Can anyone (or their kid!) give me some info on mine craft

[IHopeYouStepOnALegoPiece]

Basically fun facts!

I virtually nanny a few kids who love it and I’d like to talk to them properly about it without going “oh really? No way!” Like I have a fucking clue what’s going on

So some info on what things do
Characters (are there characters?!)
Quests
How things work

Basically can I have an idiots guide to Minecraft so I can properly talk about it!

Unfortunately my DS8 has gone out with DH, otherwise I would be writing you a VERY long (dictated) post.

IME they don't care whether you know anything about it. Just ask them a question and then zone out while they witter on for the next four million years.

I can also highly recommend the South Park episode 'Informative Murder Porn'. For you that is, not the kids

IME they don't care whether you know anything about it. Just ask them a question and then zone out while they witter on for the next four million years.
This!
They will be delighted if you show any interest at all and it's even better if it's on a TV screen and not an ipad - sit behind them going ooh aah every now and then and watch the back of their heads (you can close your eyes at this point and dream of foreign holidays and pina coladas). Same applies to fortnite...

Bog standard minecraft has no special characters. You original start with nothing. But you can dig for ores, coal, iron, gold, diamond, emeralds. You can chop down trees for wood. You can you cobblestone to make a furnace and sand in the furnace to make glass. But all of these things need to be found whilst avoiding the baddies. Creepers (green blocks guys) and skeleton archers , spiders, Enderman too who will all kill you. We play it to design houses and villages etc. But the aim of the game is to go to a Stronghold and go to The End via a portal where you slay the Ender Dragon. But I build pretty houses with pools and rose bushes

Just ask them a question and then zone out while they witter on for the next four million years.

My kids love Minecraft. It amazes me that they have been playing it for over 7 years and are still not bored of it yet. I know virtually nothing about it. Sometimes they do tell me stuff. but I don't really understand it. I agree with the zoning out.

Virtually nanny?

I did watch a program on Netflix with the kids. It was a choose your own adventure. I learnt a few things from that. I'd recommend it, if you have Netflix.

Do you have Netflix? There are 'choose your own story' episodes they are pretty short and you can then have a discussion about the characters and baddies etc.

X-POST

I've (very) recently got into it myself and it's surprisingly addictive If you don't feel like giving it a go yourself, maybe watch a couple of youtube videos of other people playing it? They're usually quite short and you'll get the general idea very quickly. But yes, as others have said, the premise is that you gather materials from the landscape (by digging mines, cutting trees etc) and use them to build things. You can also can use the materials to make tools or cast spells that will make it easier to gather materials. There aren't really quests as such, it's more open-ended - you just explore and build whatever you want. Depending what setting you're playing on you might have to fight off some monsters, but it's not like other games where there's an overarching narrative and the baddies get progressively harder to defeat.

Thank you! I have some conversation starters now!

My evening plan of Schitts Creek has been replaced with Minecraft on Netflix!

ofwarren yep. I spend 1-2h on a video call with the kids doing some home learning and keeping them occupied so their parents can get some work done. It works well!