Minecraft: Can this simple computer game build on its £1.5 billion promise?

More than 54 million copies have been sold across various consoles since the game was launched in 2009, making it the second best-selling computer game in history behind Wii Sports. As a result, Minecraft has spawned a spin-off industry. Soft toys, colouring-in books and clothing are all available and, astonishingly, three of the top 10 best-selling children's books this year are guides giving tips on playing the game.

Sarah Bates at Egmont UK, which publishes the books, says: 'The last time we saw numbers like that was for High School Musical.'

Guy Cocker, a gaming journalist, explains why Minecraft's pixellated simplicity is part of the appeal: 'It shows for a mass audience that graphics aren't everything. The traditional form has been for video games to push visuals as far as possible and that's what's happening on the PS4 and XBox 360 [consoles]. But kids are starting to grow up with mobile phones and the attraction for them is to get into the game as quickly as possible. With Minecraft there is no pretence, no showiness, it drops you into the action straight away.'

It is not just children, however, who have fallen in love with the game. Adults, too, have become excited by the potential to create complex 3D models. The Danish government even created an entire online version of the country in Minecraft using four trillion blocks and one terabyte of data. The idea was that teachers could show pupils around their hometown and allow them to create virtual wind farms or plant their own forests. This utopian vision was rather spoiled when American hackers blew up parts of the country using virtual dynamite.

Kieran Long, a senior curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum, is one of many within the design world fascinated by the game. 'There is something definitely Swedish and Social Democrat about the whole phenomenon. It was in use in Swedish schools from very early on, because it has real-world physics. For instance, you can design an irrigation system with running water and it is sort of real.'

There is a well-established theory that the Modernist movement in architecture was heavily influenced by architects playing with Froebel Blocks as children. These were the basic wooden cubes, cylinders and spheres created as an educational toy by Friedrich Froebel, founder of the German kindergarten movement. In turn, Lego's arrival after the Second World War is seen as being responsible for colourful Postmodernist buildings.

Long believes that Minecraft will be equally influential on the next generation of designers and architects. 'The current bunch of young designers grew up in their bedrooms playing video games. And Minecraft is the one that has crossed over from being a niche phenomenon to something bigger. We should embrace gamers. We need to take them a bit more seriously. This is the new economy.'

Many parents worry about the time their children spend at a computer screen. But it is heartening that, when it comes to Minecraft, they might be doing something creative. Let's hope Microsoft doesn't try to change too much of the magic.

Lokasi:

Share :