Essay Question: AUDIENCE QUESTION

Explain the impact of technology on the relationship between audiences and producers in the video gaming industry. In your response, refer closely to Minecraft.

NB: Your essay should be submitted electronically. Don't worry about how long it takes, consider the length. You should be able to produce it in about 23 minutes - 400 - 700 words?

Deadline - Saturday 7th May

You may (SHOULD) consider some of the following:

The rise of video games (one paragraph)

2006 - Film Industry 21 Billion   Gaming Industry 13 Billion

2020 - Film Industry 42 Billion   Gaming Industry 160 Billion

• Minecraft (an independently created video game) sold for 2.5 Billion in 2014
• In 2020, Minecraft boasted 141 million active users per month

Improvements in consumption (game play) and distribution (two paragraphs)

Broadband Speeds in the UK - 2006 = 4 Mbps   2020 = 80 Mbps

By 2010 - Broadband speeds had substantially increased making online game play viable.

DISTRIBUTION: Online sales substantially reduced costs for distributors, increased sales.

CONSUMPTION: Quantix Foundry published a set of gamer motivations measure the psychographic profile of a game.

   - Action    - Social    - Mastery    - Achievement    - Immersion    - Creativity

Technology has impacted games by improving: 

Variety, Graphics, Game Speed, Immersive play, Connectivity (Community?), Mobile Gaming, Online purchasing, all of which can be seen to impact the psychographics.

• Minecraft users see themselves as a community. When Microsoft purchased Minecraft, users expressed worries about the way that this would impact the game negatively. e.g. subscription, loss of platforms for developers, removal from non-Microsoft platforms. The fact that this was a worry implies that it had already happened, but the fact that it didn't happen to Minecraft set a precedent.
• Minecraft mods could always be purchased via PC, in June 2017 Minecraft added a store option, to all platforms. By September of the same years they had exceeded 1 million dollars in sales of skins and mods on the marketplace. Prosumers make some of the revenue for their creations and Microsoft partner with them, sharing some of the revenue.

Prosumers (two or more paragraphs)

Access to technology has lead to an increase in independent game development. Mainstream game developers are risk averse, franchise heavy and have large teams with high budgets. Independent companies can take more risks and may have a very different relationship with audiences. 

• Minecraft is arguably the result of a risk taken by Markus Persson (Notch). The most popular game of 2010 was Call of Duty: Black Ops, so the idea of creating an online 'lego' game was a huge risk with regard to the market. However, Notch was a member of the gaming community and had some reason to believe such a game would be popular. He engaged in constant back and forth with users to make improvements to the game that appealed directly to users. This model of development was highly unusual at the time, completely changing the relationship between audience and producer.

Game play channels, especially Twitch.com but also youtube, have popularised game playing channels. For example, twitch creator, Ninja, has 17.5 million subscribers. This has made a significant impact on the way the marketing of video games. 

• While not the the most popular creator, Dream has 6 million subscribers on Twitch and 30 million youtube subscribers. However, this level of success is significant because her (his?) content is exclusively focussed on Minecraft. We might ask ourselves why companies like Microsoft make little or no effort to charge these prosumers for use of their intellectual property, but it is clear that these channels provide free and highly targeted marketing for game producers. 

Mod creators. 

• Minecraft is certainly an example of the potential success of an independent creator, but it is unusual for an independent game to be this successful. 
• As a sandbox game, Minecraft lends itself to the possibility of fan created mods. 
• It is hard to know if Minecraft's functionality has inspired prosumers to make online content (parody videos, gameplay, tutorials) or whether it is simply a result of its popularity at a time when social media was exploding. 

Digital convergence

Connectivity, Mobile Gaming etc. (DOES THIS NEED A SEPERATE PARAGRAPH?)

EVERY PARAGRAPH SHOULD:

• ANSWER THE QUESTION (A GENERAL POINT ABOUT VIDEO GAMING)
• CONTRIBUTE TO YOUR OVERALL ARGUMENT
• MAKE DETAILED AND SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO EVIDENCE
• EXPLAIN THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THAT EVIDENCE