Anyone else guilty of this?
Submitted 8 months ago by The_Picard_Maneuver@piefed.world to retrogaming@lemmy.world
https://media.piefed.world/posts/Xs/xq/Xsxq7RdxZQxkIv7.jpg
Comments
Kolanaki@pawb.social 8 months ago
tehmics@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Introducing kids to old games is great, but restricting them from experiencing their own generations culture, not so much
blargh513@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Also, forcing your kids to play your favorite old games assumes that your games were the best games.
They were fun in their day, but time moves on. Assuming that everything since you formed your opinions is inferior is some big boomer energy.
Let them find their own fun with their friends on their terms. Making your kids play your old crap with you is kinda sad.
I think Minecraft is boring as hell and I’m not gonna play it, but I’m not going to force my kids to play mega man 2 instead.
TimeNaan@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Except when that culture is full of predatory shit like microtransactions
EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
Yeah, kids shouldn’t be allowed to play Undertale, Armored Core 6, Baldur’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, Final Fantasy XVI, Hollow Knight, or Stardew Valley.
They’ll play shovelware and like it, just like we did!
There are plenty of great games today and horrible games from when we grew up (E.T. anyone?), the trick is to filter the good from the bad and show them what to watch out for.
AeonFelis@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Nah… it’s okay. She won’t be out of touch. Nintendo is going to release these games for the Switch 2 for $80.
carotte@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
I think the trick is to just let kids play what they want
as a kid I grew up with basically every generation of nintendo consoles up to the Wii U, as well as a PC (well, a mac really but whatever) and I turned out fine
i missed out on some of the big sensations of the moment, like fortnite or COD, but tbh I didn’t care, these games never interested me and they still don’t
Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
I think the shared experience there is gaining most of your social interactions through an video game for a period of time during childhood. Its not always the same game and it doesnt even have to be online, but its the shared focal point among a group of people. Sort of like a coffee shop or park.
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
This one dad wrote an article about introducing his kid to retro gaming, starting with the old Atari console and progressing through newer generations every few months.
medium.com/…/playing-with-my-son-e5226ff0a7c3
(some of the image links are broken on the original article so here’s an archive link)
Deebster@infosec.pub 8 months ago
A great read, thanks. I think you have posted this as a full post to this sub (perhaps repost it on a quiet day).
jsomae@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
This is the responsible way to raise a child on video games IMO. Modern games have predatory practices like microtransactions.
skisnow@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
The look on her face says everything to me though.
lol, it wasn’t even attempting to be a good photoshop. Maybe your screen needs cleaning?
jsomae@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
wow I got completely fooled hahaha
gens@programming.dev 8 months ago
Plenty of fun normal games, especially indie games.
VitoRobles@lemmy.today 8 months ago
Only if you teach them. My son is playing casual games on Steam and emulated games.
While my son’s friends were talking about new Call of Duty/Fortnite updates. And they’re like 8yos.
jaschen306@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Jokes on them. I hack games that have micro transactions and DLCs and make them entirely free. Even games I have paid for. My child hasn’t seen an ad or a micro transaction yet.
burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
Can you elaborate a bit more on that? Most of the games with dlc or microtransaction stuff that I play have it all verified with some sort of online system (steam, mostly). What games are you hacking, and how?
Dozzi92@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Well, what about this: Early exposure to the shithead practices of modern gaming can enable children to more easily identify what’s good and what’s just trying to take money from them.
I dunno.
jsomae@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
yeah the problem is this doesn’t line up with the horror stories I’ve personally witnessed. Sudden, massive credit card charges. The problem can occur when kids aren’t spending their own money, they’re using their parents’, some way some how.
Regardless, kids are already surrounded by ads in every corner of life trying to convince them they need XYZ in exchange for money. I’d rather work to make the kid’s environment less consumerist, to give them a vision of how life could be.
GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
My kids didn’t see an ad connected to videos until the youngest was about 7 (outside of a movie theater, at least). When they first saw them, they were flabbergasted about what they were or why people would just sit there watching them, and absolutely refuse to put up with them. I’d say they are better off seeing how things could be, so when they see how things are now they recognize how utter shit it is.
tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
You could argue the other way around - growing up with decent and non-predatory practices makes you less tolerant of when companies try to extort you because you already know what “good” looks like.
