The article is a bit of beat up and seems to omit a lot of features or aspects of the game and it's community that make it so rich. >"The underlying creativity

The article is a bit of beat up and seems to omit a lot of features or aspects of the game and it's community that make it so rich. >"The underlying creativity is baked into the program - the combinations, tools and materials - so the players have only one task to complete: design ever more complex structures. Though this seems like the pinnacle of an imaginative play experience, the kids we studied said they felt edgy and irritable after Minecraft sessions." >The game, said the researchers, becomes "less about open-ended play and more about working to complete the never-ending stacks of buildings." A bit surprised they seem to have ignored red stone, command blocks and modding. These seemingly complex concepts are not out of the reach of children. I don't have direct sources on hand but I've read many a programmer and parent (even on here) use it as a gateway to introducing computer science topics at a young age. >but spending hours mindlessly watching others playing it represents a whole new level of obsession. There are a lot of quality content creators with long running series' that have a narrative focus to some degree. I would rather my kids watch the likes of Etho, BdoubleO and Zisteau for instance over Yu-Gi-Oh, or some Transformers clone. Mostly so I can watch too.