What will you make your kids play in the future (or now)?

[CriskaBean]

Today i encountered a rather alarming situation whilst at work. Being the game addict/bum i'm a 22 year old who works on a music/dvd/computer game department in a supermarket in my hometown.

So you have the setting in mind, i'm there, you know, lazing around, putting the occasional dvd on the shelf, while reading a game manual out of boredom (i think it was Timeshift... *shudder*), when some kid comes up to me and starts asking me if we have 'The Simpsons Game' for the ps2. We didn't. But he started a conversation about if i played games and what i was into.

So i tell him my life story about the NES and Megaman, going through the SNES and Super Metroid and StarWing (thats what StarFox was called in Europe if you think i'm talking crazy), passing through the glorious N64 years of Turok and Goldeneye to nowadays with the wii and PC gaming. This kid, though listening intently to my history lesson, didn't have a clue about any console before the N64 and Playstation... what kind of an example are parents setting these days?

At one point he even laughed when i mentioned 'Super Mario World' and he tried to correct me by stating "what do you know? its called Mario Galaxy". I just managed to quell the angry demon inside and didn't brutally smack him around the head, well he was just some random kid and i feared irate parent retribution (they'd never understand my reasons). It just got me thinking: "when i have kids they're starting on a NES with Mario 1-3, Zelda, Turtles and Tiny Toons (classic man) with some harsh and healthy doses of Megaman before they even touch a playstation 5 or current Nintendo console"

Do you think this is unfair or am i taking an important stand on the face of future gaming and protecting our past? Oh and i do realise this post makes me sound like a bit of a maniac...

 

[Duck Sandwich]

Well, my parents never made me watch monochrome tv, or 80's martial arts flicks, and I don't think I've turned out any worse for it. Eventually I watched Bloodsport and a few Chuck Norris movies of my own accord, though. In essence, games no different. I started off with a Sega Master System and a Turbo Grafx 16 (had them for as long as I can remember), enjoying Shinobi, Air Zonk, Shockman, Choplifter, Keith Courage in Alpha Zones, and Ghostbusters. Was I really missing out by never playing the Commodore 64 or the Atari?

On a side note, Megaman rocks.

 

[swatmajor1]

I believe that you are on the right track. Being a kid in the mid 90's, I always wanted to know about the backgrounds of any games and consoles I got my little grubby hands on. But these days, kids couldn't give 2 hoots (trying not to swear here) about how games became what they are.

Sure, some of the game I will have my kids play may be different to yours, but I'm starting from Pong, that's right PONG!!! It's fun yet challenging, and is free for anyone who has a thing called the Internet.

But on the other hand, games are for mainly one thing, fun. So while a good history lesson or x (x being the number of games to date) would be good for the next generation of gamers, they should learn on their own, if they choose to.

So, in conclusion, passing on gaming history is in the hands of gaming parents. If you choose to give the Gaming 101 to 999, then fine, I'll be one of them. If you feel that your child should be left alone to discover their own way, that's fine too.

Just be sure that whatever they do, they don't start calling you old for you mentioning a console that is more than 2 years old.

 

[Nordstrom]

CriskaBean, you're hilarious. You sound like a grumpy old man.

(My kids a crazy about Lego Star Wars II and are well on their way to unlocking everything.)

 

[Anarchemitis]

In 10 or so years:
Star Wars will be dead.
Star Fox will be dead.
Tomb Raider will be dead.
Mario [will want to be but] won't be dead. Yet.
People will say "What in the world is a 'Playstation?!'"
Lego won't be fun anymore. [It's already adopting Spongebob, Avatar and Anime. Seriously!]

And I'll still be playing Star Wars Battlefront. Sure, my kids [If I have them, of course] will think I'm lamer than a tripod horse but I won't give a care. The devil himself can pry it from my cold dead fingers.

 

[Girlysprite]

Nah. When my kids get a console, they will get one that features good games at that moment. Nostalgia is overrated.

 

[The Irrelevant Gamer]

You're not a maniac. I also inwardly cringe when kids these days haven't played something I consider a classic, and part of all gamers' collective culture.

That being said, I doubt I'll force my theoretical offspring to play any classics as I'm sure such games will seem incomparably lame to them.

 

[Dreamnuker]

I'm sure that my kids will play Wow, and they'll have to listen my stories about my favorite 1 - 1.8 times... Also i'll force them to play Red Alert 2, Heretic, Bomberman and probably the the best game in whole industry - Mafia - City of the Lost Heaven. Ofcourse they'll call me oldman, but who cares. I realy hope that future games will go back to their roots, where whole industry started...

