How on Earth do you play Minecraft?

[sleepfortheweek]

DD (6) just got Minecraft for her birthday, for the Switch. I'm usually quite game savvy but I have no idea how to play it, or what the aims and objectives are 🙈

She's desperate to play with it but neither of us know what we are doing.

Anyone want to give me whirlwind gameplay instructions?!

YouTube tutorials!

I really have zero idea but my two taught themselves this way

I've no idea!! Are there any YouTube tutorials? Mine both love it, perhaps I should show more interest!

As far as I can tell it’s just ‘build stuff’ like Lego but in a game. There’s no story to follow or those kind of game objectives. There’s no obvious ‘winning’.

My dd (7) loves Minecraft and just knew how to play, she did watch a few YouTube videos. Me and my husband (who is a seasoned gamer) still have no clue. We think all children are now programmed to be able to play.

It's not a game as such, it's more creative than that. My son watches loads of YouTube tutorials about it.

I found this article helpful from parents perspective so I could talk to him about it www.howtogeek.com/210923/the-parents-guide-to-minecraft/

My kids just put the card in and off they went? They just build things on creative though. I thought the whole point of minecraft is that there isn't a point to it?

Definitely look on you tube.

Watch Stampy and DanTDM onYoutube , these are fantastic Minecrafters who make lots of videos on it. Stampy's lovely world is just fantastic!

We wandered around chasing a sheep for a bit then went on you tube and learnt how to build a bed (dd7). I don’t get it. Dd seems happy though!

Thank everyone! Will definitely look it up on YouTube!

It's even the menu and all the options. I don't like the old school style of it which probably inhibits my ability to play!

Is there in app purchasing and can you message other people in your 'world?'.

It's as complicated or simple as you want it to be. Your daughter might like taming wolves and ocelots to be her pets. Most importantly build a house and a bed.
There are 2 modes creative and survival and you definitely want to start in creative.
I am afraid I don't know about switch, but on xbox you can make a party with your friends and the play together.

Yes, there are two modes - survival and creative. In creative mode you can access all the resources in unlimited numbers to be as creative as like.
In survival you can only have the resources that you gather and mine yourself while trying not to be killed by a mob (zombies, skeletons, spiders etc). Mobs come out at night so you need to hide or arm yourself with a weapon! You can make tools from the resources which then help you gather better resources. You will also need to grow or kill your own food. Beds are important because they become your spawn point if you die.

I like survival because I like the challenge of only being able to use what I have mined/farmed/collected. But I use creative if I want to build a really big project, like I built a whole medieval castle and town with a marketplace and cathedral.

You can play in your own worlds or you can join a server and play in other people’s worlds. We pay a subscription to have our own private realm which can have up to ten players at once so the children can play safely with people they know.

You can get in app purchases in the form of different ‘skins’ for the characters or themes.

DS mostly builds worlds, houses, grows plants, tames cats and constructs massive railways, lifts, waterways etc in creative and occasionally switches to survival.

He started on minecraft as a little boy and is now 18 - his constructions getting ever more complicated and planned out.