Video games for your children.

[thereverend7]

I was thinking earlier today about how I'm facing a point in my life where moving out of my house, getting an apartment, and marrying the girl I've been dating for 8 months (im 20 years old and at this point marrying her isn't totally out of the question) and possibly raising a family are all of is in my distant/fairly close future.

Video games have been not just my hobby, but my passion for as long as I have memory of being alive. My mom tells me stories about how when I was 1 or 2ish years old, i would beat the controller against my chest and get excited when the "Little man" (As I called it) did something on the screen. from then on it was hours upon hours of time spent into video games. NES, SNES, N64, Playstation, Gameboy (all of them) Xbox, PC. Games of all shapes and sizes and although there have been bad moments i will truly cherish all of my video game memories for as long as I live. I want to grow up with it. continue it as a hobby if i have to for my job. but never quit the biggest part of my life (past my girlfriend

All of this, every word has lead up to this. the point. what games would I want my kids to play? I want to pass this onto my children, at least as an option for a hobby. I want them to enjoy the games I enjoy (and of course if they get even half as obsessed with them as I have they will have all the "current games" for the time.

But what should they play? Mario? Castlevania? Break their little minds with precision timing and very little room for error? or... what? I thought long and hard about it and I think it would have to be Pokemon. maybe some easy video games just to get them into the idea of it and to introduce it as a hobby but the first real, full fledged game they sit down and play though I want to bep okemon. its simple enough in concept and easy at first to master: and then slowly and slowly perfect. you can also put hours and hours into it so they would fall in love with video games forever.

Thus, I have lead my kin onto a better life.

So, Escapist, what games would you want your children (weather they exist at this point or not) to play as their first memory of gaming?

 

[Leg End]

Um... Metal Gear Solid or Pokemon Gold.

Depends. I always wanted to see my daughter snap her first neck.

[sub]She'll do it like a badass.[/sub]

But, Pokemon Gold is one of the greatest games ever as well.

Eh, she would choose.

It would probably be the original Super Mario Bros.

 

[Wintermoot]

Mario (any) or Pokemon (any) something classic

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

Hopefully your kids will be around for a long while, so different games are going to be appropriate at different points. Start out with simple things and things you liked - Mario, Kirby, and the like. The simpler the better. The only problem being that many of these games are excruciatingly difficult, so getting something that's colourful and fun in addition to being simple is also a good idea. A game like Pokemon, however, is going to be too complex until adolescence at least.

That said, personally, I wouldn't press the matter. If you want to share these things with your kids, you have to let them come into it on their own, let it be their own discovery. If they see you doing it and they see games around, they'll naturally want to get involved. Otherwise you run the risk of it being "that thing my parents wanted me to like". Your job is one of leaving the games on a low enough shelf that the kid can find them, not putting the games right into their hands. You can put certain games onto that shelf, but the kid has the final say in what they like.

Some further unsolicited advice: I've noticed that it's quite easy for gamer parents to get into the habit of giving kids things they're not ready for, both in terms of mechanical complexity and moral complexity. The mechanical complexity is just an issue of forgetting that gaming is, in many respects, a skill like any other that can take serious practice. That said, forgetting this can lead to some serious frustration on the part of the kid. As for the maturity problem, I think this is an outgrowth of the general "video games don't make you bad people" reflex that we tend to have as gamers (and for good reason). But it's always good to remember that media does have a big impact on kids. They're more resilient and intelligent than society usually gives them credit for, but they're also very, very impressionable. So remember that games that are appropriate for you, even though you will surely wish to share them, might not be appropriate for a kid and that it might be more responsible to err on the side of caution, knowing that this tendency exists.

 

[Sacman]

Manhunt, what else?

Seriously though... probably Pokemon or Super Mario Bros... they we're really my first aside from watching my dad play Half Life and System Shock on his PC...<.<

 

[minespatch]

Diner Dash. Gives a challenge and continually gets faster if playing the timeless mode which is pretty much full of depth when one is into it.

 

[ProGrasTiNation]

Angry Birds,microbot,scrbblenauts,80% of nintendo games,pc learning games...endless lineup for kids

 

[Scarim Coral]

Depend how old my child is when I think he/she is ready to play a video game. I would probably buy a suitable game in that present day for him/her to play. I will also get hold of either mario, LoZ or other kid friendly games.

 

[StormShaun]

Dead Space 2......jk problerly Minecraft or the original Super Mario Bros and get her a DS and train her to be a awesome gamer

 

[Zeema]

Dead Space 2......jk problerly Minecraft or the original Super Mario Bros and get her a DS and train her to be a awesome gamer

No way Dead Space is good for kids

wink wink nudge nudge

 

[Isla]

Well not viva piñata the site of fluffy candy animals killing other fluffy candy animals will be too much for a child to take.

 

[Extragorey]

Seriously, people. Portal. Hands-down.
Not violent, and it really gets the player thinking in creative ways.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

Little Big Planet, Mario, Pokemon, FF9, hell thinking about it Wind Waker is pretty kid friendly too.

 

[morganpony2]

The key is giving your children a bit of credit. Even if they did end up playing a scary game waaay too early it probably won't have that big an impact.

Also Harvest Moon.

 

[Matrixbeast]

Marvel Vs Capcom 3.
Just don't let them use Felicia.