Madeline Dorobiala's review of Minecraft

Date last edited: 12-06-2024 at 07:03PM

   
Rating: Not Rated

Review:
Title: Minecraft
Developer/Publisher (e.g., Ubisoft, Activision, etc.): Mojang Studios
Genre (e.g., First person shooter, arcade, casual, etc.): Survival Game/Action-Adventure
ESRB rating: E10+
Your rating on a 5 star scale: 5
Primary audience: Men and women of all ages and children
Year of release: 2011
Platform (e.g., PC, Xbox, etc.) All the Above


Minecraft is a video game that can be played by people of all ages. It allows you to create your own world and design what you want using cubes with different graphics.
First Media Key: Balance
Balance is a critical key when it comes to analyzing the media we consume especially when the media is so available to us. Minecraft is a great grame that helps the user escape the business of everyday life and allow them to be creative. According to Infinite Bandwidth by Eugene Gan, “Without balance, without a willingness to look at media from every possible angle, we can’t possibly form right judgments (Gan 22). Minecraft provides balance by taking real life survival and putting it in a lighthearted video game. Minecraft because of its cartoon appearance isn’t gory and avoids violent practice. If a younger audience plays this video game it can be easy for them to take things out of context. For example, the avatar “Steve” can punch a tree to get wood but the kid playing the game might apply that in real life which can be harmful.


Second Media Key: Attitude Awareness
Attitude Awareness is the second media key and is relevant because it determines how people perceive the media they consume. Minecraft is a video game that promotes fun and creativity. According to Eugene Gan, “What comes to us through the flesh-through our eyes, nose, ears and hands - affects our spirit” (Gan 38). Even though a negative environment isn’t the focus, there are times where the gamer can feel stressed. For example, if the avatar “dies” the player has gets transferred to their spawn point and has to find where they “died” to collect the items in their inventory that was left behind when they died.


Third Media Key: The Dignity of the Human Person
The Dignity of the Human Person is the third media key which is applicable to how people should consume media. This can be applied to Minecraft because there are times where the player can interact with NPCs. Through interacting with the NPCs, also known as villagers, the player can trade with them and gain achievements. But there are times where the user might loot the villages or “kill” the villagers. This obviously is done by free will of the player playing the game but that being a possibility and the game not stopping or warning the user to not do any of those things, stated above, the game doesn’t uphold the dignity of the human person in that way. However, the game doesn’t have drugs, sex, or gory violence because of the younger audience the game is targeted toward.


Fourth Media Key: Truth-Filled
Truth-Filled is the fourth media key which is important because a person consuming media hopes what they consume is honest. According to Gan, “It’s up to the individuals to determine right from wrong, good from bad, true from false” (Gan 69). This quote is very applicable with Minecraft, because it is the players responsibility to not only survive the game and create what they want. It is up to the players to put context from the game together and realize who the antagonists of the game are and who is trying to help them or are harmless. If the player doesn’t know right from wrong or good from evil, it is easy to get lost or confused by the game.


Fifth Media Key: Inspiring
Inspiring is the fifth media key, this is relevant because it moves the consumer/user to engage in the content. There are so many people online, either YouTube or Reddit, etc that create content centered around Minecraft. That can inspire players to create similar builds or builds that look just like those online creators. In addition, the graphics in the game, textures in the game, and different modifications you can make in Minecraft can easily inspire the gamer. The gamer has so much creative freedom when it comes to this video game.


Sixth Media Key: Skillfully Developed
Skillfully developed is the sixth media key which is critical because it determines how well the app works and how new it is. According to Gan, “Because skillfully developed media is what matters to the media industry, this key is, in some ways, the easiest for us to understand” (Gan 100). Those modifications the gamer can download or add to Minecraft does cost money, therefore, depending on how invested the gamer is they can invest more time and money into the game.


Seventh Media Key: Motivated by and Relevant to Experience
Motivated by and Relevant to Experience is the seventh media key because it is apart of the framework in which media is consumed. According to Gan, “Accordingly, media should reflect our experience of the media” (Gan 117). Minecraft popularity in the 2010s, it still is played today by many but it, like most trends, gets pushed to the limelight.


Seven Keys:
Balanced:
Attitude:
Personal:
Truth-filled:
Inspired:
Skillfully Made:
Experienced:

Overall Rating: 7/35

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