I admit I have not paid enough attention to what my kids are doing on Minecraft. It's on my to-do list.
But my son did comment that he was going to let the peasants live, for the moment, and I was like "Whaaaat? Is there some reason you would kill mindless peasants wandering around?" It was explained to me that the random wandering peasants consume resources that could otherwise be used for building. I may have that wrong, as I was a little confused by the whole thing.

Can someone more knowledgeable explain to me? Is there some incentive built into the game to kill off living things? If so, it reminds me of some dystopian robot future, where the machines are so set on building for the sake of building, and view the sentient beings as hindrances to their mission.

Although it also reminds me of Sim City, which folks used to play in the 80's....I had friends that regularly let the city go to hell and all the folks would die. But none of those friends turned out to be psychopathic city planners, so that's encouraging.

Anonymous wrote:PP here....I signed up for a Minecraft and Lego Robotics camp for this summer also. He is so excited. I work in the tech industry from a legal perspective and I am happy to encourage anything related to writing code.

My husband is a software developer and he is so happy that our son now has an interest in learning about code.

You guys with minecraft fans at home might share this with them: https://code.org/mc

Anonymous wrote:anyone know how the PC game compares to the Xbox game? We have Xbox and iPad versions. Wondering if I should get the PC game if it has more capabilities.

On the computer version, you can add mods - "modifications". Minecraft is open source so anyone, anywhere can write mods for it. There are literally thousands of mods like Pokemon, Star Wars, Zelda... adding capabilities, blocks, weapons, different types of animals, genetic experiments, I can go on and on.

The mods are what makes Minecraft so popular bc it is a game that can be anything you want it to be.

The computer game is nothing like the ipad or xbox versions because there are thousands of mods you can add to minecraft on the computer version.

There are also modpacks (compilations of popular mods that are made compatible with each other) like voidlaucher. Check them out.

anyone know how the PC game compares to the Xbox game? We have Xbox and iPad versions. Wondering if I should get the PC game if it has more capabilities.

Anonymous wrote:PP here....I signed up for a Minecraft and Lego Robotics camp for this summer also. He is so excited. I work in the tech industry from a legal perspective and I am happy to encourage anything related to writing code.

not PP... 13:03

PP here....I signed up for a Minecraft and Lego Robotics camp for this summer also. He is so excited. I work in the tech industry from a legal perspective and I am happy to encourage anything related to writing code.

Anonymous wrote:The pp has a point that there is a huge difference between the iPad version and the PC computer version of Minecraft. The PC version is a much more robust application.

Yes.

Also, just wanted to add that it can be good socially, for working together as a team and getting along with each other. My kids play together and also with other kids over the phone. I listen to everything. In my mind, it's much better than the screen time I had at their age - which was not at all interactive (i.e. TV). I have no problem with it and allow my kids to play it a lot, but they still have to do homework, music practice, sit together for meals, read, and get some exercise each day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well it has my 6 yr old devouring the Minecraft books tot learn how to build certain things in the game. He carries the book everywhere. He is obsessed though so I restrict it to some weekend use.

Anything that encourages a 6 year old boy to carry a book everywhere and read that much is good. Restricting the actual play time is completely understandable, and it's more likely to make him think through what he wants to do before he sits down to play.

So in short: reading practice and comprehension, critical thinking, spatial reasoning, cooperation and teamwork. But it's a tool, and any tool can be misused.

I agree. With school, other activities, piano practice, homework and family time together playing board games etc there is just not time during the week for him to spend hours on Minecraft. Weekends I am fine with but he can't sit there for 5 hours on it. He has other toys, Legos and siblings to play with and chores so unless I put time limits he would do it from sunup to sundown. I love the reading that is coming from it...I had no idea. I took him to a comic book store and asked him what he wanted and he picked a Minecraft book. His age peers are not as into Minecraft yet but he saw some of the older kids at school with the books and that is how he learned about them. It is amazing how he can sit an talk for hours about this world he has created. I play it too sometimes just to learn what he is doing and I can barely get a shelter built while he has learned to build all these complex things and how to fly and other things that he definitely got from the books. I let him play coding apps on the web and iPad as well.

My 5 and 7 year old love it and I am constantly blown away by the amazing things they build together. I think it's great.

The pp has a point that there is a huge difference between the iPad version and the PC computer version of Minecraft. The PC version is a much more robust application.

Anonymous wrote:I lol at the parents who "restrict" minecraft (or other stuff) bc their kid is "obsessed" with it. How does that work for you? The obsession doesn't get any less, does it?

You really don't understand the logic?

Your child only wants to do one thing, so without limits, they would only do that one thing.

You set limits, so they cannot play the same thing all day long, and this forces them to do other things.

Doing other things helps them develop other interests.

It depends. The ipad version my son pretty much just spawned animals and killed them. I didn't get the educational value.

But he loved it and wanted to take an after school class in the computer version. So we signed him up and bought the computer version with some hesitation. It is a completely different game. They can create, they use logic to make redstone inventions work, and they even learn to code. Given most schools stress the need for learning the keyboard for test taking, this alone makes it worth it.

That being said, there are still days my son plays it just to spawn different creatures and let them attack each other. And there are other days he uses it to make elaborate inventions, that I can't for the life of me figure out how to make. So it really depends on what they do with it.

I wouldn't let them play it 24-7, but in terms of video games, I think it has the potential to be more educational than most.

Anonymous wrote:It's true. but, laugh if you like.

It's all good, PP. My DD does the same thing on her violin. These Philistines don't understand.

Anonymous wrote:It's true. but, laugh if you like.

Oh, we are. The image in my head!

My kid was completely addicted to Minecraft when he was 5/6. At 8, he doesn't play as much as he use to but he is at least two grades+ ahead in reading and math and in the highest groups at school. He also plays Minecraft in Mandarin sometimes - he attends an immersion language school.

Is this due to the Minecraft? Don't know but we haven't seen any negatives from playing Minecraft.

He still plays Minecraft but now he plays a lot of other games too like tournament chess.