alt.hn

4/2/2025 at 6:22:30 AM

The psychology behind why children are hooked on Minecraft

 https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250328-the-psychology-behind-why-your-childs-hooked-on-minecraft

by andsoitis

4/2/2025 at 9:11:49 AM

Sorry if this sounds a bit dry, but I think the reason it's so popular is because it has a much more open-ended play space than almost all other child-friendly games, giving them the opportunities to set their own goals and practice structuring their own time without the finality of having an outside party set the win conditions (such as trophies/achievements). Sure, there are some of those things in the background, but it's an opportunity for kids to exercise executive creativity.

by OgsyedIE

4/4/2025 at 12:39:43 PM

Minecraft is the Lego game that the Lego company wasn't competent enough to make.

The old Legos. Where you got a bunch of bricks with no plans and the only limit was your imagination (and the quantity of bricks).

Of course children like it, just like they liked the original Legos.

And by the way, why children only? I'm playing on a semi-private (need to apply and be accepted by admins) 18+ builder's server on and off.

There are such things.

by nottorp

4/4/2025 at 12:46:50 PM

I'm not willing to call the Lego company incompetent for not wanting to attempt something that many companies would fail at horribly. If we had a truly creative Lego game release when Minecraft was first starting out, I would not expect it to be very good, let alone as great as Minecraft is.

by squigz

4/4/2025 at 12:49:54 PM

I remember reading somewhere that they did release some online Lego game that allowed building once, but they shut it down because they couldn't delete all the dicks in time.

To be snarky, if you want an environment without dicks you should play on an adults only server. When we play, we're too busy building huge elaborate buildings and terraforming large portions of the landscape to build measly dicks.

by nottorp

4/4/2025 at 1:52:01 PM

The thing Minecraft did alright was to not actually try and host their own servers, thus not being responsible for what people did in-game online.

But also, MC is simple enough that "a dick" is five blocks in a particular organization... and it quickly becomes boring, not to mention uncreative. Building dicks isn't as fun as Everything Else in the game.

by Cthulhu_

4/4/2025 at 2:40:42 PM

This is not how "responsible" works for companies like Lego and Disney. They consider everything around their brand to be 'theirs'. An interesting story in that area [1] is the one time that Disney did try to build something resembling chat into a game of theirs (spoiler: it didn't go well).

[1] http://habitatchronicles.com/2007/03/the-untold-history-of-t...

by throwaway89201

4/4/2025 at 12:51:05 PM

The games from the Lego company are actually good for the target audience (little kids).

Minecraft is very much NOT just like the old Legos.

by watwut

4/4/2025 at 12:27:15 PM

Yes, and it isn't for every player. Funny story time: I bring online sometime a Luanti [1] server to playtest the game I made in a multiplayer context. One time someone joined and after a few minutes visiting, they asked "So, what is the goal?". I wasn't expecting that. MC may be popular, but one doesn't join a Luanti game server by accident, and most of them are MC- or at least MMORPG-like.

Still, although there's no set goals like in other games, this style of game has to have "affordances" for goals. Even the building activity in MC is not "free", as monsters are there to get in the way of the players' projects.

I also think that the social aspect is crucial, in the sense that having fun building things doesn't last, because one eventually runs out of ideas. Showing to others what you have achieved is an important part of it. Does art exist without an audience ? [2]

I think it is interesting to note that the fact that MC's world is fully editable by players is what drove the choice for the voxel technology, which was the only one allowing it with a normal PC at the time.

[1] https://www.luanti.org/ [2] https://thehoya.com/opinion/eye-of-the-beholder/

by astrobe_

4/4/2025 at 12:49:40 PM

Like a literal sandbox. It’s simple but with creativity and imagination it’s endlessly entertaining and you unconsciously learn.

But not everyone likes to play in the sand but those that do, really do!

by newsclues

4/4/2025 at 4:54:31 PM

Yes, and on the makers' side, you learn a lot too, trying to find uses for materials. I often wandered in Wikipedia for geology, mineralogy, flora, alloys - for those I even ended up in professional websites. I learned about the Soda pulping for paper and cotton seed oil (which is not common in my country).

by astrobe_

4/4/2025 at 2:47:20 PM

Not quite endlessly (unless you mod it to heck), but it does go deep.

by AstralStorm

4/4/2025 at 12:31:16 PM

Minecraft is the metaverse. My son has played hundreds of hours of Minecraft with friends on his switch while chatting with them on a Messenger kids audio call.

He has been able to build and foster connections with friends who live on the other side of the country.

I’ve listened in on their conversations and they engage in imaginative free play as if they were in the same room. It’s a very different experience then when they play a goal directed game like Mario kart or smash bros.

