Can we talk about MINECRAFT, the game swallowing the brains of entire generation of pre-adolescent boys?

I know there's a thread on ILG, but I'm not a gamer, just a parent. And the ubiquity of and fervid devotion to Minecraft among the 5- to 12-year-old American males I know (including my own kids) is really sort of amazing. I know, every generation has its own Nintendo or whatever. But Minecraft is really odd, I have yet to meet a grown-up who feels like they really get the game or understand its visceral appeal.

Anyway, the New York Times had this the other day:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/minecraft-an-obsession-and-an-educational-tool/

Both my kids (7 and 9 yr-old boys) are v. much addicted to this and I just don't get it at all.

I'm a private tutor to London's wealthy spawn, and I can tell you right now that the vast majority of my charges spend every moment they can possibly wheedle on this sack of shit

I started a drownedinsound thread on this very topic recently (yes, I know, I'm sorry); got some fairly animated responses: http://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/social/4431867

I don't know that it's hard to get. Virtual LEGO where you can go around the world yourself, wreak havoc, build stuff together with others.

A smart game, a smart innovation by a single guy who got very rich.

My gf's 11 year old son is hooked on this, he plays it on the Xbox. My nephews play it all the time on my mum's iPad as well. As far as I can tell the fun is all in creating these worlds and a lot of the fun is sharing these worlds with friends.

I mean, I can see the charm - you go around an unpredictable landscape, finding stuff; you build your dream house - but the way every single child plays this is to head to multiplayer mode, seek the quickest and most efficient ways to kill other players, and commence killing. It's a capitalistic battle of maximising one's resources and destroying competitors. Even the 'combinations' of items are unimaginative, dull and tailored towards an extremely limited selection of ends, mostly involving violence. It's shit.

Yes, there are some who build machines or temples or cities or whatnot. You're still limited by Minecraft's maddening cubic format and selection of materials. It's a substitute for creativity, and a poor one.

rufus loves it. he's 10. his friends love it. he still plays Magic too, but Minecraft has kinda moved ahead of Magic i think. Cyrus plays too, but he's not as into it.

Is LEGO a poor substitute for creativity? What's the difference? Why is limited materials and cubic format a bad thing? It means its origins are not high-budget, sure, but no matter how much effort and money is spent the selection of materials will have to be limited. What are better alternatives to the same concept? I didn't know there were Minecraft haters before I read this thread to be honest.

You're still limited by Minecraft's maddening cubic format

Which is obviously part of the appeal, right? I do admire that about it, how it's so primitivist in the maximal 3D CGI age.

My son is 8 and he's never played it as far as I know. I wonder if his friends play it? I've never even heard him mention it.

Nothing on this planet makes me crankier than catching my children watching endless Minecraft youtubes

LEGO is not the most creative medium ever conceived, and a giant commercial success, but at least its 'end point' in the minds of most players is the artistry of the creation itself, rather than domination and slaughter. I KNOW THERE ARE MINECRAFT EXCEPTIONS and that they are your children, but this is what I have seen.

the only thing i ever get sick of is rufus watching a zillion "hilarious" gamer vids on youtube. minecraft dudes, spore dudes, mario dudes. so unfunny and they are foul-mouthed dopes. if i thought they were funny it would be one thing. plus, they are always swearing. WATCHING someone play minecraft for hours on youtube is just...ugh.

yeah, what NickB said!

so then cyrus wants to watch skylanders videos on youtube and videos of dudes going to different toy stores to find skylanders!!!! insane.

but, you know, i had my own dumb shit that my parents probably rolled their eyes at. circle of life.

my kids don't slaughter on minecraft. they just build endless buildings.

I don't play Minecraft, I did briefly but didn't have the patience. It didn't turn out to be my thing, but I immediately got the appeal of it as soon as the game was revealed, and remember being fascinated watching tutorial videos by the creator. It appeals to very basic desires.

I don't have kids and didn't know that killing other players was a big thing in Minecraft. All videos and examples I've seen have been about creation and exploring the limits of the world and its mechanics. When it was released two years ago that was certainly the focus and end point among gamers in every case I observed. That kids make their own rules as always can't isn't Minecraft's fault.

"the only thing i ever get sick of is rufus watching a zillion "hilarious" gamer vids on youtube. minecraft dudes, spore dudes, mario dudes. so unfunny and they are foul-mouthed dopes."

now youtube humor I can rant angrily about

scott, i hear you and feel yr pain :(

mindlessly minecraftin got me over a particularly bad breakup ~3yrs ago, total classic

Nothing on this planet makes me crankier than catching my children watching endless Minecraft youtubes

This, yes. I put a moratorium on them for about a month after one day where both my kids used Words They Shouldn't Use after watching Minecraft YouTubes.

And don't forget the endless pop song parodies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efmmm_B46ls

my kids don't slaughter on minecraft. they just build endless buildings

Yeah, so far both of mine only want to play on the "creative" setting, which is fine by me. If they want to move on to zombie pigman apocalypse, we'll have to talk about it.

