The psychology behind why children are hooked on Minecraft
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Still, although there's no set goals like in other games, this style of game has to have "affordances" for goals. Even the building activity in MC is not "free", as monsters are there to get in the way of the players' projects.
I also think that the social aspect is crucial, in the sense that having fun building things doesn't last, because one eventually runs out of ideas. Showing to others what you have achieved is an important part of it. Does art exist without an audience ? [2]
I think it is interesting to note that the fact that MC's world is fully editable by players is what drove the choice for the voxel technology, which was the only one allowing it with a normal PC at the time.
[1] https://www.luanti.org/ [2] https://thehoya.com/opinion/eye-of-the-beholder/
But not everyone likes to play in the sand but those that do, really do!
The old Legos. Where you got a bunch of bricks with no plans and the only limit was your imagination (and the quantity of bricks).
Of course children like it, just like they liked the original Legos.
And by the way, why children only? I'm playing on a semi-private (need to apply and be accepted by admins) 18+ builder's server on and off.
There are such things.
To be snarky, if you want an environment without dicks you should play on an adults only server. When we play, we're too busy building huge elaborate buildings and terraforming large portions of the landscape to build measly dicks.
But also, MC is simple enough that "a dick" is five blocks in a particular organization... and it quickly becomes boring, not to mention uncreative. Building dicks isn't as fun as Everything Else in the game.
[1] http://habitatchronicles.com/2007/03/the-untold-history-of-t...
Minecraft is very much NOT just like the old Legos.
https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Automatic_Binding_Bricks
were the old Legos. You may notice that the instruction booklet has a striking resemblance to basic Minecraft building...
... or is it the reverse?
He has been able to build and foster connections with friends who live on the other side of the country.
I’ve listened in on their conversations and they engage in imaginative free play as if they were in the same room. It’s a very different experience then when they play a goal directed game like Mario kart or smash bros.
Minecraft feels a very nice space in his life in ways that other games do not.
Also friendly reminder that its not the nicest thing to tell parents whats good for their kids
Why put a dampening on that for any reason?
And as a general rule, categorizing the way a specific person raises their kids based on an ill informed opinion about the general public is often received poorly.
Even if not, there's only so much time kids can spend at playgrounds. And sometimes it's cold outside. Just in general, it's good when kids have more options for social play.
It is not actually helpful to have a knee jerk reaction to "screens". Just like in real life, the specific activity a screen is being used for can be bad, or it can be good.
Could s/he not of made friends locally?
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
It’s rude to assume that they don’t have friends that are local. It’s also weird to assume that local friends are more valuable or meaningful that remote friends.
What the GP explained even expands to adults. I have three friends geographically dispersed who play a few on-line games together on Friday nights, mostly just messing around, while they sit on a Discord chat. I dont really get into on-line stuff anymore but I've sat in on their discord chats and its everything from silly jokes that might as well come from children all the way to serious politics and life stuff.
Metaverse spaces so have their place and use, but I agree, make sure they go outside and play IRL getting exercise as well as social and environmental exposure.
I love these threads, you can always spot the ones without kids or who forgot about their own childhood a mile off.
One world is pretty much wide open- Cheats and creative mode allowed. Extended family also allowed to play, build, explore. The other server is survival mode only with no cheats and just me and my son allowed to play.
It’s been so much fun switching between the worlds and getting different experiences in the same game. We have strict rules about screen time, but even off-hours it’s a great bonding experience talking about plans for next time we play. I say this as someone who used to be really into gaming growing up but cannot seem to ‘get into’ any game anymore. It’s the bonding that makes the difference.
One more note, it’s not all about screen time. The other day we went on a short hike at a park. ‘Went exploring’, kids aren’t interested in hikes. Anyway, it started sprinkling and had potential to go negative. But instead: ‘Dad, this is just like exploring in Minecraft!’. <3
I used to watch a lot of streams about another videogame (shooter). It is calming, no hard thinking, sometimes the streamer reads your comments which is the dopamine moment, also there is an ability to listen to some kool kid without a risk to be bullied. In my case it was a learning about how to play shooter games, what is FPV/TPV, where the danger is coming from typically, how to play while being on a low ground, or a high ground, how to use different gun parts. Sometimes donaters use to send payed challenges for the streamer like win the game having some handicap for which is always give some extra bits of entertainments because I know the streamer has a hard time.
Last but not least is the reason that my computer is a bit slow so connecting to the game takes a lot of time and there is a risk to be killed early which means at least 10 minutes of concentrated mind wasted, but seeing the streamer killed means I am in one click from another game on the culmination point.
What is not understandable by me is why Minecraft is interesting at all. Watching a proper shooter game is mostly the same as watching some military expert telling (for example) about how to clear a building, but playing blocks stopped being interested for me as soon as I have been introduced to some real-life activity like soldering some electronics - but there were no brainrot in my childhood.
