10 Reasons to Let Your Child Play Minecraft - For Dummies

Minecraft, with more than 16 million copies sold to date, is an open world game where players gather resources and build structures while battling monsters. But it's more than just a game. Minecraft allows players to build, imagine, and create in a three-dimensional environment.

Here are ten reasons why Minecraft isn't your typical video game and how your child can benefit from playing it.

• You can play with your child. There's no reason you can't play Minecraft with your child, either watching what he or she does, or play in multiplayer mode alongside your child. You can even work as a team.

• You can keep play private. If you're concerned about who your child is playing with, you can limit her or his play to single mode — he or she plays alone. You can also join a server where you know all the players or create your own server, and invite only people you know to play with your child.

• Minecraft develops your child's creativity. Minecraft isn't just about stacking and unstacking blocks. Encourage your kids to build something learned in school, like a Scottish castle or an Egyptian pyramid. Or create an entire world from their imagination.

• You can keep Minecraft nonviolent. If you don't want your child fighting off creepers and other monsters, you can set Minecraft to peaceful mode.

• Your child can learn another language. Want to expose your child to another language? Set Minecraft to a foreign language — like German, French, or Japanese!

• Your child can master useful skills. A lot of Minecrafters learn useful skills that can lead to future jobs. How about programming to create mods for Minecraft? Or discovering the intricacies of architecture to build houses? Or engineering to hook up an electric lamp or rig a door to open as you approach it?

• Minecraft is pretty cheap. The game itself doesn't cost much — you can even have your child pay for it through allowance — and because of the simple graphics, you don't need a super expensive computer to run it on either.

• Boredom doesn't come easy. There is an infinite number of worlds to explore. Have you explored all you wanted in one world? Find or create another world to explore.

• Your child can learn to think strategically. In Minecraft, you have to learn how to build things — something as simple as a shelter to some something as complicated as an entire village. Your child has to learn how to gather the materials and manage the inventory to complete the challenges.

• Minecraft is a cooler version of Legos. Do you have fond memories of playing Legos, building elaborate buildings and landscapes, then breaking it all down and starting over? Minecraft is, on its face, a 21st century version of Legos.