A Qualitative Analysis of Storytelling through Minecraft Roleplay

This project aims to lay out the salient characteristics of “Minecraft roleplay”, a prevalent form of digital storytelling performed in the virtual environment of the video game Minecraft (Mojang, 2009) and broadcast on livestreaming and video websites like Twitch.tv and YouTube. Scholarship on this specific subject is limited, but through patchworking together information about the related topics of video production, streaming and persona performance, immersion in storyworlds, and producer-consumer relationships, it was possible to paint a clearer picture of the lay of the land in regards to the medium. A process of Reflexive Thematic Analysis was used to identify several themes in a series of “case study” works of Minecraft roleplay: Hermitcraft (various, 2012-ongoing), Empires SMP (various, 2021-2023), Dream SMP (various, 2020-2024), WHITEPINE (IvoryCello, 2024-2026) and Parkour Civilisation (Evbo, 2023). These were chosen according to their relationship with the hallmarks of Machinima and Let’s Play content, and in several cases their relationships to one another. The importance of factors like the connection between collaborators and the way that Minecraft features are used in service of storytelling proved to be crucial factors in this analysis.