A lot of parents find the appeal of Minecraft mystifying. It looks low-tech and old-fashioned, and they can’t figure out why their kids are so obsessed with it. I don’t claim to be able to explain your kids’ minds, but I’ll tell you what I like about Minecraft and what I hear from my 12-year-old son and his friends.

It’s open-ended

The game is mostly what’s known as a “sandbox game”—a game where you can wander around and try things, and there aren’t levels to progress through or a big end goal. (This isn’t strictly true, as there is technically an enemy to defeat—the Ender Dragon—that does “beat” the game, but you can still continue playing; you just get a fun animation and some in-game experience points.)

What this means in practical terms is that the game accommodates a huge variety of play-styles. Among the folks I play with most often, there are players who like to build elaborate structures (like castles and sculptures), players who like to focus on real-world-type tasks (like farming and organizing), players who like to role-play (improvising a storyline with other people), players who like to focus on aesthetics (the in-game equivalent of garden design and interior decorating), players who like to fight monsters or other players, and players who like to experiment and explore. Some of these players switch between these different play-styles regularly. Minecraft is fun for all of them.

I’ve heard parents who have multiple kids comment, “I can’t believe they’re actually working together on things!” Because there are so many ways to “contribute” in a Minecraft world, even kids who don’t usually get along can often find complementary work to do. (No promises that they won’t squabble, though. Different play-styles do sometimes mean conflict!)

I think this is also why a lot of parents genuinely enjoy playing Minecraft with their kids (and sometimes without them!). There’s plenty of opportunity for a kid to role-play or explore while a parent engages in more strategic building or goal-driven play.

It’s naturally scafolded

The basics are fairly basic. It doesn’t take long to figure out what you need to know, both in terms of how you move about and interact with objects, and the game essentials. (I will say, though, that it’s much easier to learn if you either have previous gaming experience or a friend to help explain it. Parents who naturally turn to Google—probably you, since you’ve found this article!—have a huge advantage over kids who may get frustrated but not know what to do about it.)

However, once you’ve mastered the basics, new and more interesting opportunities open up. For players who like automating, they can build machines using logic-based systems. For players interested in combat, they can improve both their equipment and their skills. For player who enjoy turning a vision into “reality,” they can learn to make more and more attractive structures.

It’s almost the idea of taking general classes and then picking electives. There’s always more to learn, but you can do it at your own pace and according to your interests.

It’s a great platform for socializing

I know, online interaction is not the same as in-person interaction. But it does have some commonalities.

In my experience, playing Minecraft with other people feels a lot like other “hanging out” activities that naturally lend themselves to talking while doing or making something. I’ve heard this referred to as the part of friendship that is “shoulder to shoulder” or “side by side.”

For me, offline activities of this type include doing puzzles, cooking together, watching a reality TV show like “Nailed It”, or eating something “fun” (like raclette or fondue) together—activities where there’s a built-in focus that gives you something to talk about (which helps a lot when you’re shy or socially awkward) but the low-pressure conversation also wanders into other topics.

Minecraft, when I play with other people, is like that. (I’ll write more about exactly how to play with other people in another article.) Often there’s a shared goal, but also a lot of time where you’re working toward that goal when you’re making progress but it’s not inherently interesting. Maybe you’re growing crops, or running across the world together to get to a distant location, or chopping down giant trees to build something. These times lend themselves to chatting about all kinds of things.

Sharing these activities together also provides common experiences that we remember in a surprisingly similar way to experiences we’ve had in-person. My friend Jen and I sometimes reminisce about the time we made 23 different potato dishes (in real life) over Thanksgiving week, but we also sometimes remember (with chagrin) the time we were trying to transport a villager in a minecart (in Minecraft) and had a tragic encounter with a slime block. Memories are memories, and sharing them with another person or group results in connection.

What the kids say

I asked my son and some of his friends, and they mentioned the following things:

• There’s a satisfying progression arc: I can make rapid progress—start with nothing, but I’m quickly able to upgrade my armor and tools, a bit at a time until I have awesome stuff.
• There’s always something more to learn.
• I like fighting my friends!
• The game can be extended with code. That means I can mod the game, and also that I can play with other people’s modded versions.
• There’s lore that I like learning about.
• A direct quote because it made me laugh: “It’s pretty much how everyone wants life to be: dying just to be resurrected, fishing for bowls and boots, using just 2 stones and a stick to make a sword, strangely big and strong spiders, pig people who give you stuff if you have gold, etc.” 👈 The good life!
• You don’t have to do just one thing: there is PvP, builders, and redstone for the engineer types. And mining. You can choose. If you don’t want to do one thing, you can do something else.
• Creating complexity from simple elements. Adding detail takes creativity. The simplicity of graphics hides the complexity of the world.
• We can work together on things and make progress.

Don’t let the graphics fool you

A final word: a lot of parents see the pixelated graphics and assume it’s unsophisticated. Think of it more like impressionistic art—it’s a style, not a limitation. The game is fun because of its mechanics and accessibility, and working within the constraints of the block-y design is actually an enjoyable challenge in most cases.