But its a little trickier when your kid comes home and insists that theyneedto play Minecraft.
You have some learning to do.
Minecraft is also tons of fun in single player mode.
Pick a Platform and roll out the Game
Theres a version of Minecraft for every platform.
The cheapest, and easiest to install, is the Minecraft Pocket Edition app.
Its $6.99 oniOSandAndroid.
Once its installed, you just hit Play, create a world, and youre off.
Pocket edition has a limited set of inventory items and commands.
The program wont run unless you jump in.
Left click destroys a block; right click places the block you are holding.
So, for example, hold a bone and right press a dog to give the dog a bone.
Left click to smack the dog with the bone.
Double tap the space bar to start flying, and tap it again to move higher.
Shift lowers you down, and another double space drops you to the ground.
Swipe the screen to look around.
Place blocks with a tap, and destroy them by tapping and holding.
For example, if you hold an apple and approach a horse, there will be a feed button.
you’re free to readmore about all the different controlsfor all the different platforms on theOfficial Minecraft Wiki.
Scroll through to see what youve picked up, if youre playing in survival mode.
Those nine empty boxes, by the way?
Those are your hot bar of readily accessible objects.
So, What Do You Do?
So what do you do inMinecraft, anyway?
What is your kid trying to accomplish when they spend hours at the computer playing?
You already know the answer, actually: youmineblocks from your surroundings, and you use them tocraftnew things.
Imagine walking through a world made of lego blocks as far as the eye can see.
In survival mode, you arrive in Minecraft land with literally nothing.
you’re able to karate-chop the world with your hand to gather blocks of dirt and wood.
Then you’ve got the option to make a better pickaxe out of stone.
In the meantime, youd better create a shelter before dark, because thats when the monsters come out.
(Me too, honestly.)
Potions that let you see in the dark?
Fun Things to Try with Your Kids
Here are some things you might do right away.
Watch the Sunset: A new day dawns in Minecraft every 20 minutes.
Its kind of beautiful.
After dark, just snag a Potion of Night Vision from your inventory.
On the computer you could search for items by name; on mobile, scroll until you find it.
Right click, or tap and hold, to drink the potion.
you could also switch views while playing and see yourself in the third-person.
If youd like to tweak your look, visitminecraftskins.net, where you could choose a new skin.
(Your skin is considered part of your account profile.)
If you play on the mobile editions,Downloadthe skin and save it to your devices photo library.
Then you’ve got the option to change your skin from within the game.
Tame a Wolf: No wolves?
Look in your inventory for an egg called spawn wolf.
It does exactly what youd think.
Feed one of your new wolves a bone, and it will start following you and exuding hearts.
Once the wolf has been tamed, it wears a red collar and is a dog.
Do not hit your dog with a bone.
They attack as a pack when one is hurt.
Ride a Pig: Hold a carrot on a stick, and all the pigs around will follow you.
Place a saddle on a pig, and thenyou can ride it.
The pig will walk constantly, but you could steer with your mouse as usual.
To stop the pig, take the carrot and stick out of your hand.
Teleport: If youre playing with your kid in multiplayer mode, theyre almost guaranteed to wander off.
If you key in a forward slash, youll find you’ve got the option to enter commands.
A handy one is/teleport, or/tpfor short, followed by your kids player name.
Youll teleport right to where they are.
While there areother ways to find your way home when you get lost, this is the simplest.
I learned all of these tricks from my six-year-old son, who in turned learned them from watching YouTube.
But if you really want to playwithyour kid, youll need to learn about multiplayer Minecraft.
Your friends will need to know your IP address and port to connect to your server.
You caninstall a serveron another, separate computer to keep your world running all the time.
The server software is free, but again each player needs their own account.
it’s possible for you to sign up forMinecraft Realms, a subscription service at $9.99/month.
Realms subscriptions are, likewise, available either for the PC/Mac edition or the Pocket/Windows 10 edition.
That means you cant play on your phone and connect to your kids desktop-based world.
Illustration by Sam Woolley.
