Speaking of games popular among little kids, my kids are starting to talk about Minecraft. Can I get away with having them play VoxeLibre instead, or would it be literally the “we have [X] at home” meme IRL?
Nah, Minecraft is a far better game, but I would recommend playing on Java Edition (The original version) of the game only, and use an open-source launcher like PrismLauncher: https://prismlauncher.org/
Nice bonus: It comes with built-in tools for modding your installed instances, streamlining Java versions (which vary depending what game version is played), and even the ability to download community modpacks directly from the launcher! :)
I’ve been playing Minecraft since 2014, still having fun :)
I’d just work with Minecraft itself. It’s great for educating kids in a variety of fields, from counting and multiplication, all the way up into computer science and anthropology. Voxelibre will be a hard sell with it being less-featured overall. Minecraft is also very powerful socially, similar to how card games and competitive games were in the 90s/still are today.
Minecraft is also very powerful socially, similar to how card games and competitive games were in the 90s/still are today.
Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of.
I’m not necessarily opposed to buying proprietary games as a matter of principle, but I know Minecraft got bought out by Microsoft and apparently now is infested with microtransactions and shit (bletch!), so I was really hoping to avoid it.
(Wasn’t there some sort of free version for the Raspberry Pi? How’s that work? And would it be adequate, or would I need the full-fat Java version for my kids to participate fully in the social aspects?)
The version that sucks is the Bedrock Edition (also affectionately known as Bugrock Edition since it’s clear Mojang Redmond has no idea how to code a game in C++), and is the version tailored for phones, consoles, and as a “Windows exclusive”.
Java edition is the original game descended from Indie beginnings, and has none of Bugrock’s problems (No microtransactions, no cross-promotions, runs on other operating systems, and fully moddable with no paid mods). It’s the version everyone with a PC plays on, and I guarantee you most Bedrock players would switch if it was supported on their hardware (phones and game consoles).
The raspberry pi version was based on the alpha edition of phone minecraft, and didn’t have multiplayer or any gameplay outside of building. I really don’t think your kids would be happy playing it.
Minecraft java edition doesn’t have microtransactions baked in the game. Some servers may have them but servers are ran by users.
Unless your kids want to play with their friends on bedrock edition which you can’t play on linux
Speaking of games popular among little kids, my kids are starting to talk about Minecraft. Can I get away with having them play VoxeLibre instead, or would it be literally the “we have [X] at home” meme IRL?
Nah, Minecraft is a far better game, but I would recommend playing on Java Edition (The original version) of the game only, and use an open-source launcher like PrismLauncher: https://prismlauncher.org/
Nice bonus: It comes with built-in tools for modding your installed instances, streamlining Java versions (which vary depending what game version is played), and even the ability to download community modpacks directly from the launcher! :)
I’ve been playing Minecraft since 2014, still having fun :)
I’d just work with Minecraft itself. It’s great for educating kids in a variety of fields, from counting and multiplication, all the way up into computer science and anthropology. Voxelibre will be a hard sell with it being less-featured overall. Minecraft is also very powerful socially, similar to how card games and competitive games were in the 90s/still are today.
Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of.
I’m not necessarily opposed to buying proprietary games as a matter of principle, but I know Minecraft got bought out by Microsoft and apparently now is infested with microtransactions and shit (bletch!), so I was really hoping to avoid it.
(Wasn’t there some sort of free version for the Raspberry Pi? How’s that work? And would it be adequate, or would I need the full-fat Java version for my kids to participate fully in the social aspects?)
The version that sucks is the Bedrock Edition (also affectionately known as Bugrock Edition since it’s clear Mojang Redmond has no idea how to code a game in C++), and is the version tailored for phones, consoles, and as a “Windows exclusive”.
Java edition is the original game descended from Indie beginnings, and has none of Bugrock’s problems (No microtransactions, no cross-promotions, runs on other operating systems, and fully moddable with no paid mods). It’s the version everyone with a PC plays on, and I guarantee you most Bedrock players would switch if it was supported on their hardware (phones and game consoles).
The raspberry pi version was based on the alpha edition of phone minecraft, and didn’t have multiplayer or any gameplay outside of building. I really don’t think your kids would be happy playing it.
Minecraft java edition doesn’t have microtransactions baked in the game. Some servers may have them but servers are ran by users.
Unless your kids want to play with their friends on bedrock edition which you can’t play on linux
It depends if they want to play on their own or with friends.