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I want to discuss accessibility because it is the most important thing for making websites. Other A List Apart articles give you innovation and insight. This article will give you homework. These are just my personal views, but they’re pretty good.

I want to start off with a couple of statements, and you will agree:

1. Designers are good people. I have never heard a designer say, “I don’t care if somebody can’t read this text”, “Not my fault if somebody can’t use this device”, or “Who cares if this is confusing?”
2. Some designs exclude people. You have seen people unable to read the text on a website or app that somebody designed. You’ve seen people unable to use a physical device that somebody has designed. You’ve seen people utterly bamboozled while trying to use a service that somebody designed.

So what?

The first question is, “Is this life-or-death stuff?” The answer is, “Yes.” In my favorite essay, This Is All There Is, Aral Balkan makes the point that pretty much everything that we design can affect life events and death events. Aral gives the example of how even a straightforward bus timetable app can affect life and death events, if we design it badly:

• somebody might miss a life event, such as their daughter’s fifth birthday party; or
• somebody might miss a death event, such as the chance to say goodbye to a dying grandmother.

The next—and frustrating—question is, “Why do some designs still exclude people?” After all, we know that:

• not everybody can see perfectly;
• not everybody can hear perfectly;
• not everybody thinks the same way; and
• not everybody moves the same way.

I think the answer is that there’s too much to recall. Consider, if you will, the wide variety of topics that A List Apart articles cover. Designers are expected to remember all of that guidance, plus all of the accessibility guidance, plus so much more. It is too much.

Recognizing accessibility issues while designing

I’d like to point toward one possible solution, starting from Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design. These are from the mid-1990s, and—although there’s a good chance that you, gentle reader, are a lot younger than that—please bear with me. 

Seeing as the problem is that there’s too much to recall, I want to look at heuristic № 6, “Recognition rather than Recall.” Jakob Nielsen said that for users, information required to use the design should be visible or easily retrievable when needed. I suggest we tweak that to make life easier for designers. Let’s say that the information required to produce the design should be visible or easily retrievable when needed. In other words, let’s make it easier to recognise accessibility issues while we’re designing.

How are we going to do that? I really like the book A Web for Everyone—Designing Accessible User Experiences by Sarah Horton and Whitney Quesenbery. I really like this book not only because it includes a quote from me—actually two quotes, but I don’t like to boast—but because it includes personas that are perfect for helping us to recognise accessibility issues. That’s the good news. The even better news is that these personas are available now for free on the companion website to the book What Every Engineer Should Know About Digital Accessibility, again by Sarah Horton, with David Sloan this time.

Meet your users

I’m going to introduce you to these personas now:

• Vishnu, an engineer and global citizen with low vision says, “I want to be on the same level as everyone else”, “If I can adjust my screen, I can read comfortably”, and, “Translating in my head is easier with simpler sentences.”
• Trevor, a high school student with autism, says, “I like consistent, familiar places on the web”, “When I can learn the pattern, I can find my way”, and, “Reading is hard for me”.
• Steven, a deaf graphic artist and American Sign Language speaker, says, “My only disability is that everyone doesn’t sign”, and, “Without captions, it’s meaningless to me”.
• Maria, a bilingual community health worker, says, “I love this. It’s all here … when I can find it”, “When a site is confusing, I just leave”—fair enough, Maria!—and, “When I hear and see it, health information makes more sense”.
• Lea, an editor living with fatigue and pain, says, “No one gets that this really is a disability”, “Don’t make me work so hard”—please do not bombard this lady with drop-down lists—and, “Links at the top of the page make navigation easier for me”.
• Jacob, a blind paralegal and a bit of a geek, says, “The right technology lets me do anything”, and “This makes it possible to do my job”.
• Emily, who has cerebral palsy and is living independently, says, “I want to do everything for myself”, “Simpler screens are easier screens”—hell yeah, Emily!—and, “Tell me what I need in advance”.
• Carol, a grandmother with macular degeneration which affects her sight, says, “My grandkids are dragging me into the world of technology”, “I don’t understand what the screen is saying”, and, “Why can’t the text be just a little bit larger?”

I want to throw one more persona at you now, because, well, A List Apart readers are overachievers. One of my favorite authors, Cennydd Bowles—who literally wrote the book on Future Ethics—says to create Personas Non Grata. In other words, every time we design something, we have to think about what a bad guy could do with that thing, and whom that might affect.

To actually use these personas while designing, I like what Eric Meyer and Sara Wachter-Boettcher in Design for Real Life call the Designated Dissenter: for each project that you work on, one of your teams should be responsible for asking, “Will this work for Vishnu?”, “How’s Trevor going to get on with this?”, and so on. 

Then, once you’ve used the personas to recognise the accessibility issues, you can look up the guidelines for whichever platforms you’re designing for: 

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2
• Accessibility designing — Material Design 3
• Accessibility — Windows apps
• Accessibility | Apple Developer Documentation
• Check your interface for accessibility (Ubuntu)

Your mission, should you choose to accept it

I told you in the introduction of this article that I would give you homework. You thought I was joking. So, here’s your homework: I want you to grab the personas from the Know About Accessibility website, and use them throughout every design project to help you recognise accessibility issues while you work—and reclaim design for everyone.

NOTE: This article is based on “Recognise,” my five-minute presentation from Interaction Design Association (IxDA) Dublin’s Defuse (Design for Use) event in 2025.

The 4 Marketing Channels You Actually Control | 7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success – Episode 5 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Catch the Full Episode: Overview If your biggest marketing channel disappeared tomorrow, how long before your pipeline dried up? For most small business owners John talks to, the honest answer is 30 days or less. That fragility is the hidden cost of renting your pipeline instead of owning it, and it’s the focus of Step […]

The 4 Marketing Channels You Actually Control | 7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success – Episode 5 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Just because you can pay the salary of Hollywood’s most famous actors, doesn’t mean that you can hire them. They first need to be on-board with the project, and then you need to agree to any sort of outlandish demands they might make of you. And by agree, we mean adding it to their contract.

Some actors are very careful as far as how they are portrayed, no matter the character they are inhabiting. After all, they have an image to protect. That isn’t the only strange way a contract can be altered, however, since something as simple as a sport fixation can shift how your filming schedule adjusts to their needs.

The post 10 Actors Who Made Especially Unique Contract Demands appeared first on Den of Geek.

Do you think about me when you’re not playing? That’s a line spoken by eldritch terror AI character Verity in a two-part horror series by Minecraft content creator ThatMob. Verity, voiced by another Minecraft creator, JustWhispy, has taken the blocky sandbox game’s audience into increasing levels of fandom excitement. 

ThatMob, or Mob, plays as himself, as the AI helper he downloaded, Verity, becomes increasingly creepy. Knowing intimate details about Mob’s life and daily routine outside when logged off, Verity isolates Mob from the NPCs in his game and becomes increasingly invested in obtaining all of Mob’s attention. Verity, who appears as a 3D smiling emoji, turns into a Slenderman-like apparition as Mob tries to escape his stiflingly unsettling presence. In a fashion reminiscent of Nikki from Obsession, Verity turns into a force of manic fixation that can’t be removed. 

