whats it like, out 7 year old has just asked to get it and i’ve never heard of it. just wondered what its like?

cheers

Google is your friend

I have such a child. Seems to be about building stuff, maybe a very simple Sim City. Mine loves it. Don’t see any reason not to let him.

my 11yr old plays it and so do her mates at school

seems OK to me – there’s quite a bit of youtube action when she’s working out how to do stuff. I suppose youtube links could be followed and end up somewhere you don’t like

(In 1 version of the play, your kid can get killed by some sort of monsters – I guess that could be scary for a little kid but I doubt it)

Anna says it’ll be fine but warn them about the monsters

Yep, got a 10 year old and a 5 year old that would play it all day (if i let them) its a game they enjoy playing (along with the lego range of games). I also have a friend who is 34 and plays it daily.
I don’t get it myself but i play games they want to play but aren’t allowed.

My nephews play that loads.

My son plays it a lot on his xbox, he loves it, I find it weird but its a harmless game.

My nephew plays it and a friend’s daughter does too. She’s 6 and obsessed with it and the myriad of YouTube tutorial videos.

I’m 50 and its the only game I play. I just play the pocket version on tablet and its a relaxing way to waste an hour.
There’s no real objective, you just stay alive and make stuff.
Apart from the amount of time you can potentially waste I’d struggle to see any concern.

My two 9&10 love it, as do loads of my older two children’s friends who are all in the twenties

Of all the games ive seen over the years I really have no problem with minecraft – its like virtual lego with animation and no risk at all of being knelt or trodden on accidentally 🙂

8 year old son is obsessed by it. Harmless and does let them get creative, although they will spend all their time playing it if you let them.

Actually quite educational Martin – they have to build stuff and mine to collect the resources. Luke asks about lapis lazuli (spg?) and whether granite is harder than sandstone etc.
Seems good for developing memory and spatial awareness too. It’s not a react to the screen type game and is free from fighting, cars etc

Just keep an eye on what they are doing if they start using the myriad of online servers. Some are strict around language and griefing but others aren’t…

Seems to be Sim City meets a strange world of Lego – my 10 year old plays but finds it not that interesting. A mate recently put some software on his PC to monitor how his three boys were sharing use of the computer and found that the eldest one was getting up at 4am every morning to get an extra couple of hours of Minecraft in, so it obviously appeals to some more than others.

There are certainly far worse games they could take an interest in.

Two of mine love it (playing it right now) – played a lot on their tablets and they wanted/got it as part of their birthday present.
Seems good and apparently it’s actually quite good for them as it encourages creativity.

I’m a fan of raspberry pi’s and you can now download some stuff that allows the kids to learn some python programming using minecraft.

My lad loves it, as above I’ve ended up playing it too on my phone. Its lego but better.

I’ve not got kids but played it a lot for a period of time (before I discovered the kerbal space programme…).

Pretty much the only objective to my playing was to just build cool stuff and make big ole mines. It can certainly be educational, you can build logic gates using redstone etc… to control things like doors.

There are additional add-ons which can allow for a range of additional creativity to be applied.

It’s fine for his age. I know a lot more about it than any man should… 🙁

You can turn monsters off and just mine and build stuff, although the monsters aren’t exactly menacing. It’s just like supercharged lego.

Google ‘redstone crafting’ for an idea of what you can get up to at a more advanced level.

My only advice would be to not let him play on servers with other kids for a bit, and turn off chat when you do, as kids can be a bit mean and steal/break your stuff/kill you, accompanied with lots of naughty words on the chat.

Kids? Pfft. I occasionally play myself.

I like it just for wasting a bit of time and just building random stuff. Its quite fun working out how to build complex machines too (there is a simple electrical system on it that allow you to use logic gates for circuits).

Id probably play more if my computer could handle it better.