Minecraft feels a very nice space in his life in ways that other games do not.

by bognition

4/4/2025 at 1:03:02 PM

Yeah, there's nothing quite like that Minecraft magic. I remember just spending hours with friends trying to build a cathedral while listening to that chill music... It's such a cool game

by mvieira38

4/4/2025 at 12:47:35 PM

As a former kid, yes, the openness and self-actionability of the game really made me connect with it & other players. Awesome game.

by go_elmo

4/4/2025 at 12:41:06 PM

Perhaps going to the playground would be even better?

by zabzonk

4/4/2025 at 12:58:09 PM

With his friends on the other side of the country?

What the GP explained even expands to adults. I have three friends geographically dispersed who play a few on-line games together on Friday nights, mostly just messing around, while they sit on a Discord chat. I dont really get into on-line stuff anymore but I've sat in on their discord chats and its everything from silly jokes that might as well come from children all the way to serious politics and life stuff.

Metaverse spaces so have their place and use, but I agree, make sure they go outside and play IRL getting exercise as well as social and environmental exposure.

by MisterTea

4/4/2025 at 1:53:12 PM

Can you build cathedrals and fight zombies at night in the playground with people that live miles away?

I love these threads, you can always spot the ones without kids or who forgot about their own childhood a mile off.

by Cthulhu_

4/4/2025 at 12:49:53 PM

Why say this? Then OP is simply relaying a nice thing Minecraft provided for their kid.

Why put a dampening on that for any reason?

by no_wizard

4/4/2025 at 12:59:35 PM

It was a suggestion. Lots of modern kids don't get out enough. And to be frank, I think it is you that is "dampening".

by zabzonk

4/4/2025 at 1:04:38 PM

Yes it was a suggestion but it was off topic and came from a place of limited information. Just because they play Minecraft doesn’t mean they don’t go to parks or play outside.

And as a general rule, categorizing the way a specific person raises their kids based on an ill informed opinion about the general public is often received poorly.

by bognition

4/4/2025 at 12:52:13 PM

Did you miss the "other side of the country" part?

Even if not, there's only so much time kids can spend at playgrounds. And sometimes it's cold outside. Just in general, it's good when kids have more options for social play.

It is not actually helpful to have a knee jerk reaction to "screens". Just like in real life, the specific activity a screen is being used for can be bad, or it can be good.

by sanderjd

4/4/2025 at 12:48:23 PM

Everyone is staring on their phones there..

Also friendly reminder that its not the nicest thing to tell parents whats good for their kids

by go_elmo

4/4/2025 at 12:51:25 PM

It was a suggestion... and one that has merit.

by SirFatty

4/4/2025 at 7:26:15 PM

How about eating less & doing more exercise? Just a suggestion with merit, ofc

by go_elmo

4/4/2025 at 12:52:13 PM

"...friends who live on the other side of the country."

by harvey9

4/4/2025 at 1:01:16 PM

> foster connections with friends who live on the other side of the country

Could s/he not of made friends locally?

by zabzonk

4/4/2025 at 1:06:54 PM

So many weird assumptions here.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

It’s rude to assume that they don’t have friends that are local. It’s also weird to assume that local friends are more valuable or meaningful that remote friends.

by bognition

4/4/2025 at 1:53:55 PM

Maybe. Can you?

by Cthulhu_

4/2/2025 at 7:32:57 PM

I set up a couple ‘bedrock’ servers on a NUC. Without a doubt, one of the best uses of that computer.

One world is pretty much wide open- Cheats and creative mode allowed. Extended family also allowed to play, build, explore. The other server is survival mode only with no cheats and just me and my son allowed to play.

It’s been so much fun switching between the worlds and getting different experiences in the same game. We have strict rules about screen time, but even off-hours it’s a great bonding experience talking about plans for next time we play. I say this as someone who used to be really into gaming growing up but cannot seem to ‘get into’ any game anymore. It’s the bonding that makes the difference.

One more note, it’s not all about screen time. The other day we went on a short hike at a park. ‘Went exploring’, kids aren’t interested in hikes. Anyway, it started sprinkling and had potential to go negative. But instead: ‘Dad, this is just like exploring in Minecraft!’. <3

by move-on-by

4/2/2025 at 10:24:49 AM

Blocks have always been a popular toy with children. What I can't understand is why kids spend hours watching minecraft videos on youtube.

by autoexec

4/4/2025 at 11:48:33 AM

What I can't understand is why adults spend hours watching other people play sports on TV.