The series has now amassed 15.5 million views, marking the newest trend in Minecraft-based role-play and narrative short films. Minecraft was not designed to be a storytelling game. Originally, a sandbox experience that allows players to modify, create, and explore a blocky world of creatures, intricate buildings, and lore — players have taken to modifying the game into a Dungeons & Dragons-level storytelling platform. From scripted series and roleplaying communities and reality-TV-level social experiments to educational narratives and fan films, Minecraft is becoming one of entertainment’s most versatile storytelling tools. 

Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson, creator of Minecraft and founder of Mojang Studios, began developing the game in 2009. Inspired by the game Infiniminer, Persson wanted to use that block-based mining gaming structure in combination with isometric base-building mechanics to create a new game. Players are dropped into an algorithmically-generated world with no plot, no narrative, and no ending. The game is designed to give creators 100% control over their environment and experience — encouraging experimentation rather than limiting them with predefined narratives. 

Since its launch in 2011, Minecraft has seen a storytelling evolution that has taken place primarily on YouTube. YouTubers have been creating scripted storytelling RPG-like content via Minecraft for well over a decade now. Minecrafter Jessica “Aphmau” Bravura is a trailblazer in the roleplaying Minecraft genre, having created iconic series like Minecraft Diaries, whose first season has accumulated 76.9 million views and the second 26.9 million views, and MyStreet with 39.1 million views. 

The narrative popularity of roleplaying storylines has expanded into even more expansive lanes, giving rise to entire roleplaying communities like the Dream SMP. While ultimately the infamous community that took off in popularity during the global pandemic crashed hard, it doesn’t take away from the group’s impact on the storytelling genre. 

Dream SMP showed Minecraft’s ability to simulate stories of wars, nation building, factions, eras in society, and global crises, making it “must-see-TV” for those chronically online in the early 2020s. Taking on an almost tabletop gaming feel, they created a balance between scripted and authentic content that opened the possibilities beyond traditional roleplaying. 

This includes reality simulation content like YouTuber Ish’s “1000 Players Simulate Civilization: Rich & Poor,” which went viral in 2025. With over 45 million views, Ish created a social experiment by placing 1300 players in a world with two islands, one with a surplus of resources and another that was barren. The point was to see who people choose to be when faced with their circumstances, which is a rather fascinating and deep question for a Minecraft server. It was one of the most captivating and well-done pieces of entertainment of 2025. 

Audiences follow these series like they would any other weekly episodic show schedule or major film release. The accessibility of Minecraft makes it enjoyable to both creators and viewers, and that aspect adds to its rise in creative popularity. 

Creating an animated series or short film requires extensive software, equipment, and technical knowledge that can limit beginners. In Minecraft, there isn’t a need to be a master at Blender to create large-scale, highly detailed settings (like Backrooms creator Kane Pixels did). With the addition of mods, creators have developed interactive world maps whose immersion rivals Disney World. While Minecraft’s blocky visual nature is often seen as a limitation, it actually adds a lot to world-building. 

Similar to books, Minecraft’s avatars’ lack of facial emoting allows audiences to fill in emotional gaps with imagination and “body language.” While emoting is still a new concept in Minecraft, the game’s reliance on vocal cues has made players defer to spoken communication to convey story. This has made viewers into active participants in the story, having to interpret and comprehend the activities happening in the gameplay. 

This adds another element to the social relationship between creators and audiences, as Minecraft also relies on direct interaction — which has made it a profitable market for live streamers. Livestream viewers get the opportunity to influence player decisions live, contribute to theories and lore, and add an adaptability element when creators respond to viewers’ interests on the spot. 

Minecraft has successfully made itself a combination of multiple platforms: a game, film set, animation tool, social platform, and even an archive. 

Curating a truly independent experience for players, the newest entertainment shift is toward unique, smaller independent media instead of larger conglomerates. Traditional media relies on passive consumption, while in comparison, Minecraft relies on interaction. 

As Gen Z and Alpha rise into the consumer sphere, fandom culture and the line between gaming and storytelling are blurring. They are accustomed to narratives that span multiple platforms and require participation. Minecraft stands not only as the introduction of that trend, but for some, it is the foundation of it. 

Modders, shaders, and custom animations are pushing the platform to new limits every day. These innovators even inspired Mojang Studios to create Minecraft narrative content of its own, including its 2015 TellTale Games collaboration, Minecraft Story Mode, and its RPG Minecraft Dungeons, whose second installment releases in September. 

Minecraft’s greatest strength is in its ability to blend audience participation and narrative structure. As the entertainment industry continues to look in that direction, Minecraft continues to provide a look at what the future of that landscape may look like. 

For aspiring creatives, Minecraft serves as an accessible introduction to storytelling — allowing creatives to experiment with narrative techniques, world-building and audience engagement. The next generation of entertainers may very well get their start in a Minecraft world — building the future of storytelling one block at a time. 

The post Minecraft Is Becoming Entertainment’s Most Unexpected Storytelling Tool  appeared first on Den of Geek.

Not all actors have the necessary range to do multiple genres, with some focusing more on action while others stay in family friendly films. But we can all name at least a handful of performers who, through various movies, have shown to be able to do drama as well as comedy.

We also know multiple actors who we imagine can only do comedy, even though they have proven their worth on a few dramatic films. After all, you need serious skills to be a good comedian, and those skills tend to overlap when its time to bring tears of sadness instead of joy.

The post 15 ‘Comedy’ Actors With Some Serious Drama Chops appeared first on Den of Geek.

Do you think about me when you’re not playing? That’s a line spoken by eldritch terror AI character Verity in a two-part horror series by Minecraft content creator ThatMob. Verity, voiced by another Minecraft creator, JustWhispy, has taken the blocky sandbox game’s audience into increasing levels of fandom excitement. 

ThatMob, or Mob, plays as himself, as the AI helper he downloaded, Verity, becomes increasingly creepy. Knowing intimate details about Mob’s life and daily routine outside when logged off, Verity isolates Mob from the NPCs in his game and becomes increasingly invested in obtaining all of Mob’s attention. Verity, who appears as a 3D smiling emoji, turns into a Slenderman-like apparition as Mob tries to escape his stiflingly unsettling presence. In a fashion reminiscent of Nikki from Obsession, Verity turns into a force of manic fixation that can’t be removed. 

The series has now amassed 15.5 million views, marking the newest trend in Minecraft-based role-play and narrative short films. Minecraft was not designed to be a storytelling game. Originally, a sandbox experience that allows players to modify, create, and explore a blocky world of creatures, intricate buildings, and lore — players have taken to modifying the game into a Dungeons & Dragons-level storytelling platform. From scripted series and roleplaying communities and reality-TV-level social experiments to educational narratives and fan films, Minecraft is becoming one of entertainment’s most versatile storytelling tools. 

Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson, creator of Minecraft and founder of Mojang Studios, began developing the game in 2009. Inspired by the game Infiniminer, Persson wanted to use that block-based mining gaming structure in combination with isometric base-building mechanics to create a new game. Players are dropped into an algorithmically-generated world with no plot, no narrative, and no ending. The game is designed to give creators 100% control over their environment and experience — encouraging experimentation rather than limiting them with predefined narratives. 

Since its launch in 2011, Minecraft has seen a storytelling evolution that has taken place primarily on YouTube. YouTubers have been creating scripted storytelling RPG-like content via Minecraft for well over a decade now. Minecrafter Jessica “Aphmau” Bravura is a trailblazer in the roleplaying Minecraft genre, having created iconic series like Minecraft Diaries, whose first season has accumulated 76.9 million views and the second 26.9 million views, and MyStreet with 39.1 million views. 

The narrative popularity of roleplaying storylines has expanded into even more expansive lanes, giving rise to entire roleplaying communities like the Dream SMP. While ultimately the infamous community that took off in popularity during the global pandemic crashed hard, it doesn’t take away from the group’s impact on the storytelling genre. 

Dream SMP showed Minecraft’s ability to simulate stories of wars, nation building, factions, eras in society, and global crises, making it “must-see-TV” for those chronically online in the early 2020s. Taking on an almost tabletop gaming feel, they created a balance between scripted and authentic content that opened the possibilities beyond traditional roleplaying. 

This includes reality simulation content like YouTuber Ish’s “1000 Players Simulate Civilization: Rich & Poor,” which went viral in 2025. With over 45 million views, Ish created a social experiment by placing 1300 players in a world with two islands, one with a surplus of resources and another that was barren. The point was to see who people choose to be when faced with their circumstances, which is a rather fascinating and deep question for a Minecraft server. It was one of the most captivating and well-done pieces of entertainment of 2025. 

Audiences follow these series like they would any other weekly episodic show schedule or major film release. The accessibility of Minecraft makes it enjoyable to both creators and viewers, and that aspect adds to its rise in creative popularity. 

Creating an animated series or short film requires extensive software, equipment, and technical knowledge that can limit beginners. In Minecraft, there isn’t a need to be a master at Blender to create large-scale, highly detailed settings (like Backrooms creator Kane Pixels did). With the addition of mods, creators have developed interactive world maps whose immersion rivals Disney World. While Minecraft’s blocky visual nature is often seen as a limitation, it actually adds a lot to world-building. 

Similar to books, Minecraft’s avatars’ lack of facial emoting allows audiences to fill in emotional gaps with imagination and “body language.” While emoting is still a new concept in Minecraft, the game’s reliance on vocal cues has made players defer to spoken communication to convey story. This has made viewers into active participants in the story, having to interpret and comprehend the activities happening in the gameplay. 

This adds another element to the social relationship between creators and audiences, as Minecraft also relies on direct interaction — which has made it a profitable market for live streamers. Livestream viewers get the opportunity to influence player decisions live, contribute to theories and lore, and add an adaptability element when creators respond to viewers’ interests on the spot. 

Minecraft has successfully made itself a combination of multiple platforms: a game, film set, animation tool, social platform, and even an archive. 

Curating a truly independent experience for players, the newest entertainment shift is toward unique, smaller independent media instead of larger conglomerates. Traditional media relies on passive consumption, while in comparison, Minecraft relies on interaction. 

As Gen Z and Alpha rise into the consumer sphere, fandom culture and the line between gaming and storytelling are blurring. They are accustomed to narratives that span multiple platforms and require participation. Minecraft stands not only as the introduction of that trend, but for some, it is the foundation of it. 

Modders, shaders, and custom animations are pushing the platform to new limits every day. These innovators even inspired Mojang Studios to create Minecraft narrative content of its own, including its 2015 TellTale Games collaboration, Minecraft Story Mode, and its RPG Minecraft Dungeons, whose second installment releases in September. 

Minecraft’s greatest strength is in its ability to blend audience participation and narrative structure. As the entertainment industry continues to look in that direction, Minecraft continues to provide a look at what the future of that landscape may look like. 

For aspiring creatives, Minecraft serves as an accessible introduction to storytelling — allowing creatives to experiment with narrative techniques, world-building and audience engagement. The next generation of entertainers may very well get their start in a Minecraft world — building the future of storytelling one block at a time. 

The post Minecraft Is Becoming Entertainment’s Most Unexpected Storytelling Tool  appeared first on Den of Geek.

Extraterrestrial life is something that has fascinated people for as long as we’ve looked up to the sky, filling our imaginations and works of fiction with incredible ideas. These ideas are, of course, not something that can be proven, but that doesn’t stop people from believing in them with blind faith.

A lot of these theories have a tint of humor, but always remember that there are people out there, just like you and me, that actually believe in them. And who knows, some of these things are as hard to disprove as they are to prove, so the truth might still be out there.

The post The Strangest Things to Know About Aliens, According to Conspiracy Theorists appeared first on Den of Geek.

Do you think about me when you’re not playing? That’s a line spoken by eldritch terror AI character Verity in a two-part horror series by Minecraft content creator ThatMob. Verity, voiced by another Minecraft creator, JustWhispy, has taken the blocky sandbox game’s audience into increasing levels of fandom excitement. 

ThatMob, or Mob, plays as himself, as the AI helper he downloaded, Verity, becomes increasingly creepy. Knowing intimate details about Mob’s life and daily routine outside when logged off, Verity isolates Mob from the NPCs in his game and becomes increasingly invested in obtaining all of Mob’s attention. Verity, who appears as a 3D smiling emoji, turns into a Slenderman-like apparition as Mob tries to escape his stiflingly unsettling presence. In a fashion reminiscent of Nikki from Obsession, Verity turns into a force of manic fixation that can’t be removed. 

The series has now amassed 15.5 million views, marking the newest trend in Minecraft-based role-play and narrative short films. Minecraft was not designed to be a storytelling game. Originally, a sandbox experience that allows players to modify, create, and explore a blocky world of creatures, intricate buildings, and lore — players have taken to modifying the game into a Dungeons & Dragons-level storytelling platform. From scripted series and roleplaying communities and reality-TV-level social experiments to educational narratives and fan films, Minecraft is becoming one of entertainment’s most versatile storytelling tools. 

Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson, creator of Minecraft and founder of Mojang Studios, began developing the game in 2009. Inspired by the game Infiniminer, Persson wanted to use that block-based mining gaming structure in combination with isometric base-building mechanics to create a new game. Players are dropped into an algorithmically-generated world with no plot, no narrative, and no ending. The game is designed to give creators 100% control over their environment and experience — encouraging experimentation rather than limiting them with predefined narratives. 

Since its launch in 2011, Minecraft has seen a storytelling evolution that has taken place primarily on YouTube. YouTubers have been creating scripted storytelling RPG-like content via Minecraft for well over a decade now. Minecrafter Jessica “Aphmau” Bravura is a trailblazer in the roleplaying Minecraft genre, having created iconic series like Minecraft Diaries, whose first season has accumulated 76.9 million views and the second 26.9 million views, and MyStreet with 39.1 million views. 

