game girl advance: Gaming With Toddlers: New Levels of Pwnage

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September 04, 2007

Gaming With Toddlers: New Levels of Pwnage

For awhile now, I've been trying to figure out how to play video games with my three year old daughter, Riley. It can be problematic, moreso than you'd think, as a parent who wants to really tutor their child and make sure that playing games is a positive reward and not a trivial or babysitting experience.

Over the past year, it's really been a "We play, you watch" kind of a thing, with the parents doing the playing, and Riley watches it like a movie. Up until recently she hasn't really grasped the eye-hand concept: moving the joystick moves her avatar around the screen in the direction she wants it to go. In fact, I'm pretty sure she still doesn't quite get that aspect. So we're relegated to playing non-violent games for her. The big favorites so far have been Animal Crossing and Katamari. And let me tell you, hearing a 3 year old little girl try and say "Dad, can we play...Cat...a..mari Damashee?" is one of the cutest things you'll ever hear.

But this weekend she caught me playing the Tiger '08 demo when she came downstairs after her nap, and got really excited about playing it. I realized that the "true swing" control scheme in the game might be the perfect gateway to get her to learn about how her actions on the stick control the actions of her avatar on screen. It's the simplest control scheme for her to learn, really. Pull the stick back for the backswing, push it straight forward to swing. That's it. The game picks your clubs and shot-type for you and automatically aims you at the hole.

So we gave it a shot. And I do mean we. As a natural "let me help you" kind of obsessive parent, I played the part of Caddy and helped her club selection (she'd only hit about 85% of her club as she'd never wait for Tiger to finish his backswing), and as she'd almost always hook the ball left I'd help her by aiming her to the right for a bit, or aiming her into a layup shot if she had to hit over water. Also, I'd help her pick a better putting line, as that can be the trickiest part of the game.

Her first round was a +11. Pretty horrible for a 3 hole demo, despite the fact that she seemed to pick up the swing concept a bit better and parred the 3rd hole. But we persevered (she really was excited about getting to hold the controller and play), and tried again.

The second round was -1. One. Under. Par. She even chipped in on the last hole, and I didn't do anything to help her out on that hole. It was all her, and this is where things get a bit more interesting. The new version of Tiger has a neat feature where you can upload your greatest shots for other people to try as a challenge.

I began her new career as a competitive gamer at age 3. You can now attempt to beat her chip-in for a ripe 74 points (x2 if you're the first to beat it!). Just look for "3 Year Old Chips In" and you can see if you have what it takes to beat it.

Or are you afraid of being pwned by a 3 year old?

Posted by bowler at September 04, 2007 09:17 AM | TrackBack

Comments

That's exactly the sort of thing I fear most. It's bad enough when some 12-year-old makes a fool out of me; it'll only get worse when I start getting pwned by babies.

Posted by: Ron Hogan

on September 4, 2007 10:30 AM

"Or are you afraid of being pwned by a 3 year old?"

Exactly why I'm playing single-player Halo 3 first.

Posted by: The Pimp Of Sound

on September 10, 2007 09:21 PM

Being a parent of a 2-and-a-half year old myself, I have been looking for games that I and other parents of very young children could play with our kids.

Sure, once they hit about 4 or 5, their coordination catches up and they can do some mousing around on their own, but I'd like to see more stuff that we could do cooperatively, now. Between work and family duties, I get little enough leisure time. I would relish any opportunity to share some of my game time with my son.

I already play Mario Kart Double Dash with my son -- I drive, he shoots stuff. I also "play" Insaniquarium with him. He's not coordinated enough to complete the goal states of the game, but he's fine clicking the mouse to feed the fishies and do some basic coin collection.

There's nothing to say that a developer couldn't do a Wii game that would only depend on gross motion feedback to return a meaningful result. Something cooperative to play between parents and kids would be nice -- simple waggle for the toddler set, and slightly more control for the older participant...

I know Super Mario Galaxy will feature something akin to this, but I think the "simple" mechanism of clearing stars would still be beyond the ability of a very young child.

Given the number of parents-to-be (and existing parents) who have grown up playing and enjoying games combined with the total sales of kid-related merchandise, I think there's a real opportunity here.

Posted by: gamasutra podcast

on September 21, 2007 11:37 AM

I have a two year old niece that I've had no trouble introducing to gaming since she was, well, brand new. I started putting the controller in her hand when she was one, but this summer during my break form College she's been gaining an independent streak, and so has tried doing things on her own. She'll be entertained by Mario Kart a bit, but her absolute favorite game is Guitar Hero. She doesn't care if she's good at it or not, she just likes to press one button down and strum. I have to put it on practice mode so she never fails and expert so she hits as many notes as possible, because if you try to help her out she pushes you away.

Probably the best moment of the summer, though, was after she had woken up from her nap a couple times and saw me playing Shadowrun on the Xbox 360 (a game I quickly had to end and shut off due to the M rating), I had one day found her with my headset on her head and the controller in her hands. For a two year old, she's incredibly smart.

She also has a little Frogger machine that she likes playing. I'm having no trouble molding her into a little gamer. :P

Posted by: cesarano

on September 21, 2007 06:19 PM

My son (just under 2) actually loves playing World of Warcraft. He started out just emulating my gestures but figured out that he can move the character using WASD and zoom in and out using the mousewheel. It won't be long before he's pwning nubs in the battlegrounds.

Proof http://vectorvixen.deviantart.com/art/Early-Wow-Addict-66295595

Posted by: jonroach

on October 2, 2007 07:28 AM