Online gaming – it’s categorically bad for your kids, right? Or is it…?
So there you are – having yet another argument with your six-year-old about video games. The last half-an-hour has seen whining, snot-en-trane and threats about who has control over the controller – and that’s just the adults.
Your youngster, meantime, is on the brink of a meltdown rivalling the tantrums you last saw during the Terrible Two’s period. Wasn’t parenting supposed to get easier when they were out of nappies and actually sleeping through the night?
You know you have to win this battle because ‘The School Said That Screen Time Must Be Limited to Maximum One Hour Per Day’ in the last newsletter – or something deeply unrealistic like that; but anyway Junior is definitely well over that limit on average every day… And resorting to bribery is going to prove difficult because screentime normally *is* the prize at the end of the bribery equation.
If only there was a game that wasn’t so bad…
Everything In Moderation?
Most parents today have wrestled at some time or another with how to manage their children’s daily online screen time, starting with movies and shows, and graduating to online gaming. ‘How much is too much?’ is an ongoing question.
The bad news is that, in excess, online games CAN be bad for your kids. This happens when your children, both younger and older, become too fond of gaming to the detriment of – or even the exclusion of – other ways to occupy themselves in real life. (This, of course, goes for adults as well.) Even the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a description of ‘gaming disorder’ as an addictive behaviour.
But the good news is that, properly managed, the opposite can also be true, and playing video games can actually be beneficial in some ways for your kids. Here, you can read how a mom of nine sets out some suggested do’s and don’ts around video games and your children.
From a Vox perspective, we wanted to be more specific, so in this article we look at whether playing Minecraft could actually encourage your youngsters in such career path options as architects, engineers and interior designers – never mind graphic designers and software animation.
It seems there just might be a video game that’s actually good for your kids – in moderation, of course.
How Minecraft Works
It’s a game where the players can build things with blocks or resources – think Lego, only online, with almost unlimited possibilities – and you work your way up through basic resources to more complex ones. You can choose to work in either a creative mode – where you build virtual structures and worlds – or a survival mode, where you must harvest the materials and try to stay alive without dying. Because of the visual style of the graphics – the little block-like people in motion are really quite funny! – it never really looks very violent (even if someone gets terminated).
A description from Minecraft itself is as follows: “Minecraft is a game made up of blocks, creatures, and community. You can survive the night or build a work of art – the choice is all yours.
“…Minecraft has no set goal and can be played however you’d like! This is why it’s sometimes called a ‘sandbox game’ – there are lots of things for you to do, and lots of ways that you can play. If you like being creative, then you can use the blocks to build things from your imagination. If you’re feeling brave, you can explore the world and face daring challenges.”
The ‘mining’ part of Minecraft means removing or taking away, while the ‘crafting’ refers to creating by using materials within the online world. You can progress in the game by scavenging or ‘mining’ blocks of various materials such as stone, wood, iron, gold, emeralds and a whole lot more (if only it was as easy to get precious metals and jewels in the real world!). These are used as the basis for creations, or combined to create more advanced materials, tools and objects.
Players can design houses, cities, and even machines, and so the requisite problem-solving skills include learning how to plan, adapt and experiment. We shared a link earlier to an article giving tips on managing kids and video games in general – here’s another useful parental resource about Minecraft itself.
Besides Creativity, What Else Does Minecraft Encourage?
Wall-E in Minecraft [courtesy: https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/17-amazing-minecraft-creations-that-will-blow-your/2900-84/#13]
According to many educators and child development experts, playing Minecraft can be great for children, if used responsibly. Playing Minecraft supports a range of skills, including:
- Creativity: Players design houses, cities and even machines, and you can work in a free-form design that just keeps growing, or strictly according to design parameters.
- Problem-solving: Players learn to plan, adapt and experiment.
- Teamwork: Being in a multiplayer game encourages collaboration and communication.
- Computational thinking: By designing and building complex structures and automated systems, players develop their computational thinking skills, learning to break down problems into smaller steps and devising logical solutions.
Having been released in November 2011 (the earliest version was released for PC players in May 2009 and was called Cave Game), Minecraft was bought by Microsoft in November 2014 (for a staggering amount of money!).
Microsoft then wasted no time in releasing Minecraft Education in November 2016, a special version of Minecraft created specifically for use in schools, with extra tools and features that allow teachers to harness the fun and creativity of Minecraft to teach everything from reading to chemistry to coding.
Can Minecraft Encourage Career Choices?
Besides the creation and use of Minecraft Education in schools, there are other ways in which Minecraft can help children with learning in a more focused way.
In mid-2024, an event in the United Kingdom showcased the use of Minecraft to explore careers in aerospace, during the annual Farnborough International Airshow of that year. The event, Pioneers of Tomorrow, is a dedicated STEM-focused (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) event designed to inspire and engage the next generation of aerospace leaders.
During Pioneers of Tomorrow in July 2024, over 300 children played the Skills Miner aerospace game. As they proceeded through each game level, students explored core STEM principles and gained insight into engineering careers by experiencing the different roles from designers to coders, and maintenance engineers to aerodynamicists and stress engineers.
Analysis revealed that playing the game improved participants’ understanding of engineering concepts and left a lasting positive impression, encouraging many to consider a future career in the field:
- 91 percent of participants said they had gained new insights into engineering; and
- 87% expressed increased interest in pursuing a career in engineering.
Anecdotal evidence is also available for people who say they’ve chosen their career because of a love of playing Minecraft as a child. One such person is Arihant Bhattacharjee, a student in Year 11 at The British School of Beijing, Shunyi – China. He told his story of how he was inspired to become an architect during a Ted Talk entitled ‘From Blocks to Bricks’ – you can listen to his story here. On the design side of life, Lucas Pion believes that playing Minecraft inspired him to become a designer.
While some people don’t agree that Minecraft is necessarily going to lead to a career in architecture and similar design- or building-related careers, others have strongly positive views. James Delaney, who studied architecture at Cambridge University in the UK, says: “Whilst the architects of today grew up playing with LEGO, I have no doubt the next generation will have played Minecraft. People have to stop thinking of it as a game. It’s a CAD tool, and as such it is the most widely used one in the world. We’re looking forward to bridging the gaps between design and reality.”
And then there was the release earlier this year of ‘A Minecraft Movie’, starring Jason Momoa, Jennifer Coolidge and Jack Black. According to a Google Trends analysis, there was a nearly 200% (194.1%) surge in interest around building, design and architecture careers among younger generations, with searches for ‘builders’ alone almost tripling following the premiere of the movie. (We’re not so sure about how many people searched for ‘pink fringed leather jacket’ after the movie’s release but that’s a different conversation.)
While the jury is out for some, for others the message is very clear: Minecraft can inspire people to pursue careers in architecture, design, and engineering. The game’s creative environment definitely encourages players to experiment with building, spatial reasoning and problem-solving, and these are all fundamental aspects of these professions. It can also act as a stepping stone to more advanced design tools and concepts.
And so back to your kids and the ongoing debate in your home about online gaming time.
Perhaps good advice would be to follow a similar attitude to car pioneer Henry Ford, in the early days of car production lines, when he said: “You can have it in any colour as long as it’s black.”
Ok then.
“Kids, you can play any video game you like, as long as it’s Minecraft.”
Because it’s actually good for you… Have fun!
[Editor’s note: Of course, good gaming requires a fast Internet connection, and Vox is always available to help with your connectivity!]
