Monday, 26 February 2018

Minecraft Essay


In this essay I will cover why and how Minecraft has been a commercial and critical success and include an outline of the game's history and notes from class and handouts. Minecraft is the second most successful video game of all time behind Tetris. Minecraft was created and developed by Swedish based Mojang Studios, having been bought by Microsoft from Mojang in 2014 for US $2.5 Billion (GB 1.9 Billion.) The game has been described as a virtual world of Lego. Explore, mine and build, are the simple instructions you have to follow leaving the majority of the game over to player’s imaginations. It is the biggest selling PC game of all time. To this date well over 121 million copies have been sold across all platforms, including over 27 million PC copies. An estimated 55 million people play the game every month. 

Minecraft’s initial reception wasn’t commercially viable, seen more as a niche product for players with expert knowledge of computers and programming. However, Minecraft has the commercial backing of a mainstream publisher therefor it has been able to be a global success. In November 2011 Minecraft had over 16 million registered users and 4 million purchases., Minecraft was released across multiple platforms becoming a commercially viable franchise with increased interactivity, due to its popularity. On its release, the game won five awards at three conferences, including an Innovation Award, Best Debut Game, Best Downloadable Game, Audience Award and Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

Minecraft is a Sandbox game meaning it is a game free of structure and constraint; players are free to roam and make choices about how they use available content. Sandbox games are often described as having open world settings. This makes it a success as the game is limited to people’s imaginations and encourages creativity amongst all ages. Minecraft later created a hybrid genre with the story versions and is sometimes categorised as sandbox, survival.

Minecraft is also a success due to the broad demographic it reaches. The game cleverly manages to target a genderless and ageless demographic appealing just as much to children as it does elders. much of Minecraft’s success was due to word of mouth and audiences sharing their own mods and game footage across web forums and video sharing sites such as YouTube. Different versions of Minecraft were released to entice different audiences, moving away from creation only narratives to include story modes, spectator modes and multi-player functionality across Minecraft Realms. Things such as a physical Lego set were introduced to encourage younger audiences as well as merchandise opportunities.

The game is a global and commercial success and also praised by several high profile critics and gaming institutions. The game has amassed such a following that MineCon conventions can be found all around the world and further support popularising the game. There are other conventions of the game that have proven popular, including the release of albums featuring the music of the game, produced by German sound designer Daniel “C418” Rosenfeld.





Friday, 23 February 2018

self review

Radio 1 Breakfast Show- Self Review Test



12. The program promotes British music by playing the popular songs everyday, invites artists onto the show to help promote new music, speaks about new artists and plays games with listeners that include music.

13. Only 40% of the tracks played were British.

14. Celebrities usually on the show are there to promote whether its new music or a new brand they have made. There are more British celebrities on the show.

16. They like to keep the news stories light because when you tune into the show early in the morning it's meant to be a positive thing to listen to. They will speak about news and stories but no heavy topics. The news is announced every half hour.

17. The BBC Breakfast show always has quizzes and games that include guests, celebrities and people that call in. Its a very popular,  interactive part of the show thats always interesting to listen too. You can usually win money or tickets to an event. 

18. It fits into the 'ethos' of informing, educating and entertaining by speaking about many different topics. The show is real and the conversations are educational because they are speaking about real life things and by listening to people speaking about things can be seen as educational. This is also entertaining.

19. In question 3...

20. I think its for 18-40 year olds because they are the type of people to be in there cars listening in the morning or to wake up to the breakfast show. They also have younger presenters and "trendy" artists to keep it current.

Minecraft

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

-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 videogames; 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.


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.

why Minecraft is successful...
- Infinite replayability - 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

Minecraft timeline


·         May 10th – Birth of Minecraft, development on Caveman started.

·         May 17th – First release of the game

·         October 20th – Beginning of SURVIVAL TEST

·         December 23rd – Minecraft for Java passes to Indev development stage (Indev 0.31) (which requires a 5.00 € Premium Account to be accessed), introduction of Torches and dynamic lighting.

·         February 27th – Minecraft for Java passes to Infdev development stage, introduction of infinite maps.

·         August 4th – First release of Survival Multiplayer (Java Edition Alpha 1.0.15).

·         December 20th – Minecraft for Java passes to Beta development stage (Beta 1.0), price raised from 10.00 € to 15.00 €.

·         August 16th – Minecraft: Pocket Edition Alpha 0.1.0 officially released (Xperia PLAY only).

·         November 18th -  Minecraft 1.0.0 for Java edition is officially released, price is now 20.00 €.

·         May 9th – Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition TU1 officially released.

·         February 11th – PI: Minecraft: Pi Edition Alpha 0.1.1 officially released.

·         December 17th – Console: Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition 1.0 officially released.

·         December 19th – Minecraft Realms Beta was launched.

·         September 4th – Console: Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition officially released.

·         September 5th – Console: Minecraft: Xbox One Edition officially released.

·         September 15th – Mojang and Minecraft are acquired by Microsoft for $2.5 billion.

·         October 14th – Console: Minecraft released for PlayStation Vita.

·         July 29th – W10: An adaptation of Minecraft: Pocket Edition is released for the universal Windows 10 platform.

·         December 17th – Console: Minecraft: Wii U Edition officially released.