Some even pay for premium channels to watch it.

by theshrike79

4/4/2025 at 12:21:21 PM

Some dress up in costumes to mimic the characters as well. And then listen to radio broadcasts debating it. They create songs to sing together. They believe they’re a part of the team and will refer to it as the collective “we” and they’ll sometimes cry when they lose.

by whycome

4/4/2025 at 12:29:54 PM

In the abstract, they are totally fine but in practice sports has hundreds (thousands?) of years of tradition and culture imprinting into the fabric of society making it "normal".

In the UK football is so deeply engrained they talk of doing public holidays for when the England team finally wins a major international cup IIRC. The Olympics had/has some special subtext in international relations. So following sports has been deeply normalised in ways that probably polarises other similar practices (but for other interests) into seeming very fringe

by djtango

4/4/2025 at 12:22:05 PM

As someone who was gaming since the 90s I didn't understand streaming or long plays in the beginning but now I really appreciate long plays as they allow me to scratch an itch without getting too engrossed in a game. I find it a lot easier to pick up and put down a long play of a RPG than invest 30+ hours of time and thought into playing it.

For mechanistically intensive games it can be enjoying to watch masters play at a high level. Watching people win 1vs3 in Elden Ring or people do high level play in Monster Hunter or Devil May Cry is satisfying for someone who knows enough to appreciate the skill without having the time/desire in mastering frame specific inputs (I prefer directing that degree of focus to learning an instrument out of personal preference)

I initially discovered game streams because I find them perfect for falling asleep to lol

by djtango

4/4/2025 at 12:45:13 PM

Which is why though, the actual ideal type, would not be just video but video + replay, allowing you to access the game at any time, forking the story away - and upstreaming that as video in turn.

A good gaming video library, would look like a "go on your own adventure book"

by InDubioProRubio

4/4/2025 at 1:57:14 PM

I remember at one point Youtube had features for that, clickable elements in videos and someone turned that into a choose your own adventure style thing. There's a few productions on Netflix like that as well, and of course DVDs also promised that at the time.

But the interactive video thing never really took off.

by Cthulhu_

4/7/2025 at 8:31:53 AM

But if they instead go from video right into replay at time xy - and back..

by InDubioProRubio

4/2/2025 at 10:46:10 AM

They do it because of the same reasons they do the brainrot activity?

I used to watch a lot of streams about another videogame (shooter). It is calming, no hard thinking, sometimes the streamer reads your comments which is the dopamine moment, also there is an ability to listen to some kool kid without a risk to be bullied. In my case it was a learning about how to play shooter games, what is FPV/TPV, where the danger is coming from typically, how to play while being on a low ground, or a high ground, how to use different gun parts. Sometimes donaters use to send payed challenges for the streamer like win the game having some handicap for which is always give some extra bits of entertainments because I know the streamer has a hard time.

Last but not least is the reason that my computer is a bit slow so connecting to the game takes a lot of time and there is a risk to be killed early which means at least 10 minutes of concentrated mind wasted, but seeing the streamer killed means I am in one click from another game on the culmination point.

What is not understandable by me is why Minecraft is interesting at all. Watching a proper shooter game is mostly the same as watching some military expert telling (for example) about how to clear a building, but playing blocks stopped being interested for me as soon as I have been introduced to some real-life activity like soldering some electronics - but there were no brainrot in my childhood.

by eimrine

4/4/2025 at 11:35:37 AM

Kids these days prefer dumb ol’ blocks to proper video game soldiering, smdh.

by thoroughburro

4/4/2025 at 1:21:35 PM

Minecraft is just a more versatile game TBH. Depending on the server you play on, you can play a F2P version of DayZ, Hunger Games (which by the way pioneered the space for battle royales like warzone), building competitions, etc. Not to mention that Minecraft is a much more technically challenging game to play in terms of inputs and complexity. When you can make a 16 bit computer AND do competitive, technical, meta based PVP in COD it might be able to measure up.

by alphawhisky

4/4/2025 at 1:58:05 PM

Back in MY day we'd SHOOT NAZIS for FUN but the KIDS these days just want to build a HOUSE out of BLOCKS and raise SHEEP.

by Cthulhu_

4/4/2025 at 12:50:27 PM

Yes indeed. The best Xmas toy my parents ever bought my little brother (10+ yrs younger than me, so he's early 60s now) was a huge bag of wooden bricks. Me and my 5 yrs younger brother spent all of Xmas building things and not letting little bro get a look in. Ashamed to say I was about 20 at that point.

by zabzonk

4/4/2025 at 12:14:01 PM

>Blocks have always been a popular toy with children.

Yes!!!

