GWJ Conference Call Episode 655

Days Gone, Dark Devotion, Backbone Prologue, Mortal Kombat 11, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Forager, Fate Extella Link, The Positive Impact of Games on Kids, Your Emails and More!

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This week Shawn, Allen, Lara and Greg Decker talk about the ways games positively impact kids!

To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind.

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Comments

dejanzie wrote:

Wow, an e-mail of mine was upgraded into a topic! I feel like I should get an achievement unlocked ping or something

Thanks for sharing your stories. We try to limit any screen time to the bare minimum for our kids (Luna 3,5y and Febe 2 years old). They get 10-15 minutes of tv in the morning and 20-30 minutes in the evening before bedtime. We have never gamed or watched tv while they're awake. Febe still naps though while Luna doesn't, so maybe - and thanks to your stories I'm more inclined to take an active approach - I will introduce her to some Just Dance during the weekend. She loves to dance, although unfortunately she has her dad's (lack of) talent and tends to shut down when pushed even slightly. Another challenge is that most games - and thus song selections - are made for the Anglophone market.

Until now, the few minutes we introduced her to games were not a success. She shuts down if it gets even slightly twitchy, so easy does it.

Honestly, I should listen to the episode again, as I missed most other recommendations. Plants vs Zombies and Crypt of the Necrodancer are the only ones I got. Oh and Greg, if you feel like recommending any board games for my girls' age group, feel free!

Thanks again, I really enjoyed the entire show this week.

For 3.5 year olds, try:

Feed the Woozle (a dexterity game where you feed a cardboard monster with a giant plastic spoon. Older kids can use modifiers like “walk backwards” or “hop on one foot” to increase the challenge. It trains gross and fine motor skills and instruction-following.

Avalanche: pick up tiny rubber food with giant tweezers. Great for improving grip strength and fine motor skills.

Picture Charades: it’s charades, but you draw from one of four decks that have a picture on it. The performer gets to decide the interpretation of the picture that they’re trying to get people to guess. Good for critical thinking and general silliness.

zingo: kind of like bingo and memory combined, with a scrum thrown in to get the piece. Good for critical thinking and reflexes.

Spot It! Quick reflex picture matching game. Like Zingo, good for quick reflexes and visual acuity.

Guess Who The classic process-of-elimination game still holds up. Good for critical thinking and communication skills.

I could probably go on, but I’ll stop there.

Also, don’t forget that you can house-rules games meant for older people to suit your kids’ development level. My son and I played a simplified version of Rampage (now called “Terror in Meeple City” because lawyers) where we ignore most of the complicated bits and just focus on the dexterity challenges and counting.

giant_garlik wrote:

And speaking of anxiety and frustration and games, I have a serious question for the community: how do you address these issues with small children?

My wife is quite critical of me introducing our son to gaming and him being frustrated by something in a game is just another point into her camp.

My daughter is 5. At this point, the second she gets frustrated with a game, I assume she's not ready for it (i.e. lacks the skills, the hand/eye coordination, controller skills), and suggest she switches to a different game.

Which is fine, there's plenty of games she *is* ready for (Hi Sparkle Ponies!) - I don't need to push that envelope.

And I do wonder whether I'm missing a learning opportunity, but honestly, the learning I'm imparting is "if a game isn't fun, play one that is instead", and that's not the worst lesson a gamer-in-training can learn.

I'm also aware that your average 5 year old's attention span doesn't necessarily lend itself to crunchy games, so we're still very much cruising the gaming buffet rather than eating a plateful of one thing.

Just Dance has been a hit though, and I recently pulled the entire Rock Band kit up from the basement so she could wail along to a few songs.

And I'm about to crack open the Minecraft egg. I'm not sure whether it'll take or not - she's not super in legos and blocks.

Oh hey, Greg, if you want game dev tools for kids, you can do a lot worse than Microsoft's Kodu Game Lab - it's entirely free, and I have it on good authority from bonafide software-nerds-with-kids that it's a superb jumping in point.

Thank you for taking the time to read my email, for the kind words, and the feedback on what gaming fulfills you the most.

