What's The Point Of Mine Craft?

dandoolittle

dandoolittle

Site owner, lovely and adorable
my sons got like silly obsessed with it. I just don't get it?


Any players that can explain?

You just walk around and dig for stuff?
 
It's pretty much a creative type game. Dig around for materials and build some pretty crazy bases. Also lots of engineering different things with redstone. There are some pretty impressive builds you can do. I play it to build amazing creations.
 
I still play it every once and a while and although the building stuff got boring to me, you can create some very interesting stuff. You can make logic gates which are the basis for memory cells, adders, flip-fops, and all sorts of electrical components. And from there you can make arithmetic logic units, decoders, clocks, registers, and ram which just so happens to be what you would find in a computers cpu. I am currently working on a 16 bit calculator and you can't say that for many games.
 
You can do some pretty advanced creations in there. It can be quite addictive. Still prefer a shooter or racing game anyday lol.
 
iv played it a little with my son he loves it he likes me to build stuff so he can destroy it think of the blocks as pixels and u can create sum cool things like a giant replica of your bike :)
 
dandoolittle said:
my sons got like silly obsessed with it. I just don't get it?


Any players that can explain?

You just walk around and dig for stuff?
Click to expand...


Simple, remember Lego.
You know, the childhood of you and me and many other boys and girls.

Well, this is Lego on the console, with a bit more options and some living animals.
Lego 2.0 kinda xD

And without the loss of materials or stepping on bricks ;)
 
Minecraft is a sandbox environment, basically. In creative mode you can build like any other block system ... LEGO, etc. But there are active components as well. So you can build a rail system and send your buddy into a wall of TNT, or build a working volcano ... or build a system of music boxes that are self-actuated and play "Where is my Mind" by The Pixies. When you get into that engineering realm you can do about anything with an array of very simple tools.

In Survival mode you start with nothing and punch trees a lot. But once you down a tree you can make an axe from that wood. Then make a pick, which lets you break rock. Then you make new tools from that rock. Then build a forge to smelt ore. Then build metal tools, and so on. You can eventually craft every item available in creative mode, and there is a feeling of accomplishment when you work for a long time gathering materials to make a cool thing, or even just a neat house.

I think it's great for kids if we can get away from the "you need to go outside and play" stuff. I grew up playing video games and they can be productive. I'm certain that a lot of my problem solving ability came from things like FF Tactics when I was in high school.

Minecraft, when approached as such, can be a great learning tool for problem solving and basic mechanical understanding.
 
SighBored said:
Can't see the point of Mine Craft, might as well give them Lego blocks to build stuff and be creative.
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That's where I'd really like to rein that thought in.

Minecraft is exactly what Lego was supposed to be, only better. With Legos you can build stuff, creates mechanisms (even electrical ones). Minecraft does exactly that, building stuff with blocks with the option of creating mechanisms using Redstone wires/switches/levers/logic gates. But Minecraft not only has deeper systems, like every block having a certain control logic to it, unlike Lego blocks, it also gives the child a world to explore, build or destroy.

Also it's fucking digital, takes no space in your house when they grow up and chuck the fucking Legos away, and cost a hell lot less.

If anything, I think Legos are better given to adult collectors than kids. Kids, I'll give them Minecraft anyday.

Besides, if you worry your kid is gonna be antisocial because he ain't playing with his friends or siblings with Legos, you can just teach them how to set up a server or join one together and play online. Now you killed two birds with one stone, social activity AND technical knowledge.
 
im 24, and I love minecraft. it's a great game. it's a lot more than just digging and building. There are an insane amount of mods for the game that can turn it into literally anything. There are FPS mods, Pokemon mods, Racing mods, all kinds of stuff.
 
I still believe playing with Lego (or any other brand) bricks > Minecraft. Yes, Minecraft is digital, unlimited resources, cheaper, etc. However, it's more challenging when you have a limited amount of pieces to work with (because we all can't be buying every set out there), and use your imagination to re-use a piece that was suppose to be a castle door (for example) and re-purpose it for another build from your own imagination and later if you get bored, re-imagine how to re-use that piece for some other creation in your head.

True, one might say I'm biased to Lego because I had Lego during my childhood but no Minecraft or such games. My comeback is that the times you have with your build and physical Lego creations which you can hold, move, and physically play with > some digital thing you created and just able to admire by moving your mouse around.

These are just my personal opinions anyway, and do not represent that Lego is better or etc.
 
SighBored said:
My comeback is that the times you have with your build and physical Lego creations which you can hold, move, and physically play with > some digital thing you created and just able to admire by moving your mouse around.
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I think this applies to everything in the current digital generation. I personally struggle with the need for a physical "thing." With movies, video games, etc I've always preferred the disc rather than a digital version. I'm slowing adopting the new all-digital approach though. There are trade offs with each.

But I think it's the same with the rest of our lives. We see a digital creation as less than a physical one. Just like kids playing outside with friends is more highly valued than digital interaction via social media or a video game.

I think it comes down to what we actually value and/or need. Do we just want our kids to play outside because we did, or do they really need the physical activity to be healthy? Are they shunning other social activities and choosing to spend time alone online with negative results? Are they "just playing games" or are they learning to solve complex problems and developing advance spacial aptitude?

There is no one answer to any of this. Every situation is different and so is every person.
 
I had Legos as a kid, but I also played tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, Twilight 2000, Paranoia etc. Aside from books, modules, maps etc. the world of RPGs took place largely in the heads of the players. It's was about as close to Virtual Reality as we could get in the early to mid 80s, since our PC RPGs were mostly text only (remember Zork?) and consoles were pretty primitive (First console was the Atari 2600). If I were a kid today, I'd probably be all about Minecraft.
 
SighBored said:
I still believe playing with Lego (or any other brand) bricks > Minecraft. Yes, Minecraft is digital, unlimited resources, cheaper, etc. However, it's more challenging when you have a limited amount of pieces to work with (because we all can't be buying every set out there), and use your imagination to re-use a piece that was suppose to be a castle door (for example) and re-purpose it for another build from your own imagination and later if you get bored, re-imagine how to re-use that piece for some other creation in your head.

True, one might say I'm biased to Lego because I had Lego during my childhood but no Minecraft or such games. My comeback is that the times you have with your build and physical Lego creations which you can hold, move, and physically play with > some digital thing you created and just able to admire by moving your mouse around.

These are just my personal opinions anyway, and do not represent that Lego is better or etc.
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Played/used both.
Having something in your hand and using it 3D does work better for mind education the a 2D game.

But if they have to play a game i would prefer minecraft above some of the other sh*t that is out there (damn, this makes me sound old....)
 
MattW said:
I think this applies to everything in the current digital generation. I personally struggle with the need for a physical "thing." With movies, video games, etc I've always preferred the disc rather than a digital version.

I think it comes down to what we actually value and/or need. Do we just want our kids to play outside because we did, or do they really need the physical activity to be healthy? Are they shunning other social activities and choosing to spend time alone online with negative results? Are they "just playing games" or are they learning to solve complex problems and developing advance spacial aptitude?
Click to expand...

Same here:
marktplaats.jpg





About the second part.
You can definitely see some "advances" of the digital era.
Mine youngest brother has some form of autism and kinda retreats himself to the on-line world.
Mostly Youtube-ers playing games.

But his english is better then that of most kids, almost better then mine.
His social boundaries seem to smooth out a bit.

He will probably always be a step behind social skill wise, but he is growing, specially when he can talk english.
Weird how that shit can work out ;)
 
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