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Generally I agree, I also contributed to SETI@Home and Folding@Home. The aim is somewhat "strange", but the whole value of all this may actually be not in the a
by nuccy 6y ago
Generally I agree, I also contributed to SETI@Home and Folding@Home. The aim is somewhat "strange", but the whole value of all this may actually be not in the aim itself, but in the activity to reach it, particularly algorithms and techniques, which are developed (e.g. see @siraben comment in this thread with YouTube links to PewDiePie Minecraft seed reverse engineering) and in getting young people's interest in computer science (or STEM in general). Then in this regard the aim of this is not less valuable than looking for million-digits prime number or smallest number of moves to do a check-mate from arbitrary game position in chess, etc.
- TomMarius 6y agoYes, a lot of kids have learned programming becausw they wanted to develop Minecraft mods and Craftbukkit plugins. I had many colleagues doing enterprise Java that said their start was Minecraft.
- notamy 6y ago+1, this was exactly how I got my professional programming career kicked off -- learning programming from Minecraft modding and networking from there.
- whywhywhywhy 6y agoIf kids have a tangible goal of what they want to accomplish with coding, basically the barrier to entry no longer matters they'll figure it out. This is why things like Minecraft and Flash were great, there is a part to the experience anyone can enjoy and accomplish but also the potential for huge depth through learning.
- spacephysics 6y agoSame, almost a decade of programming started from modding Minecraft.
- lelandbatey 6y agoYep, I was able to get started with Linux and programming in general because of Minecraft. Minecraft led me to look into servers and networking, building servers, colocating physical servers, starting a business, and many more. Minecraft, and multiplayer games in general, have done so much to get people started down the technical computing route.