I have been meaning to write about Minecraft for a long time, because my kids love it so much. My children are of varying ages from 7-12, and they all play Minecraft on the PS4 and on mobile devices. My daughter has said that Minecraft is “her favorite thing in the whole world”, and this is a world full of puppies and My Little Pony.

If you are not familiar with Minecraft, it was developed by 4J Studios and Mojang and is now the property of Microsoft, bought for a price of over 2 billion. The game appeared a few years ago and became a nigh overnight success. Seriously, I remember visiting PAX Prime one year, and there was a lot of Minecraft fans there, and I believe this was before its release.

Minecraft is a sandbox game where you explore a world that is all made of 1 x 1 x 1 bricks. You can play in Creative Mode, which allows you build nearly infinite constructions. Then there is the Survival Mode, in which you can construct stuff, but the land is riddled with monsters.

I played in Survival Mode, and if it wasn’t for my kids, I wouldn’t have survived. I quickly learned that I had to pound on trees to make wood, and then I had to make wood before the square sun went down. From there, I had to create a crafting table to make weapons, as well as go deep into mines to find coal, stone, and all kinds of other materials.

Now, I don’t play a lot of video games, because I am very aware that these can become addictions and steal away precious time. I felt like I could give a lot of time to Minecraft, even though there isn’t really an end-goal like I see in most games. It really is about acquiring and creating.

I found a BBC article that stated that the Turkish government was wanting to ban the game. They say that the game encourages creativity, but also teaches that things like cows, pigs, sheep, and other hostiles must be killed to protect these structures. I have to admit, there is a point there, but the world of Minecraft is not real and we have to ban every game that has any violence, and yes, some want this.

Still, here is the thing about Minecraft: the young have embraced it. I found it very interesting how quickly my sons and daughter could easily manipulate 3D graphics with this. I honestly believe that we are headed for an era where we won’t be satisfied with 2D screens, and we are going to want some kind of 3D interface. Just think how these young Minecraft players will be prepared for this era.

In short, I believe that Minecraft is a very good thing, and parents should be looking at what their kids are doing. And it has nothing to do with inspecting them for violence. As a parent, if your kid makes something and is proud of it, then so should you.