Anyone here into Minecraft?

[Louis Tully]

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[Slippyblade]

At it's core it is a very simple game, so platform is irrelevant.  Personally, I prefer it on the PC mostly because I find a mouse interface much easier to navigate.  Also, on the PC you can use mods and such to extend the game.

Honestly, it won't make a difference one way or the other.  If she's more comfortable with a gamepad, go PS3.

[eds1275]

I'd say PS3. The screen is usually bigger on the gaming television, and though the console port is a little simpler it's nice to be able to just grab another controller and drop in or out at will. I often dive in to my niece's, nephews, or wife's game and help them out if they are going to raid a dungeon or are trying to mine a certain type of ore, and jumping out is a nice feature since there are precipous few couch co-op games out there.

[horizon]

Have been on a server that supported the MMO mods, I would suggest the PC.  The mouse controls are easier, and the hotkey functionality is simplistic, though Ive never played on a PS3.

[Generic Eric]

My daughter and I have been playing the android version.

I'd like her to play the PC version because it looks like you can do more, but she seems content.  Everyone else she know plays on iOS.

[SavannahLion]

My son and I have the Android version. I gave him the 360 version last year and I'm considering getting him the PC version before Microsoft ---smurfs--- it up.

My only pet peeve with the 360 version (and I don't think the PS3 version is too far off) is that you have to buy nearly all your mods or anything extra. It's practically integrated into the start screen so it's hard to hide them. I've read somewhere that Notch was basically forced to set up the add-ons system in that way on Live so there might be a chance it might not be the same for the PS3.

In a nutshell, if you have to pay for those mods on the PS3, go by way of the PC. I can't think of a modern TV or PC where you can't leverage them together so that argument is moot.

[ChadTower]

Don't do it.  Seriously.  I regret the day Minecraft ever entered my household.  My sons are obsessed with it beyond school, sports, girls, food, bathing.  It might be like 1B to oxygen and underpants.  Their friends are all the same way.  It's a ---smurfing--- pox on my household.  Every time I make them stop playing to do something they need to do (e.g. eat dinner, math homework, shower) they immediately start lashing out at each other from the separation anxiety.  It takes them well over an hour to transition out of Minecraft and back into the real world but only about 10 seconds to sink back in.  Grades have dropped and hygiene has suffered.  On a weekend if I don't go looking for them I would never know they are in the house other than the occasional Minecraft sounds from upstairs. 

[whammoed]

Don't do it.  Seriously.  I regret the day Minecraft ever entered my household.  My sons are obsessed with it beyond school, sports, girls, food, bathing.  It might be like 1B to oxygen and underpants.  Their friends are all the same way.  It's a ---smurfing--- pox on my household.  Every time I make them stop playing to do something they need to do (e.g. eat dinner, math homework, shower) they immediately start lashing out at each other from the separation anxiety.  It takes them well over an hour to transition out of Minecraft and back into the real world but only about 10 seconds to sink back in.  Grades have dropped and hygiene has suffered.  On a weekend if I don't go looking for them I would never know they are in the house other than the occasional Minecraft sounds from upstairs.

Does it need to connect to some minecraft site to play properly?  Block it at the router and play dumb.  I had to block some game called "Realm Of the Mad God" for a while.  My kids never got obsessed with minecraft but their cousins were/are.

[yotsuya]

My daughter and I play it on the 360 during school vacation days. Muy fun.

[Generic Eric]

They must have tools do to this!


I guess there is a mod that makes the sun round and smooths all of the jagged edges.  I can't see how to add a mod on android.  PC only?

[pbj]

Don't do it.  Seriously.  I regret the day Minecraft ever entered my household.  My sons are obsessed with it beyond school, sports, girls, food, bathing.  It might be like 1B to oxygen and underpants.  Their friends are all the same way.  It's a ---smurfing--- pox on my household.  Every time I make them stop playing to do something they need to do (e.g. eat dinner, math homework, shower) they immediately start lashing out at each other from the separation anxiety.  It takes them well over an hour to transition out of Minecraft and back into the real world but only about 10 seconds to sink back in.  Grades have dropped and hygiene has suffered.  On a weekend if I don't go looking for them I would never know they are in the house other than the occasional Minecraft sounds from upstairs.

This is what happens when you don't spank.


But, seriously, I've given Minecraft several honest attempts.  I even had some young in-law sit down with me once for an hour or so showing me how to play. 

Not my thing.

