Today starts of the beginning of Geek Week! I'm very excited, not because I can just rant about the awesomeness of being a geek, but I can tell you about some of the topics in Geektopia.
The picture above is the world my brother and I designed.
Around my house, Minecraft (PlayStation edition) is one of our favorite video games that get played frequently. We like it, well, because there is no objective. Well, in survival there is. In creative, there isn't.
When you begin the game, you create a "world" (we call ours "Adventure Time".) Once that's done, it's basically whatever you wish from there. With this game, you can create a variety of structures, like: castles, mansions, farms, townhouses, bridges, pools, etc.. It isn't hard to learn; I, a person who doesn't play video games because I can't learn the controls, learned this fairly quick.
You have a character- I believe the boy is called Steve and the girl is called Alex, but you don't have to stick with one image. You have a wide range of "skins" which gives you your own personal look, and sets you apart from other players.
Once you learn the basic controls and have a skin, you can start building! This is my favorite part, because it's like a blank canvas- I can build whatever I want. You don't have to settle with just wood or stone, though, because you have entire selections of different building materials. Not only that, but you also have accessories like flowers, trees, carpets, spawn animals or monsters, etc.. From there it's all you. You can play on survival or creative and break or build until your heart's content.
Adventure time is a sort of community world at my house, because my brother, sisters, and I all build on it. We have a church, Iron Golems, Zombies, Skeletons, multiple houses, a few towers, a couple mansions, an agricultural company (we felt the need for one) next to a farm, and tree houses.
Minecraft isn't only a game, though. There are some studies that show that the game helps ADHD children learn techniques to control their energy. I'm a firm believer that it could have a place in the field of mathematics to help teach area and perimeter (and probably in a few other areas.) I'd definitely recommend it to families and in some areas in the education system.
It should also be noted that this is one of the only video games I play without getting frustrated. I'd warn you, though, your child may kill someones virtual chickens and rip up a carpet without permission.
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