Some even pay for premium channels to watch it.
In the UK football is so deeply engrained they talk of doing public holidays for when the England team finally wins a major international cup IIRC. The Olympics had/has some special subtext in international relations. So following sports has been deeply normalised in ways that probably polarises other similar practices (but for other interests) into seeming very fringe
There's no compelling narrative however, no drama, no danger/thrills, no ticking clock, no "will they or won't they", and no production value.
Yes!!!
I've recommended to my adult friends to play minecraft for at least ~5-10 minutes before they die.
There is something amazing about being able to dig wherever, build whatever, etc... There is a sort of freedom that I never had with blocks.
I am not telling these people to kill the ender dragon, but rather, play.
Actually, before Minecraft, Notch worked on a game called Wurm Online, which was a tedious and buggy MMO but which allowed you and your friends to manipulate the sandbox world, dig holes, flatten the environment, build roads, etc. With teamwork, they could do some really interesting things. But like I said, it was pretty tedious and slow.
For mechanistically intensive games it can be enjoying to watch masters play at a high level. Watching people win 1vs3 in Elden Ring or people do high level play in Monster Hunter or Devil May Cry is satisfying for someone who knows enough to appreciate the skill without having the time/desire in mastering frame specific inputs (I prefer directing that degree of focus to learning an instrument out of personal preference)
I initially discovered game streams because I find them perfect for falling asleep to lol
A good gaming video library, would look like a "go on your own adventure book"
But the interactive video thing never really took off.
Watching other people play video games (or sports) isn't my thing personally, but to each their own.
Children watching minecraft videos instead of playing minecraft don't even have to get off the couch. They just have to reach for the controller and remote, or even just for their phones, and they can do the activity they've been watching someone else doing.
Playing with blocks is fun. Watching a stranger who can't see or hear you play with blocks seems far less fun, but kids spend hundreds of hours doing exactly that.
I can understand people watching other video games that have characters and a plot, and I can understand people watching sports which have teams/players and a contest with an uncertain outcome, but watching a stranger play with blocks where there is zero story and zero stakes seems insane.
It may be simplistic or outdated, but one can start with Bartle's taxonomy of player types to understand the broad categories of players [1].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartle_taxonomy_of_player_type...
[1] https://www.specialeffect.org.uk/how-we-can-help/eyemine
But when I was 7 or 8 playing Kings Quest II was amazing to me. You walk around, and go anyplace you want, you could even swim if you type in swim, pure joy. I think this kind of freedom is the appeal to kids.
i still clock a few hours a week at 51. sometimes its just to occupy the brain, rip down a mountain, work on digging a perimeter..
other times its exploring modpacks and having a goal like more traditional games.
like that there are communities doing even more with it (mostly the well known groups similar to and including Hermitcraft)
I guess I shouldn't even ask of your opinion on some specific sexual minorities.
I also enjoyed watching people show off their advanced lego creations on youtube. However, despite my rather robust lego collection, the chance of me being able to replicate what I was seeing on the screen was near zero - there'd always be at least one crucial part I was missing, or I just didn't have the required quantity.
My first introduction to minecraft was via a youtube video - this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VWnQHS-ffs (the specific video isn't terribly relevant, but very nostalgic)
For the first time, I was playing with the same set of blocks as everyone else. Anything I could see someone else doing, I could do too.
Children live in a world filled with restrictions. In minecraft they are free.
And even that is restricted by time. We’d rather have her not spend time with any digital screens at all, and play with her friends, play with her toys, get outside, or even get bored.
She is doing great socially. The difference with her peers is that after school, they come home and watch TV until the dinner is ready, watch YT Kids throughout the dinner, and watch TV again till bed, cramming sweet snacks throughout and throwing temper tantrums if the constant flow of dopamine is in any way interrupted. They find playgrounds boring and regard friend meetups a burdensome sacrifice they have to make splitting from their screens in order to have some fun together. But actually no, because when they meet up they watch YT Kids or Tiktok, not on a shared device but individually. At best they’ll play Roblox. How do I know? Because that’s how she was until my parents decided maybe, just maybe human children are not really equipped to deal with superstimuli producing, biohacking machinery.
“But she won’t be able to handle real world once she grows up and has free access!” Yeah, no. It honestly tells more about the person saying it, what they view as “real world”. Do you honestly think that a neurologically fully developed, physically fit, social person with non-digital hobbies and great relationships is somehow going to turn into an doomscroller overnight when they get first exposed to Instagram at age 18? Hey, I had virtually unrestricted access in my childhood, and at age 20 I have myopia, hernia, scoliosis, and I will turn into a doomscroller overnight if you install any social media app on my phone (I have ADHD so it’s harder for me but still.)