Minecraft & Other Games...

I am very suspicious of the on-line games, but my Hubby checked this one out and now my 9 year old, my 13 year old and my Hubby play it!!!

Hubby compares it to playing LEGO's on the computer. A lot of building and problem solving type stuff.

I have to laugh when I go down stairs and find all three of them playing at the same time. My husband has to get advice from the 9 year old at times for how to do something.

Minecraft is fantastic for ANY age (seriously, 4 or 5yo on upward to adult.... and it's played by that age range).

There are 2 ways to play:

- Singleplayer
- Multiplayer

In single player you can generate as many worlds as you want, set it on creative (can't die, nothing attacks you ever) or easy>hard (you have to eat to maintain your health, monsters attack).

This is MY favorite way to play.

In Multuplayer you connect up with servers which have "set" worlds and other people on them (50-1000). There are public servers, and there are private servers. My (9yo) son is on two homeschool servers, a younger crowd set (ages 5-10) and an open age server... and about a dozen public and private servers.

This is HIS favorite way to play, because he likes building with other people and talking with other people.

ALSO... multiplayer is where you find "adventure maps" where you have to essentially do a big treasure hunt or quest.

In singleplayer you can save your work as you go (absolutely nothing happens while you're gone). In multiplayer, you can't save your work... but unless someone comes along and destroys it ("griefing"... just like it sounds, causing someone grief by messing with or destroying their stuff or stealing from them... most, but not all, servers have strict rules against griefing other players... how well it's enforced varies from server to server)

PRIMARILY this game is like Legos on Angeldust. Worlds generate (deserts, forests, islands, grasslands, mountains) from various seeds and you make tools out of trees, rock, iron, etc... and you mine for more components to build with. What you build is up to you. People do pirate coves, treehouses, castles, mines... check out this link to get a tip of the iceberg idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIhs8_m5qPc

This is one of those almost infinite possibility games... people have done some amaaaaaazing things. We've been playing it for a couple years now in Beta (the full version just came out not long ago). There are ALSO a lot of mods, skins (to change your appearance), and texture packs.

Budding and serious game designers are having a BLAST with this game, because you can write your own mods.

It's very, very fun.

There's quite a steep learning curve, however, and it involves quite a bit of research on how to make the various things you might need or want to make.

During my son's research, he came across Yogscast, which are 2 british guys who are absolutely HILARIOUS. There's a BIT of swearing (pg13 level) in some of the videos... but they are hands down the best (imho) out of all the videos of and about Minecraft that are out there. The EARLY casts have far less swearing than later on, when they learned that they could get away with it. The intro to minecraft & Shadow of Israphael series I highly, highly, recommend... but know, we're talking hundreds of hours of video.
Diggy Diggy Hole!!! You might have to search a bit for the intro to minecraft and part 1 Shadow of Israphael, as they're very prolific (they did a 12 days of christmas goat theme (raising money &/or goats to get goats to needy families). New stuff comes out almost every day, and NOT all of it is related to Minecraft, but the vast majority is.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BlueXephos

When my son was younger, he played Roblox (simlar concept, nowhere near as well executed)... but after playing Minecraft, we've decided to shelve Roblox. You can't save in Roblox, and the world goes on without you, and the platform is just cumbersome and twitchy. There's also not servers in Roblox done in the same way... so it's not possible for private gaming, or age level gaming, or etc. SO you end up with a 5yo in with 16yos swearing their heads off. :P Minecraft, though, you can either seek out public servers with enforced rules OR make your own server and make your own rules of conduct. Lovely.

I think you may be referring to "Minecraft". My 13 yr old loves it, (direct quote "Minecraft is Awesome!" "and is great for ANY age").

You do not HAVE to play interactively with others, but you can. So check out whether you are okay with that. My understanding is that you pretty much just build your own world.

My 10 yr old daughter likes it too. I haven't seen anything really objectionable. There are zombies, so if you have issues with that, be aware they are in it.

ETA: wow the typos in my first response! Sheesh. Note to self: no fish dip and pita chips while typing... lol

Both my boys play it..my oldest has been playing for almost a year now. He bought the full version after playing the free version for a while. For Christmas he asked us to help him buy the full version for his brother. My boys are 15 and 11. Several kids in our neighborhood play and the ages range from 9 to 15.

Little late on this one.
I didn't knew the game but I Google it and it seems very fun and "right" for your son age. I think it is like the Sims but for younger kids and with more use of imagination.

My kids have been playing it for ages... they have a HUGE world/server they created that their online friends go into all the time.