Games for teenagers

[Talshere]

So I was talking to two colleagues who generally disapprove of gaming. They don't like their kids doing it and neither engage in the games their child plays. They were talking about games where legs are blow off and such. Basically, they were talking about CoD.

I tried to convince them part of the problem was their lack of knowledge on what games were available and they there are some beautifully made, interesting and engaging games if they'd open their minds. They are having none of it.

I decided to have a quick Google to make a list of stuff they might want to look at and dear god its horrific. Cake baking mobile games and learn as you spell tripe aimed at 4 year olds. The only thing even remotely relevant was Sims.

So help me out escapist, a proper list of proper games which a stingy 50+ will view as suitable for a teenager from 12 to 15 that said teenager won't hate.

Some I've thought of:

Portal
Civ V
FTL
From Dust
Psychonauts
This war of mine
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
Broken Age
Tales of Monkey Island
Minecraft
Bastion
Fable
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
Crayon Physics
Anything made by Lego


Maybe Xcom?

 

[Saelune]

Anything by Nintendo pretty much. Even Kirby which is really more fore young kids I think is fun for all ages.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Most Star Wars games, the Arkham series, non-Mortal Kombat fighting games, Rocket League, any sports game, etc. Quite a lot to choose from, if their only criteria is no gore and (I assume) no sex. If it was violence in general, then we might have a problem.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Oh wow, i forgot about crayon physics!

Anyway, The Trine series is a pretty heartwarming adventure.
The Last Guardian? I have yet to play it, but the creature boy friendship is adorable!
Ratchet and Clank maybe?
There are loadsa cutsie and/or intelligent games around, puzzle, sports, adventures etc but you have to slap the COD right out of them. Literally physically a full swing slap that knocks all those unhelpful COD-tainted preconceptions of gaming out of their skulls. Then say "NO! ...Bad humancub! Stop watching television ad breaks for your entire perception of the gaming medium! Would you consider all films ever to be Rambo or Bond films?? I thought n...Oh, you do?"
*Bats head with rolled up newspaper* "Silly bad humancub!"

Or something along those lines. Use a weighty newspaper though. Not one of those thin, light ones you get for free at the dentist.

 

[DoPo]

Loads and loads of games with "Tycoon" in the name

Antichamber - a mind-bending puzzle game.

Banished - it's a village builder sim.

Costume Quest and Costume Quest 2 - cute games about children on Halloween. It's a simple RPG where candy is your currency, your costumes are your classes and you collect stickers for "equipment".

Crypt of the NecroDancer - a rhythm-based roguelike game. Has a pretty sweet soundtrack.

Don't Starve - a roguelike-ish where your main goal is survival.

Elite Dangerous - a game where you drive around in space.

Ghost Master - it's a ghost control thingie draped in humour. It has dead people in it but it's not really that violent or disturbing.

Gremlins Inc. - it's basically a board game in a computer format. It's pretty cool but you really need to play it with other people, otherwise it gets boring fast.

Fictorum - build a giant factory that produces a bunch of stuff efficiently. You also have to occasionally fight aliens to gain resources for the factory.

Invisible Inc. - it's like XCOM but based around stealth, rather than combat. It's also more expected you'd fail.

Life is Strange - it's a game that focuses on the story where the main character is also a teenager (19, I think).

Magicka - very humorous game with a good stab at free-form magic.

Octodad: The Dadliest Catch - very humorous game about an octopus that has to pretend he's a human. Enough to fool casual observers and his own family - his (human) wife and his two (human) children. It's sort of QWOP.

Scribblenauts - pretty much Dictionary: The Game. Solve challenges by typing words to summon the thing.

Spore - design aliens and play them through several stages of their evolution.

Stardew Valley - be a farmer.

Stick it to the Man - it's a humorous puzzle platformer. The main mechanic is putting stickers on things to change them.

Swapper - another puzzle platformer. Main mechanics is making mindless clones and also then swapping your mind so you control them.

Talos Principle - it's a puzzle game very similar to Portal in idea.

Thea: the Awakening - a game that is sort of a mix between Civ and an RPG. You do some strategic things somewhat similar to Civ but your units also have levels and equipment.

Tropico series - it's mostly an economic sim where you have to build up and develop an island to gain profit and attract more people.

