YOUR PLACE OR MINECRAFT? #4 - Common Diamonds
This witty web series follows the virtual lives of a handful academics playing Minecraft together. An online adventure of fun, smarts and drama. In episode 4, kitty_mittens (Carolyn Jong) goes over some of the enriching aspects of getting to experience fear in a world you built yourself, and gets into the stakes of sharing space with your virtual neighbours. She also talks about the strain of real-world power dynamics making themselves felt in the game world, and why eking out a space for non-competitive play dynamics is so important.
MORE INFO
Yourplaceorminecraft.com
The 'mLab server' is one of the most modded Minecraft servers in the world. But what makes it really special is that it is owned by academic game research centres of Concordia University where the players—students and professors—all work together in real life. Their real life friendships, objectives and conflicts result in fascinating, self-reflexive and sometimes explosive gameplay.
ABOUT kitty_mittens
Carolyn Jong is a graduate student in the interdisciplinary Humanities PhD program at Concordia University, where she studies Skyrim modding, political economy, and the relation between feminist non-profit organizations, non-commercial game development, and the game industry. She has also worked on several independent game projects, and is an active participant in Montreal’s indie/alt games community. In 2013 she completed an MA in Media Studies at Concordia.
Your Place or Minecraft? is not an official Minecraft project, and is not associated with or endorsed by Mojang.