videogame playing 11 year olds, they know nothing! Options

[*kryogenix*]

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=0&cId=3137498

I was shocked to see this. "Donkey Kong is "lame." Tetris is "boring." Space Invaders "needs a superbomb or something."

WHAT?

Anyone who has fond memories playing classic games would probably jump out a window after hearing that. EGM had a little experiment called Child's Play, where they asked younger kids (who were born in the so called "Playstation Generation") to play classic games from the 80's and earlier.

Their responses were shocking.

Seriously, I'm about to cry. These kids are terrible.

Anthony: If Mike Tyson was in this game, his special move would be to bite people's ears. Then he'd be all gloating about it, but then the sound's all low because you can't hear him because your ears are gone. [Points at the next opponent, Von Kaiser, seen in the screen to the left] That's Mike Tyson, and he's trying to bite off your ear.

Garret: That's not Tyson. Are you kidding me? Mike Tyson does not have a handlebar mustache, and he's not white.

EGM: So those are the two things that make you think that's not Tyson?

Garret: Yeah, plus he's wearing pants.

EGM: What do you think that green guy is? [Points to wildman Blanka]

Bobby: He's a mutated lizard-man scientist. He was a scientist, and he was working, and he mutated himself into the ultimate lizard.

EGM: Where did you learn that story?

Bobby: My brother loves Blanka. It's his favorite videogame character.

EGM: If this game had blood and gore like Mortal Kombat, would you like it more?

Parker: Then this would be the best game ever created. Ever. Because violence is so cool-in videogames.

The first two are examples of extreme stupidity.

The third is scary.

From Slashdot:

Back in the bronze and silver age of arcade games, we did not have the technology to create "realistic" games, so we made fun games where ones imagination was required. This level of abstraction made games fun and entertaining without the (argueably) negative societal consequences.

Today, kids engage in auto thefts, mass murder, and first person real time role playing where they can be anyone they choose to be (be it good or evil). There is no longer any need to exercise ones imagination, as that has been replaced by stunning graphics which is slowly approaching a level of realism which will make any differentiation between the real world and the arcade world difficult.

That is why there will always be a special place in my heart for the classics. They encouraged my sense of imagination. Todays games lack that.

Look at what has happened. Are videogames moving in the right direction?

Responses please my friends.

[Sandy]

I don't think games are boring if they don't have violence or gore, and those who think that way annoy me as well. But the imagination part: I really don't think that people's imaginations are at stake with the realistic games we have nowadays. I mean, you have people who play these games and actually imagine themselves doing things like that, and then imagine a world like in the FF games and so forth. I mean, I don't think anyone has the right to say one loses his/her imagination from playing some Golden Eye. I mean, while a person plays a videogame, they're actually almost constantly imagining. Like the kid said about how Child's Play would be great if it had violence, how could he have thought that without running a check through his imagination? IMAGINE if the game has more violence...

And I don't think you should state things about bad story lines as if what you say is completely right. Some people enjoy story lines others think are horrible. So, I believe that all it comes up to is: Don't worry about people "losing" their imaginations. I don't think their telling you to stop playing your classics. Like porn. I'm sure not everyone watches porn. I'm sure many people object to such things like porn. I don't think pornos are forbididng everyone into watching regular TV shows.

[*kryogenix*]

I mean, while a person plays a videogame, they're actually almost constantly imagining. Like the kid said about how Child's Play would be great if it had violence, how could he have thought that without running a check through his imagination? IMAGINE if the game has more violence...

That's not imagination. Today, if it's not violent, it's not a cool videogame. The kid is saying I can't imagine playing a game without violence.

  Well,
there's gonna be new technogoly coming out each day.
But kids nowadays turn to violence in games, and enjoy them.

Now let's ask you this, would you do anything that your PARENTS have done when they were little? Yeah, you would probably think it would be boring and strange.

Probably not, but this is not the same. My parents were kids 30-40 years ago. I played most of the games in the article; in fact, even the kids played some of the games mentioned in the article! They mention how they played it when they were little. But, a decade later, the games aren't cool all of a sudden? Your analogy is a bit flawed. What these kids are saying would be equivalent to a parent saying they liked a certain song from that generation, but now, they don't like it. It would be absurd imagining my parents giving up their rock cassettes for rap cd's.

  Video games are a way to feed your id. If you don't know what that is, go read up on Freud. I've also read the last two Child's play articles, you can't expect children who have grown up with more "modern" games to respect older games. It's like how old people often get stuck in times of 'ole. Now we don't look at cars from the 50's and say that's hot, we say that's a classic but we don't look at them the same way that we look at say a ferrari enzo. Plus kids are getting dumber and graphics in older games weren't exactly all that great so if they say something dumb, I'll give them the benifit of the doubt. Kids know what they want. Just because they're 11 doesn't make them any less capable of choosing what they like. I remember when I was 11 or even younger then that, that was the time of the pokemon craze, I knew what I wanted, pokemon for GBA and pokemon cards. Also I can remember back to 1st grade, I can remember playing video games back then as well, that was 9 years ago. Those games were great back then, but now if I were to play them, they would seem pretty lame. The games have gotten so advanced now that most side scrollers aren't even to satisfy our appitites for games.

I'll reply to this later, SAT practice.