I’m sure the corpos would love nothing more than kids getting exposed to predatory practices from a young age so they grow up feeling those things are acceptable and normal.
Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
The problem is that kids dont make or have money. Its like burning their hand the first time, they need to attempt to pay for their own lives fully at least once to really understand it. I think its fair to restrict these types of things to mature rated games as a general rule.
dom@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Most kids aren’t discerning about those kinds of things.
BandDad@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
We have a whole retro game station complete with CRT that they can play. They love Mario, Duck Hunt, some of the other games and are now gravitating to Gameboy, SNES and PS One. They like the Switch too, but usually go for the older stuff first.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Yeah, because the 90s were awesome. Seriously. It’s where all the cool stuff happened. Then 9/11 happened. And everything has sucked since.
Deathray5@lemmynsfw.com 8 months ago
MOO2 from my dad and original Xcom games
sibachian@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
i caught my 5yo playing golden eye the other day and i was not disappointed!
VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
Good. May they learn to never preorder.
Call_Me_Maple@lemmy.world 8 months ago
This will be me when I have children and I am not sorry.
I’ll help them build that foundational understanding of what games were and then if they still wanna play the modern bs, they can.
splashgarden@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
the first time i ever played video games was on a ps1… in 2009. we didn’t have a lot of money back then and all we had was my dad’s old playstation. he mostly played resident evil and similar games before he had kids; you can’t give preschoolers resident evil unless you want to traumatize them, so i spent hours playing gran turismo and a handful of arcade games on that thing until we got a wii in 2011. this began a trend of our family waiting until the end of a console’s life cycle to purchase it until i got old enough to buy my own consoles. now my parents wonder why i spend my money on old games instead of buying new ones…
osbo9991@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Similar story here, just with my dad’s SNES around that same time. Mainly played link to the past, as it was the only game we had for a bit, but we bought a couple others (super Mario world, where in the world is Carmen San Diego, ms pac man) on eBay later on. Both myself and my dad’s old save states are still on the cartridge last I checked.
Then we got a Wii around 2013 when my uncle was upgrading to Wii U, we got a PS2 slim from my grandparents (to play DDR with these terrible dance pads we never ended up using much), and I got a 3ds xl for my (12th?) birthday. That 3ds was the only console I got when it was even remotely new, and I have moved on to pc games ever since (at least for newer titles). My brother has continued collecting retro games, and has added an Atari 2600, a sega genesis, and my dad’s NES to the collection. Currently, the Wii, PS2, and 3DS have been softmodded and are still used fairly regularly.
It’s probably affected my taste in video games too - I get mostly old stuff or indie titles.
burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
I feel ya. I scraped the money together to pay for half of a nintendo 64 for my christmas gift around 2001. I bought a used PS2 in 2017. Garage sales are great for finding a system with a lot to got with it.
Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world 8 months ago
My favorite part of the PSP/PS3 era was that they made so many direct ports of PS1 games on the digital store. So I got to experience a lot of old games I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise for dirt cheap.
Plus I could take them on the go and swap my save files easily with my PSP.
TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 8 months ago
There are people who grew up with game but are well rounded and sociable. It depends entirely on the person and the type of environment they grew up in.
brsrklf@jlai.lu 8 months ago
I don’t think that’s what the image is suggesting. More like the kid might be culturally “out of touch” with their generation’s gaming because they play old games instead.
Like, you know, everyone’s talking about Fortnite and Brawl Stars and whatever mobile game is trending right now and they’re like, yesterday I got Fierce Deity in Majora’s Mask.
It’s a bit silly a concern honestly. They’ll take whatever they like in the end, and if that makes them the weird kid, well, that’s how they are, and they’ll survive. Been there, done that.
rebelsimile@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Honestly this is how my parents(‘ generation) got me into gaming, pre-NES, because I was playing their games on Atari and Intellivision. I don’t know if it was the NES’s marketing or what that made people associate video games = for kids, but they were all in their 20s at the time and they had a blast with that stuff
tranes@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
Lmao of course you’re a gamer. Makes sense considering the negative IQ
rebelsimile@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
if only we could all be big brains like you tranes.
RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.com 8 months ago
Duh, fun is only for children. Adults must be productive to produce profit.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 8 months ago
we would ALL sit around and play mario on sunday nights. mom and dad too when they were home. TF is this gaming is just kids shit
taiyang@lemmy.world 8 months ago
My 3yos two favorite games are Mario 64 and Rhythm Heaven (in literally any form, but 3ds most approachable). The latter is especially funny that the 1yo is getting in on the references; “Wabba dubba dubba, that true?” and they both go “Un.” Might be a Halloween costume in the making.
And don’t get her started on those Rock and Roll frogs.
LiveLM@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
That’s amazing lol
ICastFist@programming.dev 8 months ago
those Rock and Roll frogs.
Battletoads?
The_Picard_Maneuver@piefed.world 8 months ago
I'm not familiar with Rhythm Heaven, but Mario 64 (and Sunshine) has been a big hit in our house too.
taiyang@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The simplicity of the mini games make Rhythm Heaven easy to understand, mostly pushing A or B with proper timing. Mario 64 by contrast they’re just excited to find butterflies or make it to a door, moving and jumping at the same time is more hand eye coordination than my 3yo has atm.
tunetardis@piefed.ca 8 months ago
I think Guitar Hero was a good investment for my kids, as they came to love all the classics I grew up on.
Flamekebab@piefed.social 8 months ago
Ooh, I hope that works for my daughter when she's old enough for it to be relevant. I've got a wall of instruments - some real, some game controllers, and some combination game/MIDI controllers.
LiveLM@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
Playing the crap out of Guitar Hero with my friends ages ago is one of my most cherished memories, your daughter is in for a treat.
It could also serve as a cool way to bridge past and present since Fortnite now has a GH gamemode, made by the original creators of GH and Rockbandksigley@lemmy.world 8 months ago
You’re in for a fun evening. Let her pick up a peripheral and she might stick with it long enough to actually learn the real thing. That’s how Rock Band drums got me playing a real kit.
CubitOom@infosec.pub 8 months ago
One thing about old games (pre n64), is that you don’t have to worry about controlling the camera. Younger kids like 5 or so have a hard time enough time timing button presses so making them also have to figure out how to control the camera/is very frustrating for them. Isometric, top down, and point and clicks work best for younger kids.
I also think the super Nintendo controller is the best for children and people with small hands. 8bitdo makes a good modern one with more buttons and triggers so you can play modern games.
The_Picard_Maneuver@piefed.world 8 months ago
I was thinking about picking that controller up. My 3 y/o has been using a pro controller, and it seems too big.
someguy3@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Games back then were made to be games. Games now are made to be addicting. I think it’s a good idea to stick to the old school games for as long as possible.
devolution@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Spiderman 2: I solely play as Peter Parker. My daughter solely plays as Miles Morales. I wish the game was 2 player.
Minecraft: my daughter watches the YouTube videos yet somehow I’m the one who got us diamond armor. Go figure.
Super Mario Odyssey: She always makes me Mario and she’s a good cappy.
She’s not even remotely athletic but she’s brainy and is pretty popular with her friends. Go figure.
shneancy@lemmy.world 8 months ago
meh, maybe one AAA game a year is worth buying, old or indie games are way better
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
I was trying to look to see what AAA games come out in 2025, and I think I saw one most parents would agree is fine for younger kids. Maybe the lists I’m finding are aimed at me though.
Gears of War, Ninja Gaiden, Death Stranding, GTA 6, Doom, Assasins Creed, Metal Gear Solid, Elden Ring, Ghost of Yotel, Borderlands, Mafia, Dying Light, Silent Hill and
Sonic Racing.
So depending on the parents I would say 13 AAA Games for 10+ year olds, and 1 for Younger than 10 year olds.
RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Most of the people buying and playing video games are over the age of 16. Since M-rated games sell the most, it’s not that surprising to see so many new M-rated games.
BurntWits@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Elden Ring isn’t overly gore-y or anything (though some cutscenes could be considered a bit much for children), but I have a feeling most children trying to play it would find it way too frustrating and difficult and put it down. I’m of the opinion that Elden Ring is only as hard as you make it, but that’s assuming you’re somewhat decent or comfortable playing video games. I could give my wife the most over powered character possible but she wouldn’t be able to beat Margit (first real boss of the game for most people) because she would struggle to even control the character properly. If you’re giving the game to a kid under 10, they probably only have a few years of gaming knowledge and likely won’t be proficient enough in general gaming knowledge to git gud. That’s just my opinion though, I may be way off.
Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 8 months ago
Not being in the average isn’t necessarily bad, just a bit different. And intolerant jerks will find you being different no matter how much the same you are to them.
pjwestin@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Yeah, if she plays an N64, she won’t be exposed to any popular series from today, and will instead play things like Mario Kart, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Smash Bros., and Pokémon.
silasmariner@programming.dev 8 months ago
Yeah but (with the exception of Pokémon) the graphics have moved on a bit
Laser@feddit.org 8 months ago
Stop this slander
The N64 Pokémon games aren’t that bad
RejZoR@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
I got Commodore C128 as my first computer when rest of the world was solidly running Pentiums. That had to be around 1997 or something. That might explain my “acquired” taste in games.
SlippiHUD@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I feel this is exactly the same as boomers who raised thier kids on exclusively 70 and 80s “classic” rock.
protist@mander.xyz 8 months ago
Shit, my parents were boomers and raised me on 50s and 60s music. The oldest boomers would’ve been 35 in 1980
SlippiHUD@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The youngest boomers were born in 1964, so they’d be in thier late 20s at the end of the 80’s. Which were my parents.
I also dont think there’s anything wrong with exposing your kids to older media, which was my point. Your kids will seek out new media without you, so giving them a foundation of things that came before helps expand thier knowledge base.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Turns on classic rock station and Green Day is playing. Oh… Huh, yeah I’m not sure I’m ready for this, finds new channel.
The_Picard_Maneuver@piefed.world 8 months ago
I do have a fondness for old rock/metal from that era too and am pretty happy with it, so maybe that's a green light!
Cooljimy84@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Gaming peaked with the Wii, LOL
Flamekebab@piefed.social 8 months ago
I had a chipped Wii during uni and so we (flatmates + me) downloaded and burned a vast ocean of Wii games.
I don't really see it as the peak of gaming. There's a few good games, like SMG 1 & 2, but I'd be hard pressed to name more than ten exclusives worth revisiting. So much shovelware and low quality ports.
splashgarden@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
i’m totally biased because i grew up in that era, but it’s my favorite console and i’m currently combing through my backlog of wii games i’ve bought over the years or never beat as a kid. sooo many hidden gems! it’s so cheap to find good games for, it’s a great beginner console
TheEntity@lemmy.world 8 months ago
That’s a weird way to spell “Super Nintendo”.
NinePeedles@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
That’s a weird way to spell “Nintendo Entertainment System”.
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Counterpoint:
The reason they will be out of touch is that they will have better impulse control and better spending habits than kids raised on modern games.
So basically, actual ‘nerds’ are rasing another generation of ‘nerds’, except this time, nerds 2.0 will probably actually be more socially intelligent than the brain dead zombies being raised on fornite, roblox and tiktok, who have negative attention spans and cannot fathom the concept of doing any actual thought-work, when chatgpt can just do their homework for them.
They’ll also be more tech savvy, like being exposed to or having to learn at least some of how emulation works, which kinda de facto makes you understand things like a file structure, which an increasing number of kids (now adults too) raised on modern mobile UIs… have no clue about.
Oh, they’ll also likely just be generally more literate.
lolrightythen@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Nerds v Normies?
With respect
azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Apples and oranges.
