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[rofif]

I've got a 9yo nephew who is the gamer kid.
His parents are not interested and doesn't know anything about gaming, so I am his best uncle...
He was always craving to play console and pc alike at my house and I hate kids, so obviously I wanted to introduce him into gaming on his own since his parents don't know anything.

Over the years I've (santa) got him ps3, ps4(year after year basically) and steam deck this last Christmas. I also got him a i5 laptop along the way but not gaming (intel igpu).... I did manage to preinstall like 20 games on there. You know, celeste, stardew valley, cuphead, super meatboy and all the likes I could get from my gog. It's OK for indie games and some more.
The order, year after year was - ps3, ps4, laptop+steam account creation, steam deck.
He enjoys console gaming well enough. He is not into spider-man and other more "real" games but he likes his sponge bobs and raymans etc. He loves astro on ps5 and finished it 2 times at my place... so that kind of games probably.
His fav games on ps3 and ps4 are little big planet games (he's got all of them), rayman games and spelunky 1 and 2. I even got him a custom spelunky(my design!) made hoodie and a cup:

Spoiler: cool spelunky crap

Of course, all for big holidays and after consulting parents. I don't want to spoil the kid against his parents will lol. I am just an uncle after all.

The point is - he is a spoiled little shit lol... maybe? He still is not interested in any actual gaming. He only craves gadgets like psvr now and so on... And he expressed steam gaming interest many times before (hence the steam deck).
My idea behind steam deck was to force him to tinker... you know, to use the brain at least a bit. Sure it's not a huge rgb gaming pc but I am just a fucking uncle, not a money laundering gangster lol.
And it all kinda failed. PS3 is just his littlebig planet machine. nothing else. ps4 is just a rayman and sponge bob machine despite having plenty of games(who cares about spider-man right).
He got plenty of steam games on steam deck. I got him darksiders, red faction guerilla, all valve games and plenty of other stuff on sales. (lol phantom pain is a bit much for a 9yo though)
He kinda understands how to use it and all but nope. He got no interest in learning it any deeper, looses patience INSTANLY, he is not tinkering, setting games and control profiles - nothing. He just uses it to play 5 nights at freddies and terrible clones... these fake horror games for kids you know.

He just got a ps1... He wanted another gadget. He was collecting money for oculus quest but once he got 100$, he got a ps1 with coolboarders and demolition race (wtf)... and of course he kinda just wanted to have it. No real interest in playing it.
I explained him that he can play all ps1 games on steam deck and I will show him how... nope. He loathes the steam deck and he kinda said that he does not like using it.
As for the ps1 - yeah, why not. Cool idea. I explained to him that ps1 games are expensive and is he sure he wants to use his oculus quest savings... I was strongly disagreeing with ps1 purchase but my mom (his grandmother) helped him get it after all. He doesn't understand why he wants it. He does because probably some youtuber got it.

The crux of the issue is - I wanted to awake his curiosity and tinkering skills. Slow start with console games, then laptop, steam deck and so on but I failed. He kinda is a spoiled kid now who doesn't understand what he has. 0 appreciation. He still mainly watches games on youtube or plays these crap piece of shit fake games that kid streamers play.
I think I should've just gotten him A NINTENDO SWITCH instead of all of that. He would've probably been happier with switch+windows laptop. I didn't do that because switch games are super expensive and I know his parents would not be getting him more games... and I felt it would be good to have him learn new things than just play nintendo.
What do you think?

addendum - I was 5 when I got nes(clone but it accepted nes cardridges), then pc when I was 7-8. I think getting into gaming was much easier back then but also required a lot of action from my side. I had my pc and parents gave me allowance each month, with which I got 1 magazine monthly with plenty of demos and full games. I was buying it myself and never had it handed over. Cheap, plenty of demos and full games, plenty of READING, pc required tinkering to get everything to work. + I had all the games I wanted since kids were exchanging discs around the neighborhood. I had everything I needed because I knew what I wanted. no input from parents, uncles, nobody. When asked parents for new GPU, I precisely asked for it.
Now? technically access to games is INFINITELY BETTER AND EASIER. But there are tons of accounts, oversaturation, platforms and a history of games and gaming of last 30 years which kids do not have. Franchises dosn't matter to them. They don't know what games are good, what games are bad and there is infinite amount of stuff to filter. They don't even have magazines with reviews and demo discs to filter it. I think it is super confusing. Kids easily fall into the fake horror games stuff and kids streaming channels with bad games(like imagine if all your gaming knowledge was yt videos of people playing 5 nights at freddies and every clone).

tl;dr am I a terrible uncle ?!

