Editor's note: Seems like a lot of gamers I know are coming across the very problem that Daniel brings up: How should you introduce your young children to video games? Perhaps no right answer exists, but read on for Daniel's take -- and some questions. -Greg
The recent birth of my son has sent my mind leaping into the future and wondering about the decisions I will have to make that will shape his outlook of the world. How will I explain religion to him? Will he accept my general abstaining from spirituality or will he start preaching to me? What kinds of questions will he ask me about sex, death, morality, and politics? Will either one of us be satisfied with my answers?
Then we have the matter of pop culture: Which Star Wars trilogy should he watch first? Who should be his first captain of the USS Enterprise? And whatever shall I do about video games?
It sounds silly to put pastimes on par with philosophical issues, but the reality is that all of this stuff is going to come up. Parents don't get to choose what their kids will be into, but they certainly get a vote.
I was raised in a Jewish household, so Christmas has always felt foreign to me. My parents loved The Beatles, so I've always been more interested in their music (and their peers') rather than Elvis'. Can I really say that one of these culture-defining choices had more of an impact on me than the other?
Of course, there is no direct relationship between what my parents supported and what I adopted. They both strongly encouraged me to read more books, so much so that I eventually rebelled out of spite.
They were fairly ambivalent concerning video games (never outright condemning them but not accepting them, either), but I embraced them and continue to hold them in high regard.
So where does that leave me and my son Go? I haven't started playing music for him yet but I've been considering building him a playlist. Books are going to be important for his bilingual education; I wish there were a local library with a significant English collection but I don't believe there is.
Movies will come later, I suppose, and we'll just have to see what's appropriate at that time. I can't wait to take him to a movie theater for the first time. It's just too bad there aren't any cinemas here in Japan with gilded lobbies or curtains.
Video games are another story, for where do we begin? In my case, the Atari planted the seed, and the rise of arcades cultivated it. Over the years I played everything I could get my hands on and watched the medium evolve from abstract blocks and beeps to hand-drawn sprites to the advanced 3D models used today.
Should I try to simulate that experience for Go with a (condensed) journey through gaming history? Or should he jump in at the present level and start his journey with Pokemon or whatever the kids are into nowadays?
The catch here is that the road of video games is largely a one-way street, while that of other media is more timeless. I can read a 50-year-old or even a 100-year-old book and I should be able to comprehend it and potentially enjoy it at face value.
Likewise, when the time comes, Go should have little trouble understanding Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Ark even though they were made 30 years before he was born. But if Go even looks at a modern video game, how can he then pick up Super Mario Bros.?
The good news is that Japan offers me a lot of options in this matter. Arcades still exist in great quantities, and a number of them carry older games to appeal to older gamers. This country also houses a roaring retro-game market (which I wrote about earlier this week), so I could pick up an actual Famicom and a few of the classics to give Go his first taste in style. Of course, all three consoles have their share of downloadable versions of old games, to say nothing of emulators on the PC.
So what do you think? Should Go get the history-lesson approach to gaming or just ride the wave of high-resolution 21st century awesomeness? If so, is it worth picking up the authentic hardware to deliver the complete experience? Am I underestimating children by assuming they can't simply go back and play old games once they get a taste of HD graphics and stereo sound? Are video games as timeless as films, books, or music?
Comments (19)
Mystery Guest - Thanks for the tips. May I ask how she started playing games? Did you choose one for her or was it more impulsive, say at a game center while running errands?
she would literally play all day if possible.Her and me both, brother. I spent the afternoon playing BioShock and I had to make sure to keep an eye on the clock else I play through dinner.
Your case sounds sort of like what I imagined: by introducing her to DS games, you set the bar low enough to allow retro games as well as newer titles. My son is still too young to understand anything around him but eventually I'll let him watch me play something simple. Maybe a DS Zelda or New Super Mario Brothers?
I think it's really about what games you put in front of your kid. My brother luckily had access to people who handed him down an n64 and nes. He has a 360 as well, but he put way more time into zelda than he ever did with bioshock or dead rising (although he did get deep into halo 3).
I think it really will depend on what games they have access to, provided they're fun to play, letting them choose what they want is probably a good place to start.
