Minecraft is an invaluable tool in my education; it has given me a productive means of creative output, a way to refine my artistic abilities, and allowed me to practice critical thinking and analysis in an engaging manner. Because it has helped me develop these skills to such a profound degree, I strongly believe it can be used to help others as well.
Whereas other games are on rails, and depend on simple mechanics to keep the player engaged in the short term, Minecraft succeeds because of its near infinite replayability. There is no direction as to how you should play the game, and so each individual may focus on a different aspect or skill. Minecraft has allowed me to build anything that I wanted, and create things that are truly beautiful. It has taught me to plan weeks in advance for complex builds, create pieces in series, and experiment with different techniques. For example, my specialisation in construction were Ships of the Line, and as time progressed, my creativity expanded. I began with building giant monstrosities of wood (1), and through constant refinement of my ability, progressed to ships that contained large amounts of …show more content…
This critical thinking ability is what makes Minecraft so valuable in educating the youth; beyond the surface gameplay of slaying mobs and building mud houses to survive the night exists a complex game, one with formulas that dictate the best level for mining, or how to create automatic farms using complex redstone and AI mechanics. The process of refining one’s creation to become smaller or more efficient encourages the player to not only conduct experiments themselves, but to research what others have done, and collaborate on forums and on servers to achieve said
Whereas other games are on rails, and depend on simple mechanics to keep the player engaged in the short term, Minecraft succeeds because of its near infinite replayability. There is no direction as to how you should play the game, and so each individual may focus on a different aspect or skill. Minecraft has allowed me to build anything that I wanted, and create things that are truly beautiful. It has taught me to plan weeks in advance for complex builds, create pieces in series, and experiment with different techniques. For example, my specialisation in construction were Ships of the Line, and as time progressed, my creativity expanded. I began with building giant monstrosities of wood (1), and through constant refinement of my ability, progressed to ships that contained large amounts of …show more content…
This critical thinking ability is what makes Minecraft so valuable in educating the youth; beyond the surface gameplay of slaying mobs and building mud houses to survive the night exists a complex game, one with formulas that dictate the best level for mining, or how to create automatic farms using complex redstone and AI mechanics. The process of refining one’s creation to become smaller or more efficient encourages the player to not only conduct experiments themselves, but to research what others have done, and collaborate on forums and on servers to achieve said