 

[Fuz]

The crux of the issue is - I wanted to awake his curiosity and tinkering skills.

He has too much for that.
Those skills driven by curiosity and boredom.

 

[Punished Miku]

Kids easily fall into the fake horror games stuff and kids streaming channels with bad games(like imagine if all your gaming knowledge was yt videos of people playing 5 nights at freddies and every clone).

Horror is most fun when you're actually scared. You're really only scared when you're a kid. He might literally be scared of turning out the lights still because there's monsters under his bed. You're just not realizing how vast the gap is between what you value and what a 9 year old is thinking. Steam Deck seems a bit wasted for sure.

As for the reason kids all seem fascinated with cheap looking games, I think it's because they look and play more like toys instead of movies. I think they're looking for actual gameplay experiences, and probably love multiplayer as well. All we used to play was local co-op all day every day. Streamers are surrogates for friends. Main thing he probably gets out of gaming is the social aspect, even if it's watching someone else play. I don't think you really even have the attention span or desire to play long single player games until a few years later than 9 years old.

 

[Gaiff]

The point is - he is a spoiled little shit lol... maybe?

Jesus Christ, yes he is.

When I was a kid and got my SNES with no games, my dad went, "Games? What games? I paid $200 for this!"

I wish I had an uncle like you. I still remember salivating at the Toys 'R' Us circulars video games section back in the 90s knowing damn well my parents wouldn't get me any of that.

 

[feynoob]

You fed him too much.
Starve him little bit.

 

[rofif]

He has too much for that.
Those skills driven by curiosity and boredom.

yeah for sure. I had my pc and I had a lot of time. I explored every inch of that magazine and demo disc each month. cd-action btw. Great gaming magazine in Poland! I had over 100 issues!
But to be honest, his grandmother is spoiling him way more. And as for "santa" gifts, I consulted each and every one with his parents, warning them about being spoiled and so on on.
I think it is easy to spoil a kid because my family was rather poor when I grew up... so now they are giving the boys everything they can. Me too yeah

 

[touchfuzzy]

This is called... gamer projection. You'd do it with your own kids too.

Like really, how many people that play video games actually turn into 'one of us' dorks that follow everything, talk about it online, know everything about it, etc. 1% of 1%, maybe? Vast, vast majority of people it's just a fun time killer, and there's nothing wrong with that. He'll probably move on to other interests shortly and that will be that.

Also, he's just your nephew. Don't get so invested. I could care less what any of my nieces and nephews are up to, got enough going on with my own family, lol.

 

[squarealex]

I feel OP like this

 

[Fuz]

Jesus Christ, yes he is.

When I was a kid and got my SNES with no games, my dad went, "Games? What games? I paid $200 for this!"

I wish I had an uncle like you. I still remember salivating at the Toys 'R' Us circulars video games section back in the 90s knowing damn well my parents wouldn't get me any of that.

That's how I learned to code BASIC at 7.

 

[rofif]

I feel OP like this

Dude

 

[Gaiff]

He has too many devices now but may I suggest intentionally causing his toys to malfunction so he figures out what to do? This is what drove me to tinker with PCs.

 

[rofif]

He has too many devices now but may I suggest intentionally causing his toys to malfunction so he figures out what to do? This is what drove me to tinker with PCs.

Not the worst idea. As for now, I kinda led him in a direction of distributing the toys. One console is at on grandmother, one at another and steam deck with him of course. But it's summer now so obviously he got his toys at grandparents house

 

[Gaiff]

Not the worst idea. As for now, I kinda led him in a direction of distributing the toys. One console is at on grandmother, one at another and steam deck with him of course. But it's summer now so obviously he got his toys at grandparents house

Yeah, and he has Google and access to stuff we didn't even dream of at his age. Something as simple as changing a setting so his game doesn't launch or causes his computer to go to sleep after like 30 seconds. Whatever you can think of to inconvenience him lol.

Necessity is the mother of inventions as we say. If he really wants to play, he'll have to figure out how to solve the problems.