'90s equivalent to “them goshdang tiktoks and fortnites” isn’t Half-Life and Ocarina of Time, it’s Television. The Simpsons or DBZ. Or those awful “classic” animated shows from the '80s that were designed from the ground up to be toy ads. “Impulse control” my ass, most of y’all were glued up to the TV screen like a moth to a lamp and only got consumption impulses out of it. Calling young people “brain dead zombies” is such an “old man yells at cloud” moment, look at yourself.
There’s more culture than ever being created now thanks to the incredibly lower barrier to entry. There are more incredible microtransaction-less indie games made in the last 10 years than the exhaustive library of most gaming consoles back then. Celeste, Outer Wilds, Expedition 33, Baldur’s Gate 3, Tunic…
The existence of slop is a constant across generations, and clinging to an idealized past is such a foolish endeavor, and will cause you to lose out on so much relevant cultural discourse happening right now. How many classic video games from the '90s might a queer kid growing up nowadays look up to? How many?? How many had, oh, I don’t know, a goddamn female protagonist? And don’t say that Samus counts. What a lame-ass culture to let our daughters grow up in.
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
I mean, as a 90s kid, and tech dork… yeah, I largely did drop TV almost entirely, in favor of console and pc gaming, and exploring the early public internet on a 56k modem.
I would imagine most tech dorks of the era did as well?
Like, as soon as I learned how to block ads on the internet, then later on youtube, as well as uh, obtain audio visual media without cost… I did that regularly, never looked back, began to actually not be able to stand TV due to ads everywhere all the time.
And yep, I am still calling anyone who watches ads for anything, anyone who buys into incredibly exploitative business models that waste your time, money, or both, yep, I’ve been calling them idiot consumer zombies since the 90s, consistently.
You are right that there are more non bs indie games now. That is great! That is good.
Are more games more diverse now?
Yes! Also good.
… But I’ve had basically the same opinions on all this since the 90s, I am not rembering an idealized past, I am one of the nerds thats been this way the whole damn time.
They call Gen Z the digital native generation, but this omits the ubernerd Millenials such as myself (and others from other generations) who forged the way, who were early adopters from a young age, who were digital visionaries that forged the path before the ecosystems got to be more user friendly, more accessible, more mainstream.
Like uh, without potentially doxxing myself, of those indie games you list?
Yeah, I know a few people on one of those game’s dev teams, personally, met them online when I was first like like 13, back when multiplayer games had server browsers with private custom servers, some of those also had their own websites and forums, all we had for voice comms was ventrilo… I met these people way back, have regularly voice chatted and gamed with them for… 20 years?
I myself have been modding (as in making mods) for that long as well, I literally taught myself how to code so that I could do it, before I got out of high school, before any high school offered coding classes, before Adobe bought out Macromedia, and flash games on Newgrounds were all the rage.
Not to try to gatekeep nerddom with some kind of official checklist you have to measure up against, but I think you are considerably underestimating the potential nerdiness of a lot of really dedicated nerds from that era, and thus writing them off as ‘old men yelling at clouds’… when we’ve been yelling at those same clouds since we were kids, then we went on to actually implement the changes we deemed necessary, as best as we could when up against the corporate and financial behemoths constructed by Boomers.
brsrklf@jlai.lu 8 months ago
“Cool” uncle (citation needed), did expose kids to games released 2 to 3 decades before their time occasionally.
I was a bit surprised that even rough 8-bit sprite graphics can capture their interest. An 8 year old trying to make sense of the pixelly mess that’s a Metroid creature sprite can be funny.
cRazi_man@europe.pub 8 months ago
Shit this is what I’m doing. My kids are nuts about the niche indie games I play. My son has crazy good skills for Super Meat Boy and Super Hexagon.
zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
I feel called out
RobotZap10000@feddit.nl 8 months ago
I don’t think that you need to put your emoticons in a code block, you can just use escapes (backslashes) instead!
>.>
<.<
You can see exactly how I did it with the “view source” button in the web version of Lemmy.
zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 months ago
Thanks for the tip, I did the code block as a quick edit because I knew it would at least work.
burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
Yeah, but his first greater than shows up as blue for me, so that’s cool and all.