Homework on Minecraft

1. According to the writer, why might autistic children such as his son, be attracted to Minecraft?

Through Minecraft, autistic children could learn easy and basic skills, that could expand their wider knowledge.

2. Which feature are included in the education version of Minecraft and how useful do you think they might be as an educational tool?

Education version of Minecraft allows teachers to set up classroom servers, where students can build scale models of their own towns, this means they can learn about geography, agriculture, architecture and physics. 

3. Why does Bergensten suggest, have copycat versions of Minecraft been less successful?

The copycat versions have been looking for ways to expand on what the game offers, and some have fared well, but nothing was close to Mojang's vision. The copycat versions tended to have added a lot of visual information to the textures, which is what makes it less successful as Minecraft is more blocky and has a low resolution. 

4. What is meant by the 'modding' community? 

Modding means users can add different types of designs into their game, such as texture maps, items, creatures and even new stories and adventures. They can easily access these mods online and put the files into Minecraft. 

5. How important is the "sense of ownership" cited by Bergensten, for the audience of Minecraft? 

Even though Bergensten heard about the 'sense of ownership' the players have, it seems that he never really minded it because that 'sense of ownership' helped the players in different types of ways, they made up their own rules, own structures and how to interact with others. It even helped an autistic boy as he had a plan of his new school on Minecraft, and later when he actually started to attend the school, he knew exactly where he was going. So, this 'sense of ownership' was beneficial to the audience of Minecraft. 

6. How has Minecraft extended its brand beyond gaming and into other products? 

Minecraft extended its brand through other items not just through games, for example, they even have a huge merchandise, where they sell a lot of Minecraft printed products;