Minecraft: Is it for children?

freerepublic.com ^ | 4-7-2012 | raybbr

[raybbr]

My ten year old son has been watching videos of "Minecraft" on line. It looks pretty harmless.

The thing is I can't find any reviews or whole lot of information regarding the age level this game is for.

I am not a game player on the PC. The most I play is chess or hearts, etc. I would really appreciate any feedback on this issue before I plunk down $27 on it.

Thanks to all....!

[daniel1212]

$27.00 to buy a video game? I do not think playing most any video games should be encouraged, esp by himself, let alone spending that kind of money. The kids (not mine) around here spent their whole winter inside playing video games, etc. I would rather they be sent outside to exercise and play and interact with real persons.

I grew up as the middle child of 5, and we were only allowed to watch 2 hours of TV in the 60’s, not sex in the city, and no soaps. And we could only have one glass of soda a week. I also got 0.15 a well for allowance as a teenager, and could not get a car until i graduated from H.S.

But despite my hard working parents principled and necessary thriftiness (and discipline - ouch) , they took us camping twice a year: a week renting a cheap cabin, and a week traveling and tenting (which mom endured). Good memories.

And at home, when not at school or church or doing chores, we rode bikes, played outside, built a fort with trees we chopped down (not in the city), etc. Inside sometimes played board games.

Thank God we were fairly poor but had principled parents. Mom just passed at 91, the longest survivor.

[Mannaggia l'America]

My 8th grader plays with friends at school. I think he's been playing a little too much and I'm thinking of clamping down.

A parent of one of the kids he plays with thinks it is good team building experience. The jury is still out on that one for me.

I'd definitely clamp down on the time if he weren't playing on two baseball teams and the golf team.

[metmom]

Video games rewire the brain, even at older ages.

It’s a scourge these days.

[Wayne07]

I want to chime in as well - this would be the best video game possible for a ten year old. Basically interactive Legos. Definitely get it for him! One thing to note is that it is possible to play on a shared server online. You should monitor who he plays with if you let him play online. It is great single player, so fine to limit him to that.

[Jack Hydrazine]

I’ve never played this game but it looks interesting. Some guy used it to make a scientific calculator with 14 functions with a 25 digit display. It can also do graphing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgJfVRhotlQ

[arderkrag]

Minecraft is absolutely not my cup of tea. However, it is a fabulous game and encourages a great amount of creativity. I recommend it HIGHLY.

[Salgak]

Excuse me, but have you been out in the real world, lately ? $27.00 is **dirt-cheap** for most computer games: depending on the game, 49-69 dollars is the standard nowadays.

[Bullish]

My son is in his 30s and he LOVES minecraft.

[Crazieman]

Wow, how remarkably stuck-up

[lwoodham]

I’m playing it right now and I am 62 lol. It’s a great game and especially good if you have a young one who is creative at heart( like me :P). My 10 year old grandson plays and loves it. It is very addictive however, so be warned about this.

[Wayne07]

Consider that video games, particularly PC/Mac games like Minecraft, are great ways to get more deeply engaged with technology, which is important these days.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

I think your Child would prolly have more fun doing this i'm 52 and i love it building and imagination is a blast plus he could make some really awsome stuff.....

http://www.hirstarts.com/

[Mannaggia l'America]

Consider that video games, particularly PC/Mac games like Minecraft, are great ways to get more deeply engaged with technology, which is important these days.

Very true - my son is now talking about majoring in Computer Science in college, which I would not have predicted a year or two ago. (Software development is my profession.)

[Smokin' Joe]

Now that looks neat! (A family friend installed minecraft on the kids computer, and I'm looking for a way to get them to do anything but play Minecraft. Saying the game is addictive just might be an understatement.)

The other thing is that once they have built it, it's there, and not subject to the vagaries of electronic devices.

[battousai]

Have played with Mincraft for a couple of years now, and sometimes build things with my son. It is like playing with Lego blocks but on a PC, however in some game modes you can also have 'mobs' monsters that you need to fight to survive.

There are two types of game play single player where you play on your PC or you can join public servers where you play with other people in a common environment, usually in order to build permanent structures on the public servers there is a sort of vetting process to know that you are a serious builder and not some who would just go around vandalizing other people's work. This varies from server to server and us up to the people running that server. I mostly just play the single player, continuing my buildings as I have time to do it.

I prefer the pure freedom of building things so if you set the game to 'peaceful' mode you don't get any monsters and you are free to mine and build at leisure.

In the survival mode you get some monsters, zombies, spiders etc that spawn at night and you take shelter or go fight them if you have built weapons etc.

Recently they added a pure building mode where you don't even need to mine for materials you get all the materials and you can just build to your hearts content.

There are some quite complicated builds that you can do, youtube is full of videos for elevators, trains etc that you can get working using the in game 'electrical system' which uses 'redstone' powder to create circuits.

Also for really complex builds there is a CAD like editor that you can design in, for example the star ship Enterprise, was imported in through such an editor (I have actually joined his server and walked around on it, its awesome). Enterprise D shown in the video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn2-d5a3r94

The classic version of the game is free so you can always check it out to get a feel for it, before buying the latest version, but even then its quite cheap, I think it was around $10. You do have to login in each time to play, even the single player.

One of my humble efforts in minecraft

Haven't got around to finishing all the floors yet in the building, but did some of it with my son so he has his 'own' floor at the top and I have another.

[ShadowAce]

[for-q-clinton]

Its like legos

[this_ol_patriot]

Tucked within Minecraft is an entire course on logic gates.
Redstone Circuits

Check on YouTube for videos of Minecraft player built computers.

[this_ol_patriot]

Terraria is extremely fun.

Don't forget Dwarf Fortress, which once you get the interface is a remarkable game and free too.

[Windflier]

My wife bought it for our two boys, aged 12 and 7, and they love it.

My 7 year old, in particular, can’t get enough of it. It’s highly addictive, because of the creativity angle. He’s been building an entire world in that game, which is something I’m very much ok with.

It’s a thousand times better than the usual blood and guts things kids find to play online.