 

[Bry0]

you’re not a bad uncle but maybe pull back a bit with all the systems you buy him. Sounds like he needs time to explore what he has. At 9 years old he is still very young. Yeah some of us may have been tinkering then, but we grew up in a different time.

 

[-Zelda-]

I don't think you really even have the attention span or desire to play long single player games until a few years later than 9 years old.

I can only speak for myself when I say this was not me at that age. Sure I liked Star Fox and Mega Man X, but I was first and foremost into stuff like Final Fantasy 6, where characters would stop fighting and just talk to each other about everything going on around them world/lore/plot/backstory wise. I know why I was like that, but I would rather not go into that out here.

 

[Guilty_AI]

He has too much for that.
Those skills driven by curiosity and boredom.

Yep, basically this. Most of my interest was driven by not having access to things. Wanted to play some cool new game? Had to wait for my vacation so i could visit family in another state and use my cousin's pc to play the games i had.

Wanted to play GTA SA? Throw together a pc (with help of course since i was just a dumb kid) with gathered old parts in order to access it.

Consoles? A hands-me down sega saturn, no way to buy new games apart from the ones it came with.

Games? Often had to have someone give or lend one to me. I remember getting Half-life by accident cause it came with a copy of Counter Strike someone lend to me. Went on to become a favorite.

 

[rofif]

Horror is most fun when you're actually scared. You're really only scared when you're a kid. He might literally be scared of turning out the lights still because there's monsters under his bed. You're just not realizing how vast the gap is between what you value and what a 9 year old is thinking. Steam Deck seems a bit wasted for sure.

As for the reason kids all seem fascinated with cheap looking games, I think it's because they look and play more like toys instead of movies. I think they're looking for actual gameplay experiences, and probably love multiplayer as well. All we used to play was local co-op all day every day. Streamers are surrogates for friends. Main thing he probably gets out of gaming is the social aspect, even if it's watching someone else play. I don't think you really even have the attention span or desire to play long single player games until a few years later than 9 years old.

yeah for sure. nicely said there.
Shame his parents are not interested. I live in a different city btw. (not that I would like to spend time gaming with him )
He does call me and I give him every advice possible.
The friends part I interesting - as I've said. I met a lot of friends because it was required to go around and exchange games, demo discs and so on. Gaming in the 90s and early 2000s created more friends!

 

[Putonahappyface]

Spoil him while you can. I have two nephews and a neice and once they get into there teens, they're horrible insufferable little turds!

 

[Gaiff]

Spoil him while you can. I have two nephews and a neice and once they get into there teens, they're horrible insufferable little turds!

Geez, I wonder why.

 

[rofif]

Yep, basically this. Most of my interest was driven by not having access to things. Wanted to play some cool new game? Had to wait for my vacation so i could visit family in another state and use my cousin's pc to play the games i had.

Wanted to play GTA SA? Throw together a pc (with help of course since i was just a dumb kid) with gathered old parts in order to access it.

Consoles? A hands-me down sega saturn, no way to buy new games apart from the ones it came with.

Games? Often had to have someone give or lend one to me. I remember getting Half-life by accident cause it came with a copy of Counter Strike someone lend to me. Went on to become a favorite.

True. Today, when he got a used ps1 (from the used game store in a mall) after throwing a tantrum, I asked my mother(who he stays with for summer) if I was the same and she said absolutely not. I would lock myself in the room and play and tinker and go to friends to do the same.
He had one goal - to collect enough money for oculus quest since he saw it somewhere on the internet... but this pointless ps1 now ruined it. Nobody stopped him. I explained but he threw a tantrum and grandmother agreed!
now, I bet he will be bored of that ps1 by tomorrow and be wasting my grandparents time to return it lol.

 

[rofif]

Spoil him while you can. I have two nephews and a neice and once they get into there teens, they're horrible insufferable little turds!

Geez, I wonder why.