I've recommended to my adult friends to play minecraft for at least ~5-10 minutes before they die.

There is something amazing about being able to dig wherever, build whatever, etc... There is a sort of freedom that I never had with blocks.

I am not telling these people to kill the ender dragon, but rather, play.

by resource_waste

4/4/2025 at 2:00:21 PM

If not Minecraft, there's other games that scratch the "manipulate your environment and build something" itch. Space Engineers, Satisfactory, Populous from back in the day, uuh. There's a long list.

Actually, before Minecraft, Notch worked on a game called Wurm Online, which was a tedious and buggy MMO but which allowed you and your friends to manipulate the sandbox world, dig holes, flatten the environment, build roads, etc. With teamwork, they could do some really interesting things. But like I said, it was pretty tedious and slow.

by Cthulhu_

4/4/2025 at 1:55:59 PM

? It's basic empathy, I'm sure you've watched some TV in your lifetime that involved people doing things you could also do yourself (like, as someone else said, play sports)

Watching other people play video games (or sports) isn't my thing personally, but to each their own.

by Cthulhu_

4/4/2025 at 6:36:23 PM

I don't watch sports. Almost everything I watch is scripted. The closest thing I can think of might be cooking shows (bake off), but even in that case I'd have to get off the couch and go to the store and buy a bunch of things I don't have (often including equipment) before I could even attempt to make those same foods for myself.

Children watching minecraft videos instead of playing minecraft don't even have to get off the couch. They just have to reach for the controller and remote, or even just for their phones, and they can do the activity they've been watching someone else doing.

Playing with blocks is fun. Watching a stranger who can't see or hear you play with blocks seems far less fun, but kids spend hundreds of hours doing exactly that.

I can understand people watching other video games that have characters and a plot, and I can understand people watching sports which have teams/players and a contest with an uncertain outcome, but watching a stranger play with blocks where there is zero story and zero stakes seems insane.

by autoexec

4/4/2025 at 11:40:31 AM

Why are soap operas popular on tv, or reality tv... Or why do people listen music on radio. I think people inherently like stimulation that requires minimum effort put into it...

by Ekaros

4/4/2025 at 12:07:24 PM

Why do people watch 37 seasons of Bold and Beatiful

by tonis2

4/4/2025 at 4:40:47 PM

At least the Bold and Beautiful has a story with characters. There are popular minecraft videos that are just random kids saying "here's the house I made of blocks... here are the walls... here are some torches... here are the stairs... here are the upstairs walls..." and videos that are just random kids putting blocks on top of other blocks. Some without narration at all, but others with inane chatter.

There's no compelling narrative however, no drama, no danger/thrills, no ticking clock, no "will they or won't they", and no production value.

by autoexec

4/2/2025 at 10:36:57 AM

The same reason lots of children like watching TV, or reading a book. It’s nice to think about a fantasy world

by moi2388

4/4/2025 at 12:09:01 PM

there are lean back technologies, and lean forwards technoloo

by fragmede

4/4/2025 at 12:01:42 PM

> There's a social element, the opportunity to feel competent through combat or exploration-based play, engineering, creativity and finally survival-based gameplay

It may be simplistic or outdated, but one can start with Bartle's taxonomy of player types to understand the broad categories of players [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartle_taxonomy_of_player_type...

by astrobe_

4/4/2025 at 12:51:38 PM

I maintain an open-source interface that lets kids with physical disabilities play Minecraft using eye control[1]. When I started working on it, I was already familiar with what Minecraft offers as 'virtual lego' in creative mode, and the challenges of survival mode, but the biggest surprise for me was how much value kids get from just having a world that they are free to do whatever they want in. Just wandering round and punching some sheep or digging a hole, completely free of any adult-directed 'goals', is such a freedom for them. Try explaining that to the parents, though!

[1] https://www.specialeffect.org.uk/how-we-can-help/eyemine

by weeb

4/4/2025 at 12:17:07 PM

I've never really played Minecraft.

