• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

I want to bring my son up on the NES/SNES/etc...

O

oatmeal

Banned
I come from a long line of bad fathers and I wanted to continue this trend by forcing my son (who is due out any day now) to spend all of his youth harnessed to an NES controller. I figure it will teach him discipline as he goes through school seeing all of the other kids talking about games like Call of Duty 12 and Halo 18, while he's stuck playing dad's copy of Balloon Fight.

I read in a magazine somewhere that if you give your child an hour of sunlight per day, he is still able to develop fully. There were some side effects, but nothing to write home about.

So what do you think GAF?

Is this a good idea? Bad idea?

I know, I know, kids will probably make fun of him and he will likely die a virgin, but...I mean...it's whatever I want for him right? He's basically a glorified Barbie.
 
B

butter_stick

Banned
Part of the fun of video games as a child and teenager is playing with your friends.

People aren't going to want to play with the freak with the 20 year old games consoles.
 
S

sikkinixx

Member
Your Kid in 10 years: "Hey guys! I got the newest Super Nintendo Game! Wanna come over and play?"

Friend: "umm... My dad says we can't hang out anymore"
 
W

watership

Member
You're going to try and make him watch old silent black and white films why his friends are watching Captain America in 3D.

He's going to hate you.

Addendum: Not to say those games aren't great, but like many things, ___ was great because it was ____ at that time and everyone was amazed by ___. Don't force your games on your kid. Let him play what he wants and love games his way.

Did your Dad force you into the MIT lab and play SPACE WAR on a 3 inch Oscilloscope in a cold room? No. :)
 
K

keeblerdrow

Member
You sound like one of those dads who forces their nerdy kid to play sports far after it's fully realized the kid has no interest in them. You have your agenda and I'm sure it'll work out just fine.
 
V

vulva

Member
Mama Robotnik said:
NES games are hard. They'd be even harder for a two year old. That's my immediate observation.
Click to expand...
As someone who started gaming on the NES at around 2-3, nahhhhhhhhh.
 
GrayFoxPL

GrayFoxPL

Member
At age of two kids are not interested in video games.

My nephew is going crazy for oldschool games but he wasn't just before age of 4.
 
G

Gilgamesh

Member
I'm sure at some point, all of us gamers who went through those generations have this thought, but eventually we need to face the reality that it's actually a stupid idea.

Maybe when he's old enough to make decisions for himself you can show your retro collection to him and see if he's interested. Don't force antiquated games on him.
 
PSYGN

PSYGN

Member
Don't force it on him. Just play it around him and he'll naturally be interested in it and will likely join in. If not then he's obviously not interested, though at such a young age pretty much everything is interesting, if only for a minute before seeing something else.
 
S

Sciz

Member
The next generation is not this generation is not the last generation with regards to both kids and consoles. If you make the option available, you may find that the little ones gravitate towards good games no matter when they're from. But don't force the issue.
 
R

Ra1den

Member
I think it's a fine idea, as long as you DON'T pressure him into playing/liking them. That will achieve the opposite of what you want.
 
G

gdt

Member
Bad idea. Just let him find his own way. That'd be like a tyrannical father forcing sports on a kid.
 
P

Persona7

Banned
Horrible idea.

Would only work if you do not allow your child to interact with any children at all. (please don't do this)
 
D

DidntKnowJack

Member
Maybe play something from those old systems yourself, and see if he develops any interest in them when he watches. Otherwise, just let the kid discover games on his own. There's always time later on to go back and learn about the earlier days of gaming, when he's older.

oatmeal said:
It would be like a year to two year experiment.
Click to expand...
I don't know, man. He's your kid. Doing an experiment using your child sounds kinda...icky...?
 
O

oatmeal

Banned
Ra1den said:
I think it's a fine idea, as long as you DON'T pressure him into playing/liking them. That will achieve the opposite of what you want.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, definitely. Introduce him to it and see how it catches. He'll be at the age where he doesn't know any better. He won't have friends that are all like:

"Hey did you check out the latest Nintendo newsletter?"
"Whoa look at those graphics!"

Shit, it's better than my original idea where I would raise him to think he lived in Britain, homeschool him, and then when he hits 18 send him off into the world and see what happens.
 
O

oatmeal

Banned
ntropy said:
force a kid to play video games? ...

...
Click to expand...
No one said force.


Persona7 said:
Horrible idea.

Would only work if you do not allow your child to interact with any children at all. (please don't do this)
Click to expand...
I'm talking about when he's 2-3ish. If he shows interest, let him play the classic stuff first.

Golly, you people (what do you mean you people?) are taking this out of context and adding your own twist to it.

Mine's a harmless adventure for a young child, yours is turning him into a shut in who has no friends.

Goddam.
 
PSYGN

PSYGN

Member
Just remember that what brought you joy as a kid won't always bring him joy. Honestly, at age 5 - 10 I didn't really care much for videogames, but instead played with other kids on my block with action figures and lego sets... then again, my collection of games sucked after my brother got Street Fighter taken away because of his raging tantrums.

Edit: I didn't even have a videogame to play at age 2, and I don't remember anything at that age. Do you?
 
Joei

Joei

Member
Willy105 said:
It's a neat idea, in theory.

But I doubt it will work well at all.
Click to expand...

It's not even good in theory.

OP should let the past be the past. What does it matter if he "appreciates" older games and "whatnot." Are you going to force him to use a rotary phone so he has proper respects for cellphones?
 
O

oatmeal

Banned
Joei said:
It's not even good in theory.

OP should let the past be the past. What does it matter if he "appreciates" older games and "whatnot." Are you going to force him to use a rotary phone so he has proper respects for cellphones?
Click to expand...

He will get the Zack Morris cell phone, and he will like it.
 
