What is Minecraft?

Talk about a complicated fandom despite being such a simple concept game wise. Many are likely familiar with the fact Minecraft is a world-building and/or survival game. Another name for world building is sandbox which came out in 2011. In most fandoms the fan have canon characters and setting to work with, but until the release of Story Mode in 2016 Minecrafters (what players call themselves) only had canon settings and canon creatures such as the Creeper and Endermen to work with. There wasn't even a canon plot, making much of the content for the fandom original to the fans.

Of course, there's Minecraft fanfic and Minecrafter fanfic, the first being fanfic written about the fictional world of Minecraft, and the second being RPF or Popfic written about popular Minecrafters. Some of the popular YouTubers are also Minecrafters. In fact, on Wattpad readers are possibly more likely to come across either stories involving the popular YouTubers, or fanfics involving a Minecrafters fanworks for the series rather than actual Minecraft fanfic.

One of the more popular fanworks for Minecraft is the Minecraft Diaries/My Street series which follows the YouTuber Aphmau's original character Aphmau as she travels the world of Minecraft discovering the world. This fanwork is so popular, it's not just followed by Minecrafters, but is also followed by non-Minecrafters. Specifically, the series is popular among a female target audience due to utilizing a female heroine, but some of the younger fans mistakenly think Minecraft Diaries is all original content and its own fandom.

Yup, Minecraft Diaries and the sequel series My Street are not an actual fandom, but are instead actual fanworks .for the Minecraft fandom.

One of the hints Minecraft Diaries is a fanwork and not a fandom is the fact it contains the word Minecraft in its title. While the characters are original to the creator of the series, other things such as settings – the Nether for example – and creatures – the Creeper for example, are canon elements from the Minecraft series because they're part of the Minecraft copyright. Minecraft Diaries is also a story which is about a character finding themselves in the Minecraft world. The sequel series is in turn a High School/College AU of the original fanwork.

Why bring this up?

Fanfic holds quite a few contests, many if not all of which have certain stipulations which bar the use of the YouTuber Aphmau's fanwork for the given contest. Content for contests almost always needs to be original to the person submitting content for the given contest, but when a contest bars the use of OCs, that stipulation includes other people's original characters. However, because some fans of series like Minecraft Diaries/My Street are unaware of the series status as a fanwork, they honestly believe they aren't using an OC, or are even completely creating their own original content for a fandom, yet they're not.

This isn't to say there aren't Minecrafters who utilize Minecraft to animate their own original series though. The other reason for bringing this up is because fans need to be able to tell the difference. The key factor is whether the series contains copyrighted material from Minecraft – and yes, the setting and creatures do count, not just characters. Same goes for gameplay. There is also the risk that Minecrafters who are unaware of series such as Minecraft Diaries for example will mistake Aphmau's OCs as the OCs of someone else and thus Aphmau doesn't get credit for her hard work. Same goes for the other Minecrafters who create fanworks when their work isn't properly credited. Minecrafters put a lot of hard work into their fanworks.

Speaking of which, Minecraft also allows people – like the Lego franchise – to play in other people's fandoms. Some of the skins and world textures are made by the fans, but there are also skins and textures which are officially licensed from series such as Doctor Who, Adventure Time, and Power Rangers as some examples. Some fans have attempted recreating canon places such as Hogwarts, Rivendell, Wayne Manor, and many, many more places. It is yet another tool for the fanartist.

Minecraft family, where you at?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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