Minecraft and the Escapist

[Griffstar]

Minecraft isn't a game considering it's still in BETA...and it's just a ripped off idea...and it's the only game Mojang has ever worked on...so remind me?...what qualifies Mojang to even BE in this tournament?

Like honestly...if anything Bioware DESERVES to win. Considering it is technically the ONLY game developer left in the tournament, and it has made like 100% more games then Mojang, plus Bioware makes 'GOOD' and 'Industry Changing' advancements to the trade. I bet voice acting in RPG games would've NEVER been where it currently is today if Bioware hadn't done so well, and the whole 'Dialogue choices being VOICED!' is KICK ARSE when you consider games like Oblivion, Fallout 3, and pretty much any other RPG still has you choosing text and then letting the NPC respond.

Ahem, ripped off? You mean inspired then created his own, completely different game, which is more complex and generally better in every way? Then yes he did "rip off" it.

Also, no The Escapsit didn't spread it as much as, say Seananners or other famous Youtubers.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Seananners has had a large role in its popularity, practically the entire Youtube COD community jumped onto it because of his videos.

I remember that. No doubt his followers would have jumped on the bandwagon too. I heard about it from a friend before I read it here...

 

[darth.pixie]

Most, if not all of my gamer friends know about it. None plays it though.

Considering the fact that most of us look up new games as soon as they show up and read a lot of reviews, it's somewhat hard not to know of it. It got its fame by being a rather unique computer game and I think most people who actively look for stuff on the internet would know about it. I've never seen it in stores, however to the point where I wonder if a physical copy was ever made.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

None of my gamer friends had heard of it but they are kind of triple A and FPS guys anyhoo. They tend to leave the indie news to me.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

Minecraft was largely successful by how "viral" it went. Word of mouth is not to be underestimated.

Word of the internet is to be underestimated even less.

Do you know how many people talk about it on the internet? How many Minecraft wallpaper threads there are on /wg/ and threads just for talking about it on /v/? There are a hell of a lot of them, I'll tell you that. The Escapist actually came a little late to the party, with a handful of players knowing about it when it was still indev mode and alpha and most joining when it hit beta.

Minecraft owes nothing to the Escapist for it's popularity, it owes everything to the millions of people on the internet mentioning it here and there.

 

[Elamdri]

Seananners has had a large role in its popularity, practically the entire Youtube COD community jumped onto it because of his videos.

yeah Seananners was how I found out about it. Also, X's series.

 

[Zoe Castillo]

---

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

When I watched the documentry on Mojang, they claimed they never spent a dime on marketing. All advertisement has been from fans, talking to others and posting videos and debating it on forums.

The Escapist, eh, I guess it may have helped, but Minecraft pretty popular.

 

[Wondermint13]

I havent realised..
Does seem like alot of people on The Escapist can't shut the f*** up about the bloody game though, where other gaming forums politly highlited it once and never said anything more about it again.
But as for Popularity or Trend or whatever, only takes a small community to pass on the word and you have a full scale spread of it..

 

[tthor]

lol Minecraft was popular before it spread to the escapist

fun fact: Escapist =/= center of universe

 

[New Troll]

lol Minecraft was popular before it spread to the escapist

I never heard of it before it was first mentioned on this site, and I'm not oblivious to the internet by any means, though I'm also not an internet junkie either. More of a time killer while food is cooking sort of thing. Figured a bunch of peops would be in the same boat as I. And yet again I ask, it's very popular, especially on this site, yet I haven't found a single person outside of this site who actually plays it. So... what's up with that?

fun fact: Escapist =/= center of universe

Correct. Just the galaxy, not the universe.

 

[Jester00]

i first read about it on 4chan, then i heard about it at teamspeak, then i bought it because everybody was playing it, then i read about it here. nope, i don't know it from the escapist.

 

[Pebblig]

I actually discovered Minecraft before the Escapist xD I purchased it just before it went Beta for 10 euros...and since then it has boomed in my school. In the last 4 months I have to say that the number of people playing it has multiplied greatly.

People keep creating Minecraft WTF? why is Mojang winning? Who the hell is voting for them? threads. But if it is, surely this obviously states that the majority of people on the Escapist who are voting in March Madness are voting for Mojang? OR they hate Valve.