Vanishing of Ethan Carter - slower paced game where you do exploration and mini-investigations into the titular disappearance.

Worms series - a cartoony turn-based strategy game where you fight...worms.

Ziggurat - it's an FPS roguelike.

 

[NPC009]

My 12 year old cousin is super into Undertale right now and seems to be developing an appreciation for games with a story in general. She is open-minded towards point & click adventure games but doesn't have any clear favourites. She also enjoys the Zelda series, platformers like Thomas was Alone, the 2D MOBA Awesomenauts...

Basically, she wants games that don't baby her but give her puzzles and similar challenges to figure out. She cares about things like problem solving, creative thinking and likable characters. She's not trying to look 'tough' by playing M/18+ rated shooters, but then again, she doesn't feel any peer pressure to play those games. (If anything, she's pressuring her peers to play Undertale...) There are plenty of teenagers who do think anything with a bit of colour (that isn't blood red) is 'for babies' and it can be very difficult to change that opinion.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Well, your first problem is that they're 50+ something. They come from an age where "gaming is evil!" and odds are, no matter what you show them, every single game is going to be unacceptable--either by way of being too violent, or simply being a waste of time.
On a side note, I'm curious which Call of Duty game they are talking about, because as far as I can remember, only World at War showed that level of gore, and that one's pretty old so I doubt the their kids are playing that.

Anyway:

Portal 2
Journey
Shantae 1/2 Genie Hero (or any Shantae game)
Flower
Depending on these people's mindsets, a lot of Star Wars games could be good.
Both The Banner Saga games

That's all I can think of right now, but there are tons more out there.

 

[Casual Shinji]

So not so much games for teenagers -- because nearly all games, even the violent ones, are -- but games for teenagers with fussy parents.

I think most "indie" games can fill that criteria, since their lack of budget means they can't show highly detailed rendered violence.

 

[distortedreality]

I'd suggest that they're too old to change and leave it at that.

There are a countless number of games out there that would fit your criteria, but I don't see what you're trying to prove exactly.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Pretty much everything by Nintendo. Kid-friendly is their bread and butter.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

*eyeroll* yeah, yeah, it's their children, they are the parents, uuuuuggghhhhhh.

Sorry. Well, is it literally just the gore they are worried about, or can other types of violence set them off? Because I know of few RPGs that actually show blood or limbs flying off. At worst it's some scantily clad women and the "damn" a lot.

I mean, honestly, it just sounds like they don't approve of their children's games, but they don't necessarily disallow them. So I say fuck it, the kids will play their games regardless and the parents can be whiny about it.

 

[Talshere]

*eyeroll* yeah, yeah, it's their children, they are the parents, uuuuuggghhhhhh.

Sorry. Well, is it literally just the gore they are worried about, or can other types of violence set them off? Because I know of few RPGs that actually show blood or limbs flying off. At worst it's some scantily clad women and the "damn" a lot.

I mean, honestly, it just sounds like they don't approve of their children's games, but they don't necessarily disallow them. So I say fuck it, the kids will play their games regardless and the parents can be whiny about it.

Both were contending with the problem that their children wanted to play and were but that they disapproved of the games being played by their children's social circles as a whole.

They were also under the impression that the games can have no inherent value.

It's obviously an ongoing "problem they are contending with". By compiling a list of narrative games of appropriate age content with more to them than blind distraction, I hope to display that they can have meaningful games, they can enjoy with their children.

It's not their fault they known nothing about gaming. For them, it's easier to just try and stop it rather than engage.

I am in a unique position that I can provide them wig more knowledge and information in 20 minutes than weeks of trawling the net.

I looked at some of those sites recommending games. None gamers, usually none gamer parents offering bland inoffensive options to other none gamers.

It's no wonder they struggle to find content they can use to engage their kids.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

*eyeroll* yeah, yeah, it's their children, they are the parents, uuuuuggghhhhhh.

Sorry. Well, is it literally just the gore they are worried about, or can other types of violence set them off? Because I know of few RPGs that actually show blood or limbs flying off. At worst it's some scantily clad women and the "damn" a lot.

I mean, honestly, it just sounds like they don't approve of their children's games, but they don't necessarily disallow them. So I say fuck it, the kids will play their games regardless and the parents can be whiny about it.

