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Ask HN: How do I help my kid get started with Minecraft?

3 points by warner25 ↗ HN
I have a nine year-old daughter, and I'm trying to figure out how to get her started with Minecraft. I mean she's interested, but she needs help installing the software, creating an account, connecting to a server, etc. Personally, I'm puzzled by the sprawling Minecraft ecosystem. There appear to be many different editions. Are they all interoperable? Are some notably better? Do they all have a cost? Should I expect a one-time cost like the old shrink-wrapped, boxed PC games that I bought as a kid, or is it a subscription like everything else these days?

Last year her school work involved doing things on a computer for the first time, so I'm guiding her through the earliest stages of computer literacy. I declined the Chromebook offered by her school and instead set her up with my old laptop running Fedora. At some point I introduced her to simple classics like SuperTux, tetris, and a lunar lander game that are available from Flathub. Just searching Flathub for Minecraft, I see half a dozen different flatpaks(?). Then it looks like I can download a .tar.gz from minecraft.net and maybe build something from source(?). Help me out.

12 comments

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tuga
You need to help your daughter on physical activities, not virtual bs games
warner25
I was waiting for some version of this reply. Thanks. We ride bicycles, go swimming at the pool, and run 5K races together too. I think there's an appropriate balance.
akerl_
Step 1, go back and get that chromebook. When your daughter is first learning to use a computer isn't the time to have her living a parallel separate experience to all her classmates, and to what her teachers can support.

Step 2, https://www.minecraft.net/en-us . Don't think of this as "how do I get my daughter the computer experience I remember from old, shrink-wrapped boxed PC games", get her access to Minecraft as if you're a non-techy, let her figure her own way out.

Once she has a basis for her tech skills, and is curious about technology, that's the time to start showing her things under the hood.

warner25
Yeah, I was looking at that page before, and that generated some of my questions. Like I see two different price points, and both have "Java Edition" and "Bedrock Edition," whatever that means, but it looks like maybe the higher-priced option is only applicable to Windows(?). Does playing on Windows result in a much better experience? We do have an old laptop running Windows 10 too. What's the Launcher? A bunch of the Flathub flatpaks appear to be different launchers.
brucethemoose2
Java is more feature packed and has a modding community so vibrant you can't even imagine, but the Windows edition is faster out of the box and has better crossplay with whatever her friends will be playing on.

You can mod Java edition to work well on old laptops though.

Kon-Peki
Oh dear. It started out as a Java game and the biggest ecosystem remains around the Java edition. But the writing is on the wall: the future of Minecraft is Bedrock edition. This is what runs on Android and iOS. This is what runs on Windows, Xbox, etc.

If you want to get her into Minecraft, I recommend avoiding the Java community altogether and focusing on Bedrock. The easiest way is to buy an iPad and then buy Minecraft from the App Store, because the Apple rules dictate that you must be able to play it without a Microsoft account. To connect to a server, create a free Microsoft account (you probably already have one, somewhere), and the Apple version will connect to all the servers and online stuff.

For your Fedora laptop, you can supposedly get the Android version to run. It's on the list of things to do with our Ubuntu game machine.

But seriously: the Java edition "community" doesn't want a nine-year old girl in it, and they also would rather quit than play Bedrock. So win-win.

warner25
Thank you, this is exactly the kind of insight that I was looking for. However, I gagged at the thought of buying an iPad and signing her into Apple and Microsoft accounts. :(
Kon-Peki
Yeah, I completely understand. Keep in mind that it plays very well on old iPads; a used one might lessen the pain. Plus, she would probably like the presence of the home button a lot better than the gestures that a modern iPad requires.

Bedrock is mod-able (though not as much as Java). The iPad version supports all of that - there will be a Minecraft folder in the Files app and you can copy to/from anything you want in there. Texture packs, entire worlds, custom sounds, etc.

tshirttime
I'm trying to figure out how to get her started with Minecraft

Said no one ever? Would be like asking how to get started on crack.

warner25
That's thought-provoking. I've had a couple of the other adults in her life recommend it as a good, wholesome way to satisfy her curiosity about computers and games. All else being equal, I guess no gaming is best (I personally gave up gaming as a senior in high school to pursue a better life) but I also feel like prohibition results in its own problems.
brucethemoose2
I would say Minecraft is definitely a positive experience on a child, in moderation.