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Comment by bognition | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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

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

Perhaps going to the playground would be even better?

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.

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.

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?

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".

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.

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.

Everyone is staring on their phones there..

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

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

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

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

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

Could s/he not of made friends locally?

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.

Maybe. Can you?

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