Somehow Minecraft continues to sneak its way further and further into the public conscious and nowhere is that more evident that in Markus ‘Notch’ Persson’s recent appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. We’re not really used to seeing Nordic games designers on the US chat show circuit, their plumper behinds creasing the leather seats more accustomed to cradling the beautiful bottoms of stars of screen both big and small. It’s strange and a little disconcerting, perhaps we can write this off as a freak occurrence but perhaps this is another sign of the way video gaming is becoming more and more a normal part of mainstream life.
Notch was appearing on the show shortly after MineCon, the annual Minecraft convention, that this year took place in Orlando, Florida. Speaking with Craig Ferguson the two discussed Notch’s gaming habits, gold wrapped chocolate coins, Notch’s alternate life as a janitor and of course Minecraft itself. Opinion on YouTube, never a good place to look for wisdom, seems to be divided on whether it was a ‘good’ interview or not, but it made me laugh and that’s enough to satisfy my criteria.
This isn’t Minecraft’s only appearance on TV recently, it was also featured heavily in one of the latest episodes of South Park, ‘Informative Murder Porn’ (something I’d never thought I’d find myself writing) where the children on the show use questions related to Minecraft to lock out television content they deem too violent for their parents to view. This leads the parents to seek help in learning how to play Minecraft so that they can answer the questions and get their TV shows back.
That’s not the only recent news related to Minecraft either, not being content with getting both himself and his game on TV there is also a new book out which chronicles the story of the man and his game. Minecraft: The Unlikely Tale of Markus “Notch” Persson and the Game that Changed Everything by Daniel Goldberg and Linus Larsson is a book with a really long title that tries to make sense of a brilliantly unstructured success story. You might not learn five steps to making your own game a runaway success but I’m sure you’ll be entertained finding out how Notch made it. Alternatively if reading isn’t your thing* you could always go and watch the 2 Player Productions’ feature length documentary which covers the same story through the medium of moving pictures and sounds.
*Be ashamed. Also what are you doing reading this if you don’t read? Weirdo.