Yeah, when the hell did this happen? My daughter is super into it right now because her (male) friend was super into it. They work on the creative mode, but is there a way for them to collaborate online? I really know next to nothing about this.

thing is, i can see rufus having some sort of techy/computer job in the future. he is so quick with stuff it kinda staggers me. he took a video-game making class at a smart kid summer camp we sent him too last year and he dug it. now that school has started their vid time is limited. summer was a little ridiculous though. they could never beat me in t.v. watching hours in a million years. when i was a kid i think i watched 400 hours of t.v. a week. #latchkey

plus, when i was a kid my dad would drop me off at the arcade on the weekends and i would spend all day shooting stuff. and i r alright :))))

rufus does magic tournaments at the game store and they kinda bug me because they end too late for me. but he begs to go. his friends go. and they finally separated adult and kid tournament times and this makes me feel better. felt weird that adults i don't know were hanging with the kids all night. but the game store dudes are pretty good at managing the chaos and keeping an eye on things.

also, we are getting new x box. do you really have to pre-order new x box? will it really be sold out everywhere forever if you don't?

Imago you're making this sound a lot of fun.

(our kids go to a school where there are definitely no-t.v. households and we embrace the tech but so far no problems. must suck for the parents trying to be free of it though when half the kids are raving about games.)

The best thing about Minecraft so far in my household is it has given my 9-year-old a new career goal -- video game designer -- that is at least pointed in a more potentially useful direction than his previous ambition to drive race cars.

Here's what I got him for his birthday (at his explicit request): http://www.amazon.com/Minecraft-Block-Plush-Toy-Large/dp/B00ENZ8Y5Q/ref=pd_sim_sbs_t_12.

30 dollars for a cubic pillow. He loves it to death.

do kinda wish that rufus was still making game-based folk art pottery.

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/560320_10150918488362137_888367222_n.jpg

I've never played Minecraft but I was so into building ZZT worlds from age 10-13, it was literally all I thought about until puberty. I don't see what the problem is, "creative" games like this are a better waste of time than Tetris. Or Star Wars.

there is definitely thinking involved.

I played a lot of this for a time a coupla years back. It worked well on my work laptop so I'd fiddle around in hotel rooms when I was on the road, etc.

I don't know how much "game" they've added to it; I usually just explored by digging, then emptied a lake into a lava patch to make endless amounts of obsidian

my son plays this ON IPAD and his friends are into it too. we were at a party with other kids he didn't know recently and Minecraft talk saved the day, it's like sports or the weather for grownups. and for that I am thankful.

Nothing on this planet makes me crankier than catching my children watching endless Minecraft youtubes

― i'll be your mraz (NickB), Thursday, September 19, 2013 6:14 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ha I don't have a problem with my kids plAying this but the youtube watching and the idiot mumblings of the narrators annoys me

Oh I have no problem with it or objection to it, I think it's kind of interesting. It's just the scope of the phenomenon that strikes me, how it has just taken over this particular demographic without a lot of notice or attention from the outside world.

my daughter loves it just as much as my son, it is pretty evenly obsessed about at their school

I don't play it or know anyone who does, but anything that can produce this is not wholly without merit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNw2YcAK9Wc

my daughter is too young for it but every roughly 7-to-10-year-old I know is super into it

it's funny, I saw a report about it on the local (NYC) news the other night that I thought was going to be pegged to the educational study about the effects of playing and instead it was basically like, "Minecraft exists"

yeah my 5 and 8-year-old nephews are obsessed with it too. but they're equally obsessed with Lego as well.

Had a private server with about 7 or 8 friends throughout most of my time at uni and it was just about the most creative thing we ever did ffs, had a wonderful busy little town built on an archipelago with all sorts of stuff going on. if kids are playing this rather than COD then more power to 'em I say.

A complex game with many different aspects and levels (particularly once you start installing mods) that actively rewards patience, creativity and collaboration. The Creative mode in particular, where the only reward is making something that you find interesting or beautiful, sends out an extremely positive message to kids, within the realm of video games at least.

There's a great community surrounding the game producing loads of user driven content, sharing creations etc., all a whole lot more positive than the awful negative racist/sexist/homophobic vibes that are a given on most games on Xbox Live or whatever.

Also worth pointing out that a game which allows you to use rudimentary electronic circuits to create automatic doors, lifts, rollercoasters and COMPUTERS can't fairly be described as unproductive and limited. Or even just for children, come to that.

