"Mining" Online Worlds

My latest online adventure has been in the world of Minecraft.  To me, the world is a cross between Lego and Settlers of Cataan.  The block construction and focus on building in the world brings me back to the many hours I spent playing with Legos as a child (and, to be honest, as a young adult).  Anyone who has played a world-building board game like Settlers of Cataan would recognize the crafting of world elements from raw materials. 

During a disastrous first attempt in world,  I dug myself into a hole so deep I couldn’t get out.  I logged out of the game and didn’t go back until I had reinforcements in the form of My 10-year old daughter.  She has played Minecraft with a friend on Xbox, so I enlisted her help.  In another stroke of luck, our course instructor was in world at the same time, so I was able to explore with expert guides.

In the short time we had, I was able to begin building my house, including the glass windows.  I had gathered up sufficient supplies to build the house.  One of my next steps is to find some “recipes” online, to see what I would be able to make from the supplies available.  My daughter insists that I have to make a bed.  In the game version, you have to concentrate on basics for survival – food to eat, a bed to sleep in and a house to protect you from zombies and other “things that go bump in the night”.  Thankfully, so far, I haven’t seen any zombies.

When I was able to go back into Minecraft a few days later, I was able to finish building my house and plant some of the seeds I had in my inventory.    (Photo to come!)

I look forward to continuing to explore the educational possibilities presented by this world!