parent of child on minecrack.:(

horace456

My friend advised me try minecraft as a deterrent for free to play games like galaxy life. Now i'll admit minecraft is awesome. But my six and eight year old are now being assimilated into some ghastly hive mind. They speak of nothing but minecraft they wake up they go to sleep they dream mineccraft. And I like a fool have an xbox lined up for Xmas. And I'm just thinking will I ever see my children again? Has anyone ever come back or is this a serious thing? Should I limit the amount of minecraft to a small time frame or just once a week as a treat? i also think my son who watches "snuffy long nose" videos about playing minecraft is emotionally attached to this man. Any advice appreciated.

Creamy Goodness

your children are so lucky to have such a creative tool in their hands. I wish I had something like minecraft when I was a wee lad.

sea_monkey

Just how many block are they mining per day?

If the block amount is low then rehabilitation may be possible.....too high and I'm afraid there's no coming back.

Jet Black

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

your children are so lucky to have such a creative tool in their hands. I wish I had something like minecraft when I was a wee lad.

No Lego? Poor man

Creamy Goodness

Jet Black wrote: »

No Lego? Poor man

I did, but for the price of minecraft I could only get a certain amount of blocks. minecraft == infinite lego in fairness.

weisses

Only sharing my own story

I was hooked to games when i was that age, although it was the early eighties,

For me (and probably for most people) it was just a phase of life... I must say that i also spend a lot of time playing outside

You can of course bring in a curfew for the amount of time your kids can play games and/or watch telly

SeantheMan

Is this trolling or a joke ?

You are a parent, you are in charge. You shouldn't ask young men (for the most part) on a games forum who love games for advice on how to raise your children.
Be strict, do what's best for them. They are 6 and 8, send them out to play football or sports or join some club.
Kids these days lose their childhood to games. Worse comes to worst, tell them Minecraft died or the internets broken....or basically NO, you can't play it.

ScumLord

My nephew has a Mario addiction. At least minecraft seems somewhat educational.

average_runner

horace456 wrote: »

My friend advised me try minecraft as a deterrent for free to play games like galaxy life. Now i'll admit minecraft is awesome. But my six and eight year old are now being assimilated into some ghastly hive mind. They speak of nothing but minecraft they wake up they go to sleep they dream mineccraft. And I like a fool have an xbox lined up for Xmas. And I'm just thinking will I ever see my children again? Has anyone ever come back or is this a serious thing? Should I limit the amount of minecraft to a small time frame or just once a week as a treat? i also think my son who watches "snuffy long nose" videos about playing minecraft is emotionally attached to this man. Any advice appreciated.

Just limit there gaming time, max of 90 mins a day after all homework, sport etc is done

ShadowHearth

In fairness, the more you will try to limit, the more issues you will have in the long run. Usually when parents start to hammer on limited time of playing games, then most likely Parent does not have much clue about gaming and game children playing.

The thing that they love Minecraft is great, you lucky they are not in love with something like Call of duty. I would recomendt you to go and play it with your children and actually see what is it all about. I bet when you learn what minecraft is, you will realise how good it is for kids. Back in the day we had Lego and these days kids have Lego and Minecraft.

A2LUE42

To get them to really like the xbox, you have...

Canis Lupus

ShadowHearth wrote: »

In fairness, the more you will try to limit, the more issues you will have in the long run. Usually when parents start to hammer on limited time of playing games, then most likely Parent does not have much clue about gaming and game children playing.

I love games but I don't think it's healthy for a young child to be giving free reign to sit in front of a pc all day so yes it's a very good idea to limit childrens time spent playing videogames regardless of the parent understanding the game or not. Children imo need to be outdoors. (bring them back in during the winter)

Dcully

My son is 11 and has been playing on pc since release and the last year or so on xbox too.
Before it was cool to talk of minecraft with his friends he was doing so and nobody had a clue what he was on about.
The net result is almost all of his mates playing on xbox.
I dont mind him playing minecraft in the slightest,if you saw some of the things he has created in both survival and creative modes you would be amazed,just as good as stuff i regularly see on well known minecraft youtubers videos.
Quite simply the greatest game ever made for children and one of the best games ever for adults too.

pablomakaveli

This thread reeks more of someone looking to have a rant and get a rise than someone genuinely looking for advice.