But when I was 7 or 8 playing Kings Quest II was amazing to me. You walk around, and go anyplace you want, you could even swim if you type in swim, pure joy. I think this kind of freedom is the appeal to kids.

by chiffre01

4/2/2025 at 8:53:24 PM

i consider it more of a toy than a game, you can do whatever you want in there.

i still clock a few hours a week at 51. sometimes its just to occupy the brain, rip down a mountain, work on digging a perimeter..

other times its exploring modpacks and having a goal like more traditional games.

like that there are communities doing even more with it (mostly the well known groups similar to and including Hermitcraft)

by 5bolts

4/4/2025 at 12:49:40 PM

It's definitely the blocks. There's something hypnotizing about placing blocks, working with blocks.

by INTPenis

4/4/2025 at 12:42:53 PM

I noticed that turning off the soothing in-game music goes a long way in reducing my sons Minecraft craving.

by fzeindl

4/4/2025 at 12:55:29 PM

I know it is cynical, but this is such a puff piece that to me it feels like an advertisement.

by ludston

4/2/2025 at 7:41:20 AM

Because it's dangerous and borderline illegal to play outside?

by hoseja

4/2/2025 at 11:00:57 AM

Something like that eh! As a gen X survivor of the creeping, never ending instutionalisation of everything, the restrictions placed on children is sureal and bizare. The very likely fall out is going to be that the west is going to be flat outcompeted by countrys that can mantain a balance between fostering a true competitive environment for children to grow and learn in, vs, chaos, or, this nightmare, enforced "saftey world" we live in here,now. Cant run around beating each other with sticks, but they can run to a "guidance councellor" and apply for non reversable surgical alteration to there bodys.....but that's somehow, "safe" or resort to mind numbing OCD in a vid game...... yay! yay! your doing so goood! purrrs the psch advisor. fuck

by metalman

4/4/2025 at 11:37:50 AM

May you never need a surgery I disapprove of.

by thoroughburro

4/4/2025 at 12:31:37 PM

Any proof of those non-reversible surgical alterations that all the children are so eager to get right now? :)

I guess I shouldn't even ask of your opinion on some specific sexual minorities.

by Melonai

4/4/2025 at 12:05:06 PM

That would be an explanation if it was limited to regions with such restrictions. But Minecraft is popular even with kids who could run around outside and have lots of freedom.

by viraptor

4/4/2025 at 12:53:00 PM

I always enjoyed building things with lego.

I also enjoyed watching people show off their advanced lego creations on youtube. However, despite my rather robust lego collection, the chance of me being able to replicate what I was seeing on the screen was near zero - there'd always be at least one crucial part I was missing, or I just didn't have the required quantity.

My first introduction to minecraft was via a youtube video - this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VWnQHS-ffs (the specific video isn't terribly relevant, but very nostalgic)

For the first time, I was playing with the same set of blocks as everyone else. Anything I could see someone else doing, I could do too.

Children live in a world filled with restrictions. In minecraft they are free.

by Retr0id

4/4/2025 at 12:48:15 PM

Children yearn for the mines.

by newsclues

4/4/2025 at 12:17:25 PM

♠♥♣♦

by johnwatson11218

4/2/2025 at 7:11:48 AM

“The desire to build”

by andsoitis

4/4/2025 at 12:39:48 PM

... because it's fun

by singpolyma3

4/2/2025 at 6:50:53 AM

“The children yearn for the mines”

by banqjls

4/4/2025 at 12:36:12 PM

Spoken like a true Belter

by bookofjoe

4/4/2025 at 12:35:41 PM

[dead]

by dr-detroit

4/5/2025 at 5:53:45 PM

Kinda off topic. The only game we will allow my 5yo little sister to play till she grows up is Minecraft. It is unique among digital games in that it only provides a simplified replica of real world (with a few fantastic elements spread in), and almost all content is created by the player, which is perfect for creativity. Contrast this with social media which is %100 consumption and %0 creativity.

And even that is restricted by time. We’d rather have her not spend time with any digital screens at all, and play with her friends, play with her toys, get outside, or even get bored.

She is doing great socially. The difference with her peers is that after school, they come home and watch TV until the dinner is ready, watch YT Kids throughout the dinner, and watch TV again till bed, cramming sweet snacks throughout and throwing temper tantrums if the constant flow of dopamine is in any way interrupted. They find playgrounds boring and regard friend meetups a burdensome sacrifice they have to make splitting from their screens in order to have some fun together. But actually no, because when they meet up they watch YT Kids or Tiktok, not on a shared device but individually. At best they’ll play Roblox. How do I know? Because that’s how she was until my parents decided maybe, just maybe human children are not really equipped to deal with superstimuli producing, biohacking machinery.

“But she won’t be able to handle real world once she grows up and has free access!” Yeah, no. It honestly tells more about the person saying it, what they view as “real world”. Do you honestly think that a neurologically fully developed, physically fit, social person with non-digital hobbies and great relationships is somehow going to turn into an doomscroller overnight when they get first exposed to Instagram at age 18? Hey, I had virtually unrestricted access in my childhood, and at age 20 I have myopia, hernia, scoliosis, and I will turn into a doomscroller overnight if you install any social media app on my phone (I have ADHD so it’s harder for me but still.)

by Aerbil313