I take the point about the kids just killing each other and blowing each other's shit up, but I've gotta say Imago I think you're dead wrong on this, certainly given the alternatives. I find it hard to imagine that most of the kids playing these games would be doing airfixes or learning to play the clarinet or w/e if they didn't have Minecraft. I think it's healthier and more stimulating to be involved in this than w/ most other games on the market.

actively rewards patience

^^^ something seriously missing from the majority of video games (or at least ones that kids can play). In fact Kerbal Space Program may be the only other kid friendly game apart from Minecraft where patience is required and rewarded.

here's an actually entertaining minecraft video, jump to about 1 minute in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnjSWPxJxNs

my son was all about minecraft for a while and I used to sigh at the endless block stacking but at 12yo all he wants to do is play FPS and now I pine for a more innocent time

I will say the music is very soothing

thing is, i can see rufus having some sort of techy/computer job in the future. he is so quick with stuff it kinda staggers me.

not to burst your bubble or anything but all kids his age are very computer savvy

xp Oh yes when that piano one kicks in and I'm standing on a grassy hill it's just awesome.

thing is, i can see rufus having some sort of techy/computer job in the future. he is so quick with stuff it kinda staggers me.

not to burst your bubble or anything but all kids his age are very computer savvy

My sister's godson is 18 months old, can't really talk yet but he knows how to navigate through multiple folders to find his games on the iPad. Absolutely amazes me

Joel and Han play the shit out of Minecraft but i don't have the time for this as i'm too busy managing imaginary footballers

So the problem isn't with Minecraft but the spoilt-rotten psychopaths I teach. Points taken.

The main problem remains: kids who play this get obsessed, to the detriment of their devotion to a life outside it. Is it enough on its own to sustain the important processes of maturation and discovery? Hence my concerns about its limitations.

the same applies to a gajillion other pc / video games

i'll admit a smidgeon of concern but there are fairly simple answers for parents

xp You could say the same about football.

The ILG thread for extra useful information and/or chatter:

itt we minecraft

Ok so it sorta seems like imago's problem is more with video games and the obsessive culture that tends to surround them then with minecraft, necessarily? Cause I'd def. rather have young psychos-in-waiting kicking down each other's digital sandcastles than pretending o be soldiers in the middle east tbh

It's an excellent outlet for spectrum-y behavior. "Lol I just recreated a scale model of the palace of Versailles"

My gf's 11 year old's other favourite game is Black Ops:Call of Duty btw. I mean its very violent obviously and I reason with myself that I played violent video games too when I was his age, but seeing him spend nearly all day on it is a wee bit worrying. Something like Minecraft is quite wholesome and nice really.

my son is 10 and is obsessed with it. When he's not playing minecraft, he's watching minecraft videos on youtube. I'm personally getting kind of sick of it, but then I'm obsessed with Magic: The Gathering so who am I to complain?

Minecraft is basically taking the Legos craze into the next generation.

haha, now that I'm reading through this thread I see that I'm not alone in my complaint about endless minecraft youtubes

Shooting games, ideally, do not pretend to be more than shooting games. Counterstrike has no airs of 'promoting creativity', it's pure killing. Minecraft is an immersive game environment with just enough variety to keep kids hooked. And all in an arena context - once you've built your Lego model you can contextualise it however you like.

I suppose Minecraft at best is a showcase for genuine creativity and collaboration, although from my observations (I've probably seen about 40 hours of Minecraft thanks to my main client) I have a rather poisoned view of it.

I'm not a gamer and I distrust the extent to which young children are strapped to technological devices. Minecraft is not an especially nefarious game per se. And 'complex' shooters like COD and arguably GTA (let's not have that fight here. I know it's fun as fuck, but...) are far worse, I'd imagine, for the young mind.

my 11 year-old nephew doesn't play it, but is obsessed with watching youtube videos of it. last time we visited him, he bent my ear for literally two hours straight recapping youtube videos he's watched about it.

eating nothing but jelly babies is really bad for children. i don't think jelly babies are bad.

jelly babies injected with high-grade crack, though

there might be a place for a general thread about the addictiveness of video games

the problem with sweeping generalizations is that there's no long-standing historical iteration of "childhood" to compare with the video game generations. extensive childhood leisure is a bubble that took place in, say, middle class Western families over the last 150 years. to worry about children "losing" something is to worry about a very small subset of the children in the world now, a smaller subset of children historically

i don't think it's good to let children do one thing to the exclusion of all else, but i might reframe that argument if i was talking about children in different social contexts. show me the evidence that any amount of gaming causes traits you can identify as "harm" in
children, and show me that harm is demonstrably not the cause of other parenting (non) actions, and i might get a bit more worked up

as much as my son's obsession with minecraft irks me, I know that I'd be exactly the same if I were a 10-year-old right now. Goodness knows, I was well obsessed with some Frogger or whatever way back when.

not for nothing but ppl who compulsively post on a msgboard complaining abt kids digital pastimes huh

I hadn't thought about the workd's younguns getting hooked on Let's Play vids. That's a new twist. Just have em watch the ones that the Yogspod guys do, they'll be fine.

snap on a lot of this - thought about starting a similar thread, though it's more the youtubes that feel really novel to me. Staying indoors, wangling as much gaming time as possible - I recognise that from my youth.

My girlfriend's 11-year-old son loves it; in the beginning, he just watched those endless youtubes and didn't seem interested in playing - we put it on my laptop, and he just gave up when it wasn't joypad-simple to do stuff.

