Minecraft
When I entered the game for the first time, my first thought was that user interface is simple. I can see the character and map on the first page. It reminds me of LEGO box. I did not pay too much attention about the name of the game: Minecraft. However, it did not take too much time to figure out why the name of game is Minecraft. I can use my virtual hand to cut the wood and mine it. However, I do not know what to do after that. What is the mission, what should I do with these woods? Thus, I watched the Youtube tutorial videos, and found out the purpose/mission of the game. I need to mine the resources to survive in the game!!
For the game interface, it is different than the game I usually play. For example, I am used to play Winning Eleven soccer game. The characters look like more humanoid and 3-D (see Figure 1). However, Minecraft is more like the cartoon character which more like 2-D. In fact, the character interface gave me a sense of separation from the real world. I felt like I am living in cartoon world which I can do whatever I want since it does not look like the real humanoid character.
For game mechanics, I have to be honest. I really did not feel why the children like this game. First, there is no clear instruction what the mission is, how to play, or what the purpose of the character needs to survive. I wish at least, there is intro-section to storytelling about the game. Second, now, I feel like Minecraft is more commercialized use. The players need to buy each item or maps/contents. It is mostly famous among the children. For education purpose, there are so many restrictions to not allow to use items in class teaching. My friend made a joke for me in regard to the reason why I don’t feel interested in this game. She said it is because I have generation gap which is I am too old to understand the young generation’s culture. I think somehow that is true, sadly!
The educational affordances in this game are situated learning. The students can feel like they are in the situation and moment. The benefit that I found from Minecraft was immersion. The students dive into the game to figure out how to survive in the game. It is a kind of new genre for me. The players should mine the tree and food and build the house to block from Zombie. This situated learning may relate to increase problem-solving skills because they should think about which strategy they should use for surviving. In addition, Minecraft uses a first-person perspective to provide the more immersive environment. These aspects can help players to more concentrate and reflect them into the game.
Another affordance I see was collaborative learning. Not the version I played, there is a pocket edition that you can talk and chat about the game. On online, you can meet your friends or someone who does not know, and you can build the social interaction or network in the game. The players would learn the life-long skills (i.e., social and communication skills, managing the resources). Also, Pittman (2013) mentioned that teachers have used game like to teach topics as wide ranging as economics, history, and social sciences. I recently read the article that some people are inclined to use Minecraft as language learning tool. We can meet people who are from all over the world and share their culture and language in Minecraft.
Lastly, Minecraft is a big maker space. People can create their own villages and share the content they made with other players. Without coding or learning 3-D modeling tool, the students can make 3-D objects such as house, shelter, etc. in the game. It is a big merit for students and expand their imagination into a real world. Also, this maker space in Minecraft gave a full of freedom to make something they want. According to online journal, using Minecraft as a teaching tool by Alex (2011), he quoted from the teacher who used Minecraft in his class, “That alone gives me a ton of freedom to invent content for the kids to engage in.”. Autonomy is a big surprising and joyful part to play Minecraft for me.
However, I believe that providing too much autonomy makes players losing what to do. Though my experience, I realized that my personality is required to have a certain rule so that while following the rule, I feel comfortable. In Minecraft, everything we should figure out by ourselves. I am sure there is a player like me. (Word count: 840)
Reference
Alex Knapp. (2011). Forbes: Using Minecraft as a Teaching Tool. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2011/04/05/using-minecraft-as-a-teaching-tool/#54ee13317981
Pittman, Cameron. (2013). Teaching with portals: The intersection of video games and physics education. LEARNing Landscapes, 6(2), 341-360.