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Simple answer to that question: To teach children how to break down a process. I learned programming concepts before I learned about other things. Coding CAN teach analytical skills if people don't just copy and paste. Of course when I learned programming from Logo, Basic and Pascal you couldn't use the Internet to look everything up. Just had to try and break down the problem. I've taught children as young as 6 programming concerts and others are trying to teach the basic concepts at a younger age, like a game, which I think is rather brilliant. you can teach programming through board games.

https://www.kickstarter.com/pr...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... (yes. believe it or not it CAN teach pattern recognition which is good for programming and other things)
http://home.bloxelsbuilder.com...
http://codemonkeyplanet.com/ (this one I haven't tired but it looks FUN
A simple answer besides giving more ideas of how, is because you don't have to be a math wiz to be a great programming. It's about problem solving. I've always seen it as a a MacGyver type of affair: see the problem use what you have, make it work. Math can help, but not essential. Problem solving skills and being able to break a task down is THE most important part of programming, and that children should be developing as fast as they can for everyday life.

Oh, for video games that teach programming:

https://codecombat.com/
https://checkio.org/
https://vim-adventures.com/
http://www.cyber-dojo.org/
https://lightbot.com/
http://importantlittlegames.co...
https://www.gog.com/game/space...
https://www.gog.com/game/human...
http://www.machineers.com/#_=_
http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/pro... (this is more for making RPG games rather than a game, but students from 11+ seem to like it, I specifically link to the "XP" version because the others seemed less intuitive for students)

For aspiring writers to do their craft and do/learn programming:

https://renpy.org/ (specifically for graphic novels, the rest are all text only)
http://textadventures.co.uk/sq...
http://textadventures.co.uk/qu...
http://inform7.com/ (for zork fans especially)
http://www.tads.org/
https://twinery.org/

I've used many of these to help in teaching programming to children of various ages. Hope you all find this list useful.

I might be going to Anime Boston this year, I'll have to check it out. I hope they get some copies printed in the original Japanese, I'd love to buy them. This whole thing needs more of a hook though. Here's two ideas that would go a long way I think:

1. Use Ren'Py to make a game that puts users in the middle of this story, interacting more directly with the characters and asking their own questions about Ubuntu. The best part is, with a click of a button, the game can be distributed for Linux, Windows, and MacOS.
2. Throw some character wallpapers and desktop themes on an 'event-only' Ubuntu LiveCD with a custom splashscreen and stuff.

Thousands of dollars spent on little plastic anime girlies and ero 'hug pillow' covers would seem to speak otherwise, but practicality and usefulness are big with otaku culture. Highlighting certain capabilities of linux would help too. For instance, things like graphics apps, game development with Ren'Py, and story/comic/game writing and asset management with celtx. Also the fact that Linux will run on just about anything specs-wise.

I might be going to Anime Boston this year, I'll have to check it out. I hope they get some copies printed in the original Japanese, I'd love to buy them. This whole thing needs more of a hook though. Here's two ideas that would go a long way I think:

1. Use Ren'Py to make a game that puts users in the middle of this story, interacting more directly with the characters and asking their own questions about Ubuntu. The best part is, with a click of a button, the game can be distributed for Linux, Windows, and MacOS.
2. Throw some character wallpapers and desktop themes on an 'event-only' Ubuntu LiveCD with a custom splashscreen and stuff.

Thousands of dollars spent on little plastic anime girlies and ero 'hug pillow' covers would seem to speak otherwise, but practicality and usefulness are big with otaku culture. Highlighting certain capabilities of linux would help too. For instance, things like graphics apps, game development with Ren'Py, and story/comic/game writing and asset management with celtx. Also the fact that Linux will run on just about anything specs-wise.

Ren'Py is pretty basic (the "Py" is for python). I'd rate it as slightly better than clicking through an Impress presentation. But the documentation seems English enough to me, and there's even a simple and rather silly demo game for you to get a feel of the game engine features (or lack thereof). Official packages for Debian and Ubuntu are available for point-and-click installation via synaptic.

Alongside the IF community, there is also a small community making English-language Japanese-style visual novels. You can download some of our work from http://www.renai.us/. Many of these games were created using my open-source visual novel engine, Ren'Py, available from http://www.renpy.org./

Note that there's the Blade Engine and Ren'Py for those who want to make these things.

I'm struggling to figure out how important the graphics and interactivity are, having played a few of these things and having writing but not artistic skill. The most visually impressive "VN" game I saw ("Ori, Ochi, Onoe," sic) had me clicking hundreds of times to advance the text and making only a few, apparently trivial decisions. How can we set the audience's expectations so that they don't think they're playing an FPS game and get frustrated, but still not have the gameplay consist of clicking the equivalent of "next line of dialogue please" over and over?