Collaborate with Enderbook to strengthen your Minecraft community


Whether your audience is 100 or 100 million

Written: December 29, 2021

Hi there, I'm Ian. If you are a giant Minecraft nerd like me, have always felt uncomfortable participating in the destructive churn of social media & capitalism, but still want to be you at your best in the Minecraft/gaming space, we should talk. In some ways, this page could be considered the Enderbook whitepaper. It is, of course, half-finished. I would like your help so that we can finish it together.

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I will do my best to keep this concise, but I also want to show you me as I am. This may result in me becoming long-winded. Speaking of me as I am, this is me as I write this page:

"Everybody got a plan 'til they get punched in the face."

Above is a quote from one of the most underrated philosophers of our time, Mike Tyson. And no, despite the redness on my face, I was not punched in the face. Not literally, at least. If you're genuinely curious what happened, I will use this as an opportunity for baiting you into clicking the button to have a chat with me!

Earlier this year, I was being a good little capitalist patriarch and growing my web design business, Objektiv Digital. In that process, I finally woke up to all the ways in which the world does not work, and how it was not working for me despite my best efforts of killing myself trying to work for it.

I am by no means trying to signal any kind of political alignment, but we can at the very least observe our own actions and the positive and negative outcomes that stem from those actions. Everything I say comes from a place of the lessons from my own actions and no one elses.

So, with that enormous preamble out of the way...

...let's talk about Minecraft, shall we?

Anyone who plays Minecraft and has ever tried to create, share, or use a resource pack, a mod, or any other 3rd-party Minecraft content knows what a minefield it can be to navigate.

Here are some problems that I have seen in this space that I seek to solve through Enderbook. I need your help to better understand these issues:

  1. Third party resource creators (texture packs, mods, modpacks, etc.) do not have effective methods of monetization, leading to their passion project turning from something fun into an enormous burden. This leads to haphazard monetization attempts like ad links that display deceptive download buttons and advertisements that are unsuitable for children.
  2. Subreddits, Discord servers, Facebook groups, etc. inherit the culture of the platform they reside, rather than Minecraft culture itself. This leads to a disconnect in our passionate Minecraft discourse.
  3. Sharing content in communities where that content is moderated by the community itself rather than the platform is problematic. Minecrafters want to share their creations but often do not have an established reputation. Or their creation is not relevant to any communities they can find. This leads to unnecessary gatekeeping and unfair moderation.
  4. Finding a healthy balance between entertaining an audience and mitigating parasocial relationships. Given the versatility of web technology and Minecraft itself, this poses a unique advantage toward solving an issue like this in clever and innovative ways.
  5. Profit-driven value, rather than human-driven value. Whether consciously or intuitively, most of us can clearly see that the world is headed in a direction that places greater value on health and relationships than it does wealth and opulence. We are all cogs in a machine, and we are two of them. Change is happening, and it is time for us to do our part. My actions are no longer driven by profit, they are driven by service. When Enderbook becomes too unruly for me alone, my sole proprietorship will be turned into a legal structure that serves the community. Whether that be a non-profit, cooperative, or public benefit corporation. This will be determined by the feedback you and the greater Minecraft and Enderbook community provides.

Well, I think that's enough from me. From here, let's continue this conversation together. Or, at the very least, I will tell you what's wrong with my face. ;)

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Thanks,

Ian McKenzie

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