Got any suggestions for other games besides Minecraft? My kids also play Portal and Portal 2. What else is cool (suitable for 8-16 non-violent)?
Star Craft and Age of Empires. I might add that Phillip is trying to convince me that AoE should count as "history", since it uses real people and civilizations. He says he learned that William the Conqueror invaded England in 1011 because of playing AoE! But he hasn't yet convinced this mom, lol! And there's a new one called Skyrim. (or maybe Skyrimm)
My ds plays Skyrim but I don't know anything about it really. We broke down a bought him an Xbox for Christmas and Skyrim came free in the bundle. He just bought it for his computer for $29.99. We don't use Skype. He plays all his games on Xbox or computer by download.
AoE isn't done with Skype, Skyrim isn't even networked. StarCraft can use Skype, but isn't necessary.
If ds isn't on minecraft, he likes to play on my phone or the ipad. Then, it is a bike race game, or reading about minecraft. He has been into plants vs. zombies on the xbox again. He had actually sold the game awhile back in order to trade in for a new game. He went looking for the game and I reminded him that he traded it in. So, he had to buy it again (well, he is in debt quite a few chores to buy it).
I am not a fan of Minecraft. My son was becoming obsessed with it. It was way too much and finally I had to take his laptop for a few days, then put him on a schedule.
My 4 yo is obsessed with minecraft. He also really enjoys blockland (A lot like minecraft). Age of Empires is good too. I love the second installment. Yes, its a historical game and worth taking a look at. Brainiversity is good too. Also I bought a dance pad off of ebay for PC to play Stepmania with my kids. Its good exercise, our winters are long and harsh here.
We just got minecraft and my boys LOVE it! I do have rules like, they have to earn time playing it and when time is up if they aren't off they loose privileges of playing it for the next day. I am a bit lenient though when time is up. I give them enough time to quickly finish what they are doing and save it. Other than that, they love all the Mario games, Just Dance, and Need for Speed. In fact my 2 yo will play NFS on my tablet and he is so funny to watch. He makes all the car sounds and it looks like he is "driving" my tablet. He laughs so hard when he crashes! Now that I am thinking about it I should probably take a video of him playing.
My boys love minecraft and portal. They also love all of the Lego games - Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Star wars etc. They get them on "Steam" an online server for games.