T

thcsquad

Member
This would work if you were a part of some retro gaming commune so you know all of his friends' parents are doing the exact same thing.
 
S

SneakyStephan

Banned
A 2 year old?
He should be learning and experiencing new things constantly, not repeating tasks and chores in video games.

Formative years, make use of them.
smh
 
O

oatmeal

Banned
thcsquad said:
This would work if you were a part of some retro gaming commune so you know all of his friends' parents are doing the exact same thing.
Click to expand...

How many friends did you have when you were 2? A lot of gossiping going on then?
 
A

AntiTout

Member
oatmeal said:
No one said force.



I'm talking about when he's 2-3ish. If he shows interest, let him play the classic stuff first.

Golly, you people (what do you mean you people?) are taking this out of context and adding your own twist to it.

Mine's a harmless adventure for a young child, yours is turning him into a shut in who has no friends.

Goddam.
Click to expand...
SONY PLAYSTATION 3?
 
J

Jo Shishido's Cheeks

Member
Haha wow I literally had this same idea when the NES games came out on 3DS.
I thought if I ever had a son I'd give him a NES at 2, SNES at 4, N64 at 6 and so on but realised he wouldn't hit current gen until like 14 so it wouldn't work.
Maybe if I skip the NES and go straight in at SNES.......

(for what it's worth I used to play all my uncles ancient games when I was young then got a Master System at like 8. That blew me away even though Mega Drive was at that point current gen. Worked out cool.)
 
O

oatmeal

Banned
SneakyStephan said:
A 2 year old?
He should be learning and experiencing new things constantly, not repeating tasks and chores in video games.

Formative years, make use of them.
smh
Click to expand...

So introducing a new system every few months is what?

This is all assuming he's even interested in gaming in the first place. He might want to be a dancer.
 
A

Acosta

Member
For god's sake guys, some you talk like he was going to tie his child to the console...

As a introduction to videogames, why not? games are games and Super Mario Bros is still very enjoyable for example. I would recommend Kirby as well.
 
Joei

Joei

Member
oatmeal said:
He will get the Zack Morris cell phone, and he will like it.
Click to expand...

Hahahah...

Ok, if you have the stuff available for him to play, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but "making" him play them before current age stuff would be ridiculous. I doubt if it would work much, though there is a chance he could come across something "old" that he likes.
 
O

oatmeal

Banned
Jo Shishido's Cheeks said:
Haha wow I literally had this same idea when the NES games came out on 3DS.
I thought if I ever had a son I'd give him a NES at 2, SNES at 4, N64 at 6 and so on but realised he wouldn't hit current gen until like 14 so it wouldn't work.
Maybe if I skip the NES and go straight in at SNES.......

(for what it's worth I used to play all my uncles ancient games when I was young then got a Master System at like 8. That blew me away even though Mega Drive was at that point current gen. Worked out cool.)
Click to expand...

That's a little further spread out than I'd like. A year and a half max of introducing stuff.

Acosta said:
For god's sake guys, some you talk like he was going to tie his child to the console...

As a introduction to videogames, why not? games are games and Super Mario Bros is still very enjoyable for example. Show it to him to see if he reacts to it.
Click to expand...

Don't bring sense into this.
 
B

Bending_Unit_22

Member
Get him on real games with buttons as soon as possible. I've been doing it with the bratlings my cousins and gf's family are popping out at regular intervals. It may not work, but then sometimes you have a 10 year old asking you to help him in his first Zelda game and it's priceless.
 
S

SneakyStephan

Banned
oatmeal said:
So introducing a new system every few months is what?

This is all assuming he's even interested in gaming in the first place. He might want to be a dancer.
Click to expand...
No real things.
Nature, physics, weather, tastes, smells, sounds.

Unless you want him to grow up throwing like a girl and shying away from the real world.

w/e, I'd keep my kid away from games and tv till a later age.
 
O

oatmeal

Banned
Joei said:
Hahahah...

Ok, if you have the stuff available for him to play, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but "making" him play them before current age stuff would be ridiculous. I doubt if it would work much, though there is a chance he could come across something "old" that he likes.
Click to expand...

I don't know. I don't think he'd have much knowledge of 'other stuff'. I don't play new stuff too often any more, I play my Halo's and Zelda's...but I'm not a crazy gamer. I set up an old TV in his room and a NES, he's gonna be interested.

And this is all an idea...when he shits out I could be all "OMG I NEED TO SPOIL YOU HERES YOUR OWN KINECT!!!"
 
V

VGChampion

Member
When I was a teen I always thought I'd have my kid go through the old history but in reality I'll let my kids play what they want. If they don't want to play the old games at first that's totally fine.
 
O

oatmeal

Banned
SneakyStephan said:
No real things.
Nature, physics, weather, tastes, smells, sounds.

Unless you want him to grow up throwing like a girl and shying away from the real world.
Click to expand...

So I won't buy the leash.

No big deal.
 
O

oatmeal

Banned
VGChampion said:
When I was a teen I always thought I'd have my kid go through the old history but in reality I'll let my kids play what they want. If they don't want to play the old games at first that's totally fine.
Click to expand...

I don't want him to grow up saying stuff like...

"I don't want -- your life!"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Gaming from a perspective of a 9yo whom gaming life I've possibly ruined
Social Cringe 2 3
105
6K
newtypepilot replied
I've had a rough Christmas and I just want to vent
45
4K
Dev1lXYZ replied
The parent connection: What game would your adult kid fire up right now, and screenshot, to bring a smile to your face?
10
822
marjo replied
My family has owned a lot of pet's. I want to tell you about them
25
1K
Badlucktroll replied
Fallout - Series Reviews
14 15 16 17 18
897
43K
eerik9000 replied
Top Bottom