The narrative popularity of roleplaying storylines has expanded into even more expansive lanes, giving rise to entire roleplaying communities like the Dream SMP. While ultimately the infamous community that took off in popularity during the global pandemic crashed hard, it doesn’t take away from the group’s impact on the storytelling genre. 

Dream SMP showed Minecraft’s ability to simulate stories of wars, nation building, factions, eras in society, and global crises, making it “must-see-TV” for those chronically online in the early 2020s. Taking on an almost tabletop gaming feel, they created a balance between scripted and authentic content that opened the possibilities beyond traditional roleplaying. 

This includes reality simulation content like YouTuber Ish’s “1000 Players Simulate Civilization: Rich & Poor,” which went viral in 2025. With over 45 million views, Ish created a social experiment by placing 1300 players in a world with two islands, one with a surplus of resources and another that was barren. The point was to see who people choose to be when faced with their circumstances, which is a rather fascinating and deep question for a Minecraft server. It was one of the most captivating and well-done pieces of entertainment of 2025. 

Audiences follow these series like they would any other weekly episodic show schedule or major film release. The accessibility of Minecraft makes it enjoyable to both creators and viewers, and that aspect adds to its rise in creative popularity. 

Creating an animated series or short film requires extensive software, equipment, and technical knowledge that can limit beginners. In Minecraft, there isn’t a need to be a master at Blender to create large-scale, highly detailed settings (like Backrooms creator Kane Pixels did). With the addition of mods, creators have developed interactive world maps whose immersion rivals Disney World. While Minecraft’s blocky visual nature is often seen as a limitation, it actually adds a lot to world-building. 

Similar to books, Minecraft’s avatars’ lack of facial emoting allows audiences to fill in emotional gaps with imagination and “body language.” While emoting is still a new concept in Minecraft, the game’s reliance on vocal cues has made players defer to spoken communication to convey story. This has made viewers into active participants in the story, having to interpret and comprehend the activities happening in the gameplay. 

This adds another element to the social relationship between creators and audiences, as Minecraft also relies on direct interaction — which has made it a profitable market for live streamers. Livestream viewers get the opportunity to influence player decisions live, contribute to theories and lore, and add an adaptability element when creators respond to viewers’ interests on the spot. 

Minecraft has successfully made itself a combination of multiple platforms: a game, film set, animation tool, social platform, and even an archive. 

Curating a truly independent experience for players, the newest entertainment shift is toward unique, smaller independent media instead of larger conglomerates. Traditional media relies on passive consumption, while in comparison, Minecraft relies on interaction. 

As Gen Z and Alpha rise into the consumer sphere, fandom culture and the line between gaming and storytelling are blurring. They are accustomed to narratives that span multiple platforms and require participation. Minecraft stands not only as the introduction of that trend, but for some, it is the foundation of it. 

Modders, shaders, and custom animations are pushing the platform to new limits every day. These innovators even inspired Mojang Studios to create Minecraft narrative content of its own, including its 2015 TellTale Games collaboration, Minecraft Story Mode, and its RPG Minecraft Dungeons, whose second installment releases in September. 

Minecraft’s greatest strength is in its ability to blend audience participation and narrative structure. As the entertainment industry continues to look in that direction, Minecraft continues to provide a look at what the future of that landscape may look like. 

For aspiring creatives, Minecraft serves as an accessible introduction to storytelling — allowing creatives to experiment with narrative techniques, world-building and audience engagement. The next generation of entertainers may very well get their start in a Minecraft world — building the future of storytelling one block at a time. 

The post Minecraft Is Becoming Entertainment’s Most Unexpected Storytelling Tool  appeared first on Den of Geek.

Movies are designed to entertain, not pass a history or science exam. Still, some factual mistakes become impossible to ignore once viewers notice them. It can be a tiny continuity error, bad science, or filmmakers deliberately bending reality because the truth would be less dramatic.

Audiences usually forgive a few inaccuracies, yet certain mistakes become legendary among movie fans, historians, scientists, and eagle-eyed viewers who love pointing them out online. From impossible explosions in space to historical timelines that don’t add up, these movies all got at least one notable detail wrong, whether accidentally or completely on purpose.

The post 15 Details Movies Got Wrong appeared first on Den of Geek.

Do you think about me when you’re not playing? That’s a line spoken by eldritch terror AI character Verity in a two-part horror series by Minecraft content creator ThatMob. Verity, voiced by another Minecraft creator, JustWhispy, has taken the blocky sandbox game’s audience into increasing levels of fandom excitement. 

ThatMob, or Mob, plays as himself, as the AI helper he downloaded, Verity, becomes increasingly creepy. Knowing intimate details about Mob’s life and daily routine outside when logged off, Verity isolates Mob from the NPCs in his game and becomes increasingly invested in obtaining all of Mob’s attention. Verity, who appears as a 3D smiling emoji, turns into a Slenderman-like apparition as Mob tries to escape his stiflingly unsettling presence. In a fashion reminiscent of Nikki from Obsession, Verity turns into a force of manic fixation that can’t be removed. 

The series has now amassed 15.5 million views, marking the newest trend in Minecraft-based role-play and narrative short films. Minecraft was not designed to be a storytelling game. Originally, a sandbox experience that allows players to modify, create, and explore a blocky world of creatures, intricate buildings, and lore — players have taken to modifying the game into a Dungeons & Dragons-level storytelling platform. From scripted series and roleplaying communities and reality-TV-level social experiments to educational narratives and fan films, Minecraft is becoming one of entertainment’s most versatile storytelling tools. 

Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson, creator of Minecraft and founder of Mojang Studios, began developing the game in 2009. Inspired by the game Infiniminer, Persson wanted to use that block-based mining gaming structure in combination with isometric base-building mechanics to create a new game. Players are dropped into an algorithmically-generated world with no plot, no narrative, and no ending. The game is designed to give creators 100% control over their environment and experience — encouraging experimentation rather than limiting them with predefined narratives. 

Since its launch in 2011, Minecraft has seen a storytelling evolution that has taken place primarily on YouTube. YouTubers have been creating scripted storytelling RPG-like content via Minecraft for well over a decade now. Minecrafter Jessica “Aphmau” Bravura is a trailblazer in the roleplaying Minecraft genre, having created iconic series like Minecraft Diaries, whose first season has accumulated 76.9 million views and the second 26.9 million views, and MyStreet with 39.1 million views. 

The narrative popularity of roleplaying storylines has expanded into even more expansive lanes, giving rise to entire roleplaying communities like the Dream SMP. While ultimately the infamous community that took off in popularity during the global pandemic crashed hard, it doesn’t take away from the group’s impact on the storytelling genre. 

Dream SMP showed Minecraft’s ability to simulate stories of wars, nation building, factions, eras in society, and global crises, making it “must-see-TV” for those chronically online in the early 2020s. Taking on an almost tabletop gaming feel, they created a balance between scripted and authentic content that opened the possibilities beyond traditional roleplaying. 

