Minecraft Intro Essay

Minecraft is a multi-platform, sandbox video game created and designed by a Swedish programmer, Marcus Perrson who is also known as 'notch'. It was created in 2009 and was eventually published via Mojang. A sandbox is a style of game which has minimal character limitations, so the gamer is viable to roam and explore in a virtual world with no hurdles, many tasks can be completed however they are not compulsory to 'complete' the game therefore it is down to the gamer imagination! How was Minecraft so successful you may ask? Personally, I believe that it was down to many factors such as it being an original game with the context or roaming free and being able to create buildings or survive in the wild. The game originated as an indie game as it was a small company (Mojang) that published Minecraft therefore new and emerging ideas where present that hadn't been engulfed from the vast conglomerates. When playing Minecraft it seems to sustain a strong and varied community from young children to adults that stream for others to watch and share to enjoy and potentially learn something new about the game.With Minecraft being available on many platforms such a PC, Xbox, PS4 and Mobile devices, it increasing the target audience potentially increasing sales and revenue, which can be reinvested into the game increasing the overall game play. Overall, this helps benefit the producers of the game alongside the audience as the game they love everyday is getting technically stronger and more enjoyable due to a larger fan base and cross platform availability. From the years 2014/15 business year, Minecraft tripled their revenue from 1 million to 3 million! As a result of a small business, Microsoft viewed their success as an investment, therefore late in 2014 purchased Minecraft from Mojang for a record $2.5 billion!

Twitch is a huge streaming platform, allows gamers to stream game play of various games for fans to watch/enjoy and share. This allows the streamers to gain donations from fans to allow a revenue, which potentially increases the amount of streamers due to the potential of a financial and public gain. Twitch have collaborated with Amazon, for those with amazon prime Twitch prime is gifted for free which allows various attributes for fans to contribute and speak with their favourite streamers which again increases the audience and target audience. Not only do they host gaming events and streams they show IRL videos (In Real Life) which consist of events such as concerts and sporting events which opens to a larger audience. Minecraft have their own Twitch channel, they post eccentric buildings, competitions and tutorials for the community to watch and to improve their experience on the game. This then helps promote their game for the potential of a new audience. In late 2014 Microsoft purchased Minecraft from Mojang for a total of $2.5 billion! Therefore, Mojang joined Microsoft's large stable internal studios. Customization, allows the game to chop and change to your desire, not only can you make Minecraft look different with skins and resource packs, but you can also use mods to completely change the game. For example, in Project Ozone 2 Kappa Mode, the mod pack (a collection of mods put together for entertainment), many recipes have been made much more difficult. There are vast options from making jet packs, to flying like a bird, to exploring other planets, to following the quest line, magic mods, tech mods and computers inside of mine craft. Another point that falls into the category of customization are the various game modes (Creative, Survival and Realms). This allows a greater structure if people wish to plays to rules and wish to play with friend in things such as mini games on external servers and realms (private servers only holding 10 people.

Notch Article

• Notch was celebrating raising £280,000 for three charities by making a new game in 60 hours.
• The second is selling 5 million copies of Mine craft (A blocky-looking game).
• He is name is Marcus Perrson however he is also referred to as 'Notch' meaning Jesus in the urban dictionary.
• He started Minecraft on his own in 2009.
• Then he formed the Video Game company Mojang.
• He deliberately left features out to entice the audience to interact with one another.
• Every Friday he would introduce updates, which was perfectly timed for people to relax and enjoy playing this emerging game over the weekend.
• Due to Perrsons PayPal account financially exploding they froze his account as they suspected fraud.
• On January 12th 2011 Minecraft surpassed a million units sold.
• By April, it was two million units.
• August it was three million.
• A few days before November it had surpassed four million copies!
• Then Minecon was created for all the fans and lovers to go and express themselves among one another.

Minecraft Mini Presentations

Video Game Key Words

Terminology:

-Games Consoles - A unit accommodating a set of controls for electronic or mechanical equipment.

-Sandbox Game - Construction; building from scratch. Changing roles of the 'look down generation.' Collaboration through gaming; multi-player

-Microsoft - Institution which owns video games; Xbox and Minecraft

-Platforms - Different levels of gaming. Online Vs Moving images Vs Audio. Ways you can play (App, physically etc.). Multi-Platform - More than one way of playing; more platforms = wider variety.

-Servers - How the games run, where info is kept, enables games to be played.

Intro to Minecraft...

- Minecraft development - from 'online Lego'

- Multi - platform =  more available

- Open Sandbox - no limit

- Started as an 'indie'

- Critically and commercially successful

- From independent to mainstream - 125 million copies sold.

-Minecraft was created by Marcus 'Notch' Persson and developed by Mojang.

-These were independent, separate to and not financed by a big commercial company.

