Tuesday, 10 September 2013

Games and the Global Cultures of Production

Construction and minecraft



Mine craft in its basic form is a game where players get to expolore a vitually limitless area and

create wonderful constructions from the world around them. For example a player could build a 

castle on the edge of a cliff. The way construction has change and possible help the game to 

grow is the modification of the game play which is at no extra cost, just an extra download onto 

the PC. The extra game elements add a whole new way to play and alter the game experience 

for the player, for example the mods add the ability to construct pipes and wires all the way up 

to a nuclear reactor to charge all the machines in a player own world. The programmers ‘“can 

extend or change the text by adding their own writing or programming’’ in which ‘‘the ability to 

add permanent components to the text presupposes the demiurgic power to co-create the 

virtual world.’’’ (Raessens, J. 2005 p.381)


                                                                                image by Nemesis29

This new co-created virtual world not only happens mine craft but many other games as DLC 

(downloadable content) this has been happening since 1997 when one of my all-time favourite 

game  ‘Total Annihilation’ released new content in the form of extra units every month.  But in 

the gaming world of today where many games require internet connection to play most gamer 

would not view patch, which will undated prior to the game being able to be played, as 

downloadable content, yet the follow the construction idea, they modify or change the game 

slightly thus altering the experience of the played game. (Raessens, J. 2005 p.381) patches 

may just be something as simple as fixing a game error which is quite common for new games 

or it could be something as complex as adding a whole new element to the game such as a 

new playable race in World of Warcraft. 


                                                               image by HeonGaiden
Raessens, J. 2005, ‘Computer games as participatory media culture’, Handbook of
Computer Game Studies, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, pp. 373-388 

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