Understanding Minecraft

Nate Garrelts is a professor of English at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan.

Table of Contents


Introduction: Why Minecraft Matters (Nate Garrelts)

The Videogame Commons Remakes the Transnational Studio (Dennis Redmond)

Players, Modders and Hackers (Peter Christiansen)

Teaching Tools: Progressive Pedagogy and the History of Construction Play (Colin Fanning and Rebecca Mir)

Mining Constructivism in the University: The Case of Creative Mode (Jeffrey E. Brand, Penny de Byl, Scott J. Knight and James Hooper)

The Craft of Data Mining: Minecraft and the Constraints of Play (Alexandra Jean Tremblay, Jeremy Colangelo and Joseph Alexander Brown)

Just Steve: Conventions of Gender on the Virtual Frontier (Iris Rochelle Bull)

(Queer) Algorithmic Ecology: The Great Opening Up of Nature to All Mobs (Amanda Phillips)

Look What Just Happened: Communicating Play in Online Communities (Michael Thomét)

A Craft to Call Mine: Creative Appropriation of Minecraft in YouTube Animations (Jandy Gu)

“Someone off the YouTubez”: The Yogscast as Fan Producers (Esther ­MacCallum-Stewart)

Videogames in the White Cube (Michael St. Clair)

Fine Arts, Culture and Creativity in Minecraft (James Morgan and R. Yagiz Mungan)

Building a Case for the Authenticity vs. Validity Model of Videogame Design (Adam L. Brackin)

Where Game, Play and Art Collide (Rémi Cayatte)

About the Contributors

Index