Learning Minecraft from a 12 Year Old
Recently I posted a message on my Facebook, “Local friends: do you or someone you know use Minecraft? Maybe your kid? Teach me! Let’s spend an afternoon. Please message me. (Age 7 and up is ok).”
I shouldn’t have been surprised that I received responses from just about all my friends and relatives who have 11 year old boys. Including Amy. Our conversation when like this:
Amy: Hiya Jonathan! Seriously? You want to get addicted to Minecraft? My guys would love to show you any time!
Me: Yes, seriously. My goal is to get started in Minecraft on my own account and skip a lot of the beginner learning curve trial & error
Amy: I told the boys & they were fighting over who would get to teach you. Miro wanted to drop everything & go right over — he’s very excited to share his knowledge about his favorite thing ever haha. Let me know what timing works for you
Me: Need to check with my wife first. Would you just drop him off? (Play date) I could bring him back.
Amy: Haha! Sure, I could drop him off and if you’re able to bring him back that would be awesome. Just let me know what time works for you!
I’m old enough to be his father; or his grandfather!
Miro arrived Sunday at 1 pm, with a backpack filled with his personal laptop and a library of Minecraft reference books. He’d been to the house before so with minimal pleasantries, we marched right up to my office.
The first thing on my agenda was to show him my Oculus Rift DK2. It’s always fun showing someone VR for the first time, and it was no different for an eleven year old. I strapped him in and fired up a 5 minute version of SightLine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3EzuUyHLZ0
Now, on to Minecraft. I explained my interest is multi-fold: Microsoft paid $2 billion for the company last fall, I need to see what that’s all about. Minecraft was one of the applications featured in the Microsoft Hololens concept video released last month, so it’s clearly a strategic asset to them. Since I’m becoming a virtual reality 3D developer myself I need to appreciate what this generation is growing up on. And I should know the user interface conventions and game mechanics and social interactions in these 3D virtual worlds that’s considered “natural”.
And last but not least, on a podcast I subscribe to, the guys were laughing ruthlessly at one of the other panelists who didn’t know Minecraft. He’d spent the last couple days learning for the first time and made some “silly” mistakes. I could be that guy.
Miro showed me the things he brought along, including a set of Minecraft Handbooks which seemed to contain everything essential to mastering the game. Nicely illustrated, readable as a reference, by kids young and old alike. We also poked around online on the Minecraft Wiki and stuff.
I set some ground rules: I drive, but he can tell me what to do. He only gets to touch my mouse or keyboard of I say so, because I want this to be my hands-on lesson, not just a demo.
I already had the game bought, downloaded, and signed up for my own account. We entered and created a new world, and he explained the different world modes (“creative” vs “survival”). Then some of the basics like navigating around, punching trees, and collecting wood. I had lots of questions about how the game works, and he answered them authoratively. How do you get building blocks? Dig them up (mine them). What’s a crafting table? A furnace? Make tools? Oh, there’s fixed patterns that combine blocks into predetermined objects. Can I dig a tunnel? Of course. How do you make a shelter? Time passes? It gets dark, you’ll need a torch, scary things come out at night. How do you know whats an enemy or beneign? Where do I search for this stuff on-line? No need to go into all this any more here, either you know it, guess it, discover it, or go read up on it. The lists are huge.
I had lots more questions about how he uses the game. This started to get really interesting.
Do you play alone or online? He used to go online more but now its mostly stand-alone, because he kept running into really “mean” people who’d booby trap his houses and stuff.
How many worlds are you working on at a time? I expected him to say 3 or 4. It was more like ten or fifteen! And these are not trivial construction projects, there’s some serious stuff there.
How often is Minecraft updated? Do you follow that? Oh yes of course! He’s been playing for like 5 years and knows about every update, before they’re released, and then tries each new feature once it comes out. Do you use any third-party modifications? No, tried some but don’t bother any more. Are you interested in programming your own? Not really. Well maybe.
How many of the different kinds of things in the game have you used or built? Answer: All of them, many times over.
Whew! Then Miro took the drivers seat and built me a house, with glass walls, roof, bed, bookshelves, doors, garden, fence, and more. In just a few minutes. His little fingers were in overdrive. Look up the phrase “twitch mechanics” and you’ll see a picture of Miro!
We had spent over four hours, before it was time to go home. In a word, it was awesome.
Since our meeting I’ve installed the virtual reality mod, called MineCrift, and got it running with the Oculus Rift. It’s really quite an amazing difference from the conventional 3D experience flattened on a computer monitor. Miro has got to see this. I’ve invited him over for another play date.