ShadowHearth

Canis Lupus wrote: »

I love games but I don't think it's healthy for a young child to be giving free reign to sit in front of a pc all day so yes it's a very good idea to limit childrens time spent playing videogames regardless of the parent understanding the game or not. Children imo need to be outdoors. (bring them back in during the winter)

As mentioned above, its about parents to control their kids. So asking for advice how to parent your kids always end up bad.
From my own experience I know that My parents tried everything to suppress my love for gaming ( thats outside of my mother being a femenist alcoholic psycho ) and did nothing, but just put more grinding between us. I am 27 now and I am still a huge gamer and I have not seen my mother since I was 19.

Then I talked with a woman at work whos son has Ds and PS3 and he never plays it. She is using ps3 95% of the time for Netflix etc, wheres her kid is all about football, hurling and other sports.
So what I am trying to say: it is in a blood of a person to dislike or like things. Instead of blindly fighting it, I would encourage parents to learn more about kids interests.

Malarkey121

Daughter is 6 and loves Minecraft in fact I am doing up her room Minecraft theme this year, wall stickers and art of blocks, tools and creepers and stuff
There are tons of videos on youtube of people playing minecraft and building cool places I recommend watching cup quake mine craft my daughter loves her and would quiet happily spend a couple of hours watching her being quiet - not only does the girl on the video speak well and polite she also is very educated and it shows / passes off onto my daughter which is only good in my books.

ps mine craft on android tablet is way better for kids to use than xbox in my opinion

Cuddlesworth

Best way to get him off of it is to get him hooked on crack cocaine.

Magill

2-3 hours a day is fine i think. Minecraft is probably one of the best games they could be playing anyway, such a good game for young children... especially if they're playing with their friends.

Morag

Have you tried playing with them?

Shiminay

Malarkey121 wrote: »

ps mine craft on android tablet is way better for kids to use than xbox in my opinion

Why? It's got less functionality, it's got an even more flawed interface than a controller and a child can disappear into a corner or under the sheets at bed time with a tablet without you realising.

I have a friend who's nephews play Minecraft even when they're away from their Xbox - they start stacking cushions and boxes and anything in the house they can imagine into a "block" which is pretty funny but maybe a sign that they're a bit far gone with their Minecraft obsession.

By the way, Minecraft forum's over here.

horace456

lots of good advice here.
I wanted especially to get the opinions of gamers and gamers who are also parents so thanks guys.
i will definitely give it a go {i might end up hooked myself}. I think it's definitely better than those dreadful online games that want real money. at least this is a fair game, everyone starts with the same package and its also social. They can play with friends when they get the xbox. And yes i like Lego and id never stop my kids playing lego too many hours of the day. So that's something to think about.

i hate the idea of being too escapist but damned if life isnt restricted enough financially to inhibit the creativity of even the best of us. so i think i will look at it differently as a kind of lego that i can afford!

its hard not to worry a little when they start muttering " i need a crafting table to change the enderfells into eyes of ender" and youve no idea what they are on about. so i think id rather get to know their world than force them to live in mine.

thanks a million for the perspectives.

RoyalMarine

my kid likes to play games too. but to stop him being addicted to it 24/7, I set out a rule for him.

If he wants to play for say 3 hours, then he has to read for 1 1/2 hours and outdoor activity for 1 1/2 hours.

it has to be 50-50. It works really well, and he's reading a lot of good books. he occasionally decides to keep reading past the allotted time too!

I don't mind him gaming, just as long as he keeps active outside for a decent spell of time and reads to keep his mind active.

horace456

Shiminay wrote: »

Why? It's got less functionality, it's got an even more flawed interface than a controller and a child can disappear into a corner or under the sheets at bed time with a tablet without you realising.

I have a friend who's nephews play Minecraft even when they're away from their Xbox - they start stacking cushions and boxes and anything in the house they can imagine into a "block" which is pretty funny but maybe a sign that they're a bit far gone with their Minecraft obsession.

By the way, Minecraft forum's over here.

mine do that. they cant sleep cos everything is square they dream in blocks. and they play virtual minecraft when they arent playing minecraft they have made a box suit {like a robot} who im assured is just a "non player charectar villager"!!!??

horace456

the first time my kids saw a tennis racket they said " we can play pretend wii tennis!"

