Building Your World

After reading the articles Fiction and Video Games as a Vehicle for Political Propaganda, the video game that came to mind to compare to these articles was the game Minecraft. 

Minecraft was created in 2011 by a Swedish programmer named Markus Persson. The game was created to allow the gamer to build and construct any type of structure they could imagine out of 3D cubes. The gamer has to learn how to mine the materials he or she wishes to use when constructing, and also explore various types of landscapes to build upon.

Comparing this game to the articles, there are lots of interesting arguments to be made. After looking at Fiction, where the writer talks about the fictional worlds video games produce, Minecraft is different than most games because the gamer creates the world in which the game is played. Of course there is naturally a setting for the game that includes grass and water and other natural features, but the purpose of the game is to allow the gamer to create his or her own world rather than have the fictional world provided for them.

Also in the article, Fiction, the writer discuses the role of rules throughout a video game. The writer says, "Though rules can function independent of fiction, fiction depends on rules". This isn't the case for Minecraft, as the game does not have any rules outside of the realm of the imagination of the player. Since the purpose of the game is to allow an alternate world for gamers to create structures and buildings, there are no rules restricting or altering the fiction in the game.

Minecraft is very different than most video games, as it is not a game based around strategy or a game that sparks the natural competitiveness that is in all of us. At the same time, however, it provides the alternate world that is desired by humans and allows for gamers to create things they would not be able to in person.