This includes reality simulation content like YouTuber Ish’s “1000 Players Simulate Civilization: Rich & Poor,” which went viral in 2025. With over 45 million views, Ish created a social experiment by placing 1300 players in a world with two islands, one with a surplus of resources and another that was barren. The point was to see who people choose to be when faced with their circumstances, which is a rather fascinating and deep question for a Minecraft server. It was one of the most captivating and well-done pieces of entertainment of 2025. 

Audiences follow these series like they would any other weekly episodic show schedule or major film release. The accessibility of Minecraft makes it enjoyable to both creators and viewers, and that aspect adds to its rise in creative popularity. 

Creating an animated series or short film requires extensive software, equipment, and technical knowledge that can limit beginners. In Minecraft, there isn’t a need to be a master at Blender to create large-scale, highly detailed settings (like Backrooms creator Kane Pixels did). With the addition of mods, creators have developed interactive world maps whose immersion rivals Disney World. While Minecraft’s blocky visual nature is often seen as a limitation, it actually adds a lot to world-building. 

Similar to books, Minecraft’s avatars’ lack of facial emoting allows audiences to fill in emotional gaps with imagination and “body language.” While emoting is still a new concept in Minecraft, the game’s reliance on vocal cues has made players defer to spoken communication to convey story. This has made viewers into active participants in the story, having to interpret and comprehend the activities happening in the gameplay. 

This adds another element to the social relationship between creators and audiences, as Minecraft also relies on direct interaction — which has made it a profitable market for live streamers. Livestream viewers get the opportunity to influence player decisions live, contribute to theories and lore, and add an adaptability element when creators respond to viewers’ interests on the spot. 

Minecraft has successfully made itself a combination of multiple platforms: a game, film set, animation tool, social platform, and even an archive. 

Curating a truly independent experience for players, the newest entertainment shift is toward unique, smaller independent media instead of larger conglomerates. Traditional media relies on passive consumption, while in comparison, Minecraft relies on interaction. 

As Gen Z and Alpha rise into the consumer sphere, fandom culture and the line between gaming and storytelling are blurring. They are accustomed to narratives that span multiple platforms and require participation. Minecraft stands not only as the introduction of that trend, but for some, it is the foundation of it. 

Modders, shaders, and custom animations are pushing the platform to new limits every day. These innovators even inspired Mojang Studios to create Minecraft narrative content of its own, including its 2015 TellTale Games collaboration, Minecraft Story Mode, and its RPG Minecraft Dungeons, whose second installment releases in September. 

Minecraft’s greatest strength is in its ability to blend audience participation and narrative structure. As the entertainment industry continues to look in that direction, Minecraft continues to provide a look at what the future of that landscape may look like. 

For aspiring creatives, Minecraft serves as an accessible introduction to storytelling — allowing creatives to experiment with narrative techniques, world-building and audience engagement. The next generation of entertainers may very well get their start in a Minecraft world — building the future of storytelling one block at a time. 

The post Minecraft Is Becoming Entertainment’s Most Unexpected Storytelling Tool  appeared first on Den of Geek.

Unlike other forms of entertainment, watching movies feels like it hasn’t changed much across the years. After all, the level of interaction is minimal: you just have to sit and watch. Trends and technology change constantly with the times, however, and even something as simple as watching movies has shifted.

Nowadays, with streaming services and on-demand media, there is little in the way of waiting. There is also a consolidation of many devices into one; our smartphones work as communication devices, movie experiences and gaming consoles. Back in the 70s, and 80s, the story was far different.

The post 9 Photos of What it Looked Like to Watch Movies in the ’70s & ’80s appeared first on Den of Geek.

Do you think about me when you’re not playing? That’s a line spoken by eldritch terror AI character Verity in a two-part horror series by Minecraft content creator ThatMob. Verity, voiced by another Minecraft creator, JustWhispy, has taken the blocky sandbox game’s audience into increasing levels of fandom excitement. 

ThatMob, or Mob, plays as himself, as the AI helper he downloaded, Verity, becomes increasingly creepy. Knowing intimate details about Mob’s life and daily routine outside when logged off, Verity isolates Mob from the NPCs in his game and becomes increasingly invested in obtaining all of Mob’s attention. Verity, who appears as a 3D smiling emoji, turns into a Slenderman-like apparition as Mob tries to escape his stiflingly unsettling presence. In a fashion reminiscent of Nikki from Obsession, Verity turns into a force of manic fixation that can’t be removed. 

The series has now amassed 15.5 million views, marking the newest trend in Minecraft-based role-play and narrative short films. Minecraft was not designed to be a storytelling game. Originally, a sandbox experience that allows players to modify, create, and explore a blocky world of creatures, intricate buildings, and lore — players have taken to modifying the game into a Dungeons & Dragons-level storytelling platform. From scripted series and roleplaying communities and reality-TV-level social experiments to educational narratives and fan films, Minecraft is becoming one of entertainment’s most versatile storytelling tools. 

Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson, creator of Minecraft and founder of Mojang Studios, began developing the game in 2009. Inspired by the game Infiniminer, Persson wanted to use that block-based mining gaming structure in combination with isometric base-building mechanics to create a new game. Players are dropped into an algorithmically-generated world with no plot, no narrative, and no ending. The game is designed to give creators 100% control over their environment and experience — encouraging experimentation rather than limiting them with predefined narratives. 

Since its launch in 2011, Minecraft has seen a storytelling evolution that has taken place primarily on YouTube. YouTubers have been creating scripted storytelling RPG-like content via Minecraft for well over a decade now. Minecrafter Jessica “Aphmau” Bravura is a trailblazer in the roleplaying Minecraft genre, having created iconic series like Minecraft Diaries, whose first season has accumulated 76.9 million views and the second 26.9 million views, and MyStreet with 39.1 million views. 

The narrative popularity of roleplaying storylines has expanded into even more expansive lanes, giving rise to entire roleplaying communities like the Dream SMP. While ultimately the infamous community that took off in popularity during the global pandemic crashed hard, it doesn’t take away from the group’s impact on the storytelling genre. 

Dream SMP showed Minecraft’s ability to simulate stories of wars, nation building, factions, eras in society, and global crises, making it “must-see-TV” for those chronically online in the early 2020s. Taking on an almost tabletop gaming feel, they created a balance between scripted and authentic content that opened the possibilities beyond traditional roleplaying. 

This includes reality simulation content like YouTuber Ish’s “1000 Players Simulate Civilization: Rich & Poor,” which went viral in 2025. With over 45 million views, Ish created a social experiment by placing 1300 players in a world with two islands, one with a surplus of resources and another that was barren. The point was to see who people choose to be when faced with their circumstances, which is a rather fascinating and deep question for a Minecraft server. It was one of the most captivating and well-done pieces of entertainment of 2025. 

