Minecraft?

[Bellenden Belle]

Minecraft (which I had never heard of until this thread)was featured on the Today programme at around 8.15am this morning. Worth a listen if you are interested - there was all kinds of evidence demonstrating educational outcomes and even improved vocabulary amongst children.

[canela]

Tanza, what does your expert son recommend for playing on a lap-top?

[Tanza]

My son says that a laptop is the same as a computer so no need to bother with the Minecraft PE APP mentioned in his/my first post.

He says, "As you already have a laptop go to minecraft.net and then buy an account costing in the region of ?16/19 which then allows you to download the Minecraft game.

Good specs for a laptop used for Minecraft would be a fairly new graphics card and a computer compatible with Java."

[Gubodge]

Anyone looking to buy Minecraft for a laptop/desktop, please PM me. My husband spent most of the last week trying unsuccessfully to purchase it through the Mojang website, so I went and bought it in Smiths yesterday instead. Despite my daughter knowing why we were going to Smiths, watching as I searched the shop for it and standing next to me while I paid for it, she waited until we were on our way home before telling me that she thought Daddy had finally managed to buy it the evening before. Gah, hopeless pair. So if anyone wants to buy it off me, please get in contact. It comes as a code that you then (presumably, I never got that far) enter to register your account.

[gingertom]

My 11 year old son, having pestered me into buying the wretched game for our computer, has moved on to relentlessly trying to persuade me to buy "mods" for it - I believe they modify the basic game.

There seem to be endless options offered on line and I worry about what I am downloading onto my (iMac) computer.

I wonder if someone could either confirm they are all pretty safe or tell me where I can find safe downloads to appease him because I am most definitely the meanest mother in his class.

[simonethebeaver]

They are certainly NOT all pretty safe. They killed a laptop at our house. Also keep an eye on what servers he's using, as there are some dodgy ones out there. At the very least, you'll find Bing installing itself as your search engine every week.

We banned mods basically. We are the meanest parents I'm afraid.

[dontpanic]

YouTube StampyLongNose if you want an insight in to the world they inhabit. He's famous, and seems a lovely guy. Mine crowd round and watch him touring minecraft worlds. He's got millions of views. He was on Breakfast TV the other day and is making a TV program with Jack Black; just from being affable and videoing himself playing Minecraft! The mind boggles.

[ad2000]

I second don'tpanic!

[curlykaren]

I third don'tpanic. My son is an avid Stampy fan. He makes the videos especially for kids, no swearing etc and he has a very distinctive voice so even if you are not peering over their shoulder you know that they are on an age appropriate video. We have a strict policy that he can only use YouTube to watch Stampy but as he has done hundreds of videos and posts a new one most days it works out fine.

I have been forced into researching the topic myself recently and have gleaned the following;

Pocket editions (available on tablets), do not have red stone. Red stone is a somewhat magic ingredient that acts a bit like an electric current and can power various mechanical creations. They also cannot let you multi-play, visit friends worlds or have them visit yours.

Laptops with certain graphic specs can be used but I understand that they can often make the game 'lag' (the whole world will not have loaded properly to the screen even though you are walking your character around it).

PC versions have something superior to the game but it escapes me what, my son has told me...

We will be settling on an Xbox 360 but happy to receive more advice??

Embrace the minecraft pickle...loads of fun x

[StraferJack]

Great Britain. In minecraft. All of it

If you tunnel underground you will encounter the same rock profiles as that part of the real country.

Astonishing really

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-08-27-british-geological-survey-recreates-great-britain-in-minecraft

[Polmoche]

Hey at least it's not Movie Star Planet! I'll take Minecraft ANY DAY.

[Otta]

Does anyone have experience of ASD kids using Minecraft? Were these positive experiences or not?

Thanks

[StraferJack]

I'm guessing you may have already googled but I saw something about this recently

http://www.autismspeaks.org/news/news-item/dad-creates-autcraft-safe-haven-minecraft-players-autism

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/05/minecraft-33-million-users

"This is particularly resonant to me, and I suspect many other parents with autistic children. My seven-year-old son, Zac, was confirmed on the scale earlier this year, although in a lot of ways we've always known. He has a somewhat limited vocabulary, and finds noisy social situations like schoolyards frightening and confusing; he is demonstrative, but has difficulty with empathy. We have watched as his younger brother, Albie, has overtaken him on things like reading and writing. But he is funny and imaginative and wonderful.

And like a lot of children with an autism spectrum condition, he loves Minecraft. From the moment I downloaded the Xbox 360 edition and handed controllers to him and his brother Albie, they have been addicts. At first, they simply trudged across the rolling landscapes, randomly attacking the sheep, cows and ducks that graze each Minecraft world. They would throw together weird hovels, filled with random doors and windows, huge gaps in the walls, bizarre jutting extensions, like nightmarish sets from a German expressionistic horror movie.

Now, they construct immense palaces and giant inhabitable robots ? usually made out of gold and glass. They are the Liberaces of virtual architecture. They explore the game's growing systems; they avidly download all the regular updates which add new features, new creatures, new narrative possibilities ? they devour them all."

[Otta]

Cheers, I hadn't actually gotten round to googling yet, but those are interesting links. Was wondering if anyone on here had any personal experience of it.