Magill

horace456 wrote: »

lots of good advice here.
I wanted especially to get the opinions of gamers and gamers who are also parents so thanks guys.
i will definitely give it a go {i might end up hooked myself}. I think it's definitely better than those dreadful online games that want real money. at least this is a fair game, everyone starts with the same package and its also social. They can play with friends when they get the xbox. And yes i like Lego and id never stop my kids playing lego too many hours of the day. So that's something to think about.

i hate the idea of being too escapist but damned if life isnt restricted enough financially to inhibit the creativity of even the best of us. so i think i will look at it differently as a kind of lego that i can afford!

its hard not to worry a little when they start muttering " i need a crafting table to change the enderfells into eyes of ender" and youve no idea what they are on about. so i think id rather get to know their world than force them to live in mine.

thanks a million for the perspectives.

Yeah, it would probably be a great idea to get the game and play with them.

nc19

Please someone explain minecraft to me

I have never played it but it looks like a game i might have played in the 80s

sea_monkey

nc19 wrote: »

Please someone explain minecraft to me

I have never played it but it looks like a game i might have played in the 80s

YOU DIG STUFF THEN YOU BUILD STUFF

horace456

SeantheMan wrote: »

Is this trolling or a joke ?

You are a parent, you are in charge. You shouldn't ask young men (for the most part) on a games forum who love games for advice on how to raise your children.
Be strict, do what's best for them. They are 6 and 8, send them out to play football or sports or join some club.
Kids these days lose their childhood to games. Worse comes to worst, tell them Minecraft died or the internets broken....or basically NO, you can't play it.

i know even less about footbal than minecraft and it seems even silllier although good excersise im sure.

horace456

nc19 wrote: »

Please someone explain minecraft to me

I have never played it but it looks like a game i might have played in the 80s

it does look like the old graphics of say prince of persia all a bit pixeled. it seems to have extrremely wide appeal and game play. look on utube theres a guy called stampylongnose i think who does fun vids showing his world.

ZeroThreat

tried the demo once, couldn't get into it though tbh.

horace456

RoyalMarine wrote: »

my kid likes to play games too. but to stop him being addicted to it 24/7, I set out a rule for him.

If he wants to play for say 3 hours, then he has to read for 1 1/2 hours and outdoor activity for 1 1/2 hours.

it has to be 50-50. It works really well, and he's reading a lot of good books. he occasionally decides to keep reading past the allotted time too!

I don't mind him gaming, just as long as he keeps active outside for a decent spell of time and reads to keep his mind active.

Thanks, that sounds reasonable. may i ask would you think that say an afternoon once or twice a week would e better than say a half hour a day. it looks like you need a fe3w hours to work on building etc. and at the moment thats what ive been doing but it seems to frustrate the kids a lot. do you let them on for three hours a day every day or just sometimes? thanks

horace456

i fuflly intend to when i get time! looks fun!

Seanokelly123

My brother plays minecraft and loves it. He is 12 years old. I have watched him playing it a few times. If I was his age I would have loved to played it. I have to admit I do play his minecraft a few times and I can see the addiction.

BloodBath

Have you seen what the weather is like outside? They are young and in school so yes limit their time to something reasonable but if the alternative is watching tv then by all means let them play games.

It requires some brain power at least.

SeantheMan

horace456 wrote: »

i know even less about footbal than minecraft and it seems even silllier although good excersise im sure.

You don't have to know about a sport for them to play it. Have them join a local team, or club, or a sport they like enjoy . Football,tennis,rugby,boxing etc..

At the very least have them do something social where they are with people face to face. I know gaming 'IS' social...but not to the same extent as real interaction with people is.

This is a valuable time in their life, and I know for a fact that if I was a kid now...although I'd probably want to play games all day...I'd look back in 15 years time at a childhood wasted.

My best memories (even though I had an Atari/Megadrive/PS1 etc) are of being out with my friends, playing kick the can and being a kid. I have little to no precious memories of the actual times sat in front of my games.

RoyalMarine

horace456 wrote: »

Thanks, that sounds reasonable. may i ask would you think that say an afternoon once or twice a week would e better than say a half hour a day. it looks like you need a fe3w hours to work on building etc. and at the moment thats what ive been doing but it seems to frustrate the kids a lot. do you let them on for three hours a day every day or just sometimes? thanks

he gets 3 hours a day as long as he spends 3 hours a day doing good healthy activities...

so if he only reads for an hour and plays outside for an hour, then he only gets 2 hours to play computer games

works very well I think.
On weekends, it's the same. but I put a limit of 4 hours video games as I don't want him spending too long doing it.

horace456

ok thanks that sounds reasonable to me! i will copy that strategy and see how it works out. over and out everyone and thanks again for the great feedback.

