Went to a Wal-Mart today to pick up a game. I saw one 7 year old kid telling his friends:

"Did you get Bioshock 2? I did. That (enter expletive) is the bomb!"

Than I turned around and another kid about the same age was saying:

"Uncharted 2!"

Than finally, a parent was looking for a Wii to purchase for his daughter. That was cute and sweet. But his daughter was five. Too bad the Wii was sold out.

And there I was, buying Halo Wars, and thinking to myself: It feels just like yesterday I was buying a SNES with my parents. I still can't believe that was state of the art back then. I remember the SNES being like the hottest thing in the world! And it was...for its time!

But than as I was back to reality as the employee wrung up my game, than I thought to myself, "These kids who are growing up in today's gaming generation is lucky. Maybe a little spoiled, I guess, because seeing 7 year olds having PS3's or 360's almost seems unthinkable, even though in a sense, me growing up with the SNES is practically the same thing! Or is it? Which is what's kind of scary at the same time. Fill in the blanks to what I mean. Little kids playing Bioshock 2, Uncharted 2, Assassins Creed 2, Modern Warfare 2, and GTAIV? It's a little bit alarming, don't you think?

Now, I'm not saying video games and violence or whatever influences or whatnot. But just saying how time's have changed from when we were little tykes.

Just imagine what our grand kids will be playing. Someday, there will be a generation where they have no idea what a PS3 or XBOX 360.

So yeah, it is a bit scary, lucky for them because they'll probably be playing things we can only dream of! But it is frightening to just imagining what they'll be playing.





Posted by ASK_Story Sat, 13 Feb 2010 11:41:08 (comments: 9)
 
Sat, 13 Feb 2010 12:23:10
I grew up on Soldier of Fortune thankyouverymuch. Nyaa

Well that's a bit of an exagerration, but manhole was violent. Sorta. Or was that Manhunt. Uneasy
 
Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:07:04
I watched Predator and Robocop and Aliens when I was like 5 or 6 or something ridiculous.
 
Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:57:52

gamingeek said:
I watched Predator and Robocop and Aliens when I was like 5 or 6 or something ridiculous.

Me too, I grew up on Arnold movies. But I never spoke like those kids at Wal-Mart did at that age. Plus our games didn't deal with really adult themes or anything like that, it was pretty simplistic. Cartoon violence is fine in my eyes, Arnold movies are practically cartoon violence. But there is something about a game like GTA where it is trying to emulate drug culture, organized crime and such that it gets a bit weird for a kid to be playing. It should all be up to the parent of course as long as the kid is in the right mind frame I wouldn't care if he is playing GTA.  

 
Sat, 13 Feb 2010 20:00:14
Watership Down, anyone?  And I don't even speak like those kids, now.  But somehow I doubt they'd be much different without the games.
 
Sun, 14 Feb 2010 02:21:34

Yodariquo said:
Watership Down, anyone?  And I don't even speak like those kids, now.  But somehow I doubt they'd be much different without the games.

Is that the one where many of them died horrible and violent deaths?

 
Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:21:49

Oh man, Watership down was like watching a traumatic event.

Oh yeah I used to watch Freddy Krugar films too, under the age of 10.

 
Sat, 19 Mar 2022 20:13:28

I think Nintendo really does a dis-service to themsleves by still having text only in their kids to G rated games.  For kids who are pre-school age playing games it's too much of a barrier to overcome. They can join the dots when it comes to story, but for instructions it's a complete drawback.

 
Sun, 20 Mar 2022 08:45:06
I don't mind written text, but Dutch translations for pokemon games would be nice. It's keeping my kids from playing them, which is a shame.
It's also the reason I buy some of their rereleases like skyward sword. The original suports fewer languages and no dutch.
 
Sun, 20 Mar 2022 12:16:57
I don't think text in games for young audiences is all bad. I won't say that video games or why my son learned to read, but he definitely learned at a much quicker pace because he had incentive to understand the game menus and other directions on everything he played on the wii.

When he was in preschool, one of the teachers commented that he was reading in a very high level for his age. She then offered me a compliment by saying they always see that in homes where parents are reading to their children all the time. I didn't have the heart to tell her, Wii Music probably had more to do with it than my bedtime stories.
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