Ask Slashdot: Best Linux Game For Young Kids?

First time accepted submitter pseudorand writes "I have a 3 year old that I've so far kept away from TV and computers. I met a gamer who has a 1 year old that plays xbox (probably better than I do). I believe kids should experience the real world first, but computers will obviously be a basic job still for the foreseeable future and I'm afraid I'm letting my kid fall behind. I'd like to responsibly introduce my son to computers so he can start developing hard-eye coordination, typing skills and learning UI concepts. What's the best (Linux, of course) game to get a kid started with? Shoot-em-up's are obviously out, but I'm more concerned with something that will help him understand how to interact with a mouse, keyboard and screen and hold his attention rather than something 'educational' because there's plenty of (probably more effective) ways to teach math, reading, etc. that don't involve a computer. So far I've tried Tux Racer, which held his attention for 10 minutes or so. He doesn't quite get pressing multiple keys simultaneously yet."

Comments

nethack

[neo8750]

nethack or if you can find rouge both great games from my childhood

Re:nethack

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

Roguelikes will teach you your ABC too, great for a young kid

All kidding aside, Angband is one of the best games I've ever played to date still. After about 1000 tries, I did an ironman noupstairs win.

The learning curve is moderate to learn all the keystrokes and commands, but the game itself is really indepth and pure fun if you know what depths to get your resists. Make sure you download a version of Angband that has autosquelch in it. The guy who wrote autosquelch did it mostly out of a kind gesture for me! It shows you how cool Open Source guys can be. I wish I had his name, but I don't because I lost that data with a hard drive crash. I thought it was Dr. Andrew White, but Angband's page is saying: Dave Blackston.

I actually encountered something REALLY cool in Zangband once. I charmed some monsters who were spawning and polymorphing themselves. So half the dungeon was a bunch of monsters I owned, and the other half was a bunch of monsters that spawned as enemies. It was like one giant war around me. I have been making video games on my own, on the off chance I can recreate the scene, because it is incredibly... interesting.

Of course Angband's learning curve is about too much for anyone under 9. But if you've never played it, you can find it Here. It is the predecessor to games like Torchlight. Compared to Nethack, you actually do a lot more hack and slash in Angband because you're fighting tons of monsters. If you want ez mode imo, go half-troll/warrior.

Re:nethack

[sadness203]

Nothing like cannibalism, rotten corpses and laying naked with succubus (or incubus) to help a child grow up.

Don't give him a game

[Anonymous Coward]

Jesus, you're thinking of giving a kid a game that early? On linux too? Do you want him to grow up without a chance in hell of being able to speak to Women? How about you just let him shit his pants and play with wooden bricks? Looking forwards to your next post - "Which beers should I introduce my 12 year old to?"

Re:Don't give him a game

[The123king]

Beers to a 12YO? I've been drinking since the age of 5! And it hasn't killed any brain cells off yet!! Ooooh, something shiny!

Re:Don't give him a game

[Baloroth]

Jesus, you're thinking of giving a kid a game that early? On linux too? Do you want him to grow up without a chance in hell of being able to speak to Women? How about you just let him shit his pants and play with wooden bricks? Looking forwards to your next post - "Which beers should I introduce my 12 year old to?"

Letting children play with video games is pretty standard, now-a-days. Most often, simple smartphone games and whatnot rather than Linux games, but not at all uncommon. It's a good way to improve hand-eye coordination and brain development. Not being able to speak to women is pretty much unrelated, outside of the fact that a lot of people who can't do so in the first place gravitate towards computers and games, on account of the fact that they don't involved the possibility of messing up some social convention they are often unable to grasp. But playing games doesn't mean you won't or can't develop such skills, it's more that people who don't have those skills in the first place go towards gaming and computers in general. Don't confuse cause and effect.

And for that matter, 12 is a bit young for alcohol, but 14-15 is a good time to introduce them to small quantities (soft liquor, mind you, beer or wine). Otherwise, when they leave supervision around alcohol for the first time they'll likely overindulge, on account of a lack of experience. If they've been drinking on moderation for several years, that is a lot less likely.

Re:Don't give him a game

[Anonymous Coward]

Technically speaking, that is ALL that life is about..

Re:Don't give him a game

[Lumpy]

I found that kids like the lighter beers, at least that is what I liked when I was 12-14. And it's perfectly normal to let a 12 year old drink a little beer and a little wine. Only a wierd society would keep it from kids and young adults until they are 21.

I grew up German, there was wine at the table for all of us. and I cultivated a love of Apfelwein at an early age thanks to dad and grandpa. It's also why when my friends were all drinking the crap from budwiser and getting drunk at 16, I was enjoying a Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier and smart enough to not drink 24 of them and then puke all over the place.

Why do the radical puritans still control the laws here in the USA?

GCompris

[Dozy Lizard]

For a 3 yr old, GCompris is hard to beat.

Re:GCompris

[HoldmyCauls]

Seconded. Married to a teacher who is now running daycare for some friends' kids so she can stay home with ours. I'm a tech for local catholic schools whose teachers and staff can't deal with Linux though I myself have been a user for more than a decade.

We have acquired some older P4 machines and I have one slightly newer one that I set up as an Edubuntu LTSP server. The older ones NetBoot from it.

