I have officially been slacking the last several weeks. We have discovered this game called Minecraft, that has probably heard of. My boy has been playing it a lot. He loves the game, because he can do pretty much anything that he wants. We love how creative it allows him to be.
I actually purchased the game, Java version, about 7 years ago when I heard about it. The first person nature of the view made me sick! I also spent like 5 hours trying to find diamonds one time, and after that it felt like a huge waste of time! It was a fun 5 hours, but what did I accomplish? Just an appreciation for the developer and the awesome game he created.
Discovery again..
As my boy started getting older and bored of the games he was playing, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce him into Minecraft. This is when I discovered you can’t just buy one version of the game. My computer had the Java version, but if you wanted to play it on the iPad, you have to make another purchase. I purchased another copy (ugh! I’m a cheapo) and he didn’t quite understand it. It sat there for several months with no one playing it.
Youtube
Somehow the Minecraft videos started showing up on his Kids YouTube and I think this sparked another interest. He watched this girl who would narrate her adventures. She has this voice that is hard to listen to for very long. Unfortunately, her voice didn’t bother him, just his parents! The boy has been playing everyday for about 2 months!
Funny thing has happened though, minecraft has replaced his Kids YouTube addiction. He hardly ever watches it anymore, so we don’t get the opportunity to listen/watch the girl anymore. (so sad)
Multiplayer
This is where I come into the picture! I thought it would be awesome if we could play together, but we didn’t know how to do it. How we figured this out escapes me, but I downloaded the game on our other iPad. When the game loaded his name showed up under the “Friends” tab. WOOHOO We were stoked to be able to play with each other. If you want to play with someone else, you have to be on the same network and it has to be a Pocket Edition.
We have found out that our wifi has some issues or one of the iPads has a problem with the WiFi, so we are disconnected from the network a lot. This is a huge point of anger in both of us!
Survival vs Creative
Another lesson we had to learn was what Creative and Survival mode was. We found that Creative allowed us to have everything, fly, do what we want, and the big plus: There were no Zombies trying to kill us. We loved this, because we could literally do anything and the boy had a ton of fun!
I made the mistake of trying Survival mode a couple weeks ago. It was super fun not having everything and trying to fight to keep your belongings. The boy wants to switch back to some of the old Creative maps we played in the past, and it isn’t fun anymore. He always wants me to play his little games and I try and comply it’s just not as fun anymore.
Bonding
This has become a crazy addiction and we have wasted a lot of time, but the bonding we have done has been worth it! The boy has had a blast and always wants me to play with him. We talk a lot about the game and discuss ideas we want to try. There have been many How to Videos watched on YouTube. We even spent one day creating a Gold Farm from a YouTube video we watched. This turned out to be a daunting task and an 8 year old isn’t as patient as he should be. We had a hard time creating said Farm.
I get a little frustrated with him breaking my stuff from time to time, but I’m learning to let it slide. The fun he is having and the time spent is more valuable than my digital creation 🙂
Downside
The one downside to this game that I don’t like is killing animals. In creative mode, you can create a bunch of animals and then torture them. The idea of survival is to kill those trying to kill you. You also kill animals to use them as resources, etc. My son likes to build cemeteries for his animals that are still alive. He likes to torture the animals. The last thing I want is my boy growing up to think that is fun :). Yes, I worry too much.
Good times
All in all it has been a great game and we have spent a lot of good time playing. I’m looking forward to play many more hours with him and discovering new mini-sections of the map we can explore.
Thanks for reading my boring post, hopefully more exciting posts will come.