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The Minecraft Parent
HughPickens.com writes: Michael Agger has an interesting article in the New Yorker about parenting in the internet era and why Minecraft is the one game parents want their kids to play. He says, "Screens are no longer simply bicycles for the mind; they are bicycles that children can ride anywhere, into the virtual schoolyard where they might encounter disturbing news photos, bullies, creeps, and worse. Setting a child free on the Internet is a failure to cordon off the world and its dangers. It's nuts. ... The comfort of games is that they are partially walled off from the larger Internet, with their own communities and leaderboards. But what unsettles parents about Internet gaming, despite fond memories of after-school Nintendo afternoons, is its interconnectivity. Minecraft is played by both boys and girls, unusually. ... At its best, the game is not unlike being in the woods with your best friends. Parents also join in."
According to Agger, the significance of Minecraft is how the game shows us that lively, pleasant virtual worlds can exist alongside our own, and that they are places where we want to spend time, where we learn and socialize. "To me what Minecraft represents is more than a hit game franchise," says new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. "It's this open-world platform. If you think about it, it's the one game parents want their kids to play." We need to meet our kids halfway in these worlds, and try to guide them like we do in the real world, concludes Agger. "Who knows how Minecraft will change under Microsoft's ownership, but it's a historic game that has shown many of us a middle way to navigate the eternal screens debate."
According to Agger, the significance of Minecraft is how the game shows us that lively, pleasant virtual worlds can exist alongside our own, and that they are places where we want to spend time, where we learn and socialize. "To me what Minecraft represents is more than a hit game franchise," says new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. "It's this open-world platform. If you think about it, it's the one game parents want their kids to play." We need to meet our kids halfway in these worlds, and try to guide them like we do in the real world, concludes Agger. "Who knows how Minecraft will change under Microsoft's ownership, but it's a historic game that has shown many of us a middle way to navigate the eternal screens debate."
A few weeks ago, at my kid's school, their info tech teacher mentioned that kids are much better at things like Google Sketch-up, and a lightweight CAD product they spend some time on, than they were a few years ago. She credited Minecraft as teaching them to visualize things in 3D. If that's truly the case, Satya might be on to something. That said, after about 15 minutes of hearing the music in the game I get the urge to climb a bell tower.
Solving Unix problems since 1989...
there COULD be. my son and daughter work together to build the worlds they create in the game; they've gone to great lengths to reconstruct their own school, and dug deep to learn how to accomplish things with just the goofy 8-bit tools provided. It's a large interactive puzzle, it seems, and they get to decide what the picture is.
Granted, it's no Galaga or Vanguard, LOL
Wow, where to start?
While a game was supposed to be nonviolent, plenty of Minecraft servers seem to have added functionality that allows direct fighting and ability to kill other players. Chat capabilities go unmonitored and "adult language" is widespread.
So do not let your child play, unsupervised, on these public servers. You cannot get to a server without specifically adding the server address (which you typically get by searching on the internet).
On a personal level, it annoys me that a game world with a level of 3d graphics and physics sophistication that was state of the art 20 years ago is extremely popular today, but I can see the draw of "retro" look and feel.
So graphics trumps gameplay for you? I still play my favorite NES/SNES games on an emulator because of how much fun they are, not what they look like.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
A friend of mine's kid plays incessantly. Not even in kindergarten, but can build gigantic, amazing structures. And then he blows it all up. :)
Major plus sides:
Ability to express creativity with no real cost but time
Ability to socialize with others without having to worry about getting beat up
Ability to exercise lots of things, like planning. I mean, when we were kids, we built forts in trees to throw pinecones at each other, snow forts from which to throw snowballs at each other, and cardboard forts at which to shoot each other with bb guns. Now kids can kinda do the same in a video game. Plan out the fort, build the fort, then tear it all down and do it again, even better this time.
I'm pretty impressed with the game, but haven't actually played it myself. Shame. I wish I had more time for play these days.
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
It takes a little effort on the parents part. You don't have to micromanage just do your due diligence to make sure your kids are safe. You can make a list of "whitelisted" servers your kids can go on or create your own either by buying a realm or setting one up yourself. Then heres the magic part, you fucking pay attention to what your kids are doing, check logs occasionally or monitor the servers themselves a little. You don't just give them a toy or cell phone or laptop and say now go away (at least I hope you don't). Its not a baby sitter its entertainment and you as a parent still have to do your job. A little supervision and some research makes it a completely safe place. I have 3 kids 16, 14, 10 and they all have been playing minecraft safely for a few years now.
I watch my son play minecraft and I like what I see... creativity, use of a commandline, interaction with his friends (he's usually on the phone to a friend who moved away across the country, so it's a good way for them to stay in touch). It's fine for half an hour a day or so. On the other hand, when I see my nephew play minecraft I'm appalled. The chat messages are full of nasty, hateful language. It seems to me that the user experience varies greatly from one server to another.
Nullius in verba
We have 3 kids, two of whom are BIG into Minecraft. (The 3rd. one, our 11 year old daughter, just kind of played along since the other two were so into it -- but it's not really her thing.)
IMO, any of these computer games that encourage kids to actually create and think are a good thing. The "Little Big Planet" series of games on the PS3 work a similar way (but have much better graphics, as they're not trying to do the retro, early 80's block graphic look).
The original article's author seems to be implying that they're also a "win" for parents in the sense it gives kids a place to play and explore on the net that's still relatively safe. Unfortunately, I think that's less true than some people might think.
Our youngest girl (a first-grader, who was able to chat/type far above her grade level) ran across a fellow Minecraft "player" who turned out to be some kind of perv -- getting kicks out of sending her links to hard-core porn photos and videos, etc. She was still too young to really get what was going on with all of that. But we had to have a talk with her and make sure she knows never to give out ANY personal information in the game -- and have to review what she's doing in the game more closely now.
As much as there is to dislike about Sony and its money-grabbing, proprietary ways? I will say they seem to have a lot more invested in locking down the play environment - so I feel this sort of thing is less likely an issue in a game like LBP.
Uh? Minecraft is supposed to be nonviolent?
A game in which you start off fighting zombies, skeletons and exploding texture errors (creepers) to work your way to building a portal to hell (the Nether) to get the supplies you need to fight a giant dragon is nonviolent?
Okay then. If you say so.
But... But...... Then children might learn that they can make their own entertainment without needing to pay Hollywood to imagine it for them! You monsters! What are you doing to our children???!!!!
=)
Of all the things my 14 year old could have gotten hooked on, Minecraft doesn’t even register in the “lesser of evils” category. A little moderation is a good thing, but compared to having his brain rot in front of the TV, I’ll take Minecraft any day. He’s imagining & implementing the things he imagines, and he’s communicating and cooperating with his peers. Most of them are even in our geographical area and/or in his school which puts his online social interactions a good bit better than my own at his age where my closet emotional connections were to people I’ve never seen who lived on the other side of the country.
And as far as TFS’ assertion that, “Setting a child free on the Internet is a failure to cordon off the world and its dangers,” may I just say, “Fuck you!” I’ve never once felt the need to shield my son from reality. We’ve talked to him throughout his life about the fact that there are bad people and that there are things you should never do online because they could put you at risk in the real world (sharing personal information, arranging to meet people, etc.). I think my son is a much better adjusted young human being for the trust and faith that we’ve shown that we have in him. Teaching, guidance, and trust are much better tools than surveillance and censorship. It’s the same approach that my parents took with me (admittedly more out of ignorance of what the Internet was at the time on their part). It worked out alright for me, and my son has never done anything to make me regret taking the same approach with him.