontaneous gathering of Minecraft fans on august 31st. the idea was conceived by notch after expressing in a blog post several requests for a meet

Big Issue- Changes and Comparison

 

Large masthead	Masthead covered by celebrity
Includes a barcode	Coverline at the bottom of the image
Tagline in the top left of the picture	Includes a quote from Ian wright
Clear main image	No set masthead
No main cover lines	Image takes up whole page
Clear borders to the magazine and image	No boarders or extra stories

 

 

The key difference in the new and old house styles of the big issue are very much clear. With the new house style they have decided to follow, more conventions in their designs, always locating the masthead at the top and bottom of the magazine, and locating the image in the middle of the cover. Furthermore, they have chosen to include a barcode always in the same location as to allow these to be sold in shops rather than through vendors. Speaking more on the images used, they all are the same size and shape taking up the same proportion in each issue and aside from a few special issues, are always actual images rather than artist designs.

With the old house style, the big issue tend to move the masthead not having it restricted to one place, furthermore it will never feature a barcode as the vendors will not be scanning the item when selling it. It also will not have any set art style, colour pallet or choice of imagery as the magazine will often feature, satire artist depictions, celebrity stories, both soft and hard news stories, and festive themes such as with the Christmas issues depicting Santa drawn by children. The image of Ian Wright following the old house style takes up the entire image with the taglines, stories and masthead revolving around them.

 

The reason for the chance has a lot to do with the pandemic as due to lockdown, it was made much harder for vendors to sell them, and due to the vendors being one of the main driving forces behind the selling of the magazine, moving into shops had to change as the big issue was then to rely on eye-catching and familiarity to sell copies, resulting in the change in style.

Big Issue revision

 The big issue style  

Despite not originally having a distinctive style, the big issue is distinctive and instantly recognizable in its design 

What is the weekly circulation of TBI?-80,000

What is TBI in convention?-Niche

What elements of CRAIL are assessed?-Campaigning against injustice

What is the House style?-It had no specific house style, constantly changing masthead place and color 

What is there political leaning?-They are not apart of a party but are politically socialist

Why can TBI have different cover styles from other magazines?- The cover is not designed for selling as many as possible and rather to help there retailers

What is intertextuality?-References to other media texts

Why do TBI employ so much intertextuality?-Its ABC1 audiences like to find these clues codes and conventions

What is representation?-How something is being presented to you 

Who set up TBI and why? John Bird, in an attempt to help homeless people out of poverty

What we need to know for your Big Issue question:

• Media representation
• Media representation(how images and words are used to construct representation)
• Social, cultural and political contexts
• The product, itself. Aim to read some copies of TBI as part of your revision

Same Purpose-inform, educate and entertain often eye-catching headlines

Different Newspapers published daily/ magazines are weekly or monthly  Newspapers will often focus on print whereas magazine use images to attract attention printed on high-gloss paper magazines magazines are designed to keep longer magazines are generally soft news

Why are front covers as a publication so important

• Fist thing a reader sees
• can determine whether a product is bought or not
• indicates a target audiences 
• Indicates the genre of magazine
• helps the publication stand out from competitors

The Big Issue is what is referred to as a "street magazine"

Magazine conventions

masthead-magazines name

tagline-

slogan-the mags motto

date line- the date the magazine was produced 

featured article- stories in the magazine

central image- the main image of the magazine

cover lines-

color palette- the choice of colors in the magazines cover

Barcode- the scannable code for sale

price line- shows how much the magazine costs

composition and layout- the choice layout of the magazine as well as font size image placement

typography- the style of font as well as color and contrast

Mode of address- whether the magazine is formal, informal or in what person 1st 2nd 3rd

shot types and angles- the choice of image and what it is meant to represent

Dull plain background to focus more on the celebrity

Celebrity in the foreground cover title in the background 

Name in large bold eye-catching letters

Stance not typical of a model

Uneven and wonky writing 

Why is The Big Issue different?

The big issue is seen as a hand up not a hand down top the homeless who act as the magazines vendors, buying the magazines for £2 and sell it for £4

The magazine tries to get homeless people back on track by making them become independent and earn money 

the strive to dismantle poverty through self help and providing jobs.

They were set up in 1991

What is the purpose of The Big Issue

In terms of its values, the editorial content is almost always critical of big business and banking, they champion the role of the individual and will focus on personal and social issues that appear in society

the covers will tend to convey the left wing news points of the editors

It could be argued that they do not properly represent minorities and females as many of there covers tend to be on white males.

The argument against this is that when women and minorities are represented it is normally in a positive light.

The homeless as well as different sexualities' and religions are celebrated

	Why has the big issue selected this individual to be on their front cover	What topics are referenced on the front cover	What does the front cover reveal about the big issue
Marcus Rashford	They have chosen to do a story on Marcus Rashford because of his work with getting more school lunches for children during lockdown, as the government had planned to cut the programme	The refer to his OBE as well as calling him the people's champion showing all he had done for the people They also have positive stories about exercise as well as pets	It shows its support of the individual and what one person can do. furthermore it supports the ideals of the big issue that say that big business and greed affect the poorest in society the most
David Tennent	Because he is a well known figure who can attract readers, furthermore he will have similar ideals to the magazine	Nods to the homeless Stories of football very light hearted stories
Eddie Izzard		More social awareness stories such as lack of vaccination for the homeless

 

Return to Minecraft

 Minecraft does not focus on language or representation but rather

• Industry 
• Audiences

This is because Minecraft is not a vehicle for representation or language

quick recall

1. evolving media, how Minecraft has evolved

2. industry and audiences (economic social context)

3. 15 marks