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Ask Slashdot: Will You Start Your Kids On Classic Games Or Newer Games?

Posted by Soulskill on from the you-have-died-of-dysentery dept.

An anonymous reader writes "An article at The Verge got me thinking. Parents and those of you who plan to become parents: will you introduce your kids to the games you played when you were younger? Those of us who grew up playing Pong, Space Invaders, and Pac-Man have had a chance to see gaming software evolve into the enormously complex and graphically realistic beast it is today. I've begun to understand why my grandparents tried to get me to watch old movies. I'm also curious how you folks plan to teach your kids about computers and software in general. When teaching them Linux, do you just download the latest stable Mint or Ubuntu release and let them take it from there? Do you track down a 20-year-old version of Slackware and show them how things used to be? I can see how there would be value in that... the UIs we use every day have been abstracted so far away from their roots that we can't always expect new users to intuitively grasp the chain of logic. How do you think this should be handled?"

8 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. What? by mythosaz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When teaching them Linux, do you just download the latest stable Mint or Ubuntu release and let them take it from there?

    When we what?!?

    Our kids will be pushed outside for as long as they can take it, and then they'll come inside and play on whatever system is en vogue when they're the right age for it. They don't give a crap about your nostalgia, and your music sucks.

    Many replies below mine will be from Nintendo eta hipsters who'll be pushing them Mario, so they can feel good about their 8-bit tattoos.

    1. Re:What? by dyingtolive · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah. Should I ever have kids, the first version of Pong we're playing is "catch".

      I've seen kids raised by video games. No thanks.

      --
      Support the EFF and Creative Commons. The war is coming, and they're supporting you...
    2. Re:What? by mythosaz · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'll no doubt be trolled, but as a complete techno-nerd, it was tough getting our kids outside. We enrolled one in Karate, got him trying out for every sports team, but still he'll play as much LOL or DOTA as we'll let him. [...much the way some animals will eat themselves to death.] My daughter, on the other hand, is a book-nerd, and it's hard to dissuade her from wanting to read endlessly.

      The two younger kids both leave the house and seek sunlight on their skin without prodding, so we figure we've done OK for having teenagers in a major city.

    3. Re:What? by ApplePy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You have some smart friends.

      There was no TV or video games in my house when I was growing up. I'm pretty sure I'm not mentally under-developed as a result.

      Most of my peer group, however, was raised on television... and it shows. It is somewhat disconcerting at times to be the only one in a room with an attention span.

      My kids (someday) aren't going to have TV either.

      --
      That I'm right, and you don't like it, doesn't mean I'm a troll.
    4. Re:What? by narcc · · Score: 5, Funny

      It depends. Do you want your children living in your basement 40 years from now?

      --
      Required reading for internet skeptics
  2. Another force-your-kids-into-shit-you-like topic. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For crying out loud, please stop it with these "How do I force my kid into liking ${some-random-shit-you-like}?" submissions. It's tiring to see them showing up two or three times each week these days.

    Let your kids develop their own interests. If they like Linux, or gaming, or programming, or whatever, then so be it, and encourage them however you can. If they're interested in something else that you know nothing about, encourage and support them to the best of your ability anyway.

    But please, for fuck's sake, don't try to force them into the crap you like. By doing that, you'll very likely make them hate it, even if they might've liked it had they had the opportunity to stumble upon it on their own (or even while watching you).

  3. In before by stigmato · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Everyone without kids replies saying they'll never let their child do anything but play outside, do arts and crafts, read books and be the pinnacle of amazing parenting while still working a full time job and have a rich adult social life.

  4. Not just games! by santiago · · Score: 5, Funny

    Before my daughter gets to ride in a fancy-pants self-driving car, she's going to start in a Model T, with a steering rod and a hand-cranked starter. And that's only if she's mastered horse-riding first! Also, we're only speaking to her in Latin and Ancient Greek for now, gradually working our way up to modern English and Spanish by the time she's around 10. She's gonna love some of these Jacquard Loom games I've printed out from an abandonware punch-card site...