[*LucyE*]

DS has started to become rather enthralled with minecraft. It seems like many of his school friends also play it.

I'm lazy and know that a few parents here also have children who like this game. Can anyone give me a quick run down on things I should be looking out for when 'supervising' play? I've read about minecraft parties. Can the game be played online too?

[Sif]

I never allowed my boys to play the game on the site, or to enter public 'servers' because, yes, they'll be playing with adults you will never know or have a chance to meet.

However, if a friend of their - someone I met and knew the home address of - started a server, they were allowed to join that.

Also, beware downloading skins and mods - this can be done with relative safety from viruses and whatnot, but there are also a lot of dodgy sites. We tend to only download from the Minecraft site.

I played with my kids - I became quite engrossed myself there for a while - this really helped with understanding what they were talking about when it came to the endless prattle about updates and skins and mods and recipes for this, that and the other. I found it to be quite a bonding experience for us. With LANs now available, if you have a computer for each child and yourself you can actually build worlds together which can be quite fun.

Watch out for steep social learning curves on friends servers. It's all fun and games until someone griefs the server or steals their best friends diamonds, or blows up their castle... My boys learned why societies have laws, and they learned to create a few laws themselves and to abide by them for the sake of everyone - but it did get very emotional sometimes...

[The Old Bag]

Also be wary of the crossover to Youtube, there are gazillions of minecraft tutorials and parodies etc, not all are what I would consider G/PG rated!

[Bacongirl]

Sif has pretty much covered it. I saw DS in tears after someone hacked the server he was playing on and destroyed everything he and his friends had worked in for weeks.

It was a good lesson though to learn about security on the web.

[thestylemanual]

My husband is a gamer from way back and he only has one rule for our 'not yet ready for computer game anyway' son. Do not let them play games that have no ending.

[Sif]

Minecraft has an ending, though.

[barrington]

So far, DS has only been allowed to play minecraft on his ipod touch, which is not connected to the internet.

If I was more tech-savvy, I might set up a server just for him and his friends. But I'm not so he only gets to play the 'basic' version.

[JJ]

Both my kids play it. DS is a bit over it at the moment and has turned his attention to another game. He rarely played online with others as he prefers to do his own thing, but we did have a chat about internet security anyway, also to do with downloading mods and skins (as mentioned by a PP) and the fact that you shouldn't just download and install anything you come across.

I think it's a pretty good game - it seems to encourage creativity, problem-solving skills and persistence (as it takes a while to build a world), and in creative mode there doesn't have to be any violence.

[thestylemanual]

Minecraft has an ending, though.

Okay it's not really an ending. It's a place you can go to and fight a boss. Then some end credits will roll and you'll be back in the game. So not really and ending, just a weird joke thing. So it looks like an ending but it is a perpetual loop.

This post has been edited by thestylemanual: 03/02/2013, 12:10 PM

[lsolaBella]

My DSs play on their iPods/iPads not connected. They will create different worlds for themselves. I have been impressed with the creativity of DS and he will show me what he has built.