Call it a slippery slope.
Call it a serious addiction in the making.
Call it a waste of time.
Call it “what all the kids are doing”
Call it parenting research.
Call it #Momcraft.
My friend Vikki started playing Minecraft a few months ago, and I remember her posting something along the lines of “I'm goin' in!” and then shortly after, she started talking about creating a server for her friends to play.
I only peripherally paid attention to the chatter… while I was aware that it was a thing for a lot of kids Max's age, he is still pretty into Angry Birds and the Lego Star Wars and Hobbitt games on the Xbox. While he has brought home a few drawings of creepers and other Minecraft-y things, he's never actually asked to play it.
But I know that day is approaching, and as a good mom in this online age, I want to know what we're getting into, so finally, last night, I joined Vikki and Susan‘s server, Momcraft.
I “spawned” in (See? I'm learning the vocabulary already! Am I cooler yet?) and looked around. Spent some time literally just doing that. Looking. Around. I actually had to quit the game so I could get to Google, so I could look for help.
Yup. And so began my illustrious Minecraft career.
(BTW, it's really disheartening to see, in your search for answers, things like “OMG, you seriously can't figure this out?!?!” Sigh. I played video games in the days of left-right scrolling, or in the case of Mario, right scrolling only! So many directions for characters to go now!)
So I figure out how to walk (It's the W key, BTW. And space bar to jump. You're welcome.) and I walk around for a while taking out some aggressions on the grass and some flowers, and an unfortunate chicken.
And then night fell and I knew from my research (meaning: Vikki's post) that bed things would happen to me at night.
So I quit out as fast as I could and waited for Susan to invite me to the #Momcraft server.
Now that I'm there, I have a building I can hide out in, and they're kindly sharing their supplies, but I'm still fumbling along. (Seriously. Will someone please tell me how to EAT?)
My money is on Max figuring the whole thing out about 5 minutes after I grant him access, and I'll be left in the dust.
But until then, #Momcraft it is.
Do you have any super-genius Minecraft tips for me? Spill 'em in the comments!