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Indoctrinating The Young As Gamers
Gamers with Jobs has an interesting look at what it's like to indoctrinate the next generation of gamer. From the article: "Now, as I stumble through my fourth decade on this spinning marble in space, it is my great privilege to pass this obsession on to my own son. It is something of a shock to me that my years of gaming can be measured reasonably in terms of percentage of a century. I shudder to think how many productive hours and how much money I have sacrificed to my passion. Instead of dwelling on that point, I pretend that the question doesn't even exist, in much the same way that I occasionally like to pretend the mortgage doesn't exist when a desired game finds its way onto store shelves. And now, already, my own son has begun his own epic sacrifice to the pastime, so that someday he too can struggle in the decision between food and maintaining his subscription to World of Warcraft."
In no time at all, he'll be bagging your favourite childhood games as being unplayable crap.
Kids grow up so fast these days, don't they?
...je'll act like this
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Daddy can I got outside and play? No! You'll stay in the house and play videogames! Why can't you spend all day cooped up in your room like normal kids?
What kind of father is this guy?
When the fruit of my loins is unleashed upon the world, I am ready to raise him properly.
That means starting him out with Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Burgertime, and all the classics. He will move up to the NES, SNES, Genesis, and along up the generations as he gets older. Of course, Number Muncher and other classic educational games will be on tap, too.
Start a kid off with current-gen stuff will only produce another graphics-obsessed drone that will shun anything that isnt 3D and is too soft to handle the occasional hard game that is released by brave studios (FZeroGX, Ninja Gaiden, etc).
Off-topic:
And when he isnt playing the classics, he will be watching Transformers, Thundercats, the original TMNT, and all the other great cartoons that were on when I was a kid. It worries me that kids are growing up these days watching YuGiOh GX and other drivel CN and the other networks are putting out. Sleep in on saturday, kids. We can watch some cartoons on DVD when you get up.
Life? Isn't that like Monopoly but with little pegs you can stick in your car?
Right.
You're better off with a strategic board game, like Chess, Checkers, Go, or something like that.