Minecraft - Moyang

App Review

This review of Minecraft was completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 14 June 2018.

About the app

This section contains details about the app provided by an ACCM Reviewer.

ACCM review

This review of Minecraft contains the following information:

• The level to which the game was reviewed
• App description
• Reviewers comments
• In App purchasing
• Online information
• Gambling
• Advertising and product placement
• Gender stereotypes and sexual references
• Coarse language
• Game playing behaviour which may be of concern to some parents
• Other

The level to which the game was reviewed

Not fully reviewed yet.

App description

Minecraft is known as a “sandbox” game; meaning that players use their imagination to craft environments and navigate – like playing in a sandbox. There are other modes in the game such as “survival” and “adventure” where you must use the environment to either survive (eat, sleep, avoid creatures, etc.) and explore existing maps, but other than this,  there is  no real aim or point to the game – other than how you decide to use the platform. Moving direction is achieved via the on screen pad (left, right, forward and backwards) and viewing direction is achieved by swiping anywhere on screen (swipe in the direction that you want to look). Holding a finger on an object (such as a tree) will chop into it and wood will be gathered in the inventory. Any materials that are collected can be used to build with and/or crafted into weapons and equipment. Players can also invite other people to join their world, as well as join other people’s worlds.

Reviewers comments

Some parents may be concerned about the ability for players to connect and chat with other people online. It’s quite simple to join other people’s games and invite other people to yours. Chat is achieved through messaging in game and you can also send private messages to individuals. Parents of younger children should be vigilant around this feature and educate their children of the possible dangers of chatting to strangers online – particularly with providing personal information.

Also, to play you must create a “gamertag” (i.e.; a username) and sign in for free. However, to do this, you must agree to the terms and conditions and the privacy policy – both of which are very long and use language that may be ambiguous or unclear to some. To play in “Realms” players must have the full game and either an Xbox Live account or Mojang account. Furthermore, Minecraft “Realms” is a subscription service. Even though the conditions are set out on the “create a realm” page, younger players may overlook this and go straight to the button that says: “Create for Free!” It is indicated in brackets that its $12.99 per month after the first 30 days – however as you can see by the picture below, this wording is cut in half – the current reviewer could not scroll any higher to read the full sentence. In the absence of reading the full script and missing the bottom line which is half out of view, some children may think that it’s completely free to play realms and press the button. Others may not be aware that the “/” (in “$12.99/month”) means “per”, and may think it’s a once off payment of $12.99.

In App purchasing

Minecoins:

320 Minecoins = $2.99

1020 Minecoins = $9.99

1720 Minecoins = $14.99

3500 Minecoins = $30.99

8800 Minecoins = $79.99

Online information

• Identity details
• Connectivity with social media
• Log ins
• Other: receive data from the internet.

Gambling

Technically, there's no real gambling content in this game. However, children do need to be aware that there is risk in playing in other people's worlds. The creator of any world has full control over it. So, if you've spend many hours or days contributing to another person's world, they could turn around and erase all of your work. If the point of contributing to that person's world is to gain recognition from that person, this does represent a risk for reward scenario where the person loses. In this case, it's not a monetary loss but potentially a social and psychological one.

Advertising and product placement

None.

Gender stereotypes and sexual references

None.

Coarse language

None that is game generated but children may be exposed to coarse language of online friends.

Game playing behaviour which may be of concern to some parents

See reviewer’s comments.

Other

N/A.

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