Hi Tom.
Never mind your son, I! like board and card games, but also love audio
games, text games and what video games I'm able to play, and I pretty much
always have.
I enjoyed card and board games because I was able to play with other people,
indeed when I was quite young, around 7-12 my brother and I always used to
go and see my gran who was totally blind and who taught us to play a lot of
card games like cribbage, thirty ones, rummy and twos (a game with similar
rules to Uno). Yet at the same time I was a major fan of games on the Amiga
and Snes. I probably would have liked interactive fiction too if I'd have
had the opportunity to play any at that point, and I don't see why kids now
would be different, indeed I've heard several examples of kids today liking
older or less graphical games, from your own son's enjoyment of Supertux, to
a chap on the Turrican Forums who introduced his 5 and 8 year old cousins to
some of the Turrican games.
Heck, go and look at the wikipedia article on "A dark room" released last
year for the Iphone yet an amazingly successful game (the fact it also has a
very nice developer and full access is of course a bonus too).
One thing I will say though, is I think for a lot of people, especially
younger kids, both the motivation of why to play games and the tactics used
in game design have changed.
Back in the 80's, the reason I played computer games was all about
exploring. i wanted to get further to see what new stuff was in the game,
even if it was say just a new colour of robots in berzerk or a new ledge
configuration in joust. This is why I so loved Turrican and metroid, games
where the exploring was taken to radical new levels. The mechanics
(particularly of memorable games like mario brothers), were such that it was
always necessary to learn and practice hard, and to work at what was there
to progress, but that was what made the exploring so good, it was like
climbing up a mountain to see what you could see next.
However I think a lot of the design of video games today isn't about that
sort of mechanics or about that sort of experience so much as it is about
progress meaters with a slot machine mechanic, or just showing as good
graphics as possible for the current game of the year. this particularly
goes for what you could call casual gamers, people who aren't really
interested in anything but the latest fps or big release andjust play it the
same way you would go to see the next big summer block buster film.
So, while I fully agree with you on games and motivation, and that a good
game that has been artistically made will always gain followers no matter
what sort of thing happens, I do think a lot of people are getting the wrong
idea of games and gaming, or playing games for reasons that might not let
them appreciate what could be done by a propper game designer.
This is also manifestly bad for access, sinse if the first question of
someone on considering audio or text games is "where are those amazing
visuals!" not "is this an interesting game to play" then we have a problem,
and unfortunately there are people out there with this sort of mindset.
Before however this turns into my diatribe about capitalism devaluing
individual creativity in an art form in effort to appeal to mass markets and
create demand I'll stop :D.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
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