So Many Ways to Play

A Farm.

My kids discovered Minecraft this summer, when their Uncle visited for a few days and showed them.  If you don't know, Minecraft is "a game about placing blocks to build anything you can imagine. At night monsters come out, make sure to build a shelter before that happens"(From Minecraft.net, where you can start playing).

They experienced the joy of discovery; my son in particular, who has loved to search for all manner of treasure or valuables since he could crawl, delighted in mining deep into the ground and finding blocks of valuable ore (diamond, gold, lapis, etc.), which he could take home to refine into precious gems and metals, and further use to manufacture golden and diamond armor, tools, and weapons.  The combination of this industrious and creative work with the excitement of then preparing for battle and going out into the darkness, facing the creatures of the night, and doing his level best to triumph, put him into a state of flow.  The triumphs were felt deeply, the defeats were felt deeply, and he would gather himself (and his things) together and, when ready, sail back into the fray.

This happened in front of a backdrop of beautiful (if rudimentary, graphically) circadian cycles, sunrises, days, sunsets, nights.  Life, death, creation, destruction, creation, gathering, forging, facing the Night-- these were just a few of the many archetypical themes of the game.

Then they visited their Uncle in another state, and witnessed him running his own Minecraft server on his PC.  As the admin, he had godlike powers to summon any materials without the effort of mining them, to create and edit the terrain of the game in any way he wished.  He could create in-game explosions on a truly massive scale, demolishing whole hillsides at a mouse-click.  When we returned from the trip, thei interest in mining had waned, paling in comparison to the glamorous things they had recently witnessed.  At a friend's house, they saw a new twist on the game: mods-- modifications to the game you can upload and install, creating whole new versions of it.  They gloried in one popular collection of mods called Yogbox, which brought to the game new delights such as baby animals, unicorns, breedable horses, airships, an infinite supply of building materials, and the ability to fly!  Now the game was all about animals and building and manufacturing fantastical things.   My daughter in particular gleefully built intricate zoos-- squid pens, chicken pens, horse stables-- huge and intricate habitats with unique specifications for each species. 

My unicorn sculpture under the stars.

Around this time we bought another computer, so they could play side by side.  Then something new and wonderful happened: they discovered the joy of Multiplayer.  They were able to login to the in-game world of a friend who lives far away-- and play together with other kids, and each other.  This introduced the practice of in-game chatting, by typing messages to communicate, such as "please don't burn down my house" and "do you want to build something together?"  In this multiplayer space, a  number of kids ranging mostly from 6-10 played together, building a wonderland of rollercoasters, sculptures, waterslides, murals, treehouses, fountains, skyscrapers, hotels with posted room rates, and so forth.

Max's tall treetop restaurant in front of a sunset, rainbow arch entrance to fairyland area in foreground.

Next we started running a server of our own, so friends could join them in their own world.  What immediately followed was the concurrence of playing together online in multiplayer and chatting on the phone.  Playing Minecraft exploded into a flurry of negotiation, problem-solving, conflict resolution, teamwork, and gushing creativity.  There were at times 5 kids phone-conferenced together, all at their computers, playing together, building together, and totally in flow, for hours at a time.  One of the other kids started a server, so then they did the same things in that world, which she introduced with a set of rules and guiding principles, which everyone more or less agreed to:  houses should be approved by the Mayor to be private residences, others can be built and be for public use or can be sold. You could select a job from a job board (police officer, banker, etc) and do the job to be paid in diamonds, which you could get at the bank.  The most creative and rich period of their game experience yet is unfolding now.  In these multiplayer worlds together, in-game and by phone, these kids have, among many other things:

• built voting booths
• run an election
• built cities with municipal facilities (mayor's office, water treatment plant, jail)
• built toilets and showers with switches to turn them on and off (with pistons and circuits)
• built a garbage can that you can deposit blocks and items into, and have them disappear
• worked out a permit system for provate property vs. public property
• made a job center and bank for getting paid in diamonds as wages
• organized and taught in-game classes on skills like archery, secret bunker-building, and building water treatment acilities
• working together to overcome disasters with flooding and lava flows destroying structures
• built several restaurants stocked with food items, counters, tables, chairs, background music, decor, menus, ways to handle payment
• built amusement park rides with functioning parts
• built zoos
• built several traps
• built huge sculptures and wall murals
• built castles, skyscrapers, farms
• planted, tended, and harvested crops to make other items from
• built a massive, incredibly long roller coaster that travels through China, Japan, Montana, Africa, and many other places
• and on, and on, and on, and on.

Part and parcel with the game play, my son is reading and typing, communicating with an explosion of "written" language, heretofore only nascent.  My daughter is enjoying the valuable opportunity to practice social skills around entering and leaving groups, negotiating and presenting ideas in a group.  When she needs a break, she just steps away to do something else, or plays a different game (which has incredible rewards of its own, but that's another blog entry.)  Another kid is practicing skills of facilitation, and learning server commands.  It's all quite marvelous.  Tonight they're building castles together.

Wide glowstone and obsidian boulevard lined by super-tall birch trees, under the moon.

I feel so lucky, to get to witness people completely engaged in every way.  If your kids are having a hard time leaving the computer, you might consider joining them as much as possible, if only for the privilege of seeing brilliance unfold.

Addendum: 6 months later:

I just went back and read all that.  Six months later, in April of 2012, we traveled even farther on our Minecraft journey.   After our first Multiplayer server, the kids discovered the Studio Ghibli films.  We built a new server, based on that: Totorocraft.  It had many sculptures, lands and towns based on the different films.  It had an economy, and many related intricacies.  I administrated the server, helping the kids work out conflicts when necessary, helping solve problems.  We had, on average 10 people at a time online to play with.   It was great fun. 

The first thing we built on Totorocraft: A Giant Totoro!

My daughter in particular developed a keen interest in administering a server herself, and trying on "being in charge".  She had a vision: Kittencraft.  She built the spawn, along with a few friends helping a bit.  She made the first rule on the server "no correcting spelling", as she wanted to create a space where she could joyfully communicate with the written word, without worrying about spelling things according to the dictionary.  Eventually, she wanted a grander spawn city.  She wanted it to be Egyptian in style, so we looked up a lot of Egyptian temples and symbols, reading about gods and so forth.  We stayed up all night long, working feverishly to finish the new spawn before our agreed-upon deadline of the next afternoon.  We built the Catshepsut Temple, and a city all around it, with traditional Egyptian houses, and the great pyramids.  We built a Sphinx with all the warps in it, to serve as a hub.  Seeing my daughter so completely and utterly engaged and delighted, working so hard at something so important to her, in flow and firing on all cylinders, was a privilege to see and be part of.  It is one of the happiest memories I have with her to date. 

She ran Kittencraft admirably, at 8 years old.  She enforced rules and worked her way through figuring out how to be tactful.  She did astonishing things.  I heard her say to herself many times, "I am so proud of myself!"  She was fully immersed, and came out the other side with a keen knowledge of what she loved about the game: that there are so very many ways to play it.  My children played Minecraft every single day for about 10 months, at a total of approximately 2000 hours.  My son gradually moved on to other games.  About a month ago, Katie discovered to her extreme delight another open-ended, many-ways-to-play-it game: Roblox.  After 10 months of Minecraft, she is moving on to new challenges; new ways of building and interacting and scripting and operating and problem-solving.  Kittencraft is still up and being visited by friends every day-- she may want to return to it, I don't know-- but in the meantime, we all 3 carry Minecraft inside of us.  We have learned so, so much.