Recently, though, he's been playing it more - the dad of one his friends has set up a private server, so a few of them are on there a lot. This I'm fine with - games have their place in his life, plus it's social & Minecraft does seem predominantly creative fun from my limited experience. And he's got the games designer ambition too, is fascinated with indie games in particular.

I feel like we're OK as long as there's gaming with friends, and not just hour upon hour of the yogscast doing their student-sarcasm Red-Dwarf-dork commentaries on blocky adventures. I feel like a lot of people haven't clocked how big that world of minecraft youtubes is - like they're some of the boggest channels on there, millions of views in the blink of an eye, kids preferring them to tv, cartoons, whatever.

I intended 'biggest', but am fairly happy with 'boggest'.

oh and that was xp over kingfish, wasn't intended as a riposte to your recommending the yogs stuff - their voices deeply annoy me.

Also, for context, I have what you could call 'an addictive personality.' Video game addiction is not a new phenomenon at all; it's just helped with increasing vividness as technology improves.

Minecraft is just the latest flavor of immersive experience. WoW and Everquest and Starcraft have been thru all this before. Difference is, no one's died due to Minecraft.

YET

i showed rufus this the other day and he thought it was funny. it's loud and annoying and foul-mouthed, what's not to like? video sequence by the video game nerd all about Tiger hand-held games. i laughed. especially when he puts on the insane Tiger virtual player that you wear on your head!

http://cinemassacre.com/2013/09/06/avgn-tiger-electronic/

Vid game addiction is a life constant thing for me, too. Immersive worlds do it for me, as it lets me stick my head in a particular genre for a while. Legend of Zelda, Ultima(NES version), Ultima V and VII(PC versions), Ocarina of Time, and on up thru Vice City and San Andreas.

but actually, just arguing with myself, the friends he plays with on the server have set up their own youtube channel and I think they are all trying to do the let's play commentary thing (*), so in fact I can even take the youtubes as healthy pointers towards a DIY ethic.

so basically I am now saying minecraft youtubes are the new punk.

(*)'I think', because I haven't been checking up on it. I've been treating it as a place where they can be 11-y-o boys together doing their thing, and I feel like ok, that's a space that's useful. But then… if there's incipient genuine dickishness, which (given my memory of being an 11-y-o boy) is more than possible, that's something I should at least monitor and step in on if necessary. Hmmmmm

I'm a private tutor to London's wealthy spawn, and I can tell you right now that the vast majority of my charges spend every moment they can possibly wheedle on this sack of shit

damn jonny franz amazon really has destroyed the book trade

x I have local blasts of low-level addiction to certain kinds of game (weekends & more lost to Civ iterations, etc), but I probably won't let myself go back to proper mmo immersion - WoW got very unhealthy for me imo, don't trust myself in its ilk.

*xxp

my son's been bugging me about setting stuff up so that he can record his own videos. That's the point where I start getting genuinely nervous because I'm not altogether comfortable with the idea of him posting stuff to youtube and getting exposed to the world of internet savagery.

yeah, that is a worry - I'm p sure I told him that they should make sure comments are off

actually w/r/t youtube addiction i am more worried that he thinks Ray William Johnson's intonation pattern is intrinsically funny & is starting to develop a slight American accent.

I am now going to spend an hour investigating pewdiepie and tobuscus, because I have heard these people's names a lot in the context of "there's this guy, on youtube, tobuscus, and there's this bit, in this video, where he's playing xxxxxxx, and he's like…' but have never really sat and tried to watch the originals (because they annoy me within 3 secs of clicking play usually. This time I will have backbone.).

watching youtubes of games = reading a goofier sillier version of Your Sinclair mag?

i find ksiolajidebt youtubes pretty funny actually

Yeah, the GiantBomb quicklooks can be hilarious, especially when they find ways to break a game's physics

slightly off topic i was working with a guy today with an autism spectrum condition and he spoke in the same voice and intonation as a popular (American) youtube movie geek critic guy - but he'd dip in and out of literally reciting these videos to talk to me quite sensibly - same voice, mind - about the animator he's especially into

i mean fuck it, the internet's okay with me

my brother is right this second showing me his Minecraft fortress. It's very impressive and he's proud of it. Think I've lost this argument tbh

i find ksiolajidebt youtubes pretty funny actually

ok my research project has been sidetracked already by this and yes

i do rag on Joel a bit about the number of videos he watches where the creator seems to have mistaken "shouting" for "humour" tho

mistaken "shouting" for "humour"

90% of comedy tbf

yeah, in that region, Youtube videos especially bad cos of the absence of an editor i guess

Update: I asked my son and he says there's one kid in his class who's really into Minecraft.

i asked cyrus why he likes minecraft and he said because its boss. so, there you go.

yeah, i think it was the two screaming guys rufus would watch on youtube that made me want to jump out the window. i couldn't listen to them anymore. i would hear them screaming somewhere in the house - wherever rufus was with a kindle - and it made ME want to scream. screaming unfunny swearing dudes...i wasn't having it. again, i can't like everything they like. that can't happen. i'm just happy when we all do like the same stuff. i don't force things on them. i'll put stuff on that i want to watch sometimes and that i think they might like. just something that we can all get into. i've definitely hipped them to cool movies. universal stuff. everyone loves time bandits.

