Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Minecraft Generation

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 110 posts

Re: The Minecraft Generation

#51

Post by outworlder »

joezydeco wrote: post #18

These days I'm a bit more intrigued by Roblox. My 11 year-old son and his friends have completely abandoned Minecraft for it. Roblox is designed for MMO play from the start, but worlds (or whatever they're called) are completely open to modification with their free editor. Then you can script things in Lua. Lua! The other night my son was antsy at the dinner table. So I asked him why the rush. He said he "had a fligh…

Well, if you are impressed by Lua scripting in a game, go back to Minecraft, then install OpenComputers.

They have it all. Those computers have firmware, an OS (LuaOS), filessystems, network routers, you name it. You can do pretty interesting things with the peripherals. You can also program robots.

https://github.com/MightyPirates/OpenComputers

Re: The Minecraft Generation

#52

Post by jameshart »

dsp1234 wrote: post #45
Jtsummers wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This bothers me. How are people interviewing for (presumably) admin positions without this knowledge? When I interviewed for my first real job they included a programming "test". It was basic C stuffs (really, more C pointer focused). Things like 4 swap functions, each incorrectly implemented, what are the resulting values of a and b after running swap(a,b) or swap(&a,&b), etc. Apparently, I found out after getting h…

How are people interviewing for (presumably) admin positions without this knowledge? Because once you've logged in to the box, administration via telnet and SSH is exactly the same. It's not that they don't have admin skills, they just don't have updated security skills. It's not awesome, but if the interviewer doesn't think to ask about SSH skills, and the interviewee doesn't realize their skill is out of date, it's…

It's sad that it's so expensive to retrain someone used to telnet for ssh.

Re: The Minecraft Generation

#53

Post by joezydeco »

outworlder wrote: post #51
joezydeco wrote: post #18

These days I'm a bit more intrigued by Roblox. My 11 year-old son and his friends have completely abandoned Minecraft for it. Roblox is designed for MMO play from the start, but worlds (or whatever they're called) are completely open to modification with their free editor. Then you can script things in Lua. Lua! The other night my son was antsy at the dinner table. So I asked him why the rush. He said he "had a fligh…

Well, if you are impressed by Lua scripting in a game, go back to Minecraft, then install OpenComputers. They have it all. Those computers have firmware, an OS (LuaOS), filessystems, network routers, you name it. You can do pretty interesting things with the peripherals. You can also program robots. https://github.com/MightyPirates/OpenComputers

Was more impressed that it's part of the system architecture from the start, instead of being grafted into the setup later.

Re: The Minecraft Generation

#54

Post by mrmb »

> To play, you’ll need a computer with Minecraft and a child who’s familiar with the game.

Hilarious, and true. Oh, I hope someday to be asked how one plays Minecraft...

Re: The Minecraft Generation

#56

Post by joemi »

markbnj wrote: post #16

Great article, and I loved the mooshroom in a pen with pressure plates hack. That is indeed very creative thinking. But this ... >> “My art teacher always says, ‘No games are creative, except for the people who create them.’ But she said, ‘The only exception that I have for that is Minecraft.’ ” I guess his art teacher didn't play many computer games. If she was familiar only with board and party games then perhaps t…

To be fair, that's quoting an 11 year old quoting his art teacher.

Re: The Minecraft Generation

#58

Post by idoh »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #22
joezydeco wrote: post #18

These days I'm a bit more intrigued by Roblox. My 11 year-old son and his friends have completely abandoned Minecraft for it. Roblox is designed for MMO play from the start, but worlds (or whatever they're called) are completely open to modification with their free editor. Then you can script things in Lua. Lua! The other night my son was antsy at the dinner table. So I asked him why the rush. He said he "had a fligh…

Roblox is designed like an MMO. But that also has drawbacks. They charge like an MMO (monthly subscription), and you are beholden to their system/servers. I don't think I've ever gotten more value from a software purchase than buying Minecraft for €9.95 in 2010.

ROBLOX has Builder's Club which is subscription, but you can also just buy some ROBUX from time to time if you don't want to subscribe. It is pretty playable with very little spend, most games on the platform aren't play to win (because the players themselves make the games).

Re: The Minecraft Generation

#59

Post by jaked89 »

zanny wrote: post #23
joezydeco wrote: post #18

These days I'm a bit more intrigued by Roblox. My 11 year-old son and his friends have completely abandoned Minecraft for it. Roblox is designed for MMO play from the start, but worlds (or whatever they're called) are completely open to modification with their free editor. Then you can script things in Lua. Lua! The other night my son was antsy at the dinner table. So I asked him why the rush. He said he "had a fligh…

The idea of a corporate for-profit proprietary video game being the centerpiece of a generation's learning is horrifying and dystopian to me. It is the same problem the last generation had, in large part, with the public schooling Microsoft monoculture. Kids grew up on Windows 95 and Office and are now indoctrinated into Microsoft tooling, probably for life, as loyal customers. A very valuable investment on Microsoft…

The public education system is for-profit as well, only difference is that they make their profit by collecting funds coercively, instead of advertising their service and getting paid voluntarily.

The hatred towards for-profit companies is childish. Why would you expect anyone to build games for you for free?

Re: The Minecraft Generation

#60

Post by mentat »

joezydeco wrote: post #18

These days I'm a bit more intrigued by Roblox. My 11 year-old son and his friends have completely abandoned Minecraft for it. Roblox is designed for MMO play from the start, but worlds (or whatever they're called) are completely open to modification with their free editor. Then you can script things in Lua. Lua! The other night my son was antsy at the dinner table. So I asked him why the rush. He said he "had a fligh…

Lua, the new MUSH
Post reply on HN