Minecraft is a personal computer collaborative creative game. It is a fun video sandbox game that was programmed by Mojang Studios. Since its creation in 2009, Minecraft has assisted in bringing creativity, problem-solving and collaboration skills out of the kids as it helps them learn about coding. When kids are made to play Minecraft whether, in a school setting or the house, it enhances the use of the brain to make quick and effective decisions. I am of the view that playing Minecraft in essence decisions teaches the kids that they are responsible for the decisions they make.

Markus Notch Persson founded Minecraft video game by using Java programming language. He had it released on personal computers as an alpha publicly and was initially launched on 17th May 2009. Somewhere around November 2011, the game Minecraft was officially launched. However, Jen Bergensten took over the development of Minecraft after was officially released.

Over the years Minecraft has proven that children can actually learn as they play. With Minecraft video game, it doesn’t matter if you are an adult or a child. Minecraft is just good for everyone of all ages as it comes with lots of opportunities and challenges for children and parents. Parents get to learn about the lingo, explore the most relevant aspects of the video game, while they get hints to help manage their kid’s playtime. Kids of ages eight can acquire the Minecraft pocket edition (kindle fire) on their iPod touch, Android, iPad, and iPhone. Kindle Minecraft pocket edition is the mobile version of the video pc game. Just like with the PC game, lovers of the Minecraft game can still build anything in their game on their mobile phones, as long as the players can mine the right resources. Kids of ages 10 can use Nintendo Wii U, play station vita, iPhone, Xbox 360, Play station 4, Xbox One, and play station 3 platforms to play Minecraft. As you play Minecraft story mode gives storylines, plot and characters for children who would like to hear narrations as they play along even though as a part of the fun of playing Minecraft players can choose to create their own story as they go along. The good thing about playing this Minecraft is it gives positive lessons on diplomacy and teamwork and the learning curve is not as steep as it was originally created. Minecraft has two main modes Creative and Survival. In the Survival mode, players usually are made to find their own tools as no tools are provided. Players look for their own food and building supplies while doing this, the players can interact with the zombies and creepers. In the creative mode, they are provided with tools, and to survive they do not have to eat. All kinds of blocks can be broken immediately by the players in the creative mode.

HOW TO PLAY MINECRAFT: IS IT EDUCATIONAL TO PLAY MINECRAFT?

As it stands now Minecraft video game is a known game app that has captured the imaginations and minds of uncountable kids and even some adults. The fire of Minecraft has been caught by school educators, summer camps and merchandise, and as for the blaze, it keeps blazing on. Some parents wonder, and sometimes express worry as to whether their kids are learning partly because they see their kids play games on their PCs most of the time. If you are one of those worried parents I want to reinstate the fact that indeed the kids are learning even though they are playing Minecraft. Minecraft video game is very healthy for the kids because they are learning just that this time, they learn while having fun which makes it much okay with them. Though some kids might not notice it, they are gathering lots of vital life skills such as problem-solving and collaborative skills. Minecraft help complements writing, reading, science, history learning and even mathematics. It helps instill business ethics, global perspective and STEM knowledge. There are lots of games that can only help with lessons as the teachers would have to adjust the lesson to suit the video game for clearer understanding however, Minecraft can be adjusted to fit any lesson at all being taught by the teacher making learning fun.

HOW TO PLAY MINECRAFT: IS MINECRAFT GOOD FOR KIDS

Having watched kids play Minecraft on the PCs, it is no doubt that they love to create buildings, everything and anything such that it transcends to the way they design and build the virtual world around them without effort. They create their virtual world by punching woods, gathering foods, killing animals, building or looking for shelter and collecting resources. Research suggests if kids play Minecraft in a school setting, they have numerous positive results. As they work in groups, they ask themselves real questions like which side should I punch the wood, what type of resource should I collect for the design? They communicate creatively in a collaborative manner with one another in order to achieve their goals. Not only does Minecraft help kids in designing structures, they also learn to respect each other’s’, safety, ideas, and space. Minecraft instills the kids with the positive trait of selflessness as they put their ideas together in order to build in a collaborative but competitive manner.

HOW KIDS CREATIVITY IS ENHANCED WHEN THEY PLAY MINECRAFT

Creativity refers to the use of ideas to invent something or to modify an existing thought into a whole new brilliant idea. In order to achieve good results in any industry, one must use his or her imaginative mind to think of a whole new way of doing things. In playing Minecraft video games, Kids are expected to create and design within the limits of the 3D grid everything made of up blocks. Minecraft is special because it is an unlimited virtual world for kids to keep creating. The mystery of this is that everything created must fit properly in the 3D grid of the Minecraft video game bringing out the creative skills of the children. Kids are natural pioneers with amazing imaginations that stretch beyond that of adults. Their ability to imagine things beyond understanding helps them contain pain better and gives them confidence. It also helps them in developing better social skills and learns better. Due to their creativity, they must be introduced to Minecraft which will eventually help in broadening their horizon. When parents take the time to check out some stuff built on Minecraft by their kids, it will blow their minds. Day in day out kids create things like real-world cities and recreation of virtual cities, sci-fi ships and beautiful pirate galleys. The interesting about it is that all these things created in Minecraft are usually built by kids who have not even graduated high school yet. That is real creativity and if encouraged can build a future inventor just like the Zuckerbergs’ we have.