Point is, my 3-yr-old and her friends between 3 and 4 love Gcompris, and my wife thinks it's incredible. Connect-the-dots, memory, typing blaster and even a simple mouse-learning game where one wipes translucent bricks away to reveal a fun animal picture. It gets used for maybe an hour total per day, so it's a fun reward for good behavior and a pastime while the babies need feeding or lunch prepared or laundry done, not a mindless zombie creator. Compare the activities with what's playing on the Disney or nick channels and you can easily see which is better for a developing mind. Most activities are nearly if not entirely on par with the sensory and craft activities my wife plans with the kids, though visits to the rec center are a nice break from monotony, and they also attend a nursery school 2 days a week. Nice days are also used well with play on the swings and trampoline. I'm just saying by way of comparison for the benefit of those commenters who will say, "why stick your kid in front of a screen?" As though life is binary.

Re:GCompris

[xarma]

As the author of GCompris, I have to agree. By the way, a little link would help : http://gcompris.net/

SnapMaps

[retroworks]

My kids know three languages I2/3 of 3 kids have 3 fluent, the third has 2 fluent and is starting 3rd). But that's nothing compared to their geography. The Snap Maps game was awesome, I play it myself. http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-geography-map-snap-usa/map-snap-Africa.html

Several Options

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you looked into Edubuntu (http://www.edubuntu.org/), Qimo (http://www.qimo4kids.com/) or Foresight Linux Kids Edition (http://www.foresightlinux.org)? While they aren't games, they are distributions designed for kids with pre-installed applications and games for ages 3 and up.

Ri-li

[Dennis Sheil]

Ri-li is a game very young children might enjoy. It has a toy train running around the track, and there's not much to do - just click the button to switch the train tracks if you think it might crash. It has lots of motion and train noises, and is simple. I have heard from more than one parent that their child really enjoys playing it.

A couple good options

[Anonymous Coward]

I started the grandkids off with the Childsplay http://childsplay.sourceforge.net/ and Gcompris http://gcompris.net/-en- educational games collections as well at Tux Math and Paint http://tux4kids.alioth.debian.org They all are in the OpenSuse repositories or could fool with Quimo http://www.qimo4kids.com/ as a live CD or as a dedicated install.

I found that having two mice connected was a big help in getting them started so I could show them what to do without having to take their mouse away.

Re:You are making the problem worse

[mathew42]

By choosing linux, you expose the child to a different way of working to accomplish the same task. This means when the inevitably encounter a different OS they will have to learn new skills, but will then have a distinct advantage when it comes to learning the third OS or a major upgrade occurs. You also need to consider that most kids are exposed to smart phones and computers so have some experience with this anyway.

Your language example was well chosen. Learning a second language has many additional benefits. Latin is an excellent choice for someone interested in science.

Sesame Street

[Ukab the Great]

Try Sesame Street Games. They're mostly flash games, but they should work. My kid started playing them when he was 2, liked them a lot, and learned to use a mouse from playing them.

TuxPaint

[mathew42]

I recommend TuxPaint:

Tux Paint is a free, award-winning drawing program for children ages 3 to 12 (for example, preschool and K-6). Tux Paint is used in schools around the world as a computer literacy drawing activity. It combines an easy-to-use interface, fun sound effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot who guides children as they use the program. Kids are presented with a blank canvas and a variety of drawing tools to help them be creative.

My kids have had great fun using the program, especially with the special effects tools and sound effects. Rather than a structured environment it encourages free play. You can add in your own photos as stamps or just use the extensive collection.

Welcome to the real world

[Kevster]

Hand-eye co-ordination is best learned in the real world. Take him outside and play with real objects (I've heard it's called "catch") in a natural (non-human constructed) setting.

As for the other two things, typing skills and UI concepts, they can be trivially learned by him 10 years from now just as easily. He'll pick them up on his own before that, anyway.

Educational stuff, obviously.

[MMC Monster]

How about http://www.starfall.com/ ?

My kids loved it when they were around 3-4 years old.

Re:You are making the problem worse

[Capsaicin]

By force it to be Linux rather than something your child is likely to see outside your narrow view of the world. Might as well force him/her to speak Latin at home as well.

The benefits of speaking a 2nd language at home are too well know to dwell upon. You never know, being exposed to one may have saved you from being chained in your sadly narrow view of the world.

Latin, being not only the root language of the Romance languages, it is also a key to better understanding other European languages such as English, German &c., would be undoubtedly provide the child with great advantage. However since hardly any one is fluent enough actually to speak it at home this is unlikely to be a viable option.

As far as OSs, and their GUI frontends. I (doubt|hope) that the differences between a contemporary Linux GUIs and Windows or even Mac will be anywhere near as great as those between our GUIs and those that will dominate some 15 years from now (when said 3 year old may have to use computers professionally). My boys are conversant with linux, windows and OSX (thought they prefer the latter), and this has certainly not inhibited their skills in any one OS. So I can confidently say, without wanting to appear overly offensive, "you are full of shit mate!"

I'm showing my age here, but it only took those of us who grew up without computers (not entirely true, my first computer was a Kosmos Logikus) a week or three to learn how to use the early GUIs. There's nothing in there that is conceptually difficult for a reasonably intelligent young adult to pick up and learning to use a pointing device is a sinch for most anyone under that age of 60 (which isn't to say some 80 year olds don't find it a sinch either).

Computer exposure for children is somewhat overrated. Given the choice between learning multiplication tables by rote (which the school is refusing to teach my kids, "we don't do that any more") and developing "mouse skills" which is considered essential for modern survival, I would choose the former. Thank FOSS for ... TUXMATH for teaching well, what the school will not (and you only need a keypad!) But probably not quite for a 3 year old (unless said 3 year old is Terence Tao).