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‘Minecraft’ Does Good Things for Your Brain
Exploring and building in a virtual world develops memory and spatial awareness
Standing between us and the castle was a red knight with a sword. He appeared angry — inasmuch as a heavily pixelated figure can show emotion — and was headed in our direction. I turned to my daughter and suggested we take a different, less confrontational path. She nodded, and we hurried along the far side of a large lake.
This was the first time my young daughter and I had entered the 3D virtual world of Minecraft. The images are simple — the scenery, the buildings, and the characters are all made up of colored blocks — and yet the game is vast and the first-person perspective is immersive.
It must be. Figures released by Microsoft last year — who bought the game from creators Mojang in 2014 — claim 112 million people enter the virtual world of Minecraft every month. It is the best-selling video game of all time. Indeed, it has been so popular that a new augmented reality version, known as Minecraft Earth, has also been released.
And yet, just last year, the World Health Organization recognized excessive gaming as a risk to mental health. Dr. Susumu Higuchi, addiction specialist at Kurihama Medical and Addiction Center in Japan, sees patients who “are generally…