HOW TO PLAY MINECRAFT: HOW TO SELECT THE RIGHT GAME MODE WHEN PLAYING MINECRAFT

Minecraft has various types of game modes that give you the opportunity to feel the world in a very special way. These types of game modes comprise:

• • Survival game mode

In this Minecraft game mode, players are made to try and survive by themselves. Gathering resources, finding or building shelter, fighting off hostile creepers and zombies, gaining experience and gathering food. In the survival mode, at night creatures come out to attack the players thereby influencing their ability to make quick, effective and smart decisions when under pressure.

Creative game mode

In this Minecraft game mode, players have access immediately to all resources and blocks, and are immune and invulnerable to death. Players are also given the ability to fly hence they are able to escape from hostile creepers and zombies. In other words, in the creative mode, they are provided with tools and to survive they do not have to eat. All kinds of blocks can be broken immediately by the players in the creative mode. The reason for this game mode is to design or build special worlds.

Adventure game mode

In the adventure game mode, players are made to interact with creepers, zombies, buttons and levers to finally finish an adventure.

Spectator game mode

This mode of the game is used just to observe other players as they create and build their worlds. In this mode, the player is not able to see everything and he or she cannot interact with inventories, blocks, and entities.

Hardcore game mode

This game mode is just like the Survival game mode. As the name suggests it is a difficult and hard level. And Minecraft players who set this mode are not expected to respawn, as soon as they die their map is deleted or else you become a spectator permanently.

HOW TO PLAY MINECRAFT: PARTICIPANTS OF MINECRAFT VIDEO GAME

GETTING STARTED

To get started with the Minecraft game is really easy. The first thing to do is to buy and install Minecraft on either your PC or mobile phone. After the installation is done, you then run the launcher you downloaded from the game page to start the game. When you run the launcher, you downloaded from the Minecraft page it gives you the option to play from the browser you are using. It’s about time to log into the game, you can navigate the main menu and then select your game type.

HOW TO PLAY MINECRAFT: STEP BY STEP AS TO HOW TO LOG IN TO THE MAIN MENU OF MINECRAFT

After the launcher has opened the news screen; which usually displays links and game updates, type in your name in the username box at the lower right corner as well as your password and click on Log in to go on to the main menu. As a single player, you can do the following to finish setting up your Minecraft game.

Single player: Your first game in Minecraft as a single player mode

• • Begin by clicking the single player button to see a list of all the worlds available. Since you are just starting in the Minecraft game the list will be empty.
• • After click on the create new world button to begin a new game. Usually, the “Create New World” page appears.
• • Type whatever name you want in the World Name text box and go on to click the Create New World button at the very bottom of your screen.

Your very first experience playing Minecraft can be exciting, fun but stressful when you select survival mode. In that, you will immediately be thrown into a frustrating world where you will have no or little resource and you will have to make yourself ready to ensure you are able to survive through your first night when you might be attacked by horrifying zombies and creepers. Primarily, your first experience in Minecraft may involve punching woods, mobilizing resources, gathering food and finding or building shelter.

Hint: To turn the cheats button on or off first click the More World Options Button and then click on the Allow Cheats button. By turning on your cheats button it decreases the level of difficulty you face during the game. In the same way, if you turn if your cheats button, it increases the level of difficulty you face as you play Minecraft. Cheats allow you to make switches between adventure mode and creative mode. Therefore, cheats allow you to take control of the game when you have just started. After you are done setting up your world, Minecraft automatically begins creating your world and it puts your character in it.

Now that you have received a step by step guide on how to play Minecraft as a single player, enjoy exploring and creating limitless virtual worlds ready for you.

Multiplayer

You can also play with other players by joining them online. You can connect to other players through your smartphone and tablet versions through WIFI networks. With the multi player option, Minecraft players can connect to thousand and thousand of Minecraft online game servers, which sometimes includes players battling with themselves. Playing with other Minecraft players can be much fun as players compete among themselves and sometimes collaborate ideas to reach a goal. As they collaborate to play the game it interesting to know how a very simple idea could turn into an endless possibilities game requiring each player to be creative.