i scared cyrus tonight though. started reading some nathaniel hawthorne and he got scared by a gorgon. oh well. he'll live. hawthorne will grab ya, man.

my 9 yr old daughter played a lot of minecraft on ipad although I think she's over it. we've been playing disney infinity on xbox lately and while that's pretty cool too it makes me appreciate what's great about minecraft. the lego comparison isn't exactly spot on because part of what's interesting about minecraft is that there is this preexisting world that you can explore and interact with and you build on top of that, rather than having a purely blank slate. that seems like it would be a small difference but I think it's an important one in a way I can't quite pinpoint.

http://www.aeonmagazine.com/being-human/children-today-are-suffering-a-severe-deficit-of-play/

not read all this yet but it's germane

good argument for the game haterz from louis:

http://teamcoco.com/video/louis-ck-springsteen-cell-phone

xp that was great, thanks

This post makes some interesting points about ~the internet~ and the kind of issues talked about in this thread:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2013/09/24/jenny-turner/the-only-time-thats-mine/

good piece

It must be obvious to everybody by now that the internet has changed and is changing most things – it long since became ‘the basis of society’, as Nicholas Negroponte puts it towards the beginning of Kidron’s film. It’s also obvious that vast amounts of the stuff on it is just trashy clickbait of one sort or another. But in the noise between these givens it can be difficult to tell which middle-aged-parent fears have any useful substance and which are just old-fashioned moral panic. -

this seems v otm

Posted to the wrong place by mistake, I think. Anyway:

Could someone tell me about Stampy Longnose? My son is addicted to his Let's Play Minecraft for Xbox series on youtube, which really functions almost like a kid's show. I'm a little fascinated myself. Is he a worldwide thing or mostly just England? He has star quality beyond the confines of video game stuff, I think.

I'll ask my kids. They watch a lot of Minecraft YouTubes, but the only name I've heard is Jerry and Harry.

In other Minecraft news, I took them to a birthday party for another boy last week, and the party pretty quickly devolved into seven or eight boys (aged 5 to 10) standing around a big-screen TV watching each other play Minecraft and pretty much losing their minds. If that wasn't enough, there was also a PC set up with Minecraft on it. At one point, one of the few girls at the party sat down at the computer and spent a few minutes on it. Then she got up and said, "This is dumb," and walked away. (I know there are girls who play Minecraft, I don't mean to suggest it's just a boy thing. But the contrast was funny.)

(Actually I guess I did already suggest it's just a boy thing in the thread title. Most of the kids I know who are into it are boys, but I know there are girls into it too.)

can't believe I missed this thread. this (along with Dr. Who and Lemony Snicket) is basically all my son (7 1/2) cares about. And yeah he watches the youtube vids also. I made him stop watching some because of the language but I like Stampy well enough.

I've been trying this game out. The "redstone" is actually a pretty neat way to learn about circuitry.

xxp I'm guessing that the gender disparity is because boys are still more likely to be given construction type toys like Lego, Meccano*, train sets, etc.. Anyone (regardless of gender) who's already primed by prior experience with concepts like 'blocks' and 'building stuff' will have a handle on Minecraft, while people who don't have to get over the speedbump of seeing a crappy quasi-3D game.

* speaking of Meccano, I remember an older relative lamenting that in the 1950s her parents wouldn't buy her a Meccano set because it was 'for boys'. Depressing that that attitude still seems to be prevalent in the public at large.

My son spends as much time watching gaming videos, particularly Minecraft videos, as he does playing the games. Seems odd to me as I'd rather be playing - I only watching gaming videos for glitchy lolz or when I'm stuck and need help.

My 12 yr old son spent a bunch of time last week researching Mayan and Aztec pyramids. He then went into Minecraft and built quite a beauty, based on Tikal models. I'm sure plenty of slaughter thereafter took place on its steep steps and in its labyrinthine innards.

My older son has become sort of obsessed with "101 Ways to Leave a Game Show," and has taken to carefully staging entire episodes of it in Minecraft. He names all the contestants, does all the voices and comes up with elaborate ways to dispatch of losing entrants.

My 16 year old niece has been obsessed with Minecraft for the past year - it's pretty much all she plays when she's not studying and iiiiiiiiiii doooooooooooooon't geeeettttt iiiiiiiiiiiiiitttt

#old

http://www.siliconbeat.com/2014/09/15/microsoft-to-buy-minecraft-fans-worry-about-games-future/

Bought by Microsoft. Luckily my son is too young to speculate what that might mean.

The elaborate buildings, rail lines, gardens, gates and towns my bf's 2 kids build with this thing is amazing. I mean I love simcity so I know exactly where this comes from but theyre only 6 and 9! They play in creative mode and go onto servers to play with a schoolfriend who moved to the UK. I think it is awesome and sweet and yeah hopefully MS wont fuck it over.