My only advice would be to not let him play on servers with other kids for a bit, and turn off chat when you do, as kids can be a bit mean and steal/break your stuff/kill you, accompanied with lots of naughty words on the chat.

this and as my daughter is a bit older some of the youtube stuff needs parental input – otherwise great but a tad obsessive – we have time limits

Cheers sounds fine, he loves Lego and wanted to by the construction handbook for minecraft, I then realised it was a computer game and asked him why he wanted the book without the game. It was to work out how to build everything, as he’d tried it at a mates house, so he would know if he got the game at home.

Watch out for most of the Youtube vids. Yogscast is the biggest one and the language is not what I want my kids hearing.

The shut-in who narrates it signs off with “Bye shitlords”. Not appropriate for little uns in my opinion.

is free from fighting

Not quite. If they join a server there can be fighting other players, there’s also the zombies, endermen, creepers, skeletons and spiders who will attack you. Add to that kids soon learn how to add mods then it may not be fighting free. It’s completely harmless though basically a leg world.

My 8 year old plays it lots the time and spends a lot of time watching stampy longhead minecraft videos, seems harmless.

Some of it is art.

Never mind that how about the whole of the UK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24177844

Woah . . . Does that mean you’ll able to load your route gpx’s into minecraft, no real benefit but it would be cool!

joolsburger – Member
My 8 year old plays it lots the time and spends a lot of time watching stampy longhead minecraft videos, seems harmless

My 9 yr old has asked me to correct you joolsburger. Its stampy longnose, apparently. She too spends lots of time on it. Kept her quiet in the car coming back from the lakes today. Some of her buildings are really quite impressive.

My youngest is 6 and loves it.

Her favourite person who does the minecraft videos is I has cup quake.

Had 3 kids prior to Minecraft,also had use of several p.c’s and an average electricity bill! 9 year old is up at 6 a.m. everyday, she also picked up on the longnose error above. Go for it,you can give guidance and vet what can be seen as needed,have fun!

I (aged 47) disappear into it for the odd hour or two now and then, survival mode is the choice for me, works a treat on my Galaxy Note 3 as well as the laptop.

Yep my 2 also love minecraft ….. And those flaming stampy vids.
No issue with the game or his vids as he doesn’t swear but my eldest use to play it on the lap top and managed to download one of those website hijacking viruses in a quest to get some sort of cheat code thingy, so just make sure they don’t download extras for the game as they aren’t from safe servers.

As above! 3 children aged 11,9 and 7 and all obsessed.
However it does seem.to have brought them together as my oldest shares his knowledge with his younger sisters and it’s a constant source of conversation between them.

Stamp bloody long nose is very annoying though.

My 11 year old daughter has been playing for over a year, she has nearly finished a build of her school, including some classrooms full of sheep! 😉

Quite amazing how it develops.

I have tried to set up a server, so she can see other classmates works, but its beyond me! (if anyone knows how to set one up in simple steps, I would be grateful)

My 6 and 10 year old boys love it, squid and stampy vids are legendary, seems more creative and constructive than some activities, watch out for fake stampy’s on YT and Instagram, some sick people out there on tut web.

Ski you can rent minecraft servers very cheaply which may be easier if you can’t work it out.

Nobby Jr goes through phases of using it – some of the creations are really quite impressive.

My boys played this at their cousins at the weekend and would like me to get it for them. I don’t have a PC (I have a Mac) and the only games console we have in the house is a PS2.

I see there is a “pocket edition” for the iPad. Is that worth having or will they just outgrow it and then want/expect a new games console to play the full version? Bear in mind they are only 5 and 7.

Eventually they’ll want it on PC/Mac or console, IMO. Pocket edition is OK for now but lacks a lot of the features that the kids will want.

It does work on Mac, I believe.

Chances are they’ll want a console of some kind in the next few years anyhow. 🙂

@ski

You can set up a small server on the Amazon cloud for free for a year (well it was last time I checked). As long as you don’t use it too much it shouldn’t cost you anything to run.

Good guide here:

Setting up a free Minecraft server in the cloud – part 1