Minecraft 101

In the interest of helping you relate to your geek, or geek-in-training, here is a quick primer on Minecraft!

Minecraft is a sandbox type world building game, rendered in 8 bit blocks, reminiscent of old 1980's era video games. What does this mean in plain speak? The graphics are blocky and simple. A sandbox game is basically a game where there's no story or plotline. You are dropped into a world and you can do whatever you want there. There are two main ways to play the game; adventure mode or creative (building) mode.

In Adventure mode, the monsters you see can hurt you and even kill you. You start out with nothing and have to use your hands to dig or cut down a tree to make weapons and tools. You have to gather the materials to build everything and you want to have a safe place to be during the nighttime when the monsters roam.

In creative mode, the monsters won't actually hurt you and your inventory is filled with unlimited resources. You have an infinite amount of every building material, tool, weapon and armor type. If you or your geek is going to be creating a masterpiece, this is the most common way to play because you can simply focus on building. You don't have to worry about gathering materials or defending yourself from monsters.

There are many different monsters (called Mobs to those in the know) in Minecraft, but I'm only going to give you an overview of the most common. These are only dangerous in Adventure mode and they only come out at night.

Creepers - These are the worst thing possible for anyone building. They start hissing when you get close to them, and then they blow up - and they blow up whatever they're near, so if they get in your cool structure and blow up, you can kiss it goodbye. When they blow up, they disintegrate some of the resources used to build your structure, so you'll need to actually collect more to complete your repairs. When you kill one before it blows up, you get gunpowder.

Zombies -  Slow and moaning, zombies are mindless. They come towards you and bump into you, but they're easily avoided or outran. They don't explode or do anything nasty but they can kill you if you're not careful. They drop poisoned meat when they die.

Spiders - These are a hassle because they can poison you, dealing damage over time. They don't harm your structures though. Spiders give you thread when they die.

Skeletons - These mobs are irritating because they carry bows and will attack you from far away. They jump around and are somewhat difficult to hit. They drop bones when they are killed, and sometimes arrows or bows.

Endermen - These mobs don't harm you if you leave them alone, but they are agents of chaos and will move blocks around randomly. If you notice a chunk missing from your building, you can bet an Enderman was there. If you attack them, they will teleport away from you, making them difficult to kill.

In the next installment, we'll talk about the other, non-agressive mobs in the game.