I mean... that's one way to do it! Spoil the kid. Give him a care free childhood that he will remember fondly. He might appreciate it once the times get hard on him when he is an adult... right?
Or he will be an insufferable turd

I think I had a perfect childhood... and I only had nes and later pc. Nothing else haha.
But if I had ps1 childhood, it would be perfect too. Maybe we always remember our childhood fondly?

edit: I also loved lego!!! Technic to be precise. I even remember burning some pirate games and exchanging with an older kid who gave me a TON OF TECHNIC for it. And my nephew? He got 10x more lego than I ever had. All in a bucket.... he still only cares for minecraft sets lol

 

[Gaiff]

True. Today, when he got a used ps1 (from the used game store in a mall) after throwing a tantrum, I asked my mother(who he stays with for summer) if I was the same and she said absolutely not. I would lock myself in the room and play and tinker and go to friends to do the same.
He had one goal - to collect enough money for oculus quest since he saw it somewhere on the internet... but this pointless ps1 now ruined it. Nobody stopped him. I explained but he threw a tantrum and grandmother agreed!
now, I bet he will be bored of that ps1 by tomorrow and be wasting my grandparents time to return it lol.

Lol, yeah, he's got too much. It's a bit like the advice of not feeding the bears. You feed them and they become accustomed to it. Then, they become aggressive when denied food.

Your nephew is the bear (no offense) and the games are the food.

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

Shoulda got him into Switch gaming, then he might not hate the hobby.

 

[rofif]

Shoulda got him into Switch gaming, then he might not hate the hobby.

yep. But He gave me a lot of signals that he is into pc/steam gaming. And steam deck is so much better than switch !!! I would've killed for steam deck when I was a kid!
But yeah. Switch right away would be the better option. Then when he is a bit older, gaming pc

 

[Putonahappyface]

I mean... that's one way to do it! Spoil the kid. Give him a care free childhood that he will remember fondly. He might appreciate it once the times get hard on him when he is an adult... right?
Or he will be an insufferable turd

I think I had a perfect childhood... and I only had nes and later pc. Nothing else haha.
But if I had ps1 childhood, it would be perfect too. Maybe we always remember our childhood fondly?

edit: I also loved lego!!! Technic to be precise. I even remember burning some pirate games and exchanging with an older kid who gave me a TON OF TECHNIC for it. And my nephew? He got 10x more lego than I ever had. All in a bucket.... he still only cares for minecraft sets lol

All teens are insufferable regardless. I'm saying enjoy his company while it lasts.

 

[intbal]

I recommend the Parker Brothers Merlin.
It was my first "handheld" console.
It's also a Phone, 007 Espionage gadget, and Star Trek communicator (imagination required).

 

[bender]

Buy him a cup-and-ball, cut the string, and have him play at the top of a steep hill.

 

[Kenneth Haight]

At his age the height of my gaming life was the PS1 and it was groundbreaking.

I had a game gear as well which looking back on it was like a sega steam deck. It was so good at the time.

 

[Gaiff]

While we're on the subject of gaming as children, any of you guys used to steal the TV remote control batteries to power your Game Boy?

 

[Kenneth Haight]

While we're on the subject of gaming as children, any of you guys used to steal the TV remote control batteries to power your Game Boy?

 

[JimboJones]

Wasn't until I was in my late 20's I wanted to tinker with PC's, as a child and in my teens I just wanted consoles or have my PC games set up for me by a more knowledgeable family member or friend.

My nephew went through the whole five night at Freddie and terrible YouTubers game phase but he recently got into breath of the wild and even started playing Link to the past where before he was like "yuck that games old" lol.

Don't think he'd be ready for PC tinkering by himself , I usually set that up for him if he wants a certain game but I wouldn't worry about it, they'll develop there own interests in due time.

 

[Banjo64]

You’ve never bought him a Nintendo console at his age?

 

[-Zelda-]

Bit of a joke, but this topic is giving me Mega64 vibes:

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

I've got a 9yo nephew who is the gamer kid.
His parents are not interested and doesn't know anything about gaming, so I am his best uncle...
He was always craving to play console and pc alike at my house and I hate kids, so obviously I wanted to introduce him into gaming on his own since his parents don't know anything.