I haven't voted for Bioware, It's Elder Scrolls all the way for me and I played Mass Effect (didn't give it as much of a chance as I should've done) and I didn't like it. While I do like Portal and TF2...they've been out for a while, and I feel for an indie game to be so successful? That Mojang should have some praise.

Plus; wolves. They are so cute!

Edit: I kinda reinforced the point that everyone on the Escapist loves Minecraft, I didn't mean to push that...although I have noticed everyone seems to love Minecraft and Firefly too much.

There is so much Minecraft on youtube, especially on Machinima (which is like 10th most subscribed? something like that.)

 

[2xDouble]

I'd never heard of Minecraft for a long time. Saw the VGCats comic [http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=292] about it... but what really caught my attention was Zero Punctuation [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2680-Minecraft]. Interesting, to say the least...

What finally sold me was stumbling across our old friend Rob Moran and his Super Minecraft [http://www.urealms.com/content.php?132-Super-Minecraft&s=09eff705d15c8f96e0a9e670c7df121a&page=2] "lets play" bit. Yeah, it's a special mod that ramps up the action to crazy levels, but dang did that make it look fun.

 

[Puzzlenaut]

Minecraft isn't a game considering it's still in BETA...and it's just a ripped off idea...and it's the only game Mojang has ever worked on...so remind me?...what qualifies Mojang to even BE in this tournament?

Like honestly...if anything Bioware DESERVES to win. Considering it is technically the ONLY game developer left in the tournament, and it has made like 100% more games then Mojang, plus Bioware makes 'GOOD' and 'Industry Changing' advancements to the trade. I bet voice acting in RPG games would've NEVER been where it currently is today if Bioware hadn't done so well, and the whole 'Dialogue choices being VOICED!' is KICK ARSE when you consider games like Oblivion, Fallout 3, and pretty much any other RPG still has you choosing text and then letting the NPC respond.

But god, the male shepherd voice was awwwwwwwwful: It got to the point where I was forced to spend 12 hours roleplaying as a woman to avoid it lol

But for the most part, I agree, Mojang has made ONE game. One very good game, but still, one game.
I don't think Bioware deserve to win particularly, but they are more worthy of the top-spot than Mojang.

 

[SteewpidZombie]

Minecraft isn't a game considering it's still in BETA...and it's just a ripped off idea...and it's the only game Mojang has ever worked on...so remind me?...what qualifies Mojang to even BE in this tournament?

Like honestly...if anything Bioware DESERVES to win. Considering it is technically the ONLY game developer left in the tournament, and it has made like 100% more games then Mojang, plus Bioware makes 'GOOD' and 'Industry Changing' advancements to the trade. I bet voice acting in RPG games would've NEVER been where it currently is today if Bioware hadn't done so well, and the whole 'Dialogue choices being VOICED!' is KICK ARSE when you consider games like Oblivion, Fallout 3, and pretty much any other RPG still has you choosing text and then letting the NPC respond.

But god, the male shepherd voice was awwwwwwwwful: It got to the point where I was forced to spend 12 hours roleplaying as a woman to avoid it lol

But for the most part, I agree, Mojang has made ONE game. One very good game, but still, one game.
I don't think Bioware deserve to win particularly, but they are more worthy of the top-spot than Mojang.

Yeah my point wasn't that Bioware SHOULD win the tournament based on being the best, but rather that Bioware has made some huge contributions to the industry (Alongside companies like Valve and Blizzard) while Mojang hasn't proven themselves to be a competent developer. If anything, Mojang is more of a 'Indie' developer that is in the process of transitioning into completing it's first game. Thus Bioware 'Technically' should win.

 

[zehydra]

it was big on /v/ waaaaay before it was here.

A similar thread on 4chan has discussed the same, asking people if 4chan was responsible for Minecraft's popularity.

The answer is still no.

 

[Cheesepower5]

Everyone where I live who plays lots of games plays Minecraft, myself, two WoW addicts and the people who stick to CoD excluded.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I got it today, I really like it. It's addictive! I like to just put it on Peaceful and have fun building things.