ZeroThreat

what's the attraction of the game exactly? I just don't seem to get it.

horace456

i think the attraction is that you can build anything so its like having really fast lego you can make a house a farm a slide a lot of things that you couldn't do in real life without a lot of lego and you can fly and its to me, really like a fantasy life so i think it appeals to all those who like those farm games or life games where you build a shop or a civilization and it also appeals to quest gamers cos you can kill dragons and it also appeals to shooty type gamers cos of the creepers who try to kill you. it seems like a really good all rounder and the fact the graphics are so retro i think may allow the game to have more than just flash graphics. to be honest it appeals to me. the only game i like is spore. so perhaps it appeals to a less gamerish demographic and a more general audience.

RedXIV

Honestly, you couldn't pick a better game for your kids to be addicted to. Aside from the fact that there are now proven benefits from playing games. Minecraft in particular has been shown to improve focus, concentration, creativity and planning.

Yes you shouldn't leave them on it all day but as someone else pointed out, it's getting wintery, outside is less of an option and games are far more engaging than TV

iColdFusion

I'm pretty sure they can play splitscreen Minecraft on 360, not exactly a solution to your problem though!

BloodBath

You can build far more advanced things than basic houses in minecraft.

You can build fully functional 8 bit and 16 bit computers inside minecraft that can do basic calculations. You have kids designing their own basic processors inside the game. That's fairly advanced but it shows minecraft is more than just a lego type kids game.

You can learn to do some pretty incredible things with the game tools.

CiDeRmAn

I can't get into the game myself, but my son loves it.
It was all he could talk about for the last year or two.
That said, he has kinda moved on to Terraria and is showing an interest in playing Skyrim, the latter being a proper game with a seriously involving campaign.
He's only 10 but has been playing games since he was 3, my bad
He finished a fair few too, with the likes of the Skylanders games just lasting hours, enjoyed DQIX though.

horace456

Do u mean in the game u can make a computer? That is amazing! I'm gonna have to find out how to do that. I was delighted enough with the houses!!!

Ponster

sea_monkey wrote: »

YOU DIG STUFF THEN YOU BUILD STUFF

Nope, you DIG stuff and just keep on digging. I try to get underground as soon as I possible can and stay down as long as possible.

cherryghost

I got over my addiction to Minecraft.

Unfortunately I have another addiction which is Dota 2. That and crack.

Ponster

horace456 wrote: »

Do u mean in the game u can make a computer? That is amazing! I'm gonna have to find out how to do that. I was delighted enough with the houses!!!

This is an interesting article to read which goes to explain that Minecraft is really like no other game that there has ever been for gebnerating human interaction between players who are as young as 6 or 7.

The latest article I read said that there are over 2000 schools in the UK using Minecraft as a method to teach kids and is especially popular with socially maladjusted kids who have had difficulty participating with others (In Real Life).

horace456

great articles links vids I've been watching today about it and I'm actually really excited about it now. I'm really glad i posted about this because i am now totally hooked and loving it! you may get posts from my kids soon wondering how to pay the esb bill coz their mom is in the never.

CiDeRmAn

Every year or two the media pop out some social interest Story about how games or computers are doing a therapists job.
Right now its Minecraft but it was the Wii three years ago and it'll be something else, like the Oculus Rift, in another few.

SeantheMan

horace456 wrote: »

great articles links vids I've been watching today about it and I'm actually really excited about it now. I'm really glad i posted about this because i am now totally hooked and loving it! you may get posts from my kids soon wondering how to pay the esb bill coz their mom is in the never.

Send them all to the minecraft forum section http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1477

horace456

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Every year or two the media pop out some social interest Story about how games or computers are doing a therapists job.
Right now its Minecraft but it was the Wii three years ago and it'll be something else, like the Oculus Rift, in another few.

well i dunno about mine craft yet but i know social media like fb has been a blessing and a curse, certainly cheaper than a therapist. the idea that mine craft is educational is true. my kids seem to know all about it in so little time. and its obviously a great vehicle for information in a format they take in.... i admit it annoys me that they couldn't use the laws of physics of this universe but then it would probably be as tedious as real life if they had. and it seems theres a good bit of overlap. so lava turns into obsidian when it cools quickly which is true!! i never knew that! and the amount they relate to the real world is great.... "thats just like a crafting table" they said when they saw cement turning to stone! I'm really liking it more and more.