Over the years I've (santa) got him ps3, ps4(year after year basically) and steam deck this last Christmas. I also got him a i5 laptop along the way but not gaming (intel igpu).... I did manage to preinstall like 20 games on there. You know, celeste, stardew valley, cuphead, super meatboy and all the likes I could get from my gog. It's OK for indie games and some more.
The order, year after year was - ps3, ps4, laptop+steam account creation, steam deck.
He enjoys console gaming well enough. He is not into spider-man and other more "real" games but he likes his sponge bobs and raymans etc. He loves astro on ps5 and finished it 2 times at my place... so that kind of games probably.
His fav games on ps3 and ps4 are little big planet games (he's got all of them), rayman games and spelunky 1 and 2. I even got him a custom spelunky(my design!) made hoodie and a cup:

Of course, all for big holidays and after consulting parents. I don't want to spoil the kid against his parents will lol. I am just an uncle after all.

The point is - he is a spoiled little shit lol... maybe? He still is not interested in any actual gaming. He only craves gadgets like psvr now and so on... And he expressed steam gaming interest many times before (hence the steam deck).
My idea behind steam deck was to force him to tinker... you know, to use the brain at least a bit. Sure it's not a huge rgb gaming pc but I am just a fucking uncle, not a money laundering gangster lol.
And it all kinda failed. PS3 is just his littlebig planet machine. nothing else. ps4 is just a rayman and sponge bob machine despite having plenty of games(who cares about spider-man right).
He got plenty of steam games on steam deck. I got him darksiders, red faction guerilla, all valve games and plenty of other stuff on sales. (lol phantom pain is a bit much for a 9yo though)
He kinda understands how to use it and all but nope. He got no interest in learning it any deeper, looses patience INSTANLY, he is not tinkering, setting games and control profiles - nothing. He just uses it to play 5 nights at freddies and terrible clones... these fake horror games for kids you know.

He just got a ps1... He wanted another gadget. He was collecting money for oculus quest but once he got 100$, he got a ps1 with coolboarders and demolition race (wtf)... and of course he kinda just wanted to have it. No real interest in playing it.
I explained him that he can play all ps1 games on steam deck and I will show him how... nope. He loathes the steam deck and he kinda said that he does not like using it.
As for the ps1 - yeah, why not. Cool idea. I explained to him that ps1 games are expensive and is he sure he wants to use his oculus quest savings... I was strongly disagreeing with ps1 purchase but my mom (his grandmother) helped him get it after all. He doesn't understand why he wants it. He does because probably some youtuber got it.

The crux of the issue is - I wanted to awake his curiosity and tinkering skills. Slow start with console games, then laptop, steam deck and so on but I failed. He kinda is a spoiled kid now who doesn't understand what he has. 0 appreciation. He still mainly watches games on youtube or plays these crap piece of shit fake games that kid streamers play.
I think I should've just gotten him A NINTENDO SWITCH instead of all of that. He would've probably been happier with switch+windows laptop. I didn't do that because switch games are super expensive and I know his parents would not be getting him more games... and I felt it would be good to have him learn new things than just play nintendo.
What do you think?

addendum - I was 5 when I got nes(clone but it accepted nes cardridges), then pc when I was 7-8. I think getting into gaming was much easier back then but also required a lot of action from my side. I had my pc and parents gave me allowance each month, with which I got 1 magazine monthly with plenty of demos and full games. I was buying it myself and never had it handed over. Cheap, plenty of demos and full games, plenty of READING, pc required tinkering to get everything to work. + I had all the games I wanted since kids were exchanging discs around the neighborhood. I had everything I needed because I knew what I wanted. no input from parents, uncles, nobody. When asked parents for new GPU, I precisely asked for it.
Now? technically access to games is INFINITELY BETTER AND EASIER. But there are tons of accounts, oversaturation, platforms and a history of games and gaming of last 30 years which kids do not have. Franchises dosn't matter to them. They don't know what games are good, what games are bad and there is infinite amount of stuff to filter. They don't even have magazines with reviews and demo discs to filter it. I think it is super confusing. Kids easily fall into the fake horror games stuff and kids streaming channels with bad games(like imagine if all your gaming knowledge was yt videos of people playing 5 nights at freddies and every clone).

tl;dr am I a terrible uncle ?!

TL;DR - you still have time. Invest quality 1:1 gaming time with him and show him why you are passionate about it. Transfer some of that passion (not a lot...but you know...enough that he thinks you give two fucks about garbage) toward what he is into now while brining him into better content. Taking the time to show him how to utilize the steam deck will go far...but beware the poison that are "influencers"....they ruin all the good shit with their stupid opinions.


