Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 9.13. A screen shot of Minecraft. The
game runs on multiple platforms such as
PCs, consoles, and smart phones. Markus
Persson designed the game just for fun,
and never expected that it would achieve
such popularity. Initially the game just
featured a landscape with a collection
of blocks and few people would have
predicted its runaway success. Majong,
Persson's company that develops
Minecraft has no publicity department
and the news about the game is spread
by word of mouth - or through the
Internet. The game is a
sandbox
game
and gives the players freedom to modify
the world that they are playing in.
Minecraft had become the sixth best-selling PC game of all time. As of February
2014, the game has sold more than fourteen million copies for the PC and more
than thirty-five million copies on all platforms. In 2012, Minecraft was the most
purchased title on Xbox Live Arcade and the fourth most played title on Xbox
Live. Minecraft - Pocket Edition was developed for the Android platform and
has now reached more than twenty-one million copies.
What is the reason for the phenomenal success of Minecraft? Part of the rea-
son for its success is its seemingly endless variety and extensibility. At its most
basic, it is just a survival/construction game - a sort of digital Lego - in which
the players can build various three-dimensional structures from textured cubes.
They can also grow crops, raise farm animals, and collect the resources necessary
for survival. There are mines where players can dig shafts and search for iron
ore, coal, gold, and gems. The iron ore can be smelted to craft a pickaxe, sword,
or armor. These tools come in handy for fighting the zombies, spiders, dragons,
and the other hostile creatures that pervade the landscape. In multiplayer mode,
players can participate as a team and join together to construct buildings or entire
cities, share resources, or fight enemies. Another element of Minecraft's success
is the ability to incorporate user-generated content and a wide variety of mods
are available for download from the Internet. Minecraft has turned out to be not
only “just another creativity game” but has also been used in a number of educa-
tional applications, including history and science. The game has also been used to
sketch out ideas for architectural and urban design. In 2012, Cody Sumter, then a
research assistant at the MIT Media Lab, said “Notch hasn't just built a game. He's
tricked 40 million people into learning a CAD program.”
8
Google is even using the
game to entice bright students to learn about quantum mechanics:
B.9.11. Markus “Notch” Persson is the Swedish creator of Minecraft and cofounder of Mojang, the
game company he formed in 2010. He started programming at the age of seven on a Commodore
128 personal computer and developed a text-based adventure game when he was eight. Notch
was his login ID when he started playing computer games and the nickname stuck. Despite the
phenomenal success of Minecraft he still considers himself as a “garage developer” who writes
games for fun and not necessarily for profit.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search