·         April 27th – Gear VR : An adaptation of Minecraft: Pocket Edition is released for the Samsung Gear VR.

·         November 1st – Minecraft: Education Edition officially launched.

·         December 19th – Apple TV : An adaptation of Minecraft: Pocket Edition is released for the Apple TV.

·         December 19th – Fire TV : An adaptation of Minecraft: Pocket Edition is released for the Amazon Fire TV.

·         May 11 – Console: Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition officially released.

·         September 13th - Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS Edition officially released.

·          

Distribution, Production, Technology and Circulation


Marketing, promotion & franchising



Radio 1 July 9th


7:30
News Beat – politics, technology
News – sports
Weather
7:33
 
Track – Naked by James Arthur
 
7:37
Track – Thunder by Imagine Dragons
7:40
Talking about competition – Katy Perry
Selena Gomez – social media – Instagram
Justin Timberlake – super bowl
7:42
 
7:46
Programme indent
Track – Camila Cabello – Never be the same
Track – Decline by RAYE Feat. Mr Eazi
7:49
Competition to meet Katy Perry.
Talking about dating apps
-          Assistant Producer has ex’ comment read out on dating app.
 
 
7:55
Track – Tip Toe by Jason Derulo Feat. French Montana
7:57
Competition reminder
News – Politics, Sports
8:00AM - Newsbeat
Weather and Football updates.
8:01AM- Jam Slam
Re-explaining Katy Perry contest
8:03AM – Music 30
Dave (ft. MoStack) – No Words
Florence + The Machine – Rabbit Heart
Ariana Grande – Into You
8:11AM - Contest (Jam Slam) 38
Win Katy Perry Tour tickets by answering the phone and saying “ROAR”
8:15AM – Music 42
MK - 17
8:18AM – Discussing the Jam Slam contest
45
Reading feedback.
Reveal who the contest is about the next day (Niall Horan).
8:23AM – Music 50
 
Niall Horan – Slow Hands
Eminem (ft. Ed Sheeran) – River
 
8:29AM – Jam Slam
Reading Fan messages
8:30
Song playing – ‘no words’ Dave ft MoStack
8:32
Listener talking – ‘shout out to grimmy’
8:32
Song playing – ‘Rabbit Heart’ Florence and the machine
8:36
BBC radio 1 interlude
8:36
Song playing – ‘into you’ Ariana Grande
8:38
Nick Grimshaw – saying what songs we just heard
8:39
Jan Slam – then bbc radio 1 Jan slam jingle
8:41
Jan slam – calling one of the Katy Perry ticket prize winners, from the jan slam competition that happened on a previous show.
8:41
Jan slam – Sean answers the phone and is the lucky winner of the tickets.
8:42
Nick hangs up from Sean.
8:42
Radio 1 jan slam interlude
8:42
Song playing – ‘17’ MK
8:45
Nick Grimshaw talking about the Jan slam prize winner and talking with Fiona, also reads out comments from listeners about the Jan slam and responds.
8:46
Gives hints of tomorrows Jan slam prize by playing mashup of Niall Horan songs.
8:47
Then announces prize of winning tickets to his tour on any day of choice as well as spending time with Niall at a golf course.
8:50
Radio 1 jan slam jingle
8:50
Song – ‘Slow hands’ Niall Horan
8:53
BBC radio 1 interlude
8:53
Song – ‘River’ Eminem ft Ed Sheeran
8:57
Nick Grimshaw telling us songs just played talking about listener comments and responding and talking about Jan slam competition, then talking to Fiona.
8:58
Radio 1 news interlude
8:58
Talking about politics as well as cricket
9:30
News, Sport, Weather
9:33
Nick Grimshaw intro
9:33
Mixtape - Track: Ready Or Not by Fugees
9:38
Mixtape - Track: 7 days by Craig David
9:41
Nick Grimshaw explained what the mixtape is for, January blues. Let audience know the names of the songs played so far.
9:43
Mixtape – Track: Hate it Or Love it by The Game
9:46
Mixtape – Track: Boognie 2nite by Tweet
9:47
Sting
9:49
Mixtape- Track: Déjà vu by Beyoncé
9:52
Nick Grimshaw reading off ‘hellos’ to listeners
9:57
Mixtape- Track: Flawless by The Ones
10:00
Sting
10:00
Mixtape- Track: Shake It by Lee Cabrera
10:04
Sting
10:04
Mixtape- Track : Real Life by Duke Dumont
8:00AM - Newsbeat
Weather and Football updates.
8:01AM- Jam Slam
Re-explaining Katy Perry contest
8:03AM – Music 30
Dave (ft. MoStack) – No Words
Florence + The Machine – Rabbit Heart
Ariana Grande – Into You
8:11AM - Contest (Jam Slam) 38
Win Katy Perry Tour tickets by answering the phone and saying “ROAR”
8:15AM – Music 42
MK - 17
8:18AM – Discussing the Jam Slam contest
45
Reading feedback.
Reveal who the contest is about the next day (Niall Horan).
8:23AM – Music 50
 
Niall Horan – Slow Hands
Eminem (ft. Ed Sheeran) – River
 
8:29AM – Jam Slam
Reading Fan messages

 

 

Trailer

D83 Trailer Analysis The opening of the trailer uses sound and editing to draw the audience in. Explain why this is effective:...