[ChadTower]

Does it need to connect to some minecraft site to play properly?  Block it at the router and play dumb.  I had to block some game called "Realm Of the Mad God" for a while.  My kids never got obsessed with minecraft but their cousins were/are.

No, it has local modes too.

Kids are just different now.  Maybe the same ways we were different from our parents.  We grew up with cable and video games and our parents didn't get it.  Our kids are obsessed with video screens and have actual physiological reactions to separation from smartphones. 

[Louis Tully]

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[SavannahLion]

The same reactions occurred with our generation, I just don't think it was as obvious back then.

I agree with Chad though. Kids today have problems that we just didn't think about back then. Things like Minecraft, Facebook and the ever prevalent portable device (some with 3G/4G connectivity) are so pervasive that kids aren't learning how to separate themselves from it. There are adults that suffer as well. Such as the ---smurfing--- moron housewife in England that spends thousands each month playing Candy Crush.

On my daughters 14th birthday, I reluctantly agreed to let her have Facebook. Two weeks in, we took it away when I caught her checking her FB instead of getting ready in the morning. I reconfigured the router to only allow FB for an hour after school on the weekdays and two hours on Sat and Sun. That ghost chat or whatever is flat out banned.

My seven year old is obsessed with some nut who calls himself Stampy Long Nose or some ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- on youtube. I blocked Youtube at the router last week for all the kids. Just as well anyways. My poor router is starting to show its age and whenever one child streams music, it ---smurfs--- up the streaming from youtube and vice versa.

[Yenome]

If you had a ps4 i would say go with PS4 version as its closer to the pc version far as game updates go. if not go with ps3 if she just likes to play or pc if she likes to really create and you can have fun making a server for her to play on.

[ChadTower]

The same reactions occurred with our generation, I just don't think it was as obvious back then.

I don't think it was nearly as bad in this way.  Yeah, we'd play Zelda or Tecmo bowl for 3 hours, but then we'd go outside and play football afterwards.  And once we got to 14 the console got mothballed in favor of high school sports and girls.  If you think we had a hard time figuring out how to pick up a girl imagine what it's like for a boy today who may never even actually talk to a girl at any point.  He'll text, he'll snapchat, he'll Facebook, but if you take a device away and put him in the same room as her he's more likely to crap his pants than find a way to actually start up a conversation that could go someplace. 

[Louis Tully]

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[eds1275]

guitars, and girls.

High five!

[Singapura]

If you get the chance, play Minecraft on an Oculus Rift. My son and I have been playing for a few weeks now and it's an amazing experience. Minecraft might possibly be the best game ever made. It's addicitve as heck though.

[pbj]

Well, one thing I'll say about "kids these days" is I've recently been astounded at how truly inept they are with technology. 

I used to sit there at meetings and ponder the wasteful insanity of a man rules over hundreds of employees, has used a computer professionally for 20-30 years, but insists that the CIO be there just to plug in a thumb drive, open up a power point presentation, and put it into full screen mode.  At some point, wouldn't you get tired of the exercise and spend the five minutes playing around until you figured out how to do it?  Or ask someone to show you?  Always embarrassed the hell out of me.

Recently, I've hired a few 22-25 year olds.  Intelligent people, college educated.  Use computers and smart phones 24/7 but god help them if they get a weird error message or something doesn't work.  I always thought that people that grew up in an era of ubiquitous technology would know it inside and out, but we are STILL at the stage of, "before I call up IT and have the department billed $200, have you tried turning it off and back on?"

We can split hairs around here, but I'm comfortable saying everyone on this forum is an 'advanced' computer user.  I'm just shocked that the norm hasn't shifted more in that direction.


 

[Louis Tully]

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[dkersten]

On topic, I played for a bit way back when it was still in a rough beta, and many of the people who convinced me to try got really involved for a time.  It is so simple that it is addicting, particularly if you are the type who loves to create things.  Minecraft is the modern day "legos". 

Don't do it.  Seriously.  I regret the day Minecraft ever entered my household.  My sons are obsessed with it beyond school, sports, girls, food, bathing.  It might be like 1B to oxygen and underpants.  Their friends are all the same way.  It's a ---smurfing--- pox on my household.  Every time I make them stop playing to do something they need to do (e.g. eat dinner, math homework, shower) they immediately start lashing out at each other from the separation anxiety.  It takes them well over an hour to transition out of Minecraft and back into the real world but only about 10 seconds to sink back in.  Grades have dropped and hygiene has suffered.  On a weekend if I don't go looking for them I would never know they are in the house other than the occasional Minecraft sounds from upstairs.

