What is Minecraft?

[Zach Bruggeman]

You may have heard of the game Minecraft from your child. Minecraft is an extremely interesting game, mainly because there is no explicit goal. Unlike other games your child may play, like Call of Duty, Minecraft is focused on the idea of being creative. When your child plays Minecraft, they start in a randomly generated world, filled with cubes, or blocks. Here, their imagination can run wild. They start by mining these blocks, so they can take them, and turn them into useful tools, like pickaxes, swords and shovels. They can also place down the blocks they mine to build their own structures. Because of this, Minecraft is an extremely fun way to get your child thinking creatively while staying kid friendly. A big part of the fun of Minecraft is working together, in multiplayer worlds. This lets your child play with others, either those they know in real life, or people from all across the world. This can be both exciting and terrifying for a parent. Your child gets to improve their social skills, by talking to others and seeing how they react. However, there''s always the worry of cyberbullies and inappropriate behaviour on the Internet. To help fill this gap, we at DIY have created our own Minecraft server, which is a completely kid friendly environment. Unlike many servers we allow no inappropriate language or behaviour, and any player doing so is immediately removed from the server and may not join again. Another big issue with many servers is that they attempt to lure kids into donating for virtual rewards. We don''t feel this is morally right for kids, since they can be influenced very easily. Our server is 100% free, and items must be earned fairly. It teaches character. :wink: Your kid can join by following these steps:

1. Have you or your child log into Minecraft, and press the Multiplayer button. Please note that this requires the PC/Mac/Linux version of Minecraft. The Android/iOS or Xbox version won't work for this.

2. Press the Add Server button.

3. In the Server Name textbox, type in something like "DIY".

4. In the Server Address textbox, type in the following: *minecraft.diy.org* Make sure it's exactly like that!

5. Press Done.

6. Click on the new DIY server entry, and press Join Server. 

We hope you let your kid join in on the fun of Minecraft. I''m totally happy to answer any questions you might have about it.