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I can attest to letting my kid play Minecraft, install whatever mods he wants (at 6-7) and watch related tutorials has catapulted his English (not his native la

I can attest to letting my kid play Minecraft, install whatever mods he wants (at 6-7) and watch related tutorials has catapulted his English (not his native language) to insane levels. Playing with the Create Mod is basically just engineering. I do feel conflicted about how much screen time he gets but compared to how I spent my time as a kid, watching shitty soap operas on TV in the afternoons (because that's what was on), this is infinitely better. How can I be mad when he's throwing around words like "non-euclidean"? He's learning WAY more from Minecraft than school at this point. As a bonus, we're practically neighbors with Mojang, and visited them on a sick day once.

abbadadda 2y ago
Love this. I have a young one I am thinking of letting get involved in the Minecraft scene (I think far less exploitative than Roblox?). How does one get started? What console are you using? Or PC? How do I enable mods? And who is Mojang?
- voidUpdate 2y ago
  Generally, minecraft creation is less exploitative than roblox, since mojang (the creators of the game) has no hand in your creations. Generally, a young one's creations will be "maps"/"worlds" (places where you can run around and play etc) and "skins" (how your character looks). AFAIK, minecraft mod creation is a lot more involved than it is for roblox, but I only have a very cursory knowledge of roblox. Using mods will depend if they are playing the legacy pc version ("Java Edition"), which has much more mod support or the newer cross-platform version ("Bedrock Edition"), where mods are generally limited to things that are approved by mojang (I have a lot less experience with bedrock so don't quote me on that). Generally, you will find mods are either "forge" or "fabric", which are the main two types of framework that you can make them with. I think fabric is the more "modern" version, but both are constantly being updated for the latest version. They have their own modloaders, but you can use programs that manage your mods for you, such as the modrinth launcher or the curseforge launcher. Once you have one of those installed, you generally just drop the mods into the mods folder and assuming you have all the frameworks and versions correct, they should just work. You'll probably want to google for more detailed tutorials on adding mods if it's your first time, as a HN comment is going to be too short to contain them haha. Generally, making full mods is going to involve java programming, so a decent grasp of java will help a lot there, and there are lots of tutorials for it online as well.
  - martindbp 2y ago
    Agreed on Roblox. BUT it has Roblox Studio, which seems like a Unity-light. I taught my son to add different shapes, move them around, scale and rotate etc, so he could build his own obstacle courses. I think if you go down the Roblox route, make sure to focus on creation.
    - voidUpdate 2y ago
      Just be careful that you are aware of roblox being a bit... eh about protecting its creators. This video (https://youtu.be/_gXlauRB1EQ https://youtu.be/_gXlauRB1EQ) and its successor are about as much as I am aware of the situation, so it might have changed since they were put out
- martindbp 2y ago
  There are two versions of Minecraft: Java Edition and Bedrock Edition. Java Edition is only on PCs/Mac, while Bedrock is on phones, tablets and consoles. Java Edition is the original and I think more customizable in general, a bit more hard core. We just have both. We use a special launcher for Java Edition called "Prism Launcher" which lets you handle different versions of the game, installing mods etc. It's really taught him important concepts like "if you install 134 mods, incompatibilities will break the game", and general debugging, like, install one mod at a time and revert it something doesn't work. I prefer PCs in general because it's more likely to lead to an understanding for computers. Mojang is the company behind Minecraft.
- itishappy 2y ago
  I'd start with the base game! Give you kid a chance to familiarize themselves with the core mechanics, particularly redstone, then look into command blocks and resource packs. These are fully vanilla mechanics, no need to fiddle with installing mods (which differs based on platform/version), but are extremely powerful!
  - martindbp 2y ago
    Yes, first of all just try the game and see if it sticks. Once there is obsessive interest, you can try to guide it towards mentally stimulating ends. I don't know if I'd recommend YouTube for english native speakers, but for kids like my son, learning English from YouTube is a plus. There are lots of shitty YouTubers just goofing around, but there are some good ones like Pixlriffs (Minecraft Survival Guide), Shalz and Mumbo Jumbo that focus on building things and exploring all aspects of the game and different mods. As an example, my son learned about crop rotation from Pixlriffs, because apparently its a mechanic in the game. Can't be mad at that!
canadianfella 2y ago
[dead]
2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
I grew up on Final Fantasy which required reading so it helped with my reading.
- martindbp 2y ago
  I think it's really underestimated how much "frivolous" obsessions lead to rapid learning. I think you can take any obsession and guide it down a productive path. Played a lot of Counter Strike back in the day, and went to school with two brothers who built a betting site for CS esports games (not real money) and it blew up. I think they're rich now. Final Fantasy may seem like it doesn't teach you much, but it taught you reading, probably inspired many people to learn about Japan and the Japanese language, build websites about it etc.