So I am 10 years after where you are now.
No kids of my own, but nieces (1 gamer, 1 not) and 1 nephew (gamer...but also not the kind I wanted).

Here is what I DID NOT account for. His goddman stupid friends. They ruined everything.
The kid had access to everything under the sun, all the latest consoles and I showered him in anything that he showed interest in. Portable, PC's, consoles, you name it and I took it as an excuse the spoil the crap out of him.

Then his friends started having "opinions" and they all got into FPS games. In a previous life I worked on a few of the games he was into which he loved and thought I was the coolest person on the planet, but by the time he started playing them I was past working on those titles and they just didn't interest me. I could never get him into the stuff I considered quality, hell I couldn't even help him cultivate a knowledge of gaming (past, present, new future etc).

Lesson: I failed him. I didn't spend enough time getting to know what games he would like and I didn't spend enough quality time playing games WITH him (mostly due to physical distance in his formative years). The time I got to spend palying games on XBox with him (god...his friends have the WORST taste) were a blast and honestly are some of my favorite gaming memories even though I didn't like the games we played.

 

[rofif]

TL;DR - you still have time. Invest quality 1:1 gaming time with him and show him why you are passionate about it. Transfer some of that passion (not a lot...but you know...enough that he thinks you give two fucks about garbage) toward what he is into now while brining him into better content. Taking the time to show him how to utilize the steam deck will go far...but beware the poison that are "influencers"....they ruin all the good shit with their stupid opinions.


So I am 10 years after where you are now.
No kids of my own, but nieces (1 gamer, 1 not) and 1 nephew (gamer...but also not the kind I wanted).

Here is what I DID NOT account for. His goddman stupid friends. They ruined everything.
The kid had access to everything under the sun, all the latest consoles and I showered him in anything that he showed interest in. Portable, PC's, consoles, you name it and I took it as an excuse the spoil the crap out of him.

Then his friends started having "opinions" and they all got into FPS games. In a previous life I worked on a few of the games he was into which he loved and thought I was the coolest person on the planet, but by the time he started playing them I was past working on those titles and they just didn't interest me. I could never get him into the stuff I considered quality, hell I couldn't even help him cultivate a knowledge of gaming (past, present, new future etc).

Lesson: I failed him. I didn't spend enough time getting to know what games he would like and I didn't spend enough quality time playing games WITH him (mostly due to physical distance in his formative years). The time I got to spend palying games on XBox with him (god...his friends have the WORST taste) were a blast and honestly are some of my favorite gaming memories even though I didn't like the games we played.

I agree what you are saying. Nothing beats quality 1:1 session. Maybe if he spends good gaming time with me. I never had that though. I made my own gaming habits and friends. But I never needed that. I liked exploring on my own. But people are different.

Also - don't be too hard on yourself. It is not your child after all. You are only an uncle. There is only so much you can do and parents should do their job/love. As should the kid explore his curiosity by himself which is almost impossible nowadays because media and internet destroyed kids attention span.
you tried to be a good person and by the sound of that, you did good. you can't make everyone happy. It just hits much harder when you make this one "pet project" "I will make his childhood great" and still fail. I think I understand It is summer. I might invite him few times over to play some games with him. Although I hate spending time with kids haha.

 

[jshackles]

OP, you've gotta let kids develop their own tastes in gaming. It's not your job as an adult / authority figure to gate keep the decisions he makes or the tastes he develops. If your nephew wants to play stuff like Spongebob, Rayman, or Little Big Planet - let him. Play those games with him. He's nine years old.

 

[DanEON]

I used to play games because all my friends did too. If he is not getting into gaming is because his friends dont play videogames. And if you force him to play videogames, while his friends dont, he will be a lonely kid, and that is bad. So just let him do it at his own pace.

 

[Danknugz]

maybe good gaming is just a thing of the past and kids these days will find their own version of "gaming" for their own generation. because as it stands now, they're merely pawns for the corporate overlords who control then through shitty, unfun games and youtubers paid to pretend & convince that they are having fun.

what that is, is anyone's guess. if i were a kid these days i certainly wouldn't be into gaming, because it's too mainstream and sanitized. the whole appeal of gaming for me as a kid was that it was an escape and kind of underground (at least to adults), where you could have fun without your parents looking over your shoulder. that whole aspect is kind of gone now because games are either too "safe" and don't have any edge, or they are just derivative crap still trying to be the next mario or zelda 30 years later.

