Minecraft teaches money to kids

If your kids are chattering non-stop about things like emeralds, pickaxes and creepers, you may have a unique opportunity to turn a video game addiction into a life lesson about money.

Minecraft, a video game phenomenon with over 100 million users, is such a hot property that Microsoft Corp. recently forked out US$2.5billion for its maker, Mojang AB.

Players build their own worlds via game systems, smartphones, tablets and computers using virtual Legolike pieces. And as opposed to the shoot-’em-up video games that kids usually gravitate toward, this game teaches them about money.

It is “about barter, about value, about how to protect your stuff,” says Hank Mulvihill, a financial adviser in Richardson, Texas.

“Kids are learning about money on a lot of different levels in Minecraft,” says Joel Levin, co-founder of Manhattan-based TeacherGaming, a firm that works with educators to use video games as teaching tools.

“There are basic currencies, like emeralds that you dig up and can trade with villagers,” Mr. Levin explains. “There are exchange rates, because certain items are worth more than others. Then players have to think about whether to spend money right away, or save it and get something more rewarding later on. These are analogous to the financial decisions people are making in the real world all the time.”

And that is just if you are playing the game on your own. If you are online with multiple players, the financial issues become much more complex.

“At that point, players are setting up actual economies,” Mr. Levin says. “On a particular server, they may decide that diamonds are the currency of choice. Or some kids start playing the role of a bank, offering loans and charging interest.”

Mr. Levin is aware of instances where teachers introduce a rare item into the game that kids can’t obtain on their own, and then watch them react to the scarcity. “It’s supply and demand in action,” he says.

This principle of monetizing your Minecraft skills applies in the real world, too,

Kids are learning about money on a lot of different levels

notes Dan Short, associate professor of environmental science at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, who has written an academic paper on Minecraft.

Some have become so talented at the game and charismatic with their audiences — with handles like The BajanCanadian, Sky Does Minecraft and Lewis & Simon — that they run their own insanely popular channels on Google Inc.’s YouTube.

“They get followers on YouTube, they host games and then kids sometimes pay a premium for the chance to play with them and be in their videos,” says Mr. Short.

“They must be making serious bank. That might be the biggest financial lesson of all.”