-But, as small independent products become successful, it is usual for larger organisations/owners to want to buy them.

6 reasons why Minecraft is successful...

- Infinite replay-ability - Sandbox (No limits)

-Strong community - creations are the marketing campaign

-Platform agnostic - Released on everything

-Co-opted by children - Household name

-Not limited by genre

-Fulfils human instinct to bring order to chaotic wilderness

Video game: A game played by electronically manipulating images produced by a computer program on a monitor or other display.

Types of Video games:

- RPG

-Sports

-Strategy

-Action/adventure

-Puzzle solving

-Construction

-FPS

-Simulation

-Horror

-Children's

Examples:

- Fortnite                                        -Cooking Mama                      -Sims

-Nintendogs                                   -Dinner Dash                           -Far Cry

-Fifa                                               -Big Brain academy                 -Rainbow 6 Siege

-GTA                                             -Sky Rim                                  -Fable

-NBA                                             -Mario Sonic                            -WWE

-UFC                                              -F1                                           -Assassin's Creed

-Wii Fit                                          -Just Dance                              -Wii Sports resort

-Crash Bandicoot                           -Rachet and Clank                   -We Sing

-Moshi Monsters                            -Guitar Hero                            -Monkey Ball

-Call of Duty                                  -Watch Dogs                            -Battlefield

Minecraft Timeline

Video Game Questions

1) How many subscriptions does Ali-A have for his YouTube channel?
   - Ali-A currently has 16,000,000 subscribers.

2) How many years have he been doing this?
   - He started his YouTube channel in 2009.

3) Why did he start playing Minecraft?
   -He started playing minecraft because it was getting a lot of attentionand view on youtube.

4) What does he say he is trying to do with his content?
   -he tried to interact with his fans by playing mini games with them on mincraft.

5) Describe his average working day

   -he would get up and record some video gameplay, then he would edit, render and upload his video. the rest of the time he would spend relaxing, going on social media and watching other youtubers.

6) Why might he watch Youtubers?
   -to see what content they are uploading to get new idea and bring in a big audience.

7) What is Twitch and what is the average time spent on it by a viewer?
   -twitch is a streaming website and app. they host a range of thing from IRL to e-sport.

8) How much do you estimate that Ali-A earns in a year?
   -He makes around £3 million.

9) How much was Minecraft purchased for?
   -Microsoft purchased it for £2.5 Billion.

10) What are 3 reasons behind Microsoft’s purchase?

a) it is a successful asset that can be used to attract a bigger/ wider audience.

b) it would make them money as it has a massive active audience.

C) they would have control on many platforms.

11) How might this affect the game?
   -they are a big company so they could produce a good future for the game and take it further, some fans may see changes that they dont like.

12) What is Minecraft’s biggest asset?
   -minecrafts biggest asset is the community and fan base that surround it.

Minecraft Documentary

Jungle Book Interview

Interviewer:

Marketing Manager:

I: I’m here today with the Marketing manager of the jungle Book 2016, Craig, to get an insight on how they will produce and market this film to make it as successful and the previous one made in 1967. Craig it’s great to have you here, so what has been done in preparation to make sure the film can reach the desired target audience?

MM: Thank you, we have been working very hard on all aspect of advertisement of this film. To make sure we get the right audience firstly we have produced trailers that capture the intensity and action that takes place in this version of the jungle book. With all the technology that has been available to our company we were able to do a lot more with the film, so it will appeal to a slightly older audience now as well as keeping it family friendly at the same time.

I: that’s great to hear, a film for the whole family. You mentioned that there has been a lot of work going on to Promote the film, what exactly has been done to make sure it is a financial success?

MM: There has been a whole lot done to make sure this film does well in the box office, firstly when we were selecting the cast we got big names involved, we knew this would be a great way to get people excited and talking about the film, as they have a big fan base and people love to see their favourite actor on the big screen. There were many other ways we promoted the film as we talked about the high budget trailers, and we created posters that were put out everywhere, showing the quality of the CGI animals and the outstanding scenery.

I: Wow a lot an organisation then, how does the new jungle book compare to the 1967 version?

MM: yes, a lot of teamwork, ha-ha, well our new version has a darker twist on it, it’s still family friendly, but this comes as with the technology that is available now everything looks more realistic, and we can get a lot of emotion into the characters to capture the intensity of each event in the movie. We use thing like ray tracing to render and get good lighting in each scene giving it a natural look as almost you are there yourself. Motion capture was also used for scenes for realistic physical interactions which just makes everything look as though it is happening right in front of you.

I: Some people are saying you used real animals, did you have to train them hard? Ha-ha

MM: Well despite what people think, the animals are not real, in fact there was only one actor.

I: How was it working with only one real person?

MM: Interesting it was their first time acting, so it must have been strange for him as he was the only actor in the studio. Most of the time he was interacting with puppets, but he was very good.

