MUVE Platform - Minecraft
Who it is developed by
Minecraft is a clossal name amongst indie titles and games alike. It is the number 1 selling indie game on the market to date with over 25,551,854 copies sold on pc/mac systems alone (at the time of writing). If you have kids or know kids who play games then the chances are that you have heard of this game.
Mojang, the development studio behind Minecraft was founded by Markus Persson around May, 2009. Minecraft began as a solo project of Markus' which started development as far back as 09', it continued to grow exponentially with each new team member. Mojang's roster has grown to over 60 members.
Markus later sold Mojang to Microsoft, he no longer works at Mojang.
Image taken from minecraft.net on 12/03/17
What functionality it provides
Minecraft engages its players with almost limitless creativity and encourages players to learn and explore its many systems by first hand experience. Crafting, mining, building and surviving are just some of the things the player has to learn for themselves.
Minecraft offers multiplayer functionality aswell, giving players the ability to join eachother on servers hosted locally or over the internet. There is even the option to buy "Realms" via subscription which is an easy alternative for players to create servers.
Minecrafts primary game mode is survival, but the game also allows players to play in creative mode aswell, granting players the ability to fly and use unlimited resources to build any that idea comes to mind.
To further mix things up there are many online communities dedicated to changing the game. Custom servers and modding allow you to further change the game and sometimes completely overhaul it for a brand new experience.
Other online communities have evolved around the game, including forums and wikis. The Official Minecraft Wiki details every block, item, recipe, mob, biome and more currently in the game.
How well it runs
Minecraft has always ran well for me and ive never heard of other users with any issues with the vanilla game so its safe to say the minecraft should run well for most people. Although if you want to run minecraft on your potato or there is the odd hiccup, freezing or lengthy frame drop minecraft has many options and tweaks in the settings to balance to your needs.
Here is a screenshot from version 1.7.2 of vanilla minecraft on max settings vs vanilla minecraft on its lowest settings
Fast vs Fancy
Image taken from http://minemum.com/performance-settings on 13/03/17
If your interested in customizing you minecraft settings but dont know where to start MineMum has an interesting article where they go into more detail on how to get the game to run smoother (They even have there own blog to)
How it is used
Minecraft is a game at its core so obviously its main purpose as a game is to entertain. Minecraft manages to teach its players about the game without any dialog or written text and it can also be used to teach alot more. Minecraft since its release has reached out to the homes of millions of people and its recently its even been introduced to the classroom. Minecraft: Education Edition is a special version of Minecraft that makes it easier to manage a class of kids. Minecraft: Education Edition claims "to be a versatile and open platform, but in a way that can be used to teach all types of subjects, from math and physics to history and language arts. By utilizing the digital platform and classroom experience, students can also develop skills in collaboration, problem solving, communication, digital citizenship, and more." [1]
How it compares to others
Ill make another blog and compare second life and Minecraft after futher analysis. Watch this space.
What your impressions of it are
Well... well lets just say for half of my high school years I was alittle over committed to the game. Even though its graphics to pretty and the game doesn't hold your hand in anyway, learning to play the game yourself and realizing the potential of things you can do is what makes the game so great.
Even though I stopped playing the game, coming back to it for a day and realizing why I sunk so many hours into it was wonderful experience. Finding out what you can do and applying those skills to make something incredible is amazing. Seeing something in your head, building it and seeing it fully realized is hugely gratifying.
Bibliography:
[1] Taken from https://education.minecraft.net/support/faq/ on 13/03/17