Both were contending with the problem that their children wanted to play and were but that they disapproved of the games being played by their children's social circles as a whole.

They were also under the impression that the games can have no inherent value.

It's obviously an ongoing "problem they are contending with". By compiling a list of narrative games of appropriate age content with more to them than blind distraction, I hope to display that they can have meaningful games, they can enjoy with their children.

It's not their fault they known nothing about gaming. For them, it's easier to just try and stop it rather than engage.

I am in a unique position that I can provide them wig more knowledge and information in 20 minutes than weeks of trawling the net.

I looked at some of those sites recommending games. None gamers, usually none gamer parents offering bland inoffensive options to other none gamers.

It's no wonder they struggle to find content they can use to engage their kids.

I wish you all the luck, honestly. But in my experience parents who already don't engage with video games never will.

My father and I engaged with games, but that was regardless of age restrictions and content. (Violent content at least). One of the first 3D games I played as a child was Turok and Turok 2, which were all about their bloody and gorey content. My dad even played multiplayer with me a few times. As well as my grandfather.

It's a shame, but if I was in this situation I wouldn't be confident in trying. Some people are just too stubborn in their beliefs.

I do hope you prove me wrong though and everyone else here can help you here leagues better than I could.

 

[Talshere]

It's a shame, but if I was in this situation I wouldn't be confident in trying. Some people are just too stubborn in their beliefs.

.

I have little hope for the one guy, but the other seemed genuinely enthused when he discovered I was putting together a list.

 

[MHR]

*looks at Steam list*

Dang, almost everything I play is violent. It's just too much fun.

I was going to suggest Don't Starve for having only stylistic violence, but that's stupid because half the game involves you traipsing through the wilderness murdering small animals with an axe.

Oh well, I played Paper Mario TTYD recently. That falls under Nintendo games like everyone else has been suggesting. One look at all those colors and happy music, and neither of those guys is gonna tell you the game isn't for kids. It's fun as heck too. Entry-level RPG.

So, Nintendo games. Some of the games not made by them but are on their systems can be violent like any other games though.

 

[sXeth]

I know graphic violence is the main thing that sets people off, but I don't know as I'd be giving a 12 year old This War of Mine (Valiant Hearts is presented a little bit more sanitized, for lack of a better term but still kind of heavy subject matter.

Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare basically gives you CoD (or well, its really more TF2/Overwatch (despite preceding Overwatch) all rendered into kid friendly not-killing-actual-human-people style.

 

[Bad Jim]

A few I enjoyed:
The Marvellous Miss Take - you steal things, but no-one gets hurt.
World of Goo - A buildy puzzle game.
Quantum Conundrum - A physics puzzle game
Kerbal Space Program - Could possibly be considered educational, but still fun.

More or less entirely inoffensive and also fun.

 

[wings012]

My parents are very tech-illiterate. So I grew up gaming however I well pleased. Piracy was rampant back in the day, and as a kid you don't think much about spending your allowance on games. It's cheap! Cracking is a thing! Whatevs, roll with it.

So I grew up playing all sorts of nonsense. I played heaps of Fallout 2 when I was like 12. I played shit like Postal 2 in my later teens. I also played non violent stuff like a lot of Sim-games. But the point is, I had unbridled access to most games as long as my PC could run it. I could only play on weekends and holidays and I had to do my homework first. And I grew up fine, granted my adulthood isn't anything to be envious about. I have a job, I haven't got a criminal record.

I just don't believe you should restrict your kids when it comes to stuff like that. Take a step back and observe. Now if they aren't sleeping for days in a row because of games, then you should step in. And it stops being a matter of what they are playing and more your kid having really shitty self awareness and control.

But well, since the parents are already heavily prejudiced I don't believe there's much you can do about it. You can rub those scientific articles about how games can improve eye hand coordination and problem solving skills and help with Alzheimer's or whatever, but you're just going to get a retort about how that guy who gunned up a school played videogames.

Even if you do recommend rather inoffensive non-violent games, there's the whole thing about whether the kids would want to play those games. When I was that age I sure loved murdering shit and blowing stuff up...

I think the best you can do is just have the parents agree to disagree with the kids and as long as their studies or whatever responsibilities aren't affected - let them play their games. Any videogame is more productive than wasting hours on 9gag.