HOW TO PLAY MINECRAFT: HOW KIDS BENEFIT EDUCATIONALLY AS THEY PLAY MINECRAFT

HOW TO PLAY MINECRAFT: MINECRAFT ENHANCES LIFE SKILLS OF KIDS

Minecraft is good for kids because it helps in promoting their creativity, self-direction, problem solving and collaborative skills. All these positive virtues are very important for personal growth but they are not included in our curricular. It is a non-educational benefit provided by Minecraft. These are the life skills that give kids the improvement needed when they succeed eventually in their future careers and colleges.

Creativity

Creativity refers to the use of ideas to invent something or to modify an existing thought into a whole new brilliant idea. Minecraft is special and enhances kids’ creativity because it is an unlimited virtual world for kids to keep creating. The mystery of this is that everything created must fit properly in the 3D grid of the Minecraft video game bringing out the creative skills of the children. Kids are natural pioneers with amazing imaginations.

Problem-solving

In the survival mode, where several horrifying creepers and zombies come out at night time to pull an attack on players, there is just one-way Minecraft enhances problem-solving by and that is by dropping players’ different environments. After rendering this help it is up to the player to quickly find ways to make weapons for defense, build or find shelter, collect resources, and gather food to survive. It makes use of strategic planning and day in day out players in the world Minecraft must have figured out plans as to how to survive this if they want to stay alive.

Self-direction

This video game is special in the sense that there is no way to ‘win’. Minecraft players make decisions as to what they want to do per time. Meaning if they want to come together and defeat a boss they do it and if they decide to gather some resources to create something cool they do that too. The positive reinforcement and the independence that they get after checking off on goal to others builds their self-confidence. This makes kids who have low self-esteem believe in themselves and have the feeling they are in charge of what happens to them.

Collaboration

Players can play Minecraft on their servers just by setting it up. They can play either with players around the world or with their friends and put effort together to achieve goals. As they play together they gather their resources together, defeat enemies, build structures and trade tips. Talking of the communication involved while they play together, it is limitless making them acquire social skills and even apply them when they are off the computer. It is how come we refer to Minecraft as a collaborative video game.

HOW TO PLAY MINECRAFT: MINECRAFT COMPLEMENTS SCHOOL SKILLS

Minecraft is good for kids because it helps in promoting their primary skill sets such as mathematics, reading and writing. It is no wonder many schools have begun using Minecraft in their educational lessons.

Reading and writing

According to some parents, their children’s spelling, interest in journaling and reading comprehension which includes other creative avenues have been greatly affected. The virtual blocky world provides these kids with motivation which comes from the to make progress in the game. Some other parents’ kids’ comprehension and written communication have been greatly advanced. Their writing skills improved because they have the passion to express themselves and be heard. It has even taken effect on their Facebook, email, and letter writing skills. According to one parent, Minecraft has enhanced her child’s researching skills this is due to the fact that to make an improvement in Minecraft the child has to look up for information, tricks, hints which involve wiki pages and YouTube tutorials, etc. These children then analyze the limitless resources they gathered to discover which is more useful to them and which information wasn’t helpful in any way. This obviously shares a similarity of how dissertations get written in colleges. This is how come as a parent you should encourage your kids at tender ages to play Minecraft.

Math

Mathematics is yet another big interesting part of playing Minecraft. It is amazing to see kids calculating how many seconds they have left before the night falls, averagely the quantity of food they need to go on their mining adventure, estimate the area required to build a city and divide food supplies equally among the players. According to a parent, the concepts of mathematics come to play and to achieve their goal in the game they have no other option than to learn. Indeed, Minecraft has loads of applications from maths concepts, it is why schools and educators use it in boosting their results. Some teachers allow their students to construct complex shapes, solve geometric equations and manipulate blocks.

History

By now I know you might be wondering, History too? Yes dear

Minecraft helps in engaging students in memorization because at some points they are expected to memorize certain historical dates and facts. They sometimes expected to bring in fully reconstructed sets of famous landmarks and buildings or else build theirs.

HOW TO PLAY MINECRAFT: MINECRAFT DEVELOPS CAREER SKILLS

So true, this is due to the fact that as the kids keep playing Minecraft, they as able to discover their talents and passions from the way they explore and design and sometimes from the various roles you are assigned like hosting a server. When kids play Minecraft, they are exposed to acquiring certain STEM knowledge that helps shape their future careers. Just the fact that kids can play with everyone and anyone around the world is fabulous. Skills like negotiating design, sharing responsibilities and completing projects are not easy to teach but r required for those who will become future employers.

Minecraft game is played by mining, digging, crafting and building. It is called the sandbox game because it allows players the opportunity to build their own world and experience limitless possibilities. While other video games dictate to you how the game should go, Minecraft allows you the freedom to control your world as you take pleasure in designing, exploring, and building according to your taste. It even has the option where players are allowed to act as moderators to a mod directly into their game and build their own coding.