Minecraft Creating a Positive World

6 November 2022

Minecraft Creating a  Positive World

INTRODUCTION

     Commonly praised as the most popular game in the world, Minecraft has a reputation among children and adults alike as a game that significantly inspires creativity and bonding. Since its official release in 2011, the game has grown to become a phenomenon and amassed around 238 million copies; Minecraft stands as an icon of the 2000s and 2010s generation of children. Communities based on Minecraft and its appreciation have arisen across every corner of the internet, specifically the subreddit “Minecraft” on the popular social media website, Reddit, which is of particular interest. The community that has congregated on the Minecraft Subreddit is a community of dedicated and inspired people, varying in age from 13 and younger to 30 and older. Minecraft is a game that conjures feelings of appreciation, support, and creativity within the community and its audience, and has affected many Reddit users on a personal level. 

LITERATURE REVIEW

According to Granic, Lobel and Engels, video games provide positive effects on children and adolescents’ following domains: cognitive, emotional and social. The article goes into detail regarding the different ways video games like Minecraft could become a medium for mental health intervention. In addition, the myths of video games being averse to adolescence has been debunked as it shows to actually improve social skills (Hopkins 2020). However, it is proven that games such as Minecraft can contribute to both negative and positive effects on users, depending on many different factors (Martin 2012).

Jennifer Martin (2012)- Discuss both benefits and challenges to video games.

Markey, Patrick M, Christopher J Ferguson, and Lauren I Hopkins (2020)-    Address the different myths that society has on video games.

Granic, Isabela, Adam Lobel, and Rutger C. M. E Engels (2014)- Discusses the overall benefits of playing video games.

METHODS

          My plan for data collection is to find 5 posts within the “Minecraft” subreddit with each post having at least 5 comments. I plan on analyzing this sample size of 5 posts and 25 comments because I prefer a smaller number of posts and comments that concisely support my idea. This could potentially reduce outliers in my data. My search will target the topic of “Minecraft brings joy”. When target searching this topic, I will choose the top 2 posts sorted by “hot” and top 3 posts sorted by “top”. This gives me a variety between popularity and most saturated within my topic; it also allows my data to be the most relevant. In addition, I will be including and analyzing the top 3 most upvoted comments under each post. I plan to use excel to organize my data. Specifically, I will be looking at the tone of the comments, post’s theme, upvotes percentage, and post number.

FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

          Within my analysis, I will be discussing the following themes: fan art, conversational areas of focus, and stress relief. Fan art is an essential part of the Minecraft reddit forum, as the game is based on creativity. In addition, the conversational area I am focusing on is appreciation towards Minecraft. Since engaging in video games, Minecraft in particular, is a great stress relief for players, I have chosen this to be a part of my analysis.

Appreciating Minecraft

          A prime example of the creativity that Minecraft is able to inspire from its audience with the creation of fanart and the ability to publicly express and present their work online. Many fans of the game indulge in creating fan art that portrays scenes or events in the game that personally resonated with them or was entertaining in some way. On the subreddit, the user “u/yourfreakyneighbourh” posted an artwork of Minecraft, which received over 124 thousand upvotes (likes) and innumerable amounts of compliments from fellow fans of the game. In addition, the table below shows data for keeping track of the appreciative comments.

The bar graph following displays the count of Post themes by topic (experience vs. nostalgia) within the first 10 most recent posts under the key word “appreciation”.

Referencing a research paper on this topic, “Video Game Play Myths and Benefits”, the paper is quoted as saying this about video games: “The pixelated playground afforded by video games appears to be a safe place for children and adults to play, explore, learn, make friends, and have fun” (Markey 99). It appears that Minecraft is a game that allows people to be able to freely express themselves safely and have fun within this community.

 Not only Minecraft, though, as many other games show this quality and allow for its audience to benefit in a similar fashion. However, Minecraft is the primary and most direct example of this idea and the ability to express yourself and make new friends with others. Despite having never personally met one another in real life, the members of the Minecraft community are able to draw and send their creations to others for comments and appreciation, which are then most often received very well. The system of support within this community is a prime example of how beneficial video games can be in boosting one’s own self-esteem and the positive impact that playing Minecraft can lead to. Based on the experiences of the users on Reddit and their anecdotal details, it is reasonable to conclude that the game is an excellent form of self-expression and to have fun.