 

[Filben]

This makes my gaming heart a little bit sad. I was 11 when I first played Deus Ex, didn't understand the story (apart from NSF bad guys at first then good ones) but how the game worked gameplay-wise and I had a blast. Nowadays' kids click vigirously on the display to increase some numbers in an idle clicker game and can't follow or comprehend any video longer than 15sec. Different tech, different era, different peers I guess.

However, he doesn't need to be like you. Everyone has a different taste. Just because you had and still have a different experience doesn't mean it has to be the same for someone else. Sometimes it comes naturally. The other day I was playing TotK at my friend's and his 10 old daughter saw it on the TV screen and was intrigued and was hooked from the very first second. She understood how the ultra hand and time reverse worked after the first minute and shared her ideas of solving puzzles, started reading out loud dialogues from NPCs with great emphasis. That was fun but I didn't take it for granted nor did I ask her to join me. I was merely playing for my self when she saw it and she joined me on her own accord.

What you should not be doing, though, is dumping all those "toys" on him. From my experience, kids these days have so fucking much it is simply sensory overload. They can't focus on one thing for 10 minutes without leaving it on the spot to turn to the next thing. And then we complain why their attention span is as short as a 15sec tiktok video and things like reading comprehension goes down the drain. (I've worked at a school for years and boy are these kids in trouble when they get out of school...)

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

I agree what you are saying. Nothing beats quality 1:1 session. Maybe if he spends good gaming time with me. I never had that though. I made my own gaming habits and friends. But I never needed that. I liked exploring on my own. But people are different.

Also - don't be too hard on yourself. It is not your child after all. You are only an uncle. There is only so much you can do and parents should do their job/love. As should the kid explore his curiosity by himself which is almost impossible nowadays because media and internet destroyed kids attention span.
you tried to be a good person and by the sound of that, you did good. you can't make everyone happy. It just hits much harder when you make this one "pet project" "I will make his childhood great" and still fail. I think I understand It is summer. I might invite him few times over to play some games with him. Although I hate spending time with kids haha.

But we both can agree...he should play forespoken and love it.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Just let him play whatever he wants. You cannot force casual player to play Red Dead Redemption 2 if all he wanna play is Fortnite.

Am not sure if there is any point in doing that or if RDR2 is even a better game than Fortnite.

 

[64bitmodels]

I think it's because they look and play more like toys instead of movies.

you know i never really thought of it that way but you're right. The colorful mascots like poppy or huggy wuggy or whatever the fuck are effective as monsters for kids and actual toys. This can also be seen in the insane amounts of merch these shit games have.... They're not meant to be art, they're meant to be products, and effective ones at that.

Ultimately i'd be happy to introduce them to actual horror masterpiece games like Resident Evil or Silent Hill, but they're simply not grown enough for that. Games like that you won't appreciate truly unless you're in your teens.

 

[rofif]

maybe good gaming is just a thing of the past and kids these days will find their own version of "gaming" for their own generation. because as it stands now, they're merely pawns for the corporate overlords who control then through shitty, unfun games and youtubers paid to pretend & convince that they are having fun.

what that is, is anyone's guess. if i were a kid these days i certainly wouldn't be into gaming, because it's too mainstream and sanitized. the whole appeal of gaming for me as a kid was that it was an escape and kind of underground (at least to adults), where you could have fun without your parents looking over your shoulder. that whole aspect is kind of gone now because games are either too "safe" and don't have any edge, or they are just derivative crap still trying to be the next mario or zelda 30 years later.

This makes my gaming heart a little bit sad. I was 11 when I first played Deus Ex, didn't understand the story (apart from NSF bad guys at first then good ones) but how the game worked gameplay-wise and I had a blast. Nowadays' kids click vigirously on the display to increase some numbers in an idle clicker game and can't follow or comprehend any video longer than 15sec. Different tech, different era, different peers I guess.

However, he doesn't need to be like you. Everyone has a different taste. Just because you had and still have a different experience doesn't mean it has to be the same for someone else. Sometimes it comes naturally. The other day I was playing TotK at my friend's and his 10 old daughter saw it on the TV screen and was intrigued and was hooked from the very first second. She understood how the ultra hand and time reverse worked after the first minute and shared her ideas of solving puzzles, started reading out loud dialogues from NPCs with great emphasis. That was fun but I didn't take it for granted nor did I ask her to join me. I was merely playing for my self when she saw it and she joined me on her own accord.

