Why not? (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Tuesday, March 20, 2018, 18:13 (2444 days ago) @ slycrel
edited by Cody Miller, Tuesday, March 20, 2018, 18:16

For the most part, all 4 of my kids prefer watching me play games than actually going through the work of learning to play them themselves. This isn't always true, but for most games it is. I think there are a lot of reasons for this, but as has been pointed out, it's much more challenging to just pick up and play something. I think that's why mobile games are both beloved and scoffed at at the same time.

I think it took me about 3 or 4 years to become 'fluent' in video games. I started at around 5ish, and would struggle with Mario. Getting to the world 1 castle was mind blowingly hard. Even beating a single robot master in Megaman was nearly unthinkable. But the more I played, the better I got not just at specific games, but games in general.

By the time I was 8 or so it all kind of 'clicked', and I was able to beat Tyson in Punch Out. In round 2, but still. After that I could finish any game I wanted to really.

All things considered, that's not really a large chunk of time when you think about it. If you can spend 3 years learning, and then be able to play every video game made subsequently, it seems worthwhile no? With the easy modes these days, it might not even take that long.