There's also the other thread

itt we minecraft

But yeah today I sat down and tried to build a nice house. Normally I just make big squares or rectangles and I think that's "nice" but there are people out there really making nice things. I can't... I just can't figure it out.

Also refuse to play on creative mode. The misery of workaday survival Minecraft begins to mirror the servitude we all endure. "It's getting dark? Fuck it, I better go to my cave, chug potions and talk to the cat."

At that age (10-12) I was heavily into those small plastic army figures and putting together plastic model kits. I favored fighter planes. I created my alternate worlds using these items instead of SimCity or minecraft, but the general impulse was the same.

I've never played this game and I barely understand what the people in Yogscast videos are doing, but the fact that you can build a computer in it is cool as hell. If building huge cool things is the main point, then it seems like the best game.

The misery of workaday survival Minecraft begins to mirror the servitude we all endure. "It's getting dark? Fuck it, I better go to my cave, chug potions and talk to the cat."

LOL TBF this is no different to the Sims.

I can't understand how my kid does anything in this game frankly, the commands seem completely baffling to me and I don't have that kind of creative impulse, but that said, he followed some elaborate ass instructions to build a tardis that actually teleports from one place to another and is bigger on the inside than the outside so props to him.

also if microsoft makes this pay-by-month I'm gonna be pissed; I already had to pay a second time for an account because mojang won't let you change your username and we stupidly created the first one with my kid's real name.

This is interesting...

https://twitter.com/DrBrianMay/status/554844828140589056

Xmas present question: what would you get for a child who really, really likes Minecraft?

this on vinyl: http://www.theghostlystore.com/products/c418-minecraft-volume-alpha

(it's really really good!)

(Unrelated, but I see that they're selling the Hohokum soundtrack as well, which is also really really good.)

We have 6 computers in the children's room at the library and at any given time they are usually taken up by boys playing Minecraft, while other boys (and some girls) stand behind them and crowd around them and watch them. They get way too excited and scream a lot and all seem to either kill each other or complain about being killed. After a few warnings I will remove kids from the computers for being too loud--this frequently results in tears. I don't mind the game itself, but the behavior it induces is very annoying. I do prefer this to a military shooter game (not sure what it was called) that was popular at my last library. Every time I looked away from my desk I would see a huge machine gun on the screen attempting to hit some target.

Agario (that weird circle game where you eat other circles to become bigger?) is a distant second in popularity.

Good suggestion, akm ... I bought him that for his birthday (His parents enjoyed it, too).

Grr, not just for boys ;)

My daughters (9, 10) spend hours collaborating on two cheap Android tablets on the same wi-fi network. They've built some magical stuff. And I really like the way they're chatting and laughing most of the time and helping each other figure stuff out. I dread the day there's some kind of glitch and they lose one of their shared worlds. I haven't yet bothered to figure out how to backup that game data.

I bought a child who was v into minecraft one of those sets of cardboard 'papercraft' minecraft models to assemble, this sort of thing - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Minecraft-Paper-Craft-Overworld-Deluxe/dp/B00DOQD0Y0

There's also figurines you can buy, my friends 7yo loves them as much as the game.

There's Minecraft Lego too.

Those figurines probably have the most play value outside of the game as far as Minecraft branded toys go.

If you wanted to be really creative you could compile a list of free adventure map downloads? I could ask some mapmakers I know for recommendations...

To clarify, adventure maps are community made mini games of varying scale that you can download, implement, and play right in the game. They can be very elaborate, potentially educational themed, and can provide unique experiences. This suggestion might seem kind of out there but perhaps way more appreciated than some more branded merch.

I've bought some Minecraft lego sets and some paper construction stuff -- making Minecraft chickens out of origami, essentially. They were all well received. Really, there's no end of Minecraft products. My younger son loves his foam Diamond Sword, e.g.

My kids have gone through various other enthusiasms since I started this thread, but they always circle back to Minecraft eventually. Just the other night before bed, they were busy constructing a theme park, competing to see who could build the coolest rollercoaster.

as far as other games go, Terraria is also a popular favorite with the Minecraft crowd

This is true

Still absolutely detest this game and the ways of thinking it nurtures in my tutees

You played it?

It really is the death of abstract thought. People play this and they want the world

I have watched maybe 100 hours of it

I kinda don't get watching other people play most videogames but the idea of that many hours spent watching other people play Minecraft makes me want to die. And I like it (inasmuch as I find it relaxing, not so much because I know all that much about what I'm doing)!

Depends on what they're doing, I guess. I've never really watched any survival "let's plays" but I like seeing how people have built crazy adventure maps and computers and mandelbrots and other crazy stuff like that right inside the game.

I like seeing the end result but I can't imagine watching the actual work that went into, for instance, the in-game videophone that one guy built recently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdlZRhKmWJY

Yeah, depends on how into programming or game development you are!