 

[LainiWeiz]

I thought this was going to be a topic about letting your kids play 15 rated games and such
I don't plan on having kids but I'm not going to expect them to know the history of videogames before I let them play their Piiboxes or whatever

 

[Girlysprite]

And after having been forces to play all those old games, the new youth decides to quit on games, or secretly buy their own console to play when parents are away... So what I really wonder; what i you try to make your kid an old classic, and he/she just doesn't want to, and wants to play the new console instead?

 

[ChrisP.Lettuce]

Honestly? I'm stocking up on used games for my PS2/Xbox/Cube. I currently have around 35 games collectively and have a list of about 50 that I want to get together for the systems combined.

First off, not even I have beaten all the games for the previous gen. that I want to, so I am going to do that before I go balls to the walls with the new gen.

Secondly, at the current price of used games (usually 8 - 35 dollars) there is no more cost effective way to fill up your library of quality games, which aren't hindered by missing what Yahtzee calls "3d graphics up the arse" and "gunbattleslapfight for the PS12".

Then, my offpsring will get to enjoy an extensive library of quality games that have three dimentions. And I don't have to go let the saleperson at EB violate my rectum to get the newest gen.

 

[CriskaBean]

Hmm, what if they didn't want to play the game. Well in that situation i'd never let that situation develope, using this fool proof system. Remember when you were 4 or 5, and you were slowly graduating from the school of colouring books and tranformers? You hadn't seen/touched/or even heard of a computer game. But then one wonderful christmas, a magical grey box with painful control pads appears, and you discover you can run and jump some geeze called 'Mario' through a garden-like realm with weird shaped freaks roaming aimlessly like the undead. Its all freaking amazing!

So thats how i'd do it, i'd try and make sure that when they were mature enough to sit still have give it a spin, a NES would be the first gaming machine they'd come accros. Just because FarCry 4 is around doesn't really mean a 4 year old is going to know about it and its uber sexy water effects. So for a year or so they could rock out to NES music and blast Dr.Wily in the face, the way god intended a childhood to be. Then i guess they can do what the hell they want with their lives, but i'll die a happy chappy knowing they know the horrors of a Blooper death squadron

 

[REDPill357]

The first game my dad introduced me to was Doom. That will probably be the first game I show my kids. That, or the more appropriate Word Rescue.

I just hope the later generations still have computers for gaming. I get tired of kids making fun of me for thinking the computer is a next-gen gaming platform. It's this kind of attitude that may destroy computer gaming in the future. Then we'll all be forced to play with controllers, and miss out on more sophisticated games such as System Shock 2 or Deus Ex.

 

[CriskaBean]

True, but i highly doubt pc gaming will die out because of high powered consoles, pc's are such useful tools. I find it alarming how microsoft seem to be slowly destroying the pc on mouse config by adding 360 pad support to all of its 'games for windows' lineup. That and adding the notion that its 'okay' to pay a monthly fee just to play a game online (halo2 and gears of war). When i added this thread i suppose i meant 'how will you introduce games to your kids?', hmm.

 

[Hey Joe]

I'm not going to make my kids play anything. I'm going to guide them by having discussions on morals and what have you, and hope they make their own choices in life (including which video games to play).

After all, I only want my kids to be two things

1. Happy
2. A good person

But if I were pressed to make my kid play a game I would make them play Grim Fandango

 

[-Javelin-]

On a bit of a tangent (Only a little one)I played computer so much when I was young especially RPG games (final fantasy, chrono trigger etc...) and it's odd to admit but I learnt alot of morals from these games and I think they did a good job of portrating to my young mind what was right and what was wrong and even now i see the influence these stories have had in the choices I have to make.

So i think i'll encourage my future mini me's to game.

 

[Girlysprite]

I think I wouldnt encourage playing before my kids are about 7 years old. Giving them an old console as the first machine isn't a bad idea really.

 

[sammyfreak]

I grew up not playing alot of games. Eventualy there were the classics like Zelda, Donkey Kong and Mario but that period dident last long for me. Heroes 3 of Might and Magic and the sims were suitable bridges into the world of gaming for me.

Ill probably get old classics for any potential children, but odds are that they will want new ones.

 

[Ciarog]

Lego won't be fun anymore. [It's already adopting Spongebob, Avatar and Anime. Seriously!]

Child marketing at it's finest. *pukes*

Just stick with the classics and limit their TV exposure and they'll be fine. I still often run into kids that are just as content to play with yard chickens and leftover sawmill blocks as I was back when I was little.

So that's probably what my kids will start off playing with, with all the electronic junk coming along only if we're not all back to living in abject poverty.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

If I ever have kids, they will likely play a good balance. For instance, my younger brother (7 years old) equally enjoys Guitar Hero and Burnout along with Super Mario World and Megaman 2.