"Look at that noob over there. Target that guy!"
"The only way to re-gen is with a golden apple, which are really hard to get."
"Remember TBNR? We trolled the poop out of that dude."
"I've got this bro, hold on. Ahhhhhoooooo .... booowwwww!"
These are the types of verbal assaults we hear from our son's bedroom whenever he plays Minecraft with his friends online, doing whatever it is they do on there. Sometimes my wife and I lose patience when he stays on too long. And I have to wonder if his passion for the game, to put it mildly, is a little unhealthy.
But he's a good kid, really, and well-rounded. He's a boss on the basketball court. And he makes straight A's.
I honestly don't know how to size up this Minecraft addiction. Is it robbing him of more adventurous real-life fun? Or is it actually honing his social skills and tech savvy and giving him tools needed to be assertive in the adult world and effectively manage conflict?
"All I know is he's soooooo loud," says my wife, as our 12-year-old blurts out another indecipherable directive over his headset to some other kid, in some other town, with some other set of perplexed parents asking the same questions.