When to introduce my son to Videogames?

M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
He's about 3 1/2 now, and he's just getting into the cbeebies website (how the fuck 3 yr olds understand click and drag within 2 seconds, I have no idea), so I'm wondering whens a good idea to start him on videogames properly.

He's already had some exposure - mostly Midtown Madness 3 because it has a big truck in it that I drive and crash while he flicks the camera around and presses the horn.
 
mrklaw said:
He's about 3 1/2 now, and he's just getting into the cbeebies website (how the fuck 3 yr olds understand click and drag within 2 seconds, I have no idea), so I'm wondering whens a good idea to start him on videogames properly.

He's already had some exposure - mostly Midtown Madness 3 because it has a big truck in it that I drive and crash while he flicks the camera around and presses the horn.
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Are you training him to be a Grand Champion?

wizard.jpg


Better start him young. He should already by working through the intricacies of force feedback wheels by that age.
 
Lock him in a room with enough food to last 10 years.
Fill the room with Nirvana posters, skateboards, teenage mutant ninja turtles and ghostbusters paraphernalia.
Make a fake radio station on your PC and stream it into his room.
Play Ace of Base on it.

Give him a Super NES and SEGA Genesis. Supplement with PlayStation and N64, then release him.
 
3 1/2 sounds about right. Mine were heavily exposed to lots of games (english and japanese) just because there's always so many around. Son started into them in earnest at about 3, and daughter at about 4. They started Pico (yes, this was a while ago, leappad would probably be the equivalent now) at 1 1/2.

Never too early for games. Just don't let them play Virtual Boy before 12 (or is it 10? I don't remember, mine are packed up).
 
I started at 4. My first game that I beat was Kung Fu and I think I was 5 at the time.
 
I started in earnest at around 6 (though I always played those cool little handhelds they used to make before that) when I beat Castlevania. I've taken lots of breaks since, but it's pretty safe to say I'll be into games for the foreseeable future to some degree.
 
What about generations? Should I wean him on SNES (maybe easier to understand 2D and controls-wise for a young'un), then PS2?

The good thing is that some point they'll be 'presents' for him instead of 'toys' for me :)
 
give him a few months. then get him an NES. there's no better way to start. oh, and just work your way up from there.

that's what i plan to do if i ever have kids. i'll give them a new system and library once a year in this order.

NES
SNES (handful of Genesis games)
32/64-Bit (just make sure you introduce him to it the right way. Mario 64)
so on and so on. you get the point.

not only will it save you a shit load of money, but he'll get to play the best stuff ever made. he'll definitely appreciate videogames much more than his friends too.
 
radioheadrule83 said:
Lock him in a room with enough food to last 10 years.
Fill the room with Nirvana posters, skateboards, teenage mutant ninja turtles and ghostbusters paraphernalia.
Make a fake radio station on your PC and stream it into his room.
Play Ace of Base on it.

Give him a Super NES and SEGA Genesis. Supplement with PlayStation and N64, then release him.
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That'd be so awesome. I wish my parents did that.

Seriously, though, give him an NES first. That's how every kid should start. SMB for life.
 
Sorry, I'm in the UK and we never really got on with the NES. I have 3 SNESes in the loft, so I'll prolly start him on that.
 
Longitudinal studies have shown that for every hour of television a child under the age of 5 or 6 watches per day, their eventual IQ decreases by 10 points. Not sure whether this holds for games or not (one could point to the interactivity guarding against such a thing, but I'm not sure if that's quite enough to offset it). So..err...let him play at your own risk. :D


I'd say wait until 6, myself. :) Still, if he's going to be watching TV anyway, games can't hurt any more than TV does. :P
 
it is better if he / she wants to play outside too....but Ok.. if they really want to play on that age I have a suggestion:

1 Crazy Taxi on Ps2 just put it on 10 min drive .
2 SSx tricky...
 
Take him to an arcade (provided one still exists near you) and see if he can reach the joysticks. If he can, he's probably ready and also the largest three-year old ever. Don't give him any tokens, though, he'll think he's playing the games anyway and you'll save money

After that, start small, get an old NES or Genesis. Pac-Man and Mario, Zelda, some Quartet and Gauntlet,Street Fighter and Sonic. Start him on the stuff that made games good.

Teach him how to get 30 Lives in Contra: Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start.

Other codes of worthy note:

Justin Bailey
------ ------- for Metroid

007 373 5963 for Mike Tyson/Mr. Dream in Punch-Out!