Here's another interesting project:

http://www.polygon.com/2015/4/6/8353691/pac-man-cabinet-built-inside-minecraft-video-tour

"It really is the death of abstract thought. People play this and they want the world"

I don't get this at all.

I am more interested in Shopkins--these tiny little toys that many of the girls at my library are obsessed with collecting.

Terraria seems like a good alternative (two-dimensional worlds, omni-directional scrolling), hits the spot if you're pining for Nintendo/8-bit style gaming of yore.. games like super mario, metroid, castlevania, megaman, wizards + warriors et al, but with the open-ended, build/acquire shit infinitely element.

I can't wait for CRASHLANDS, imo. Seems like the family studio behind it is specifically trying to take a dump on traditional open world crafting games.

I got Junk Jack X instead of Terraria because any game that resorts to a virtual d-pad is a game that sucks (news flash, all crafting games basically suck) - killed many hours before I realized there was actually no point whatsoever to any of the activities in the game.

There's not a real plot or adventure or campaign in Minecraft, is there? What do all these kids strive for? Mastery is always admirable, but to what end? Mincraft World C

Minecraft World Championships?

Terraria looks lame to me.

I've watched 100 hours of minecraft probably. Yogscast is solid entertainment for my age group (I'm the age of Lewis). This is like a podcast for the lull hous at work. Yogscast can be funny with their gta5 and gary's mod as well.

But a gift for a minecraft kid.... how about Calvin and Hobbes.

Watching ppl play video games often gets actual LOLs from me. It's more about who you are watching, than what you are watching. Some humans are funnier than others.

There's not a real plot or adventure or campaign in Minecraft, is there? What do all these kids strive for?

Building stuff, mostly. My kids have made some very elaborate mansions, towers, dungeons, theme parks, etc.

yeah it's lego you don't step on. hard to think of a less-bad piece of software for kids to obsess over, really. encarta?

I will admit that the kid who plays it in front of me basically plays it as a FPS with a bit of mining (for weapons) involved - I suppose there could be more merit when it is played just as creative building exercise, albeit without the same tactile learning perks of Lego and exclusively in square blocks with no out-of-game context to put the creations into

i will say that the one time i played this (years ago, probably when the playerbase skewed older) a guy got really mad at me for destroying his giant swastika

There's not a real plot or adventure or campaign in Minecraft, is there? What do all these kids strive for?

Building stuff, mostly. My kids have made some very elaborate mansions, towers, dungeons, theme parks, etc.

Speaking from having watched my friends kid play it, and played it with him, I can say he enjoyed the building immensly just by itself. Building houses of all shapes and sizes in his world, tunnels and bridges to each building. He just let loose.

Also of greatness is the multiplayer, if you get it for the consoles you can play split screen (or online) and it's really quite neat to build stuff together. On the PC you can only, I think, play it multiplayer on line.

You can either play in the 'creative' which means you can't be harmed and have unlimited access to all the building blocks. Or you can play the 'survival' mode, in which you have to watch your back as soon as night time falls and you are required to hunt or grow (or fish for) food to keep your health up. Me and the kid play both modes, they both have their merit.

There is an actual thing called the End though now, in which if you manage to build a portal to the End you get to fight what I guess is kind of a end of game boss, a dragon. It's pretty cool actually, and if you kill it there is a rolling bizarre message.

The dragon at the end is imaginatively named the Ender Dragon.

There are also all sorts of user created maps you can download. They're built by programming and wiring modules using a in-game item called the "command block". The commands you run can be strung together to manipulate the game in all sorts of ways. Here is a list of maps the can be downloaded for free and run: http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/mapping-and-modding/maps/1457160-rsmalecs-maps-800-reviews#c2

When I have played minecraft or watched other people play, I've found that the most fun originates from multiplayer. The sheer amount of minigames modded into an endless amount of servers is a joy. I had lots of fun playing on one server's version of smash brothers and another server's "earth games". When I watch yogscast, I'm impressed by the amount of fun they have establishing a multiplayer roleplay world where the overseer barks orders and teams must compete for the best christmas tree, feast, and song. Watching funny people download and play custom adventure maps is also pretty enjoyable.

Adventure maps usually have their own story, characters, and environments. If I was going to build something to share with the world it would be an adventure map.

Xp
*I've had

If I were 25 years younger, this would own me

So is the "community" aware that most server install packages come loaded with malware?

Fallout 4, he beat the main quest, why?

Errr sorry wrong thread

So is the "community" aware that most server install packages come loaded with malware?

― El Tomboto, Saturday, December 12, 2015 1:28 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Uhhh. With anything on the internet, be careful, do research and look for red flags.

most of these things run in linux servers i believe, I don't think malware has been an issue

main issue is "hackers". people with auto-aim and treasure chest finders... less of an issue if you are playing minigames.

survival was more enjoyable (for me) on a server with factions. years ago I found a server and wandered off to do my own thing. eventually I would run into people and they wanted to team with me. maybe they were bored and impressed by my creations and experience farm. oddly enough I had more fun when I interacted with these young teens. but, unless you are on a whitelist server with very strict oversight, you're treasure chests will be found by hackers - it never fails. this, and servers resetting from scratch whenever a new minecraft update comes out, are annoying as hell. I still enjoyed survival (although with some extra faction/economy rules) the most when I was playing with other people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv6ZiwuwGpk
I built this store on a giant icicle coming out of the water. everybody fell for the trap (even the random guy that was there when I was recording this).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv6ZiwuwGpk

Hackers are an issue in almost every online multiplayer game, for sure.