I also really enjoyed the topic as I have four kids between the ages of 3 and 12, and we definitely enjoy some game time together! Thanks again!

- Jason

mistir wrote:

Thank you for taking the time to read my email, for the kind words, and the feedback on what gaming fulfills you the most.

I also really enjoyed the topic as I have four kids between the ages of 3 and 12, and we definitely enjoy some game time together! Thanks again!

- Jason

As someone who's been to the dark place, I'm happy to have been in on that conversation. I'm glad we're both in better places.

Jonman wrote:

My daughter is 5. At this point, the second she gets frustrated with a game, I assume she's not ready for it (i.e. lacks the skills, the hand/eye coordination, controller skills), and suggest she switches to a different game.

Which is fine, there's plenty of games she *is* ready for (Hi Sparkle Ponies!) - I don't need to push that envelope.

And I do wonder whether I'm missing a learning opportunity, but honestly, the learning I'm imparting is "if a game isn't fun, play one that is instead", and that's not the worst lesson a gamer-in-training can learn.

I'm also aware that your average 5 year old's attention span doesn't necessarily lend itself to crunchy games, so we're still very much cruising the gaming buffet rather than eating a plateful of one thing.

Just Dance has been a hit though, and I recently pulled the entire Rock Band kit up from the basement so she could wail along to a few songs.

And I'm about to crack open the Minecraft egg. I'm not sure whether it'll take or not - she's not super in legos and blocks.

hey, thanks for sharing your experience, and it actually goes to everyone on this thread!
switching to another game is a great tactic though I have to admit it didn't work with my son (7), yet. He wants to play the game he wants, and for some reason suggesting switching makes him even more frustrated to the point of tantrum. Well, not every time but i'm talking from experience))
So, for a while now, especially since we have only one controller I just offer him little help when he feels he can't do a thing. It's a very half-ass way between playing with your kid and letting him play alone but until I get a second gamepad we'll roll like this.

Jonman wrote:

Just Dance has been a hit though, and I recently pulled the entire Rock Band kit up from the basement so she could wail along to a few songs.

The older Just Dance games (Just Dance 3, 4, 2014 and 2015) are the sweet spot, imo. Great, intuitive interface; no online play; and short loading times. Oh, and, good songs/choreographies!

I really enjoyed the discussion this week and the comments keep delivering. I'm 200% onboard with what Greg and Lara said about using it as a teaching tool to deal with frustration. Pretty much the only reason I bought a Switch after Christmas was for my youngest to play Mario Kart. And he gets super frustrated when he doesn't finish first. Frustration is something we've been dealing with for a while, since it's a lot more acute, being on the spectrum and all, but I find it's important he learn that we don't always finish first in life, and sometimes, we'll finish last, and though it'll suck, we have to learn from it, and decide if we want to keep trying or have the opportunity to switch tracks, so to speak.
Also, I give no quarter when we play together. I always finish first and he's not even on the podium. I'm a terrible mom, go ahead and say it.

I've tried to get my kids into Just Dance, but they just aren't having any of it. They're super into Crypt of the NecroDancer, which Lara mentioned. That pleased me to no end, because I'm also a huge fan of the game. My eldest was always really good at Monument Valley, so those are great to play with kids if they're so inclined (your girls are probably too small for that for the moment, Dejanzie). All of the Amanita games are great. Pretty sure Greg mentioned Samorost (or did I imagine that?), there's also CHUCHEL which I streamed for the charity drive earlier this year (I actually had to uninstall it from the iPad, because it got my eldest overexcited with unstoppable fits of the giggles), Botanicula and the slightly more complex Machinarium (which my 7yo figured out). He's also played maybe three quarters of Transistor (proud gamer mama moment), and I think I'm going to get him started on Bastion: can't imagine why I didn't think of that sooner but the discussion on this conf call made me think of it, so thanks for that.
Sorry for rambling, but this is super near and dear to my heart, because there was a time when I believed I wouldn't be able to share gaming with my boys. Glad I was proved wrong.

Oh and I listened before the audio was fixed, and the gaps were both confusing and hilarious. I loved it.