Then later on get an SNES - Super Metroid, Final Fantasy III, (its FFVI on PSX, everyone's still confused about that, confuse him so he'll fit in), Mario RPG and Yoshi's Island.

Let him see how games evolved so he doesn't grow up to be an EA fan, basically.
 
The Child In Our Time documentary broadcast on BBC1 on Tuesday this week, had some very positive things to say about playing videogames.

They feature 4yr old children.
 
I wouldn't let the kid touch a videogame until at least 5. Let the little shit play outside and develop an imagination on his own, kay?
 
Nick Laslett said:
The Child In Our Time documentary broadcast on BBC1 on Tuesday this week, had some very positive things to say about playing videogames.

They feature 4yr old children.
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It featured a 5 year old who was playing Halo better than most teenagers

To summarise -

i)It takes more exciting things to entertain kids brought up on video games simple things bore them easily
ii)They have better multi tasking skills
 
My nepew plays the current games: (he'll turn 4 on april)

-Mario Kart: DD - he knows how to keep the car on the road, he finishs the race in double the average time, sometimes more, but if he gets used to a certain track he could amaze you..

-Mario Tennis - he's good

-GTA: SA - he tries to kill ppl most of the time, and he knows how to drive bikes and cars, but his reaction is kinda slow, so you would see him hit a wall every now and then...

-Paper Mario - he likes moving mario arround

-Mario Sunshine - he knows how to get mario into some levels and he also make him swim..


I'm not sure if he have played any other games, maybe some GBA games


I hope that helps .. :)
 
Yusaku said:
I wouldn't let the kid touch a videogame until at least 5. Let the little shit play outside and develop an imagination on his own, kay?
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Well, duh. I'm not going to lock him in his room and stop him playing with other kids. I'm just wondering.

I'm not even planning to let him have his own TV for as long as I can hold out.
 
my son was one when i 1st let him play around with mario 64.

all he did was move him around and jump here and there.

soon after i bought the two N64 Elmo games which had him counting and working with letters way before his time.

by the age of 4 and some healthy doeses of pikmin he was adding and subtracting to 100. when he went into pre K he was counting up to a 3rd grade level (200 +) they told me.

he was learning and had no idea cuz it was fun for him.

ya gotta keep a healthy mix of other activities as well though.
he's now 7 and in 1st grade and gets all A's and all E's on his report cards.
i'm pretty lucky seeing i am a single dad and all.
he likes games probably the most out of all his activities and i can use that in so many ways. if he makes all A's i can get a new game, if he has no cavities on each 6 month check up and such. if he is bad i can ground him from games and he'll shape back up quick as can be. i'm sure this would work with any child who has a love for something. i think he started liking them so much because we always tend to play together. good father son time memories and all that.

i am always amazed at his hand eye coordination now. He is starting to race Nitro powered RC cars and is smoking people 4 times his age who have been doing it for years.

one thing i do is we always play a new game through together. there are so many things you can use to teach them about life morals and just plain have fun with them and bond by doing it together among other activities as well.

just do not ever become one of those parents who buy a game and give it to your kid thinking it's safe content. take part in the adventures together.

anyway, good luck and most of all have fun.
 
FWIW, at 3 months old my first son was raised on listening to Uematsu along side Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, SRV, and ABBA.

2 years old, first son playing Tricky, PS1 Spyro games, SMS, and Mario Party. At that time he could switch the video switcher to the appropriate device, use the remote fairly well for the tv and the dvd player, put in and take out a dvd from player or PS2. He could start a game independently including file management.

3 years old, first son playing MGS2 (skateboarding section), Madden, feeding the pigs, swimming, and cutting grass with sword in LoZ: tWW, Super Mario DS, SMB, Pokemon, and Sonic Collection (Pinball).

My second son is ahead of that curve very slightly.

I keep the sessions short (10-15 minutes) usually. Violent games such as even SSB:M cause obvious violent behavior afterwards, such as hitting and kicking. No violent games are allowed. No spooky games.

Oldest son has barely played a videogame in about two weeks by his own choice, except for his Vtech VSmile.

My oldest son is very active and has many other interests including playing ball games inside. He can't play outside now, except for sledding and such, 'cause we live in Michigan. My youngest son is learining how to walk.
 
oh and as far as gameplay goes.

i can not beat him at super smash bros.
he'll i have even considered entering him in a contest he's so damn good at it.

by four he had beat mario 64 and believe it or not at that time we did a lot of multiplayer conkers bad fur day capture the flag. myself and a friend would play against him and the computer and somehow 8 out of 10 games he would smoke us.

it was amazing, he and i would use all kinds of stratagy to conquer him and somehow he always countered them. it really blew our minds for his age that he could grasp that and counter it.

now at 7 he's using mario paper 2 as a reading tool. I do not let him play unless he agrees to read all that text it throws at ya. it's a lot but i am shocked at how much he has improved in the last month reading.
 