Support

Players from every corner of the world and every ethnic or cultural background are able to communicate through a universal language: fun. Regardless of the individual locations or beliefs of Minecraft players, they are able to connect with other players from around the globe to share ideas and enjoy the experience of Minecraft together. As the article “The Benefits of Playing Video Games” writes, “Video games are socially interactive in a way never before afforded. Increasingly, players are gaming online, with friends, family, and complete strangers, crossing vast geographical distances and blurring not only cultural boundaries but also age and generation gaps, socioeconomic differences, and language barriers” (Grabic 78). Even though the medium is even overlooked as it is seen as childish or immature, video games are an excellent way by which people can have fun with one another regardless of beliefs and language. The premise of the game is exceedingly simple and able to be grasped by anyone with little experience or time with the game. 

An example that reflects the idea of appreciation and connectedness within the Minecraft community is that of the user “u/rajjh53” on Reddit, whose origins are from India yet communicates with people that are millions of miles away in order to play the game together. In a post, he shows a video of his creations within his Minecraft world and presents it to the worldwide audience; in order to get approval and recommendations on how to improve his creation. The Reddit user received positive words of encouragement and a substantial amount of love from the audience, which clearly shows how this game is able to bridge people from different cultures together and provide an entertaining and bonding experience. 

Compliment

In addition to the previously mentioned idea, video games are a great way to complement the players on their abilities as well as sociability. Although it is not often mentioned, video games allow for a way for people to show each other thanks and express signals of gratitude or merit in someone’s direction. As Jennifer Martin writes, in “Game On: The Challenges and Benefits of Video Games”: “Digital cognitive games are focused on engaging players in beneficial cognitive activities, including decision making, problem-solving, and critical reasoning” (344). Thus, the ability to complete a cognitively challenging game serves as a motivator and a boost of motivation and happiness within the player. This is the same case within Minecraft, as being able to accomplish a difficult task in the game often results in the game itself showing its amazement (through the means of “achievements”), or other players expressing how they are impressed about something. 

“Finally, Sedig and Haworth present a design process for creating digital cognitive games. Digital cognitive games are focused on engaging players in beneficial cognitive activities, including decision making, problem solving, and critical reasoning. While this process addresses the increasing popularity of and demand for this game genre, it also acknowledges the importance of designing and developing games that offer players cognitive benefits.”

Jennifer Martin 344

For example, the user “Shrimp Seagull” posted a video of an incredibly intensive and difficult-to-create Minecraft machine, which is a ziplining modification to the game, and received an extraordinary amount of love from the other players as well as from developers of the game.

 Not only are they impressed with the creator’s ingenuity, but they are also impressed with the amount of time and dedication required to accomplish such a task. Undoubtedly, through Minecraft and the ability to create and show off your work, the ability to compliment one another and to increase someone’s self-esteem and positivity heavily increases and becomes much easier to do. If you were to find something interesting, amusing, or inspiring on a Minecraft subreddit, all that would be required in order to show your appreciation of the post would be a simple reply or a message to the creator. 

   CONCLUSION

        In conclusion, Minecraft is an excellent medium for people of every age and background to be able to express their minds and allow their passions and creativities to develop. Minecraft, as well as many other types of video games, is a great way to express someone’s appreciation of the game, create a support system for other people within the community, and allow for a simple and easy way to compliment one another; as it is backed up by both anecdotal and scientific research in the field. Although it is true that Minecraft, Reddit, and other platforms are very influential and good ways of having fun, the limits of this research is within the vague and expansive nature of the internet. As there are no parameters for expression and speech, there is difficulty in conducting research without actively posting a poll and having active participants. All that a researcher and rely on is primarily firsthand accounts of the joy derived from playing the game. 

REFERENCES

Granic, Isabela, Adam Lobel, and Rutger C. M. E Engels. “The Benefits of Playing Video Games.” The American psychologist 69.1 (2014): 66–78. Web.

Markey, Patrick M, Christopher J Ferguson, and Lauren I Hopkins. “Video Game Play: Myths and Benefits.” American journal of play 13.1 (2020): 87–. Print.

 Martin, Jennifer. “Game On: The Challenges and Benefits of Video Games.” Bulletin of science, technology & society 32.5 (2012): 343–344. Web.

Quantitative Codes
Term/Variable	Meaning
Lvl 1	Refers to a level one comment. This is the first line of comment responses to the original post.

Qualitative Codes
Term of Analysis	Meaning	Example
Positive	Coded as comments that support the point they are responding to, use words that avoid offense or criticism, or celebrate something.	“I absolutely loved WEWH!”
Negative	Coded as a comment that is in opposition to, critical of, or hostile toward the point or topic they are responding to.	“I disagree. Cassandra is trash.”