KaterinLHC wrote:
Jonman wrote:

Just Dance has been a hit though, and I recently pulled the entire Rock Band kit up from the basement so she could wail along to a few songs.

The older Just Dance games (Just Dance 3, 4, 2014 and 2015) are the sweet spot, imo. Great, intuitive interface; no online play; and short loading times. Oh, and, good songs/choreographies!

Good pull! I tried Just Dance 2019 demo this weekend, but our eldest stared like a deer caught in headlights. It only had one song and no kids mode. I thought I would wait until the full game would go on a sale, but JD 2015 should be cheaper. Downside: no kids mode, and in general no Flemish songs aka the songs she actually likes and knows.

Eleima wrote:

I've tried to get my kids into Just Dance, but they just aren't having any of it. They're super into Crypt of the NecroDancer, which Lara mentioned. That pleased me to no end, because I'm also a huge fan of the game. My eldest was always really good at Monument Valley, so those are great to play with kids if they're so inclined (your girls are probably too small for that for the moment, Dejanzie). All of the Amanita games are great. Pretty sure Greg mentioned Samorost (or did I imagine that?), there's also CHUCHEL which I streamed for the charity drive earlier this year (I actually had to uninstall it from the iPad, because it got my eldest overexcited with unstoppable fits of the giggles), Botanicula and the slightly more complex Machinarium (which my 7yo figured out). He's also played maybe three quarters of Transistor (proud gamer mama moment), and I think I'm going to get him started on Bastion: can't imagine why I didn't think of that sooner but the discussion on this conf call made me think of it, so thanks for that.
Sorry for rambling, but this is super near and dear to my heart, because there was a time when I believed I wouldn't be able to share gaming with my boys. Glad I was proved wrong.

I'm taking notes here... I took the opportunity to discuss the topic with my non-gaming wife, and she's on board to take a more pro-active approach. Wish us luck

Good luck!!!! Samorost, Chuchel and Botanicula would be great for your age bracket because they’re basically “tap everything until something happens.”

'Kay. I waited for a bit before unleashing garbage. Should be safe now. The original Fate Stay/Night game was a porny visual novel. As with a lot of content of that nature, it does have a bunch of ecchi scenes and censored (or uncensored) content, though surprisingly much less than what many Westerners might surmise. Not that much more than a Mass Effect game, I'd reckon.

Here's a list of the Servants:

Medusa
IMAGE(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a4/18/fe/a418fe94c171158eb2e929b4349b4588.jpg)

True Assassin
IMAGE(https://static.zerochan.net/True.Assassin.full.2258097.png)

Medea
IMAGE(https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/6/6b/Medea1.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20171122170326)

Heracles
IMAGE(https://static1.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11113/111134319/5133826-6061304371-816b1.jpg)

Cu Chulainn
IMAGE(https://pa1.narvii.com/6110/f3ccbb21645899ce8a98fce0dc612e03283a7ac7_hq.gif)

Gilgamesh
IMAGE(https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/2228ea4f-880e-4393-b416-0e44770e7a37/d7pbok1-ae68a743-4b3d-4c33-9600-fc4060ab2256.jpg/v1/fill/w_1131,h_707,q_70,strp/fate_stay_night___golden_king_gilgamesh_wallpaper_by_ng9_d7pbok1-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9ODAwIiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvMjIyOGVhNGYtODgwZS00MzkzLWI0MTYtMGU0NDc3MGU3YTM3XC9kN3Bib2sxLWFlNjhhNzQzLTRiM2QtNGMzMy05NjAwLWZjNDA2MGFiMjI1Ni5qcGciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTI4MCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.N-Gl3xulZtc_cu6N6UtYikqx0WH9aaKiGTyPhV3H4vw)

As far as I can tell, one of the main reasons the franchise started off so strong was because of the powerful draw of historical spirits and researching real myths in order to win the game. That was really cool. It also had far greater production values than any porny-game had any right to be, kind of like if you had MCU special effects and actor bench - but in a porn.

True Assassin looks like an interesting lay.

“Bone down” indeed