If they didn't have minecraft, they would find something else.  It is just life in this millennium, get used to it. 

I could also say that there is nothing new here.. you give a kid something he enjoys immensely and leave him to do it completely unregulated and chances are he will indulge at an unhealthy level.  This would be why parenting is kind of important.. You can tell a kid about moderation, but until you enforce it you only be enabling it. 

Trust me, there are worse things a kid can get hooked on than a video game.

As for the technical capability of people, I have found over the years that a person's capacity to learn is directly proportionate to his desire to understand it.  Some people just have no desire, deep down, to truly understand how some things work, and hence won't take even the most minimal effort to truly grasp what is behind the devices they use.  Without a desire to understand a piece of technology, using it becomes a question of how well they can memorize steps in a process.  Those of us who have a strong desire to understand things turn out to be the most adaptable and have the highest ability to sit down with something we don't know and figure it out. 

But when technology really exploded a few decades back, the excuse was always that they didn't grow up with it so they didn't understand it.  I have worked with a surprising number of 60 year olds who after a few hours of training will grasp and understand a piece of software enough to figure the rest out on their own and never need basic support again.  And I have worked with a surprising number of 25-35 year olds who even after three times the training fail to have more than a rudimentary capability to do what they have been trained to do in the same software.  It isn't familiarity or even intelligence that is the determining factor, it is whether they have the desire (and capability) to understand it that makes the difference.  Everyone who uses technology wants to know how to use it, but wanting to understand it is something entirely different.

I think this applies to people in technical jobs as well.  I always look at it as a technical support situation.. there are your "tier 1" technical support people who might be enthusiastic about technology but not truly have a desire or capacity to understand it.  These people are perfectly capable of listening to a problem or request and choosing from a set of predefined answers that may or may not work.  But as soon as the problem is beyond their method of troubleshooting, they have to defer to the next tier of technical support.  It is not uncommon for a company to hire someone who is enthusiastic or because they interview well, and again, the stigma is that if you are younger and grew up with the technology and are enthusiastic about it, you must understand it too.  I think most of us here would probably end up as tier 3 or 4 tech support because we all share this desire to really dig into the "how and why" and come up with solutions that are outside of the box.  All the enthusiasm in the world for playing arcade games is not going to amount to anything when it comes down to building one yourself if you don't have some kind of desire to understand what is really going on "under the hood". 

[pbj]

TL;DR

[yotsuya]

On topic, I played for a bit way back when it was still in a rough beta, and many of the people who convinced me to try got really involved for a time.  It is so simple that it is addicting, particularly if you are the type who loves to create things.  Minecraft is the modern day "legos". 

Completely agree. It's the building aspect that I truly enjoy.

[ChadTower]

Yeah, I don't think most of the younger people are inept with the tech.  I think they are so used to everything being plug and play and it just works that they don't know that you CAN dive into the OS and the hardware and solve an issue.  I mean why would you even think about opening up a tablet?  What are you going to do with the PCB to an iPhone?  We grew up in an era where everything was DIY, it was modular, it was made to be analyzed and played with and learned and customized.  Now things are so plug and play people complain if you order a media streamer that doesn't come preconfigured for all of your online accounts.  Technology has pushed people away from DIY more than people have lost the ability to do it.

[dkersten]

It is true that most tech these days is not meant to be serviceable or upgradeable, but when I look at "our" generation, most people my age can barely find the power switch to a computer, let alone know how to open it up and fix something.  I don't think it is "accessibility" to the core of the technology that drives people to learn how things actually work, it is just the basic desire to understand. 

On the other hand, I think the popularity of Apple products stems in part from the fact that a monkey could use it, whereas many other similar types of technology require you to at least know what you want to do with it first.  You don't even need to know what you want to do with an Apple product, Apple lets you know what you should be doing with it and the fans follow along like robots.  Although I do run into the occasional "tech" guy who converted over to Apple and actually prefers it over other products, that is a severe rarity.  "Techies" like to tinker, to have control, and to learn how to make things do what they want.  You might not be able to crack open a tablet and work on it, but you can root it, install other OS's, manipulate the most base functions of the device, and do some pretty cool stuff with them that was never intended or expected by the manufacturer. 

You just need the desire to do so, and that desire is directly affected by laziness, and if there is one thing the current generation of kids has more of than a sense of entitlement, it is laziness. 

