A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley

Re:A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge ... by AdmiralAsshat on Friday October 26, 2018 @11:08AM (#18309905)

I don't think she's really interested in what I or my brothers considered "games". The high-intensity/fast-reflex or long-investment kind of games we would play probably did not appeal to her. She seems to have gravitated towards the casual-gaming stuff, where the end-goal of the game is meandering and there's a great deal of instant gratification ("Congrats! You clicked a button! Have a trophy!")

With that said, I regret in hindsight that I didn't force her to try Animal Crossing back when it came to the Gamecube 15 years ago. It was very much a prototype of the casual gaming trend that's popular now. We might've found some common ground back then before our ages caused role-reversal.

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Re:A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge ... by mikepurvis on Friday October 26, 2018 @12:15PM (#18310607)

A lot of modern open-world games incorporate the meandering/gratification loop you're talking about though.

I can't find it now, but there was a heartwarming story on reddit a few months ago about a dad dying of cancer and playing BOTW on a switch in his hospital bed, and bonding with his adult son over it— he never even made it off the Plateau (the initial tutorial section of the game), but was having a ball running around collecting plants, making potions, getting gear, whatever.

Even if the violence level of Assassins Creed or God of War isn't your cup of tea, something like Detroit Become Human or Horizon Zero Dawn could be a good fit.

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