Minecraft turns children weird doesn't it?

[nevercackle]

Half term dilemma. DS2 (7) is back to banging on about playing on minecraft and I'm reluctant because as far as i can see children want to spend hours and hours and hours playing on it and become completely obsessed.

"But it's just like building lego" - So go play with your lego.
"But they even play it at school" - Well that will be why you don't know your times tables.
"But the gymnast Louis Smith plays computer games and he hasn't given up sport because of it" - Yeah, well i think you'll find he's twatting around on tv instead of doing any gymnastics these days.

And besides if they are on the computer, I can't be on mumsent

AIBU?

SolidGoldBrass I never ever considered the possibility that Stampy could be cute. I'm off to Google him now (because I am that shallow that a cute face could possibly drown out the irritating-ness of his voice!)

It's an awesome game. Minecraft is so not why my DS is wonderfully weird! It's addictive. I am sure my Atari addiction was just as bad.

It's like everything. Too much is a bad thing. It is necessary to regulate the amount because they do become obsessed but IMO it's better than most computer games. No violence, strategic and creative, can be quite sociable etc. DC have learned loads about geology - the characteristics/values of the different resources so seem to be fairly accurate.

Louis Smith won a medal at the commonwealth games this year, so I think he must be doing some training, as well as twatting about on TV, making loads of money and building a new career for himself now he's nearing the end of his first, very successful one, so not sure that part of your argument holds up TBH.

We've got a Minecraft Realms account so that the only people who ds1 plays with are people he knows (school friends and family). Chat is recorded so I can see exactly what they're saying and you can boot off anyone who doesn't play by the rules (we've got a strict "no griefing" policy ). There's still bickering, but just the same amount as when they play together at home or in the park.

Unfortunately it costs money, but I bought a 6 month subscription for around £36 to see how much it got used, and ds1 knows that he won't get so many extra things such as comics during the month as he's getting this instead.

Cubeworld is a server that is meant to be family friendly and has strict rules, but I still wasn't happy with him going on a public server.

Have been reading this thread with much interest as I have a 7 year old DS who is obsessed with playing Minecraft and watching Stampy. We have been letting him play the iPad version every day after tea for 30 mins to an hour and it is a great bargaining tool for getting him to tidy his room, get ready for bed etc before he's allowed to play. However, DH and I do worry about how obsessed he is with it (it seems like all he ever talks about) and are thinking that after half term we might ban it altogether on school nights just because it seems to literally take him over. It seems odd that at times we end up literally begging him to watch telly to try and get him to have some different screen time!

I did have to intervene once with one of ds1's friends who is very enthusiastic about TNT.

I came on and reminded him about not blowing up other people's stuff, he stropped off for 10 minutes and then his mum made him come back on and apologise and all was well. So, much like real life really but with explosions rather than knocking over lego models because of extreme bounciness (which he does too).

My two (6 and almost 9) aren't allowed on devices of any sort during the week when they're at school, otherwise it becomes a yelling match to get them to put the sodding ipad down and get ready for school. When they get home I prefer them to spend some down time watching TV or reading or playing out, anything which doesn't involve them being hunched over the iPad with their eyeballs flickering about. Weekends and holidays they are limited to 2 hours ipad time each day, and they are slowly realising that if they get up at 7 and rush downstairs to play until I bellow at them to get dressed and have breakfast etc, that their 2 hours is gone by 9am so are stretching it out more. I just don't like the falling out that inevitably comes with it. I don't pretend to understand it at all but I hear the arguments when they go into each other's worlds and cause untold damage. Once, when DS was 5 he was hysterically upset for an hour because he accidentally started a fire with flint and steel (or something) and burnt almost his whole world down. It was irrational.

We also use the removal of Minecraft time as a punishment for unacceptable behaviour.

What pisses me off is that we have a playroom full of toys which have hardly been touched since they started playing Minecraft. They moan about not having anything to do, drives me mad. When they come to write their lists to Father Christmas this year I will remind them that they will actually have to play with the things they ask for!

They don't have their own iPads, they just use the family one and my old iPhone. I overheard DD telling DS they could ask for an iPad each from Father Christmas as they are expensive and it's okay to ask him as Mummy and Daddy don't have to pay for them. So sweet, but I need to work out how to tell them that Father Christmas will not be bringing iPads!

My 2 are 12 & 14 and I worry a lot about how obsessive it is and restrict their time a lot, although I can see there are some good things about it.

If I had 5 or 7 yos I would hate it and they certainly wouldn't be playing on-line. Mine were barely allowed TV at that age. It's shocking how much things have moved on, even in the 14 years since I've been a parent. When they were small, my mobile only made calls/texts etc so they didn't even see any mobile devices until well after they started school. I only got my first mobile when I was pregnant with Ds1! It's really not that long ago.

I remember my parents hated us watching TV (which was only available for a few hours a day in any case) Now I wish my Dc would watch more TV and be less obsessed with games.

I wonder what it will be for our DC, when they are parents. What new fangled waste of time will they hate their Dc to do and will they be trying to persuade them to play more harmless/educational Minecraft?

ha at the next generation of architects coming from playing minecraft!

that is really the last thing we want to encourage. DH is one of those.

Just bear in mind that 100 years ago, teachers got very cross at girls and boys reading pulp fiction type novels .....

Many children will grow up to do jobs that have not yet been invented.

My cousin did Maths at Cambridge in the late 1970's
He is now in Cloud Development for Microsoft HQ
none of which existed when he graduated

keep your kids happy and inquisitive and they will find the opportunities we do not yet know about

Where has the person gone who linked minecraft to the old nc outcomes.
it was amazing what they came up with and even I a complete no gamer can see what an advantage to education it can be.
I think in moderation it is a good game even though my ds were before its time and dd isn't the slightest bit interested in games consoles, I still hear about lots of benefits.

Real degree, real jobs at the end ....
www.port.ac.uk/courses/computing-and-creative-technologies/bsc-hons-computer-games-enterprise