Aspergers and Minecraft go together like oil and water, I found out this weekend. Older lad has flirted with minecraft before but it has never gone well. Younger lad seems to turn arsonist when online. So with renewed enthusiasm lad the elder came home from school on Thursday hatching a plan for his own server and raised a ticket for some dad IT help.
I was quite pleased initially since the setup wasn’t really a stretch and any problems we reached, we could work through and sort. It was kind of a bonding experience and I saw something in the boy’s smile that I hadn’t seen in a while; genuine pride. This pride only grew the following day as a few friends lined up to be allowed access to the ip, and then the server and like a troop of navvies they set about building, tunnelling, growing like nerdy pioneers.
But like everything in life, Minecraft is open to abuse and in our case we witnessed a rubbish coup, and very extreme vandalism. Aspy kids should never be allowed custody of passwords. That’s day one of Aspy school. They are separated from them so easily and give them over with such enthusiasm. Until, that is, they find themselves banned from their own server. Note to self, even as an adult, lad 1 will probably need to be helped with money.
The violent wanton destruction of virtual real estate was unnerving. It is very clear the amount of effort, time and skill that goes into these wonderful and productive structures in minecraft. It shocks that a ‘friend’ might on a whim reduce these to not even dust. The only light at the end of a very melty down tunnel was the discovery of the white list. A list of the good, the worthy and the trusted. It’s a good metaphor for life, the white list. Without it you can’t come to play, you can’t come to build and you certainly can’t come to bring your pain.
Washmeercats 