Understanding Minecraft: Essays on Play, Community and Possibilities

This collection of essays examine how the runaway video game hit Minecraft has influenced the way games are played and stories are told via an electronic medium. An engrossing and thorough read for gamers, this book is for those who see video games as so much more than entertainment. Each piece is exhaustively researched and thoroughly cited, yet the reading is lively and active with an approachable tone and style. Whether reading about how the gender neutrality of the game's characters put a new spin on the myth of the American frontier, investigating how fans have used the game as a vehicle to create their own animations, or trying to determine exactly where the line between artistic creation and game play is, there is at least one entry for any kind of academic. This book proves that Minecraft can be truly anything for anyone, making it a testament to the product's appeal even as it examines the very same.