Have you had good experiences with Minecraft and kids between 8-10? I have never used it, but I hear it's good for sparking creativity and connecting with their friends. Not sure if any downsides though.
Minecraft Good for Kids? Your Experiences
poboy on 13/09/2020 - 16:00
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Daughter is 8 and we play Minecraft, Minecraft Dungeons and a Minecraft knock-off called Trove. Each kid might be different, as my daughter likes playing the playable aspects of the games and the maps, not so much building things.
Other than that, it's more of a time waster game (not in a bad way) if you are just building things in it. It can teach them to plan things out and how to budget what they will need and how to go about sourcing enough of the materials. I would say that it's a pretty good game for kinds in this age bracket and a lot better than the toxic environments that exist in games like COD and Fortnite.
I agree, Fortnite is like the cancer of all games.
All the kids at the daughters school talk about it all the time and play school yard games based on what they think Fortnite is about, so I let me daughter have a go on it one day. 3 mins into a game, got killed, tea bagged and danced on and then the disgusting messages came rolling in. Git gud. Sell your console. Why do you even play…
It was a great learning experience for her to see just how toxic online gaming can be, heaven forbid they they knew she was a girl and 8 years old as well, I think the messages would have been far worse.
But, like anything internet related, I always tell people to monitor what their kids are saying and who they are saying it to and who is talking to them and if the other players are also being appropriate. Some parents don't realise that their kid is the toxic (fropanity) bag on gaming services.
Fortnite is now banned in our house, as is anything COD related, and the only time my daughter is allowed to chat to people on any gaming service is when I know who it is and I am actively in the party with them.
You’ve made a wise choice. Showing my age, but boy do I miss the days when kids (including myself) had were just some pokémon collection on their gameboys.
@RobBoss: To be fair, pokemon is pretty toxic too - designed to incite FOMO and get you to spend more money on what is basically the same game in a slightly different box.
I let me daughter have a go on it one day. 3 mins into a game, got killed, tea bagged and danced on and then the disgusting messages came rolling in. Git gud. Sell your console. Why do you even play…
This is what happens when the skills required to play games are eroded and games are made to cater to the lowest common denominator of stupidity in society. Games like Fortnite (at the level most people are playing at online) requires very little skill and strategy to play and attracts the sorts of individuals who do not respect the time and effort required to actually get good at a game and start winning.
In other words, it's symptomatic of a culture where winning is easy and develops unearned arrogance.
If you're looking for a healthy game environment, look into fighting games. I've been playing fighting games for years and the level of respect in the community is amazing. It's because you actually have to get good to start winning and everyone (even the best players) start out by losing a whole bunch before they start winning. There's something about grinding out hours in training mode that develops not just in-game skills, but also real-world character and life skills as well.
Same goes for RPG and strategy games…etc.
@p1 ama: Ridiculous take, games like Counter Strike, Dota or League of Legends take an immense amount of effort to learn and get good at. They also have toxic communities, easily much worse than Fortnite. "Git gud. Sell your console. Why do you even play" isn't really that bad, they're not appropriate for a child, but a child shouldn't be playing these types of games unless supervised.
You can play Fornite without having to communicate with strangers. Just play Team rumble with team filling turned off.
@Ughhh: Team communication wasn’t the issue. It was the toxic after game antics that went on and the messages that I can’t just turn off. Happier to just not that puerile and pathetic behaviour available for my kids to have to come in contact with.
@Ughhh: No, after the game to my daughters gaming account, not through in game chat. They messaged her some pretty horrible shit and were spamming with party chat invites, so I could only imagine what they had plans on saying.
I just reported them and blocked their accounts. Other than the COD community, the Fortnight community would be #2 for toxicity.
It was a great learning experience for her to see just how toxic online gaming can be, heaven forbid they they knew she was a girl and 8 years old as well, I think the messages would have been far worse.
Isn't Fortnight like rated PG 13 or something? So you're supposed to be like 13 years old to play….?
@Zachary: In Australia, Fortnite is rated at PG (PG13 is an American rating standard.) From the Australian classification website, the PG rating says…
PG-rated content is not recommended for viewing by people under the age of 15 without guidance from parents, teachers or guardians.
My daughter was supervised the whole time she was playing Fortnite. PG is not a restriction to age. The only classifications that have an age restriction are MA15+ and R18+
@pegaxs: Ah, I guess I'm too used to seeing their classification americanised…..damn trailers and marketing! hahaha
Should have joined in and retaliated to all those boys…and say you were your daughter's brother or something who's 8 and only protecting her. Hah…
My 12 year old son has been playing it since he was 4. Still plays it, but not as often. Goes through phases where he plays it all the time.
As others have said a mostly harmless activity. Not vastly educational.
Great game for creativity and thinking. The violence is cartoonish, no blood. It is also great to play together, my son (now 15) and wife are building a city together and have spent many happy hours playing.
For adults it is a great game for just relaxing and forgetting the woes of the world!
There's a wealth of lessons and projects online for Minecraft with an education spin. Games are good at engaging.
https://education.minecraft.net/class-resources/lessons
There's a few projects I used to teach based around a few different video games. The video game spin gets the students engaged a bit faster. You can adapt them at home to whatever you'd like your kids to focus on developing.
I used to teach an awesome project around Guitar Hero. Students would form groups - create rock bands, design logos/cd cases/t-shirts for their band, create a website, create a tour budget in excel, editing a music video….
It's perfectly good to shut them up and keep them quiet for extended periods of time.
Speaking from personal experience.What platform do your kids play it on? ie pc or ps4 etc?
Great music inspired
https://youtu.be/LLraFcGe_EA
https://youtu.be/MLKFtIC2Idw
https://youtu.be/EgkISsZG34IA family friend's son was watching the same half hour Minecraft video on YouTube for about 6 hours a day every day from the age of 3. We caught up with them when he was 4.5. They basically couldn't stop him from doing it he would throw blood curdling tantrums. Hopefully he has stopped it now as he'd be about 7
It’s a great game. If you’re concerned, play with your kid and you’ll see whether or not you approve. EB Games had/has a (7 days??) try and return policy and they do price match.
I played Minecraft with my kid once and returned it after a couple of days because he got scared and I didn’t know about ‘creative‘ mode. A few months later his cousin showed him all the cool things he built and my son wanted another go. He’s been playing the game since, altering settings as he gets goes.
My kids are similar age, like to play when they can. The only real downside is they never want to get off. There's always that one last block they need to put down.
I don't let them play any games online at the moment (older one always pestering me to play Roblox because everyone at school does) but they play local network Minecraft games together (and the sibling squabbles reach into the game too, one breaks the others build etc) and with friends sometimes when they bring their laptop over.
Younger one likes to do the addon puzzle maps.Got to say they build some impressive stuff sometimes though :)
My daughters have been playing it for about a decade, and still enjoy it. They started with a blank canvas, building their own worlds, then tried online worlds where you can explore or build in a multiplayer environment; the building requires planning and thining about how materials are sourced/made from nature (with a few magical exceptions).
For creativity you can try Minecraft Build Battles, where teams compete to build a themed space in a short time, and for strategy you can try Minecraft Bed Wars where teams compete to destroy their opponents' bases - a single game can go from minutes to hours, so the only real issue is limiting their daily screentime.
Minecraft is great for all ages, it’s like the lego of games. If you must think of a downside, maybe that there’s a bit of a violence involved (but creative mode solves it). And given the addictive nature of games to some kids, maybe that’s another issue. But the issues I’ve mention is a bit of a stretch when talking about Minecraft.