Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Minecraft?

Pocket edition gets the most play here because it's more portable. There are no naturally mined or dropped nether items, but you can get them in the creative mode menus. The bigger problem is no redstone circuits. All the in-game redstone logic is just missing. My kids play together all the time; anyone on the same wi-fi can join games. There are no cross-town or international minecraft playdates on pocket edition, though.

There are missing cool features, yes, but if she played it on an iPad then pocket edition is what she played. It's pricey for an app game, but it's easily worth five of every other game I've seen. It's not a lot of money to have wasted if she later decides she wants to upgrade to the full PC game.

No redstone!!!!?? Travesty!

I refuse to farm my own chickens.

DD10's user accounts on our machines have parental controls that prevent her from unknowingly installing malware. She can download and install texture packs and custom maps, since those are not executable, and after I've given her some guidance, she knows how to do these with minimal help. But I drew a line in the sand on mods, because a bad mod can break the client, a client software update can break the mod, mods may not play well with each other, and the last thing I want to do after spending all day working on computers is come home and work on computers. She has been told that she can play with mods when she's ready to provide her own tech support. Otherwise, if she wants a modded experience, she'll have to find a server and play it there.

DD's response: "I WANT TO LEARN COMPUTERS!!"

;-)

I have found that mods are a great bribe. Clean your room, earn a mod. That type of thing.

My kids (ages 8 and 9) have been playing since preschool, are pretty hardcore and very particular, I think they would grumble about a pocket version or console version.

Actually, I confess I didn't even realize this was missing. Fatal flaw, indeed. As far as DS is concerned, there is no life without redstone - it's what allows all the really cool stuff with moving parts (circuits, pistons, fireworks, and... and... whatever it is he does that keeps him so excited all the time).

DD, on the other hand, is a casual user at most, and quite happy with the pocket edition, mostly using it like on-line lego really.

Our mod rule is, make your own. It could be broken but it won't be malware. And they have to code.

That's how it is here too, but our kids are now fully into modding for themselves. We are enjoying the Youth Digital Mod Design 1 course, for which there is currently a Groupon that makes the price more reasonable.

Just curious--can two kids use the same course, or do you need to buy 2 courses, doubling the cost?

Everyone can watch the instructional videos and make their own mod for learning in, but the class is structured around challenges/quizzes that are for each individual registered student. So two kids could learn together, but two subscriptions would be better if it's affordable to you.

Ok, thanks. I'm debating getting one subscription to try, and if they fight over it and both want to do it alone, then we could add another one.