Module Description

This Minecraft module focuses on dissecting and reimagining the popular video Minecraft. Through prompting players to look closer at the design and mechanisms of the game, the aim of this module is to render the game designers’ assumptions and intentions visible. In doing so, players and participants of this module are encouraged to critique the inherent ideological message of the game and imagine modifications to the original game that could provide alternative gaming trajectories to occur.

Module Objective

• Students will understand how to play Minecraft.
• Students will critique the assumptions about players embedded in the design of Minecraft and the exclusive practices that results from this design.
• Students will modify Minecraft through reimagining the game content that creates alternative gameplay possibilities.

Multimedia Component (podcast, game download, map, etc)

• Minecraft
• YouTube Video about Minecraft
• Skindex
• Nova Skin Resource Pack Editor

Related Readings

• Bulut, E. (2013). Seeing and playing as labor: Toward a visual materialist pedagogy of video games through Walter Benjamin. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 35(5), 408-425.
• Wu, H. (2016). Video game prosumers: Case study of a Minecraft affinity space. Visual Arts Research. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Discussion Questions

 

• Playing to Understand

 

• • What are the ways that you can interact with the game environment? What kind of controls/commands were you able to discover? And how did you figure out these different ways of interacting with the game? After watching the video, what did you discover in terms of interacting with the game that you did not know/figure out before?
  • What do you think are the goal of Minecraft? If you were the designer of this game, what do you think your intentions were when you created this game? What items, characters, and landscape did you discover? Based on these discovery, what would you say is the “theme” of Minecraft?
  • What did you notice about your emotional and intellectual state during this exploratory play? Were you upset, frustrated, challenged, or curious? And what were the specific in-game situations that led up to these particular responses?

 

• Playing for Critique

 

• • Were there any differences between you and your co-researchers in learning to play Minecraft? If so, what were those differences? And what are some imaginable causes to those different approaches?
  • What would you say are the prerequisites to being able play Minecraft and play it well? What are some player qualities that would enable a more enjoyable and smooth Minecraft play experience? Who do you think are the intended audience for Minecraft?
  • On the flip side, who do you think Minecraft was NOT designed for? What are some player qualities that may have hindered the process of playing Minecraft? Can you identify any specific instances in Minecraft that proves exclusivity and inaccessibility to a particular demographic population?

 

• Playing as Modifying

 

• • What kinds of players are perceived to be discouraged or excluded from Minecraft?
  • How does the original intended Minecraft gameplay exclude this kind of player?
  • What are the suggested changes that could remedy this exclusive practice?
  • What have you done to implement these changes? (Optional)

Assignment/Activity

 

• Playing to Understand

 

First, we will play Minecraft! Go ahead and download Minecraft, log in using our account or use your own if you have one, and play for 30 minutes in both Survival and Creative Mode. Please watch this video DURING or AFTER your exploratory play in Minecraft, especially if you’ve never played Minecraft or any other video games before. The video provides a bit more context for your play, but please try to explore first on your own as your initial reaction is critical in this module for further dissection. In each of the game modes, please interact with the environment to the best of your ability; explore in whichever direction that intrigue you and take notes about any observations you’ve had during this initial interaction.

After an hour of play, please consider the following questions:

• What are the ways that you can interact with the game environment? What kind of controls/commands were you able to discover? And how did you figure out these different ways of interacting with the game? After watching the video, what did you discover in terms of interacting with the game that you did not know/figure out before?
• What do you think are the goal of Minecraft? If you were the designer of this game, what do you think your intentions were when you created this game? What items, characters, and landscape did you discover? Based on these discovery, what would you say is the “theme” of Minecraft?
• What did you notice about your emotional and intellectual state during this exploratory play? Were you upset, frustrated, challenged, or curious? And what were the specific in-game situations that led up to these particular responses?

 

• Playing for Critique

 

For this activity, you will need to identify 2 co-researchers, may it be friends or family members, that share one or more demographic attributes, such as gender, race, age, class, and national etc., that are different from you and ask them to spend an hour playing and critiquing Minecraft with you. After you’ve identified your co-researchers, provide them with the prompt that was given to you during the first activity. During their play, you may discuss with your co-researchers about any questions or concerns that may have arisen, and you should take notes about any differences that you’ve noticed about their play approach that differed from your own.

After your co-researchers are done with their play exploration, discuss the following questions:

• Were there any differences between you and your co-researchers in learning to play Minecraft? If so, what were those differences? And what are some imaginable causes to those different approaches?
• What are some assumptions about the player that Minecraft designers presumed? What would you say are the prerequisites to being able play Minecraft and play it well? What are some player qualities that would enable a more enjoyable and smooth Minecraft play experience? Who do you think are the intended audience for Minecraft?
• On the flip side, who do you think Minecraft was NOT designed for? What are some player qualities that may have hindered the process of playing Minecraft? Can you identify any specific instances in Minecraft that proves exclusivity and inaccessibility to a particular demographic population?

 

• Playing as Modifying

 

In this last activity, we will try to embody play through the act of modifying that extends beyond the Minecraft program itself. Given the conclusion that you’ve reached in the last activity, you now should have a concrete critique about the ways that original Minecraft play could exclude or discourage players with certain qualities. Your task now is to imagine and maybe implement some modifications to Minecraft that could make Minecraft play more friendly and hospitable for these specific player populations, and share these modifications with others.

To do so, first identify the specific game content that you would like to reimagine, which includes in-game graphical representations, rules, player reward system, controls and commands etc.. Next, brainstorm what elements about these game content that could be changed to create an alternative play experience that would better support the excluded or discourage player you have identified. Create a list of suggestions that details the critique of the original game in correspondence to your reimagined game content based on this brainstorming session; try to answer these following question in this list of suggestions:

• What kinds of players are perceived to be discouraged or excluded from Minecraft?
• How does the original intended Minecraft gameplay exclude this kind of player?
• What are the suggested changes that could remedy such problem?

Next, proceed to implementing these changes should you have the means to do so. Specifically for those whose critique lies in the graphical representational realm, please consider utilizing Skindex or Nova Skin Resource Pack Editor to create customized avatar skins or edit the texture of every single item seen in the game. However, this step is optional as not all participants of this module would have the time or technological capabilities to execute the imagined changes.

Last, please share your list of suggestions and the optional execution of these suggestions with others. You can consider posting it to r/Minecraft on Reddit, sharing on Facebook, editing the Wikipedia entry on Minecraft, or mailing it to Microsoft, who develops and owns Minecraft nowadays. The purpose of this last step is to share your modification ideas with others in ways that could possibly lead to change in the Minecraft status quo.