Audiences follow these series like they would any other weekly episodic show schedule or major film release. The accessibility of Minecraft makes it enjoyable to both creators and viewers, and that aspect adds to its rise in creative popularity. 

Creating an animated series or short film requires extensive software, equipment, and technical knowledge that can limit beginners. In Minecraft, there isn’t a need to be a master at Blender to create large-scale, highly detailed settings (like Backrooms creator Kane Pixels did). With the addition of mods, creators have developed interactive world maps whose immersion rivals Disney World. While Minecraft’s blocky visual nature is often seen as a limitation, it actually adds a lot to world-building. 

Similar to books, Minecraft’s avatars’ lack of facial emoting allows audiences to fill in emotional gaps with imagination and “body language.” While emoting is still a new concept in Minecraft, the game’s reliance on vocal cues has made players defer to spoken communication to convey story. This has made viewers into active participants in the story, having to interpret and comprehend the activities happening in the gameplay. 

This adds another element to the social relationship between creators and audiences, as Minecraft also relies on direct interaction — which has made it a profitable market for live streamers. Livestream viewers get the opportunity to influence player decisions live, contribute to theories and lore, and add an adaptability element when creators respond to viewers’ interests on the spot. 

Minecraft has successfully made itself a combination of multiple platforms: a game, film set, animation tool, social platform, and even an archive. 

Curating a truly independent experience for players, the newest entertainment shift is toward unique, smaller independent media instead of larger conglomerates. Traditional media relies on passive consumption, while in comparison, Minecraft relies on interaction. 

As Gen Z and Alpha rise into the consumer sphere, fandom culture and the line between gaming and storytelling are blurring. They are accustomed to narratives that span multiple platforms and require participation. Minecraft stands not only as the introduction of that trend, but for some, it is the foundation of it. 

Modders, shaders, and custom animations are pushing the platform to new limits every day. These innovators even inspired Mojang Studios to create Minecraft narrative content of its own, including its 2015 TellTale Games collaboration, Minecraft Story Mode, and its RPG Minecraft Dungeons, whose second installment releases in September. 

Minecraft’s greatest strength is in its ability to blend audience participation and narrative structure. As the entertainment industry continues to look in that direction, Minecraft continues to provide a look at what the future of that landscape may look like. 

For aspiring creatives, Minecraft serves as an accessible introduction to storytelling — allowing creatives to experiment with narrative techniques, world-building and audience engagement. The next generation of entertainers may very well get their start in a Minecraft world — building the future of storytelling one block at a time. 

The post Minecraft Is Becoming Entertainment’s Most Unexpected Storytelling Tool  appeared first on Den of Geek.

You know Michael and Jason and Chucky and Freddy. But the 1980s weren’t just about these major franchises. After Halloween and Friday the 13th proved that studios could make a ton of money with a simple premise, and with the home video boom upping the demand for more and more content, the Greed Decade was […]

The post The Best Underrated Slashers of the 1980s appeared first on Den of Geek.

Do you think about me when you’re not playing? That’s a line spoken by eldritch terror AI character Verity in a two-part horror series by Minecraft content creator ThatMob. Verity, voiced by another Minecraft creator, JustWhispy, has taken the blocky sandbox game’s audience into increasing levels of fandom excitement. 

ThatMob, or Mob, plays as himself, as the AI helper he downloaded, Verity, becomes increasingly creepy. Knowing intimate details about Mob’s life and daily routine outside when logged off, Verity isolates Mob from the NPCs in his game and becomes increasingly invested in obtaining all of Mob’s attention. Verity, who appears as a 3D smiling emoji, turns into a Slenderman-like apparition as Mob tries to escape his stiflingly unsettling presence. In a fashion reminiscent of Nikki from Obsession, Verity turns into a force of manic fixation that can’t be removed. 

The series has now amassed 15.5 million views, marking the newest trend in Minecraft-based role-play and narrative short films. Minecraft was not designed to be a storytelling game. Originally, a sandbox experience that allows players to modify, create, and explore a blocky world of creatures, intricate buildings, and lore — players have taken to modifying the game into a Dungeons & Dragons-level storytelling platform. From scripted series and roleplaying communities and reality-TV-level social experiments to educational narratives and fan films, Minecraft is becoming one of entertainment’s most versatile storytelling tools. 

Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson, creator of Minecraft and founder of Mojang Studios, began developing the game in 2009. Inspired by the game Infiniminer, Persson wanted to use that block-based mining gaming structure in combination with isometric base-building mechanics to create a new game. Players are dropped into an algorithmically-generated world with no plot, no narrative, and no ending. The game is designed to give creators 100% control over their environment and experience — encouraging experimentation rather than limiting them with predefined narratives. 

Since its launch in 2011, Minecraft has seen a storytelling evolution that has taken place primarily on YouTube. YouTubers have been creating scripted storytelling RPG-like content via Minecraft for well over a decade now. Minecrafter Jessica “Aphmau” Bravura is a trailblazer in the roleplaying Minecraft genre, having created iconic series like Minecraft Diaries, whose first season has accumulated 76.9 million views and the second 26.9 million views, and MyStreet with 39.1 million views. 

The narrative popularity of roleplaying storylines has expanded into even more expansive lanes, giving rise to entire roleplaying communities like the Dream SMP. While ultimately the infamous community that took off in popularity during the global pandemic crashed hard, it doesn’t take away from the group’s impact on the storytelling genre. 

Dream SMP showed Minecraft’s ability to simulate stories of wars, nation building, factions, eras in society, and global crises, making it “must-see-TV” for those chronically online in the early 2020s. Taking on an almost tabletop gaming feel, they created a balance between scripted and authentic content that opened the possibilities beyond traditional roleplaying. 

This includes reality simulation content like YouTuber Ish’s “1000 Players Simulate Civilization: Rich & Poor,” which went viral in 2025. With over 45 million views, Ish created a social experiment by placing 1300 players in a world with two islands, one with a surplus of resources and another that was barren. The point was to see who people choose to be when faced with their circumstances, which is a rather fascinating and deep question for a Minecraft server. It was one of the most captivating and well-done pieces of entertainment of 2025. 

Audiences follow these series like they would any other weekly episodic show schedule or major film release. The accessibility of Minecraft makes it enjoyable to both creators and viewers, and that aspect adds to its rise in creative popularity. 

Creating an animated series or short film requires extensive software, equipment, and technical knowledge that can limit beginners. In Minecraft, there isn’t a need to be a master at Blender to create large-scale, highly detailed settings (like Backrooms creator Kane Pixels did). With the addition of mods, creators have developed interactive world maps whose immersion rivals Disney World. While Minecraft’s blocky visual nature is often seen as a limitation, it actually adds a lot to world-building. 

Similar to books, Minecraft’s avatars’ lack of facial emoting allows audiences to fill in emotional gaps with imagination and “body language.” While emoting is still a new concept in Minecraft, the game’s reliance on vocal cues has made players defer to spoken communication to convey story. This has made viewers into active participants in the story, having to interpret and comprehend the activities happening in the gameplay. 