I: thanks all we have time for, it been a pleasure having you here.

MM: thanks.

Jungle Book Slides

The Jungle Book (1967 & 2016)

Areas of study:

-Production, -Marketing & Distribution & funding, -Technology & convergence, -Ownership, -Regulation

5 ways ownership impacts mom film production:
 -big companies have more funding
 -have bigger audience
 -brand loyalty
 -different target audience
 -can get better actors, ability to attract stars
 -more synergy
 - better CGI

2016 & 2017 Disney was the number 1 distributor
Jon Favreau produced and directed this film
the budget was £177 million
Synergy- Soundtrack, theme park

2016
-Studio based
-ray tracing
-motion resolution/ capture
-best of action/ animation
-live action/ animation

1967
-technicolor
-synergy
-cel animation
-xeroxing
-storyboards
-soundtrack
-multi-plane to create a 3D effect
-soundtrack

How to films companies market films:
-adverts, sponsor, social media, posters, trailers, interviews

Trailer comparison 

1967- 3:41 minutes
-Focus on technology
-More comedic representation
-Disney ownership and distribution
-Narrative voice over

2016- 2:15 minutes
-More dramatic, music sets the tone
-Disney identity
-No sense of character
-High production value
-Star marketing ( actor names)
-Commercial success
-Genre safe
 


1967 Poster 
-all characters are happy
-Disney
-Bright colors
-Non professional
-explains story

2016 Poster
-No story
-High value
-Better quality

Media Convergence- where films like jungle book an be marketed on a number of digital things

Industry & Audience

We Will Be Looking At:

Film- Industry 

Radio- Industry & Audience 

Video Games- Industry & Audience 

2 Question - 15 Marks

The Film Industry (Creating a film)

Pre-production - ( script, storyboard, schedule)

Production - (filming, editing)

Marketing - (trailer, poster, social media)

Distribution - (potential buyers)

Exhibition - (showing of films, how the producer sells the film)

Conglomerates- when two or more companies engage in a multi-industry company

Ownership types:

vertical integration: when one company has ownership of all means.

Horizontal integration: when companies share the ownership, the profit is shared between them.

Disney

Recipe for success:

- sequels, Live action remakes, franchises, TV, park resorts, Internet, stores

After A Film Is Made- make video games, rides, clothes, toys, TV shows.

Make 10 movies every year.

Synergy- Two or more forces working together to create a greater effect.

BBC bitesize glossary

1. brand identity
   The image a company constructs for itself through the use of logos, slogans and other marketing tools in order to appeal to an audience.
2. cross-platform
   The appearance of a media text on more than one platform; cross-platform or cross-media advertising is used to market a product like a film on the web, TV and newspapers.
3. endorsement
   The act of supporting or backing something; celebrity endorsement is often used in advertising to sell a product.
4. ethos
   The purpose, attitude and beliefs of a person or an organisation.
5. media convergence
   When audiences use one platform to consume various types of media texts.
6. media format
   A media format refers to whether the content is video, audio, print based, or a combination such as a website or video game.
7. media platform
   A media platform is where a media text is presented; this can be TV, cinema, computer, games console, digital media player, smartphone, tablet, magazine, or newspaper
8. media text
   Any media product such as a TV programme, film, magazine, video game, newspaper, music track or album created for an audience.
9. niche audience
   A small, narrow audience interested in a specific topic or theme - the opposite of a mass market audience.
10. public service broadcasting
    Public service broadcasting is for the benefit of the public and not just for profit or commercial gain; the BBC is a public service broadcaster in the UK.
11. smartphone
    A mobile phone with a powerful processor that is capable of running applications and accessing the internet.
12. tablet
    A computer device a little smaller than a laptop but with a built-in touchscreen, usually without a keyboard.

Media Framework: Industry

The Media Industry

the media industry is made up from a collection of different organisations. they all share the production, publication and distribution of media texts. examples of these organisations are;

• BBC
• Disney
• News corp
• Nintendo
• Marvel
• The Guardian

Audiences can access media texts in many formats on different platforms, these can be used to inform, entertain and promote products and ideas.

there use to be many companies that where big producers in media by 1992 there were only 12 big companies, now in 2018 there are only 6 big companies

1) Comcast- 69 Billion
    they are the biggest cable provider in the world

2) Disney- 48 Billion
    they own many other companies like Pixar, Marvel, ESPN and many others

3) 20TH Century Fox- 32 Billion
    they make most of their money from advertising and film/tv

4) Warner- 27 Billion

5) CBS & Viacom- 15 Billion each
 
These companies control 71% of national circulation

BBC is a public service Broadcaster

All media forms are regulated

TV/Radio- Ofcom
Video Games- Pegi
Film- BBFC
News-IPSO
Advertising- ASA