Are your kids obsessed with Minecraft? This gamer dad will show you how it is a good thing.
—
I’m a gamer and see many benefits to playing video games. I also believe that video games have become a scapegoat for problems with children today. Minecraft is no different and anyone with eight to ten year old kids knows there is no escaping the world of Minecraft. All things have some benefit and playing Minecraft is no different. Here are five positive things Minecraft is teaching your kids that you might not realize.
- Understanding Networks and Servers: Just to be clear Minecraft is not teaching IT level skills but the game is helping learn the basics. At the very least it is teaching William the basics of computer manipulation so he can play Minecraft with friends. When playing on a PC he needs some knowledge of how to use and create the servers in the game so he can play with friends; unlike console versions that does the work for you. My son sets up servers so he can play with friends in his own world, create the rules and regulations for game play, and allow only those people he wants to participate in the world. There have been times that his friend load was heavy and he had to set up a network connection between both mine and his laptops to allow enough computing power for his server to run without crashing. This always leads to him begging me to rent server space for him to play his game “with all his friends.” The fact that my son has the knowledge of where to go to rent server space would be impressive at twenty years old let alone nine. A little tip here, if your son plays Minecraft on a PC and you have home network issues, ask him to look at it.
- Navigating a PC: For most of us this is not rocket science but learning where files go when saving is important. If you want to play your worlds on a different PC you need to bring those worlds with you. This means understanding where the saved file is, how to navigate to it in explorer, copy it, move it to either a cloud or flash drive, load that file on the new PC and save it in the correct location. When playing the game with modifications (MODS) it involves finding and downloading the MODS. This might sound harmless but making sure you navigate some of this websites without downloading malware can seem impossible. Once he finds the correct file William will run a scan on the website with our internet security software to make sure it safe and download it to his MOD file on the desktop. From there he needs to create the folders and save the correct data files. He needs to ensure the MOD versions and Minecraft Forge versions match just so the modification will communicate with the original game. Finally all this has to be set up with proper file direction so Java can start the game. As you can see this takes a little more skill then simply uploading a picture to Facebook. So if that cute picture of your child on the potty is missing your Minecraft player most likely hid it in a folder with a very official sounding name.
- Learning about other cultures: William plays on both PC and Xbox and has a ton of “friends” online. The conversations they have while playing may surprise you. The other night he was playing and they were talking about how much homework they get, how long they go to school each day and what they are learning in class. I’ve heard them talk about weather, stores they have, and what else they do for fun. He learned about Cricket recently and listening to the squeaky British voice repeat over and over again that it’s not like American Baseball was amusing. They are introduced to things from around the world as shared by kids their own age with their own perspective on it. Who knows maybe in the future world leaders would have know each other for years on Minecraft.
- Delegation: This might seem odd in a game but with how complex the things these kids build everyone needs to have a role and job. Sometimes I look at what he has built and ask, “How is that even possible?” William has explained to me that each friend has something they are really good at and they just help finish the world. The nice part of it is the owner of the world is the “boss” giving out direction to those that are playing with them. It teaches the kids how do give direction without being mean and take direction without being argumentative. They all take pride in the final project no matter whose world they are building. These Minecraft kids seem to understand that when working to a larger goal you need to break things down, split the work, and complete the task. Maybe Congress should spend their next session playing Minecraft so they can cooperate as well as a group of nine year olds.
- Failure: This is something that isn’t taught or allowed very much anymore. I have watched my son work for hours on something for it not to work out as planned. He made this epic looking cannon recently, which was suppose to launch himself to his “Sky House.” I remember when he called me in to watch the maiden voyage for it and to say the least it didn’t go so well. He lit the TNT and the cannon blew a hole the size of the Grand Canyon in his map. To add insult to injury he made it nowhere near his “Sky House.” He didn’t get mad or quit. He did message a friend to make sure he had the right dimensions and was using the correct blocks to help prevent the same result. After a bit of rethinking he started again one block at a time. With any luck he might get it working this weekend. I admire him for his reaction because I know I wouldn’t be as calm if I put three hours into something for it to fail so epically.
Minecraft might be everywhere and be all these kids want to talk about right now but if we sit back and look at this game objectively without our initial prejudice we might see much more positive from it.
Best of all, if we play it with them, we might all learn something!
Photo: Flickr/Jon Alexander