Minecraft introduction essay

Why do you think Minecraft has been a commercial and critical success?

Minecraft is known as being a sandbox computer game, this is due to it representing a child's sandbox in which they can create and build anything they want; imaginative. The structure and concept of the game is open with little restrictions as for what you can do; there is no objectives or goals so you can play and experience the game how you wish to. This allows children to express themselves freely within the game and discover and learn new things. The game is made up of 3-D block objects which are mainly cubed (usually representing a materials such as dirt and lava etc) which players can pick up and move; usually to create a building or world. Players also encounter various non-player characters known as mobs, such as animals, villagers, and hostile creatures to add a real life effect to the game and make it more interesting for players.

Designed by a Swedish programmer Marcus Perrson in 2009 as a project inspired by games such as Dungeon keeper and Infiniminer which heavily influenced the style of gameplay, including the first-person aspect of the game, the "blocky" visual style and the block building aspects. However, unlike Infiniminer, Persson wanted Minecraft to have role play elements.To help develop Minecraft Persson set up a video game company Mojang with the money earned from the game in order for it to reach its full potential.

Minecraft was released first on PC and later became avaliable on consoles including Xbox 360 which players could play on Xbox live as well as PlayStation 3 and 4 and Wii U. It is also available in pocket edition for Android and Apple.

Minecraft had over a million purchases less than a month after entering its beta phase in early 2011. Also, the game had no publisher backing and has never been commercially advertised except through word of mouth.By April 2011, Persson estimated that Minecraft had made €23 million in revenue, with 800,000 sales of the original version of the game, and over 1 million sales of the beta version. In November 2011 before the game's full release, Minecraft beta surpassed 16 million registered users and 4 million purchases. By March 2012, Minecraft had become the 6th best-selling PC game of all time. As of 10 October 2014, the game has sold 17 million copies on PC, becoming the best-selling PC game of all time. As of 10 October 2014, the game has sold approximately 60 million copies across all platforms, making it one of the best-selling video games of all time. On 25 February 2014, the game reached 100 million registered users. As of January 2018, over 144 million copies had been sold across all platforms,making it the second best-selling video game of all time behind Tetris.

Minecraft has been known for the creative freedom it grants players. Critics have praised Minecraft's  crafting system, commenting that it is an important aspect of the game's open and free game play. Most publications were impressed by the game's "blocky" graphics, with IGN describing them as "instantly memorable". Reviewers also liked the game's adventure elements, commenting that the game creates a good balance between exploring and building. The game's multiplayer feature has been generally received favorable, with IGN commenting that "adventuring is always better with friends". It has been regarded as having introduced millions of children to the digital world developing knowledge for a generation.

The popularity of Minecraft has later been showed through spin-off games such as Minecraft:story mode and Minecraft: education mode. This brings a fun way of learning to children and influences them to want to expand their knowledge. Popular forms of social media such as Facebook and YouTube have also played a significant role in helping popularizing it and advertising to others to play.