Hi folks! I’m running a private online Minecraft game for my son and his friends, called “Buzzard Kids”.

This web page is for me to share info to help parents understand what’s involved and decide whether to join.

(Note - this page is not very private so I’m avoiding too much personal info)

What’s the setup

We have set up a private online game - limited to invitations only, so it’s quite safe. It runs on a “Realm” - a cloud-based server run by Microsoft.

The game is in Survival mode, so there is a bit of danger and challenge, but we’ve kept the difficulty low. A few kids have been playing for a couple of months so we already have a big safe base area.

More kids can join - but unless the parents are already very familiar with Minecraft setup, we might need to run the initial setup at our place, or set up a video call to talk people through it. Inexperienced kids will probably need assistance too!

The nice thing about Minecraft is it is mostly cooperative - and kids can play solo when they want to, or just with a parent. To keep it fair and fun, we’ll need everyone to remember a few rules e.g. don’t destroy each other’s creations.

I will be online some of the time to supervise, and this is a cooperative game so it’d be great for parents to join too, to help the kids and have fun!

How to make it fair and fun

This is tricky - these kids are young and still learning how to play well!

We can establish some basic player rules:

  • Play nicely, don’t be mean
  • Don’t break or damage anyone else’s stuff
  • Don’t enter someone else’s base without permission 
  • Put up signs to help others know what’s yours, or even invite them in
  • No pranks!
  • Rule-breaking could result in warnings or having to take time out of the game.

We can discuss on Whatsapp how things are going and tweak as we go, I’m open to ideas and feedback

What does it cost?

The game is free for the first month.  After that it costs £7 a month collectively - we are happy to split the costs by what people can afford, it’s pretty cheap.

Note that you also have to have bought a current version of Minecraft. Also you might have to pay for online gaming (see below)

What do we need to play?

  1. You need a copy of Minecraft Bedrock edition, which is the standard on consoles and mobile devices
  2. You might need to pay for online access - on a Nintendo Switch you need Nintendo Switch Online, on a PlayStation you need PlayStation Plus, on XBox you need XBox Game Pass Core.
  3. To play online you also need a free Microsoft account. You might need a second account for a parent - unless you are willing to pretend the child is older than they really are.

Setting up a Microsoft account

There’s an article at https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/4408968616077 with instructions for parents on setting up Microsoft Family accounts. In brief:

If all this parent/child thing is hard, you can just claim your child is 14 and then they can play without parental approval.

Each player is assigned a ‘gamertag’ - if you tell me your gamertags I can invite you to the realm

There are some further notes on setting up Minecraft and Microsoft accounts at https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/realms/minecraft-and-microsoft-accounts

Who has oversight?

I’m happy to be the main admin - just making sure everything works. But I won’t be there all the time. If you want to log in and to help keep an eye on things, you’re welcome to do that - use your parental Microsoft and Minecraft accounts.

Supervision of things like how much play time parents think is appropriate - I’ll leave up to you! We can chat on WhatsApp and in the playground about how it’s going.  

Let’s just see this as a trial as long as everyone’s having fun.

Where can I find out more?

Microsoft have a parent’s guide to minecraft which is a good basic guide to Minecraft, including a lot of links to settings. For online play see https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/realms/realms-tutorial for some detailed information. There’s also a huge Minecraft Wiki - with far too much information!