As others here have discovered, he easily switches between the older games and the newer games with very little problem. The graphics don't matter much--old Zelda and Mario games are as fun to him as Gears of War (not that he gets to watch that).
He likes Peggle, Sing It!, Mario Kart, Excitebots, Mario Strikers and is playing the original Kingdom Hearts on the PS2, and is discovering other games all the time. It's a constant battle to get him to keep to the arbitrary two hours a day recommended by whomever recommends these things. As long as the game is fun, I think kids will get into it no matter what--and I tend to think a mix of old and new is a great thing.
One thing we wrestled with was whether or not to let our kid learn the Star Wars storyline through the Lego game. We wanted to keep him from playing it so that he'd learn about the story through the movies first, but he loved Lego Indiana Jones so much and we realized he'd love Star Wars even more. And now, though he's only seen Episode IV, he knows just about everything that happens in all the movies. I don't know if you will have to deal with this at all--but we ended up going with the flow and letting his interests dictate what he played.
Hope that helps some. Ultimately, I think it's just great to watch them develop their skills and interest in video games, whatever they like. It was so exciting to watch my kid figure out the XBox controller by himself, and I'm proud when he finishes levels by himself and beats me at Mario Kart.
M. Bradley: I think the wonderful thing about classic games is that they were aimed at kids, so in theory they should appeal to children now just as much as they did when they were new. But I am aware that he may not take an interest in old games...or games at all. I just want to do what I can to make them seem appealing because that's something he and I can do together for years, potentially.
To all the parents who have shared their stories thus far, thank you very much. Helen, I hadn't considered the cross-contamination factor of licensed games like LEGO Star Wars. Since I love movies, I'll probably lean towards the cinema side of things. But you (and the others) are right when you say I'll have to wait and see what Go wants to do. The last thing I want to do is pressure him to enjoy things I like. That's how my parents put me off reading and it took years for me to get back into the habit.
In the end, she'll play what she likes, and if she or her younger brother one day feel like diving into Dad's collection of classic games, then great. If not...whatever
Funny how most of us have the Star Wars conundrum in common haha! I just went through that a few weeks ago and showed him some minor stuff from the movie. He was pretty interested and that was awesome for me. He's a little skittish though with movies, as they are a far cry from Diego and Dora and when R2D2 gets trapped by the Jawas he had his hands over his eyes peeking between his fingers.
I started him off on our laptop typing his name and playing with the fonts on MS Word. Then moved him onto the mini games on the Nick Jr. website. He can navigate to any game withing the site now and can use the mouse like a champ (*sniff, daddy's so proud!).
I made a LBP level for him and his younger brother and he's finally got to the point where he can use the other controller and we can semi co-op on that game. I'm ecstatic!
I think the other posters here are spot on when they say that the graphics don't matter as much to the little ones. He has this ghetto v-tech machine that has horrible graphics and he likes that the same as the PS3 or PC. I think as long as he gets the idea he's ready to try it.
Just expose him to different things as see what he likes.
You may think kids couldn't go back once they saw the new stuff, but I've found that to be completely untrue. My 7 year old niece had her dads xbox, and now his 360 and wii, yet when she comes over I'll put in some NES games a lot of time. I have my NES, Genesis, and N64 hooked up at all times upstairs and she's played a bunch of stuff with me over the years. From Rescue Rangers on NES to Sonic on Genesis to Mario 64. Kids don't have the desire for the biggest and best looking at that age. Maybe when they are teenagers they will become graphic snobs but before then it should be pretty easy to teach them an appreciation of the classics, even if they have gotten their hands on the newest hotness already.
Super Mario All-Stars
Metroid
Mario Kart Wii
Wii Sports (& Resort)
Katamari Damacy
Peggle
LittleBigPlanet
New Super Mario Bros
Mega Man 2
the Paper Mario series
Rock Band (drums & vocals)
Dragon Quest: Rocket Slime
The Legend of Zelda
...and these are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. He plays on an NES, SNES, DS, iPhone, PS3, and Wii. I think the larger point I'm making is that, ultimately, if it's a well-made game, it won't matter so much what it looks like because he'll be having fun with it.
As for the other media, I don't know. I know my son's first "Star Wars" experience has been the OT, and his first "Trek" captain was Sisko.
