They have other issues as well. I went to buy my son Minecraft: Dungeons as a gift, and after the purchase, it was associated with my Microsoft account. I was unable to gift the game to him, so had to purchase the game again while logged in under his Microsoft account. Nowhere did it state that the game would be associated with my account, and I wasn't even aware I was logged into my Microsoft account.
I had to buy the game as a gift, then type the product key in manually on the kids account, because for some reason it wouldn't send it as email...
I also tried to buy the game as the kid, parental control blabla, I got a request that the kid wants the game, and when I went to pay for it as myself, on behalf of the kid, it wouldn't let me change the country from United States, so I couldn't enter a valid billing address...
All this took hours, while the kid impatiently nags "can we play, can we play, can we play"...!! And then it's the /insane/ launch times to start playing... At the very least, once you're in the game (java edition) it all works very well with LAN multiplayer.
> All this took hours, while the kid impatiently nags "can we play, can we play, can we play"...!!
As a fellow minecraft Dad (who hasn't yet purchased Dungeons...looks cool but Create mod is the current addiction), pro tip - don't give a small child a gift you haven't confirmed is ready to go yet.
There are times when it's good to teach a kid patience, how to assemble and adjust the derailleur on a bicycle, or how to install software updates, or how to configure port forwarding for a server, or how to safely charge and maintain lipo batteries, or whatever...but the start of limited screen time on the weekend, or Christmas morning unwrapping presents, or their birthday party with everyone watching....that is not the time. It's definitely not the time to find out that the new gadget is dead-on-arrival and teach them about the RMA process.
Kids don't care if the shrink wrap is not intact or if it doesn't have that "new car" plasticizer smell, they just want to play with it. And if you can keep them from getting addicted to peeling off the clear membrane from a glossy new gadget, later they'll be more open to the possibility of more frugal used goods.
If the gift needs to be on the kid's account, how would you ensure it was 'ready to go' before christmas day, without the kid being able to see it on their account, getting a bunch of notifications etc?
The is a reason that Santa only comes when the kids are quite and in bed in my house, and it also explains why my dad was always tired in the morning growing up
> All this took hours, while the kid impatiently nags "can we play, can we play, can we play"...!! And then it's the /insane/ launch times to start playing... At the very least, once you're in the game (java edition) it all works very well with LAN multiplayer.
I wish this was true for me. My experience was after Microsoft extorted my phone number out of me (for 'verification' of my 10 year old account that I converted) that it now demands a text message 2FA authentication any time I haven't played for awhile. Which since my kids are usually the ones playing means they're usually blocked from starting up again unless I'm home. Which means they kind of just don't play it anymore.
I never wanted a Microsoft account in the first place and I want one even less now.
I got into Minecraft a bit later, and when I purchased it, I got the Windows 10 Edition. I had to have a Microsoft account to play, so I was already set. Minecraft: Dungeons is a completely separate game, more of an isometric perspective. It looks fun, was just hoping that I didn't have to buy it myself until I had a PC to start playing on.
Yeah, this is insane. I also bought the game twice due to that buggy sh*t and that MS/Mojang poor integration, but fortunately they reimbursed one of the purchases after I opened a ticket to the support. But yeah, that UX is so bad...
I setup a new Microsoft account and tried to buy minecraft. Maybe I mistyped a digit, maybe I just got flagged for being an unusual user agent, but I got the account stuck in purgatory indefinitely, along with my credit card number (no starting a new account).
Having gotten flagged that way, there’s no way to buy it anymore; other payment methods also fail due to the flag.
Support took weeks and multiple escalations to figure it out, by which point I had migrated the family server to minetest (which has so many qol improvements that the kids were thrilled to change).
I appreciate it. My gaming PC died at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, but I have new parts to build another PC. I just have to take the time to switch my work PC (at home) with my home PC, and all the software development programs I use, and then I'll end up using my purchase to play with my son. I've setup Minecraft Java servers in the past, and have enjoyed Minecraft Java edition, so I'm hoping I like Minecraft: Dungeons and can make use of my extra purchase.
