Benifits of Gaming, part two

You've just been dropped in a strange, unknown world, and the only things in your possession are the clothes on your back and what appears to be a magic piece of parchment that records the terrain everywhere you go. Quick, what's the first thing you do?

The answer? Punch a tree. And a cow. and maybe some grass, if you want. Now that you've got some raw materials, go find yourself a nice pile of dirt and carve out a hole. Or, go live in a village. Hopefully you punched enough wood to make a crafting block, a sword, an ax, a hoe, a shovel, and pickax. In total, 15 wood planks, and 9 sticks, which translates to about 5 wood trunk pieces. Congratulations, you have a full set of wooden tools.

Continue gathering wood, using the ax, and if you come across some stone, use the pickax and get at least 8 cobblestone. that lets you construct a furnace, and that in turn will let you cook your meat and not risk food poisoning. Provided you're still alive, which means you've not drowned, fell to your death, starved, been savaged by wolves, blown up by creepers, shot by skeletons, eaten by zombies, poisoned by spiders, fail to swim in lava, or die in an unknown way thanks to endermen, you should consider beginning construction of your new home.

You can build your home from any material you find, except bedrock, and in any shape you want. The catch; you have to find these resources entirely on your own. I advise starting off simple - a room for your bed, a room of furnaces, a room of chests, small garden, a pasture, a balcony, maybe a secret escape tunnel, and torches, torches everywhere.

Why all this, and how is this simple? You need this because:

• Bedroom - having your bed on an upper level means you wont be stopped from sleeping because there is a hostile mob too close to you.
• Furnace room - one furnace is a nice decorative touch, 20 just looks dumb.
• Chest room - because of the space requirement for a double chest (two blocks, and it cant have a chest on any block it touches), a chest room is more effective than having them hidden around the house. Plus it keeps all your materials together.
• Garden and Pasture - this is your primary source of food, and so by fencing them in (separately), you can grow crops and raise animals without fear of them being destroyed or running away.
• Balcony - so you may look out and see your surroundings in a mostly safe way. Although you might want a bow and some arrows just to be safe.
• Secret escape tunnel - nothing is worse than waking up to find you left the front door open and now your house is full of highly volatile creepers. Instead of attacking and blowing yourself(and your house) sky-high, flee and wait for them to leave.
• Torches - most hostile mobs will avoid torchlight, so by keeping your house well lit, you can minimize the amount of unwanted visitors.

How is it simple? It simple in relative terms. There are players who build everything from pixel art, or giant figures of digital objects, to monoliths, to castles, to palaces, to scale model cities and towns. The engineering team at NIU is actually using this to build a scale representation of the campus, to allow students to explore even if they're on another continent, and decide if the college is worth coming to look at. You can see that if you go to STEM fest, information found here.

What is this world I speak about? Minecraft. A simple block-built world with infinite possibilities, and three realms to explore: the Overworld, the Nether, and the End.

What are the benefits? Time management, because each day is only about ten minutes long. Resource management, because tools wear out and trees must be planted and regrown. Reflexes, because nobody wants to be tripping on every jump when they run from a zombie. Memory, because you must remember where your house is and where your supplies are. If you play online, team work and leadership, from directing and working with other players from around the world.

There are upsides to gaming, you just have to think about it.

So, what can you make?