[SavannahLion]

I work at a place where working outside of your purvue(sp?) Is considered sacrilege if it's above your pay scale, but considered a "downgrade" and your problem if it's below your payscale and outside your class any other time. In other words, I'm not allowed to plug in my own equipment even if it's considered my own property. I'm required to open a ticket and make a request to IT.

Drives me bat ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- if my mouse takes a crap and I have to wait two weeks for IT and their damn ticket system. I've been swapping the serial for the last three mice replacements to pass audit just so I could get ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- done.

Right now I'm sitting in my cubicle that no less than 7 people (three separate teams so far) stripped bare (still waiting for IT to show up) so I can go home for the weekend while four additional different teams disconnect my power, telephone, disassemble my walls, and replace my carpet. Then the first six teams will reverse the entire process by Monday so I can supply a new ticket to IT again to get my computer back together in two weeks.

[Louis Tully]

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[SavannahLion]

I work at a place where working outside of your purvue(sp?) Is considered sacrilege if it's above your pay scale, but considered a "downgrade" and your problem if it's below your payscale and outside your class any other time. In other words, I'm not allowed to plug in my own equipment even if it's considered my own property. I'm required to open a ticket and make a request to IT.

Drives me bat ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- if my mouse takes a crap and I have to wait two weeks for IT and their damn ticket system. I've been swapping the serial for the last three mice replacements to pass audit just so I could get ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- done.

Right now I'm sitting in my cubicle that no less than 7 people (three separate teams so far) stripped bare (still waiting for IT to show up) so I can go home for the weekend while four additional different teams disconnect my power, telephone, disassemble my walls, and replace my carpet. Then the first six teams will reverse the entire process by Monday so I can supply a new ticket to IT again to get my computer back together in two weeks.

You win. 

It gets better.

Just as I'm leaving, management comes up to me and asks me if I want to work overtime on Sunday. OK, but when will IT reassemble my computer? "Oh, you won't need it, you kept all the papers and stuff you need to do your job in a separate box and put it in the store room, right?" Well....yeah but... I kind of need the computer to access the database. "Oh, don't worry about that. You can come in any time between 6 AM to noon." he says.

About 6 PM I get a phone call. "Hey, I just realized you need your computer and IT pulled it apart this afternoon. Don't worry about coming in on Sunday."

 

[Louis Tully]

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[eds1275]

That kind of stupid be sounds like the hospital I work at.

[dkersten]

I am picturing your IT department as the guys from "The IT Crowd"..

[Slippyblade]

I am picturing your IT department as the guys from "The IT Crowd"..

No way!  Roy and Moss would find far more creative ways to get out of that kind of work.

[SavannahLion]

It gets better.

Just as I'm leaving, management comes up to me and asks me if I want to work overtime on Sunday. OK, but when will IT reassemble my computer? "Oh, you won't need it, you kept all the papers and stuff you need to do your job in a separate box and put it in the store room, right?" Well....yeah but... I kind of need the computer to access the database. "Oh, don't worry about that. You can come in any time between 6 AM to noon." he says.

About 6 PM I get a phone call. "Hey, I just realized you need your computer and IT pulled it apart this afternoon. Don't worry about coming in on Sunday."

 

So... do they prefer the individuality, the freedom, of unicycles or do they stick to the more traditional clown car to get around? Just wondering.

Clown cars actually. I wish I was joking but I'm not.

[Mary_Baker]

Although any current mainstream device - tablet, games console, PC or laptop - can run Minecraft, only PCs run the full version. Running the full version with textures, clouds, smooth lighting, etc and a high resolution level - this is not possible on all these devices though. I would suggest you go for something with a graphics card (rather than what is known as 'integrated graphics'). And since Minecraft is a Java program, you should basically aim for a PC with a 64-bit operating system and 4GB or more memory, with the 64-bit version of Oracle's Java.

[lilshawn]

It gets better.

Just as I'm leaving, management comes up to me and asks me if I want to work overtime on Sunday. OK, but when will IT reassemble my computer? "Oh, you won't need it, you kept all the papers and stuff you need to do your job in a separate box and put it in the store room, right?" Well....yeah but... I kind of need the computer to access the database. "Oh, don't worry about that. You can come in any time between 6 AM to noon." he says.

About 6 PM I get a phone call. "Hey, I just realized you need your computer and IT pulled it apart this afternoon. Don't worry about coming in on Sunday."

 

So... do they prefer the individuality, the freedom, of unicycles or do they stick to the more traditional clown car to get around? Just wondering.

Clown cars actually. I wish I was joking but I'm not.

smart car?