More than just a game, Minecraft is a valuable learning tool that can teach kids and adults important life lessons. From creativity and perseverance to teamwork and problem-solving, learn about the valuable takeaways from this game.
Just recently Minecraft generated $380 million revenue in 2021, mobile revenue accounted for $110 million and has sold 238 million copies since launch, can we safely assume that many of us know about this game and need no introduction?
But for the ones who do not know, this game has been around for decades!
Launched in 2009 and normally tagged as a ‘sandbox game’, which offers its players the freedom to play how they want and find their own path, Minecraft is a game made up of blocks, creatures, realms and community. You can survive the night or be creative to build a work of art — the choice is all yours!
If you like being creative, you can use the blocks to build things from your imagination. If you are feeling brave, you can explore the world and face daring challenges (very similar to our life, isn’t it?).
Whilst parents are most often worried of their kids being addicted to Minecraft, if looked at it from a different perspective, it’s a game that encourages creativity, imagination, perseverance, teamwork, problem-solving and critical thinking.
In this post, let's explore some of the key elements of Minecraft in detail and how we can apply it in our personal and professional lives as life lessons:
1. Fosters Creativity
Minecraft is a game where players are free to build whatever they want using the resources available to them. This is a great lesson for us in our daily lives that encourages creativity and imagination, something most of us miss to work on. It is critical to always strive to be creative and think outside the box to solve complex problems, be at work or in life. This then triggers us to come up with innovative solutions to deal with complicated life issues and solve them as seamlessly as possible.
For example, if you’re working on a project at work, try to come up with creative solutions that others may not have thought of. Of course, this may need some extra research and probably a bit of re-skilling to keep you updated of the knowledge, but this can certainly help you stand out from your peers and show your boss and co-workers that you are capable of thinking outside the box and be a problem solver.
2. Perseverance
Anyone who has played this game would know that there are two main modes to play this game - Survival and Creative. In Survival mode, players must gather resources and ward off monsters to survive. In Creative mode, players have unlimited resources and can build whatever they want without any restrictions.
Now all of this cannot come effortlessly and requires a lot of determination and perseverance. The game can be challenging at times as players go through the survival or build an art, but players are encouraged to keep going and not give up. Isn’t it something we go through in our lives too? And this is one such thing this game teaches us as a life lesson to always strive to persevere through difficult times and not give up on our goals.
For example, if you’re working on a project at work that seems impossible to complete, don’t just give up! Keep pushing forward, try new things and course-correct until you find a solution.
3. Teamwork and Collaboration
In this game, players can work together to build amazing structures and accomplish great things. Since 2013, American and Swedish schools have been integrating Minecraft into their schools' curriculums and using it to teach science, urban planning and foreign languages.
In all this, there is one underlying factor of teamwork and collaboration between students to come together, create new innovative ways of architecture or formulate a theory to test it with details of experiment, observations and conclusions.
We can also use it for our daily lives. For example, if you’re working on a team project at work, make sure you’re communicating effectively with your team members and working together towards a common shared goal.
4. Problem-Solving
In the survival mode of the game, players must find ways to obtain food, build shelter and protect themselves from hostile creatures. In the creative mode of the game, players build complex structures or solve puzzles using the Redstone circuits. Likewise, players are constantly faced with challenges that require them to think creatively and come up with solutions to work around the challenge.
This is equally an important lesson for us all too in our day-to-day lives to think critically about the challenges we face and then arrive at solutions and workarounds to progress further.
For example, if you’re facing a difficult problem at work, try to break it down into smaller parts and come up with creative solutions for each part. This will allow you to focus on each part fully and help you deal with the challenges effectively and possibly in time as well.
5. Planning and Organization
One of the challenges in the game is to build a shelter. And to do this, you need to gather resources such as wood, stone and dirt. You also need to plan ahead and organize your resources effectively to ensure you have enough materials to build the shelter. Once you have built the shelter, you need to manage it effectively by repairing any damage and adding new features as needed.
Clearly, this game teaches us one of the important life lessons to plan ahead in life, craft your resources to make it work for you and organize the events effectively to ensure you are covered at times of need.
For example, if you’re planning an event at work or at home, make sure you are planning carefully on the events and details of it so that everything runs smoothly.
6. Risk-Taking
Players play Minecraft in what is called as a ‘Hardcore mode’ where you have only one set of a life, and if you die, your world is permanently deleted. This mode is much more challenging than the standard survival mode and requires players to take risks to progress.
This exposes us to another life lesson in our daily lives where its key for us to be open and be willing to take informed risks in order to achieve our goals.
For example, if you are considering starting your own business or taking on a new project at work, look at the stats you are dealing with, study them fully and don’t be afraid to take risks!
In summary, Minecraft is more than just a game. It is a valuable learning tool that teaches kids and adults important life lessons that can be applied to our personal and professional lives.
For the ones who play this game, try to look at it from a different perspective of life learnings! For the ones who got introduced to this game in this post, why not give it a try today? Who knows what you might learn :)
Drop in your comments in case you have managed to identify any other such life lessons while playing this game!
Special Credit: My nephew who validated my knowledge of Minecraft for this post :)
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