Still not sure what Minecraft is about? The Washington Post has a great primer for the uninitiated, and you can find additional info on Minecraft Wiki and the Minecraft website. Or just ask a tween. You can try a demo for free by registering for an online account. Once you're ready to buy, there are versions for PCs, Macs, Xbox 360, iPhones, iPads and other platforms.

While there is no specific age minimum, children need to be able to read and do rudimentary math in order to play so it's usually best for ages 7 and up. For further proof of Minecraft's educational value, check out this awesome blog by a NYC teacher who used the game in his curriculum.

Where to Play Minecraft in NYC

The New York Public Library's Battery Park City branch and the Bronx Library Center both have weekly clubs where teens can play Minecraft together, craft new worlds and share tips. I suspect more branches will be starting clubs so check with your local library or even suggest they try it.

This past summer, Brooklyn's Bricks 4 Kidz offered a Minecraft-themed week of camp. It was so popular, the program plans to offer Saturday sessions this winter.

Cool Cobble Hill maker space Pixel Academy offers Minecraft play during after-school drop-in hours. The high-tech hangout also occasionally hosts special Minecraft tournaments—my eight-year old just competed in one last last weekend.

Staten Island MakerSpace also offers an after-school Minecraft club where kids complete virtual and real-world creative challenges.

Want to do a Minecraft birthday party? RoboFun plans to roll out a Minecraft party package.

And this is a bit different but related: During weekly Kids' Saturday Morning workshops at the MakerBot store in Soho, kids can let their fantasies become reality by designing Minecraft structures via Printcraft and printing them out in 3D form on a Makerbot Replicator 2. Got that?

Minecraft Fun at Home

While kids can play on their own, for the collaborative experience there are many Minecraft servers available where you can join an existing multiplayer game. That said, you may not want your children interacting with strangers online—they might get into unpleasant exchanges or worse, mugged. A better bet is to start your own Minecraft club. Techie families can host their own game on a private server or you can do what we do: Invite a bunch of kids over, ask them to bring a tablet with Minecraft PE installed and let them all use our Wi-Fi, which allows them to join each other's games.

For an analog building experience, Lego has recently introduced its own Minecraft building block set. Talk about life imitating online!