This adds another element to the social relationship between creators and audiences, as Minecraft also relies on direct interaction — which has made it a profitable market for live streamers. Livestream viewers get the opportunity to influence player decisions live, contribute to theories and lore, and add an adaptability element when creators respond to viewers’ interests on the spot. 

Minecraft has successfully made itself a combination of multiple platforms: a game, film set, animation tool, social platform, and even an archive. 

Curating a truly independent experience for players, the newest entertainment shift is toward unique, smaller independent media instead of larger conglomerates. Traditional media relies on passive consumption, while in comparison, Minecraft relies on interaction. 

As Gen Z and Alpha rise into the consumer sphere, fandom culture and the line between gaming and storytelling are blurring. They are accustomed to narratives that span multiple platforms and require participation. Minecraft stands not only as the introduction of that trend, but for some, it is the foundation of it. 

Modders, shaders, and custom animations are pushing the platform to new limits every day. These innovators even inspired Mojang Studios to create Minecraft narrative content of its own, including its 2015 TellTale Games collaboration, Minecraft Story Mode, and its RPG Minecraft Dungeons, whose second installment releases in September. 

Minecraft’s greatest strength is in its ability to blend audience participation and narrative structure. As the entertainment industry continues to look in that direction, Minecraft continues to provide a look at what the future of that landscape may look like. 

For aspiring creatives, Minecraft serves as an accessible introduction to storytelling — allowing creatives to experiment with narrative techniques, world-building and audience engagement. The next generation of entertainers may very well get their start in a Minecraft world — building the future of storytelling one block at a time. 

The post Minecraft Is Becoming Entertainment’s Most Unexpected Storytelling Tool  appeared first on Den of Geek.

There isn’t a show around that’s exactly like Widow’s Bay. Katie Dippold’s new Apple TV original has definitely struck a chord with audiences in 2026, maintaining a delicate balance between scares and chuckles and introducing us to instantly iconic characters like Tom, Wyck, Patricia, Rosemary, and Bechir. But there are shows out there that manage […]

The post The Best Shows to Watch After Widow’s Bay appeared first on Den of Geek.

Do you think about me when you’re not playing? That’s a line spoken by eldritch terror AI character Verity in a two-part horror series by Minecraft content creator ThatMob. Verity, voiced by another Minecraft creator, JustWhispy, has taken the blocky sandbox game’s audience into increasing levels of fandom excitement. 

ThatMob, or Mob, plays as himself, as the AI helper he downloaded, Verity, becomes increasingly creepy. Knowing intimate details about Mob’s life and daily routine outside when logged off, Verity isolates Mob from the NPCs in his game and becomes increasingly invested in obtaining all of Mob’s attention. Verity, who appears as a 3D smiling emoji, turns into a Slenderman-like apparition as Mob tries to escape his stiflingly unsettling presence. In a fashion reminiscent of Nikki from Obsession, Verity turns into a force of manic fixation that can’t be removed. 

The series has now amassed 15.5 million views, marking the newest trend in Minecraft-based role-play and narrative short films. Minecraft was not designed to be a storytelling game. Originally, a sandbox experience that allows players to modify, create, and explore a blocky world of creatures, intricate buildings, and lore — players have taken to modifying the game into a Dungeons & Dragons-level storytelling platform. From scripted series and roleplaying communities and reality-TV-level social experiments to educational narratives and fan films, Minecraft is becoming one of entertainment’s most versatile storytelling tools. 

Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson, creator of Minecraft and founder of Mojang Studios, began developing the game in 2009. Inspired by the game Infiniminer, Persson wanted to use that block-based mining gaming structure in combination with isometric base-building mechanics to create a new game. Players are dropped into an algorithmically-generated world with no plot, no narrative, and no ending. The game is designed to give creators 100% control over their environment and experience — encouraging experimentation rather than limiting them with predefined narratives. 

Since its launch in 2011, Minecraft has seen a storytelling evolution that has taken place primarily on YouTube. YouTubers have been creating scripted storytelling RPG-like content via Minecraft for well over a decade now. Minecrafter Jessica “Aphmau” Bravura is a trailblazer in the roleplaying Minecraft genre, having created iconic series like Minecraft Diaries, whose first season has accumulated 76.9 million views and the second 26.9 million views, and MyStreet with 39.1 million views. 

The narrative popularity of roleplaying storylines has expanded into even more expansive lanes, giving rise to entire roleplaying communities like the Dream SMP. While ultimately the infamous community that took off in popularity during the global pandemic crashed hard, it doesn’t take away from the group’s impact on the storytelling genre. 

Dream SMP showed Minecraft’s ability to simulate stories of wars, nation building, factions, eras in society, and global crises, making it “must-see-TV” for those chronically online in the early 2020s. Taking on an almost tabletop gaming feel, they created a balance between scripted and authentic content that opened the possibilities beyond traditional roleplaying. 

This includes reality simulation content like YouTuber Ish’s “1000 Players Simulate Civilization: Rich & Poor,” which went viral in 2025. With over 45 million views, Ish created a social experiment by placing 1300 players in a world with two islands, one with a surplus of resources and another that was barren. The point was to see who people choose to be when faced with their circumstances, which is a rather fascinating and deep question for a Minecraft server. It was one of the most captivating and well-done pieces of entertainment of 2025. 

Audiences follow these series like they would any other weekly episodic show schedule or major film release. The accessibility of Minecraft makes it enjoyable to both creators and viewers, and that aspect adds to its rise in creative popularity. 

Creating an animated series or short film requires extensive software, equipment, and technical knowledge that can limit beginners. In Minecraft, there isn’t a need to be a master at Blender to create large-scale, highly detailed settings (like Backrooms creator Kane Pixels did). With the addition of mods, creators have developed interactive world maps whose immersion rivals Disney World. While Minecraft’s blocky visual nature is often seen as a limitation, it actually adds a lot to world-building. 

Similar to books, Minecraft’s avatars’ lack of facial emoting allows audiences to fill in emotional gaps with imagination and “body language.” While emoting is still a new concept in Minecraft, the game’s reliance on vocal cues has made players defer to spoken communication to convey story. This has made viewers into active participants in the story, having to interpret and comprehend the activities happening in the gameplay. 

This adds another element to the social relationship between creators and audiences, as Minecraft also relies on direct interaction — which has made it a profitable market for live streamers. Livestream viewers get the opportunity to influence player decisions live, contribute to theories and lore, and add an adaptability element when creators respond to viewers’ interests on the spot. 

Minecraft has successfully made itself a combination of multiple platforms: a game, film set, animation tool, social platform, and even an archive. 

Curating a truly independent experience for players, the newest entertainment shift is toward unique, smaller independent media instead of larger conglomerates. Traditional media relies on passive consumption, while in comparison, Minecraft relies on interaction. 

As Gen Z and Alpha rise into the consumer sphere, fandom culture and the line between gaming and storytelling are blurring. They are accustomed to narratives that span multiple platforms and require participation. Minecraft stands not only as the introduction of that trend, but for some, it is the foundation of it. 