What was the point of the trap in the center of the building?

you sit at the bottom of the whole
people fall to their death and you take their items

hole*

Ah, OK. I didn't realize it was for purely competitive purposes.

Here's what I've been up to:

https://zeldaminecraft.wordpress.com/

awesome!

https://i.imgur.com/ePL9MPG.jpg

Shopping bag cosplay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paoEeRG-j8U

Y’all see this in the theatre or am I the only oner? Chicken jockey etc

I have no idea what Minecraft is, and only know about the film because of Walter Chaw's devastating review: https://filmfreakcentral.net/2025/04/a-minecraft-movie-2025/

I spent 6 hours last Thursday with a 7 year old and a nearly 12 year old having them educate me on Minecraft. It was overwhelming and I came away with a headache and the knowledge I will never be able to play this game.

They had seen the movie a few days prior and were still so excited to talk about it.

I think my hair was singed by reading the Chaw review above

My younger son — who is now 17 and prompted me to start this thread a dozen years ago — went with all of his buddies. They all grew up on it, I think it was kind of an early-onset nostalgia thing for them.

https://i.redd.it/7fysrqtvw1ve1.jpeg

I've been spending more time on this game recently, although it never really truly ever went away from me. Both vanilla versions and modded, but vanilla really needs multiplayer to be worth the while. My friend only ever goes so far with it - maxes out all the villager trading, obtains ultra enchanted netherite items and then he's done and I'll still be on the server building a windmill or whatever.

When my son was into this game (early 2010s), I didn't understand the appeal at all. I just remember being taken aback at how bad the graphics were. During the pandemic, my daughter reached the age where she wanted to play it, and we spent some time playing it together. I liked creative mode the best - just building cool houses and stuff. She's been Minecrafting a lot with her friends on spring break. She says they're interested in seeing it, but they haven't made concrete plans to do so. I really wish I could go back in time and tell myself to be more supportive of it when my son was young.

Also, the Uncensored Library seems like a cool project: https://www.uncensoredlibrary.com/en

lol Jaq when did you run into my kids?

despite being intrigued by minecraft since the age of 6 - even having Minecraft underpants- my eldest only started getting really into it at his friend's house. then we got a Switch and then it was inevitable. saw the movie last week and we are going to some interactive thing in London.

my 7yo has written actual books about all the Minecraft things his brain is filled up with.

he walks around doing the "t... t... t... t" noise behind me even though I've banned it.

Serious "Sir, this is a Wendy's..." energy in that Chaw takedown.

OMG kinder I am imagining if yours met up with these two - utter Minecraft mania! Especially between the two younger ones. Oh to be able to harness all that energy

haha you learn to switch your ears off and retreat into your own world but with the ability to nod and say "mmm yes, netherite sword" every so often

My kid watches all these two hour long movies on YouTube that people make inside Minecraft. It’s nuts.

I wriggled out of seeing it this week: "Umm, I've got this, this thing I have to, you know, yeah sorry"

Kermode & Mayo’s response: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InDBKgjXZMY

I've never played Minecraft, my kids never played Minecraft, so I'll never see this. But I did recently visit my sister, who has two small kids, and at one point while I was there one of the kids was watching the "Super Mario Bros." movie (which I had also never seen). My sister lit up, because she said she's seen it 20 times but that it's so much better than the usual kids stuff, full of game references and gags and whatnot. I watched maybe 25 minutes and came away with the impression that it was exactly what I expected it to be, loud, perfectly fine, not terrible, nothing special, not particularly clever but also sure, could have been a lot worse. That's precisely what I imagine this is. Plus, I guess, people interacting and throwing shit, like "Rocky Horror" or Barenaked Ladies gigs.

Which, to be fair, could be one way to revitalize cinema going: just lean in and encourage people to throw shit. They could pass out ponchos like at a Gallagher show, replace the seats with material that can be hosed down, charge twice the price and say, have at it, you animals.

^^^^^^ would likely participate, says person who carried spray bottles into Rocky Horror during the early 80s

Many of these adaptations seem like they've been taken over by alt-comedy people. Like the Sonic the Hedgehog (Jean Rapphio's voice) spin-off show had not only Adam Palley but Julian Barratt (the Mighty Boosh), Edi Patterson (The Righteous Gemstones) and Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer (Giant Robot).

It's probably a great paycheck, and it's not like they are getting owned for life like doing a Marvel movie/series.

Yeah, a lot of these guys are character actors/comedians with a face for radio, so it makes sense they would be cast as voices and/or human cartoons.