Minecraft Guides for Parents

What is Minecraft? Minecraft is a block-based sandbox game created in 2009. Since then, it’s been developed for many platforms and sold more than 200 million copies. Minecraft is available on all major gaming consoles, mobile phones, and PC and Mac computers. Before we get into what exactly Minecraft is and why it’s so wildly popular, it’s important to understand what exactly a sandbox game is. Sandbox games come in many forms. In the case of Minecraft, “sandbox” means players are presented with an open world in either creative mode or survival mode (more on that later) where they can manipulate the world in an almost infinite number of ways. Minecraft gives players “items”, “blocks”, and “mobs” with which to interact. Items include things like usable tools (a pickaxe, for example), food, potions, armor, and many other similar items. Blocks are the basic foundation of the world and game. The entire Minecraft world is built with blocks, such things as stone, grass, dirt, sand, gravel, wood, and more. There are dozens and dozens of types of blocks, all with varying colors and properties. Blocks can be mined, collected, moved, and used to build all types of things in a Minecraft world. And finally, the world is populated with a wide variety of “mobs”. A mob is simply a creature in the Minecraft world. Some are peaceful, like pigs, cats, and parrots; while others are not so peaceful, like creepers, zombies, and skeletons. Minecraft combines hundreds of different blocks, items, and mobs to create randomly generated worlds where players can explore endless terrain, explore landscapes, fight monsters, and build epic bases.

In short, Minecraft is not a very violent game, especially when compared to most other games on the market today. It's rated E10+ for fantasy violence. There are medieval-style weapons available to use in the game, including a sword, axe, bow and arrow, crossbow, and trident. If players are playing on multiplayer servers (meaning they're playing over the internet with other people from around the world), they can kill other players in the game. There is no blood, no dead bodies, no gore, and no gross sounds associated with a player's death. Players can also kill monsters (things like Zombies, Skeletons, and giant spiders) and other creatures in the game, including villagers (human-like people who populate the world), cows, chickens, cats, dogs, etc. However, there is also no blood or gore when any of these creatures are killed. There are no guns or weapons beyond basic medieval-style weapons. Minecraft is typically more focused on collecting resources and building interesting things rather than killing and violence.

If you've watched your child play Minecraft or listened to them talk about the game, you've probably heard them talk about "mobs" in the game. Don't worry, they're not talking about someone who's going to break your knee caps or an unruly, angry group of people. In Minecraft, a mob is any creature that lives within the Minecraft world.

There are many different mobs in Minecraft, too many to list here in this guide. There are 3 basic types of mobs to know about: passive, hostile, and neutral. We'll list their basic attributes below:

Passive

• Will not attack the player at all
• Usually has some use for the player (food, trading, other items)
• The "good" creatures in the world
• Includes creatures like villagers, cows, chickens, fish, cats, pigs, etc.

Hostile

• Will attack the player if they can see the player
• Usually drops an item when killed (such as bones, rotten flesh, string)
• The "bad" creatures in the world
• Usually only come out at night or in dark areas/caves. Some hostile mobs will burn in the sun
• Includes creatures like creepers, skeletons, zombies, spiders, etc.

Neutral

• Will not attack the player unless provoked in some way
• Typically does not drop any items if killed.
• The "neutral" creatures in the world
• Some can be tamed, like wolves can be tamed into dogs
• Includes creatures like wolves, polar bears, zombified piglins, etc.