abbadadda 2y ago

Love this. I have a young one I am thinking of letting get involved in the Minecraft scene (I think far less exploitative than Roblox?). How does one get started? What console are you using? Or PC? How do I enable mods? And who is Mojang?

voidUpdate 2y ago
Generally, minecraft creation is less exploitative than roblox, since mojang (the creators of the game) has no hand in your creations. Generally, a young one's creations will be "maps"/"worlds" (places where you can run around and play etc) and "skins" (how your character looks). AFAIK, minecraft mod creation is a lot more involved than it is for roblox, but I only have a very cursory knowledge of roblox. Using mods will depend if they are playing the legacy pc version ("Java Edition"), which has much more mod support or the newer cross-platform version ("Bedrock Edition"), where mods are generally limited to things that are approved by mojang (I have a lot less experience with bedrock so don't quote me on that). Generally, you will find mods are either "forge" or "fabric", which are the main two types of framework that you can make them with. I think fabric is the more "modern" version, but both are constantly being updated for the latest version. They have their own modloaders, but you can use programs that manage your mods for you, such as the modrinth launcher or the curseforge launcher. Once you have one of those installed, you generally just drop the mods into the mods folder and assuming you have all the frameworks and versions correct, they should just work. You'll probably want to google for more detailed tutorials on adding mods if it's your first time, as a HN comment is going to be too short to contain them haha. Generally, making full mods is going to involve java programming, so a decent grasp of java will help a lot there, and there are lots of tutorials for it online as well.
- martindbp 2y ago
  Agreed on Roblox. BUT it has Roblox Studio, which seems like a Unity-light. I taught my son to add different shapes, move them around, scale and rotate etc, so he could build his own obstacle courses. I think if you go down the Roblox route, make sure to focus on creation.
  - voidUpdate 2y ago
    Just be careful that you are aware of roblox being a bit... eh about protecting its creators. This video (https://youtu.be/_gXlauRB1EQ https://youtu.be/_gXlauRB1EQ) and its successor are about as much as I am aware of the situation, so it might have changed since they were put out
martindbp 2y ago
There are two versions of Minecraft: Java Edition and Bedrock Edition. Java Edition is only on PCs/Mac, while Bedrock is on phones, tablets and consoles. Java Edition is the original and I think more customizable in general, a bit more hard core. We just have both. We use a special launcher for Java Edition called "Prism Launcher" which lets you handle different versions of the game, installing mods etc. It's really taught him important concepts like "if you install 134 mods, incompatibilities will break the game", and general debugging, like, install one mod at a time and revert it something doesn't work. I prefer PCs in general because it's more likely to lead to an understanding for computers. Mojang is the company behind Minecraft.
itishappy 2y ago
I'd start with the base game! Give you kid a chance to familiarize themselves with the core mechanics, particularly redstone, then look into command blocks and resource packs. These are fully vanilla mechanics, no need to fiddle with installing mods (which differs based on platform/version), but are extremely powerful!
- martindbp 2y ago
  Yes, first of all just try the game and see if it sticks. Once there is obsessive interest, you can try to guide it towards mentally stimulating ends. I don't know if I'd recommend YouTube for english native speakers, but for kids like my son, learning English from YouTube is a plus. There are lots of shitty YouTubers just goofing around, but there are some good ones like Pixlriffs (Minecraft Survival Guide), Shalz and Mumbo Jumbo that focus on building things and exploring all aspects of the game and different mods. As an example, my son learned about crop rotation from Pixlriffs, because apparently its a mechanic in the game. Can't be mad at that!

canadianfella 2y ago

[dead]

2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago

I grew up on Final Fantasy which required reading so it helped with my reading.

martindbp 2y ago
I think it's really underestimated how much "frivolous" obsessions lead to rapid learning. I think you can take any obsession and guide it down a productive path. Played a lot of Counter Strike back in the day, and went to school with two brothers who built a betting site for CS esports games (not real money) and it blew up. I think they're rich now. Final Fantasy may seem like it doesn't teach you much, but it taught you reading, probably inspired many people to learn about Japan and the Japanese language, build websites about it etc.