Celtling’s friends are all very in to Minecraft. I know exactly zilch about it, except for what I’ve learned while half-watching Stampylongnose videos with her.
So please tell me, do you think it’s appropriate? Any areas or levels of the game I should be wary of?
Also, can you recommend a good “Minecraft for Dummies” site or tutorial?
How much does it cost? Is there a free version?
Thanks for any advice or guidance you can provide! 
Short answer: Yes. It’s about as good as it gets for a child’s video game.
The minimal violence is undermined by the graphics. It’s as appropriate as interacting with people on Internet and seeing their creations can get. There aren’t as many dicks as you might think. It tends to be overwhelmingly populated by children.
There is a free version. The full version is 27$.
This styles itself as an introduction of Minecraft for parents: - YouTube From what I’ve seen, it looks accurate.
There may be particular servers which have a nasty culture, I don’t know of any but that may simply be my ignorance of it and the wide diversity of servers. Anyone (with the full version, I presume) can make their own servers with their own rules.
I don’t think any game with multiplayer capability is suitable for a seven-year-old, unless there is a way to lock it down that I’m not aware of.
There is. It’s called “Now the rules are, you can only play multiplayer if I say so. And by the way, I’m here in the living room with you”
Why don’t you care about children?
Ah, the beautifully euphemistic “Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB” or “Content May Significantly Change Online” warnings that a 13 year old may say something incredibly antisemitic to you. I think you can run private servers where only invited friends can join? Then you only have to worry about the friends.
You can get the free version, if you don’t love your child and want a social pariah! Seriously, you’ll probably want to upgrade at some point. Content is not identical.
All of this depends on your expectations as a parent. Parts can be scary and you can kill monsters with a sword but that’s it. If PG movies are off limits then it might be too much, but IMHO most parents would have no objection.
The Wiki has everything you need but the video primer might be enough.
There are many, many Minecraft servers that are family friendly and enforce that rule with an iron fist. There is a server for any taste.
And the game is quite fun solo or in LAN mode with friends and family.
The “violence” is barely that.
Well I think it is in a controlled environment. My kids have played on fenced in servers and all was cool, my eldest boy who was 15 at the time built his own virtual server and it was modded by him. But yes just open access to any server could potentially however small be an issue.
I have no doubt that it’s possible to play Minecraft in a family-friendly manner. I just doubt that it’s possible to play Minecraft only in a family-friendly manner. You read about stuff and want to try it. I got lucky that none of the people I played Descent with on Kali tried to murder me.
PLu5 y0u’r3 kid mIGH7 57@rt 7YPIng lIk3 7hi5.
Is he playing on PC or consoles?
On PC you can actually have a private server where only he and his friends can join up and create things together.
Don’t know if that’s possible on the console version.
You don’t even have to play it in a collaborative way, my 7 year old just builds his own worlds (rollercoaster based mostly) and has a load of fun doing that.
Minecraft is simply brilliant. You can do multi-player but the single player survival mode is my favourite.
The key for *you *will be to help him with the various recipes. He’ll need to know how to get wooden blocks and then how to craft them into planks, doors, workbenchs, tools and weapons. After that he can make whatever he wants.
Minecraft Wiki – The Ultimate Resource for Minecraft is a great place to start. He’ll come up with all sorts of cool ideas. Think of it as LEGO.
Your daughter will be fine with it, although I’d limit her to single-player until you’re both very comfortable with that. It’s a wonderful game for a parent to play with the kid.
There’s a very simple way. If the computer it’s installed on isn’t connected to the network, there’s no way to connect to a server, so the child will be limited to single player.
Yeah, best advice I’ve received re: computer and kids was from her GS leader “Unclick the autoconnect button on your network settings.”
This way, she can’t get on the internet without my password. She watches my fingers as I type it, but I’m cagey and she’ll never figure it out. LOL!
Thanks to all of you for weighing in. I feel a lot more informed and comfortable.
In case anyone else comes around with the same question, I found http://www.minecraft101.net/ to be very helpful as well. We’ve been clicking around in there learning the basics.
I have no affiliation with this site, but I found it in 15 seconds of Google searching:
You can find others.
This.
Well done on being a good parent and asking the appropriate questions. I wish more were like you.
In short, do what everyone else says. Enforce a private server, let the kid play by his/herself. Minecraft is about as stimulating and educational as modern games get.
Just in to say that I fucking hate stampy longnose. He can just fuck right off with his non-stop heloooooooo!-new-video-every-frigging-day crap. The bulk of my parental control vis-a-vis Minecraft is limiting his videos.
LoL! It’s right up there with Barney the purple dinosaur, amIright?
Still. Celtling loves them, and I think his funny responses to the monsters will teach her not to get creeped out. And it’s one of the few MC video sources we’ve found which can be trusted not to slip in a SH** or DA** when something bad happens unexpectedly.
True. I also have to admit that I liked his Ice Bucket Challenge video. He seemed like a good sport.