I wouldn't introduce him to videogames yet. Personally I started with 3 (GB with Super Mario Land & Tetris, but they were SO difficult for me). Better teach him playing outside is fun, or he'll mutate to a supernerd who never experienced being a real child.
 
My boys have all been playing games since around 2 years old. My oldest sat on my lap through the entirety of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine for PC which I was reviewing at the time and he was about 1.5/2 at the time.

As long as you limit their gametime and don't let them do games only (we allow about an hour a day on school days and much more on weekends), they'll be fine.

This is about as appropriate a place as any for this link too... http://www.gamerdad.com

I write for that site. The reviews are just like any other site in tone and "hardcoreness" but we add a little thingy called a "Kid Factor" at the end of each one to inform you about any potentially objectionable content. You might find it useful and parents who are less game savvy especially should find it helpful.
 
I have a 4 year old, and just got him an SP. He's not good or anything, but the interest is there. He loves his SP. Seeing him play SSBM:M last weekend was quite touching also.

He's also in VO:OT training. He now knows how to jump and jump cancel. We're currently working on the Watari Dash.

At that time he could switch the video switcher to the appropriate device, use the remote fairly well for the tv and the dvd player, put in and take out a dvd from player or PS2.
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Same here. I love it too. Very convenient.
 
kpop100 said:
You should let him play around with your PSP now, see how that goes first :P
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He knows thats a no go area :)

He likes the DS though. He's a demon at the pairs games (amazing memory). And with Minish cap he was always telling me to check the map and telling me where to go.
 
Don't introduce your son to videogames, not until he shows an interest by himself.

PS : And don't tell him about Mario, now he is only for mature audiences, mostly 30ies.
 
preferbly never. I wish I never got into it - there are so many more stuff outthere you can do... plays/cinema/sports. Instead I log onto GAF and post remarks like this :'(

let him discover whatever interests him. Expose him but don't forget to show him the other things you can do for fun. Its too easy to just sit and play games. He'll probably get into gaming in his 8-13 years because of the peer group experience.
 
Odnetnin said:
preferbly never. I wish I never got into it - there are so many more stuff outthere you can do... plays/cinema/sports. Instead I log onto GAF and post remarks like this :'(

let him discover whatever interests him. Expose him but don't forget to show him the other things you can do for fun. Its too easy to just sit and play games. He'll probably get into gaming in his 8-13 years because of the peer group experience.
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Same with me... :(

It started out with a simple game of Mario, now I log onto this damned forum everyday to check up the latest gaming news. Don't let it happen to your son... Don't... let it.... happen.

*Rapidly taps f5 on Gamespot's homepage*
 
DaCocoBrova said:
He's not good or anything, but the interest is there.
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:lol

I laugh not because the kid "isn't good or anything", but just that it sounds like you expect him to be. Kind of reminds me of the hockey dads in Canada ... trying to live out their failed hockey career dreams through their kids.
 
I remember wanting to play videogames badly when I was between 3 or 4 but I couldn't reach the arcade game controls so I'd just sit there staring at the intro sequences. Then my parents finally got an Atari 2600 when I was 4 and well, here I am today still keepin' on.

So I guess let him play games whenever he wants to start playing them.
 
I was playing pac-man on atari in diapers I kid you not.
I spoke at the age of one.
Videogames have made me into the genius I am today.
 
KiNeSiS said:
I was playing pac-man on atari in diapers I kid you not.
I spoke at the age of one.
Videogames have made me into the genius I am today.
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so at what age did you develop your taste for pushing over magazine racks?
 
You fail to see the point, the customer is always right...
If you throw a fit you get your way, this is the american way gentleman and germs.
 
My niece is 4 and she's been interested for awhile, but she only recently gained the size to hold the controller and motor skills necessary. She loves Kirby, and other Nintendo stuff. I'd suggest playing with your kid, my niece loves to play Paper Mario with me, it helps her with reading, and her motor skills. Just the other day she manged to get into Prince of Persia. It would hurt to start early on treatment and respect of equipment. So many people, not just kids, treat their stuff like crap, and in turn try to do the same to yours.


Just don't make games the only thing they do.
 
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