Modders, shaders, and custom animations are pushing the platform to new limits every day. These innovators even inspired Mojang Studios to create Minecraft narrative content of its own, including its 2015 TellTale Games collaboration, Minecraft Story Mode, and its RPG Minecraft Dungeons, whose second installment releases in September. 

Minecraft’s greatest strength is in its ability to blend audience participation and narrative structure. As the entertainment industry continues to look in that direction, Minecraft continues to provide a look at what the future of that landscape may look like. 

For aspiring creatives, Minecraft serves as an accessible introduction to storytelling — allowing creatives to experiment with narrative techniques, world-building and audience engagement. The next generation of entertainers may very well get their start in a Minecraft world — building the future of storytelling one block at a time. 

The post Minecraft Is Becoming Entertainment’s Most Unexpected Storytelling Tool  appeared first on Den of Geek.

New York City is often a town of extremes. It can be too hot; it can be too cold. It can be too loud; and it can be painfully quiet on occasion. Yet there are times where it is absolutely perfect, and this June was no exception. With the Tribeca Film Festival in its 25th […]

The post Tribeca 2026: Everything We Saw appeared first on Den of Geek.

Do you think about me when you’re not playing? That’s a line spoken by eldritch terror AI character Verity in a two-part horror series by Minecraft content creator ThatMob. Verity, voiced by another Minecraft creator, JustWhispy, has taken the blocky sandbox game’s audience into increasing levels of fandom excitement. 

ThatMob, or Mob, plays as himself, as the AI helper he downloaded, Verity, becomes increasingly creepy. Knowing intimate details about Mob’s life and daily routine outside when logged off, Verity isolates Mob from the NPCs in his game and becomes increasingly invested in obtaining all of Mob’s attention. Verity, who appears as a 3D smiling emoji, turns into a Slenderman-like apparition as Mob tries to escape his stiflingly unsettling presence. In a fashion reminiscent of Nikki from Obsession, Verity turns into a force of manic fixation that can’t be removed. 

The series has now amassed 15.5 million views, marking the newest trend in Minecraft-based role-play and narrative short films. Minecraft was not designed to be a storytelling game. Originally, a sandbox experience that allows players to modify, create, and explore a blocky world of creatures, intricate buildings, and lore — players have taken to modifying the game into a Dungeons & Dragons-level storytelling platform. From scripted series and roleplaying communities and reality-TV-level social experiments to educational narratives and fan films, Minecraft is becoming one of entertainment’s most versatile storytelling tools. 

Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson, creator of Minecraft and founder of Mojang Studios, began developing the game in 2009. Inspired by the game Infiniminer, Persson wanted to use that block-based mining gaming structure in combination with isometric base-building mechanics to create a new game. Players are dropped into an algorithmically-generated world with no plot, no narrative, and no ending. The game is designed to give creators 100% control over their environment and experience — encouraging experimentation rather than limiting them with predefined narratives. 

Since its launch in 2011, Minecraft has seen a storytelling evolution that has taken place primarily on YouTube. YouTubers have been creating scripted storytelling RPG-like content via Minecraft for well over a decade now. Minecrafter Jessica “Aphmau” Bravura is a trailblazer in the roleplaying Minecraft genre, having created iconic series like Minecraft Diaries, whose first season has accumulated 76.9 million views and the second 26.9 million views, and MyStreet with 39.1 million views. 

The narrative popularity of roleplaying storylines has expanded into even more expansive lanes, giving rise to entire roleplaying communities like the Dream SMP. While ultimately the infamous community that took off in popularity during the global pandemic crashed hard, it doesn’t take away from the group’s impact on the storytelling genre. 

Dream SMP showed Minecraft’s ability to simulate stories of wars, nation building, factions, eras in society, and global crises, making it “must-see-TV” for those chronically online in the early 2020s. Taking on an almost tabletop gaming feel, they created a balance between scripted and authentic content that opened the possibilities beyond traditional roleplaying. 

This includes reality simulation content like YouTuber Ish’s “1000 Players Simulate Civilization: Rich & Poor,” which went viral in 2025. With over 45 million views, Ish created a social experiment by placing 1300 players in a world with two islands, one with a surplus of resources and another that was barren. The point was to see who people choose to be when faced with their circumstances, which is a rather fascinating and deep question for a Minecraft server. It was one of the most captivating and well-done pieces of entertainment of 2025. 

Audiences follow these series like they would any other weekly episodic show schedule or major film release. The accessibility of Minecraft makes it enjoyable to both creators and viewers, and that aspect adds to its rise in creative popularity. 

Creating an animated series or short film requires extensive software, equipment, and technical knowledge that can limit beginners. In Minecraft, there isn’t a need to be a master at Blender to create large-scale, highly detailed settings (like Backrooms creator Kane Pixels did). With the addition of mods, creators have developed interactive world maps whose immersion rivals Disney World. While Minecraft’s blocky visual nature is often seen as a limitation, it actually adds a lot to world-building. 

Similar to books, Minecraft’s avatars’ lack of facial emoting allows audiences to fill in emotional gaps with imagination and “body language.” While emoting is still a new concept in Minecraft, the game’s reliance on vocal cues has made players defer to spoken communication to convey story. This has made viewers into active participants in the story, having to interpret and comprehend the activities happening in the gameplay. 

This adds another element to the social relationship between creators and audiences, as Minecraft also relies on direct interaction — which has made it a profitable market for live streamers. Livestream viewers get the opportunity to influence player decisions live, contribute to theories and lore, and add an adaptability element when creators respond to viewers’ interests on the spot. 

Minecraft has successfully made itself a combination of multiple platforms: a game, film set, animation tool, social platform, and even an archive. 

Curating a truly independent experience for players, the newest entertainment shift is toward unique, smaller independent media instead of larger conglomerates. Traditional media relies on passive consumption, while in comparison, Minecraft relies on interaction. 

As Gen Z and Alpha rise into the consumer sphere, fandom culture and the line between gaming and storytelling are blurring. They are accustomed to narratives that span multiple platforms and require participation. Minecraft stands not only as the introduction of that trend, but for some, it is the foundation of it. 

Modders, shaders, and custom animations are pushing the platform to new limits every day. These innovators even inspired Mojang Studios to create Minecraft narrative content of its own, including its 2015 TellTale Games collaboration, Minecraft Story Mode, and its RPG Minecraft Dungeons, whose second installment releases in September. 

Minecraft’s greatest strength is in its ability to blend audience participation and narrative structure. As the entertainment industry continues to look in that direction, Minecraft continues to provide a look at what the future of that landscape may look like. 

For aspiring creatives, Minecraft serves as an accessible introduction to storytelling — allowing creatives to experiment with narrative techniques, world-building and audience engagement. The next generation of entertainers may very well get their start in a Minecraft world — building the future of storytelling one block at a time. 

The post Minecraft Is Becoming Entertainment’s Most Unexpected Storytelling Tool  appeared first on Den of Geek.