What you should not be doing, though, is dumping all those "toys" on him. From my experience, kids these days have so fucking much it is simply sensory overload. They can't focus on one thing for 10 minutes without leaving it on the spot to turn to the next thing. And then we complain why their attention span is as short as a 15sec tiktok video and things like reading comprehension goes down the drain. (I've worked at a school for years and boy are these kids in trouble when they get out of school...)

Absolutely. Kids get bombarded with media. They are glued to their phones and are bombarded with yt trash. The younger nephew who is 5, is not a gamer thank god lol but he will stay on his phone HYPNOTIZED and watch the same song remix (that stupid "weller men" pirate song or whatever) in all the possible combination with horror monster from 5 nights at freddies and poppy playtime dancing.
He will listen to it for hours and then have nightmares. I critiqued my sister for this and she will take away his phone during the week days. it's nuts.
Youtube automatic "next video" Will go hell spiral on any content. You can load him on elmo cartoons and next hour elmo will be killing animals. it's nuts.
And that 5yo nephew, when we play charades, he will always show horror characters of "sundrop and moondrop and huggy Wuggy".... He will cycle these 3 over whole playtime. It's nuts.

And the older 9yo boy is extremely easy to manipulate by streamer folk, mobile games and knock off games. And when I was showing him some games at my place, he was constantly moving and reaching for his phone despite saying that he is enjoying the games he plays with me. He didn't but he was polite not to admit that. So at least he got something right.

Anyway - very short attention span, being very easy to manipulate by social media. There is so much filter required which we don't even realize that kids do not even grasp, let alone have.

 

[Laptop1991]

I got my son a PS2 just under 20 years ago then got him GTA, which my ex wife complained about, but he had played it on my PC anyway and i knew he would play them anyway, he is still gaming to this day, so i think i did it right and so is the OP lol.

 

[kvltus lvlzvs]

sadly, if the kid goes to public school and is allowed to consume the media that their public school friends consume, they are likely going to trend towards the normie baseline. It was not your doing, you probably were a better influence than most - but you also were likely a smaller influence, total time spent wise, than even one of their teachers in school, not to mention other kids or even - dare I say - youtube e celebs.

 

[rofif]

you know i never really thought of it that way but you're right. The colorful mascots like poppy or huggy wuggy or whatever the fuck are effective as monsters for kids and actual toys. This can also be seen in the insane amounts of merch these shit games have.... They're not meant to be art, they're meant to be products, and effective ones at that.

Ultimately i'd be happy to introduce them to actual horror masterpiece games like Resident Evil or Silent Hill, but they're simply not grown enough for that. Games like that you won't appreciate truly unless you're in your teens.

lol I launched RE2 remake for the older boy and he was not interested. it was boring. Why is nothing happening?! after playing for 3 seconds....
And no, these fake horror games are not scary at all for them. The younger 5yo boy has some nightmares but the older one treats these freddy or poppy playtime characters as internet starts.

 

[Last Hearth]

At that age I was playing Pac-Man and Centipede and Defender on the Atari.

Let him just play what he wants instead of force feeding him more "mature" games. He does not need to be playing Darksiders or Red Faction.

 

[64bitmodels]

Absolutely. Kids get bombarded with media. They are glued to their phones and are bombarded with yt trash. The younger nephew who is 5, is not a gamer thank god lol but he will stay on his phone HYPNOTIZED and watch the same song remix (that stupid "weller men" pirate song or whatever) in all the possible combination with horror monster from 5 nights at freddies and poppy playtime dancing.

This is really why you should've given him a Switch. The reason they gravitate to that junk is because it's colorful and wacky, even if it's a product with no soul or passion. Nintendo has colorful and wacky games that are actually good. If he were playing on that instead of a Deck he'd have way better gaming taste, imo. Stuff like Mario Odyssey, Minecraft, Kirby, Zelda ETC would've made him much more appreciative of the hobby from an earlier age. Everybody grew up on Nintendo for a reason... Except me. I was a Sega kid.

The Steam Deck is better as a gaming device in general i agree without a doubt, but as an introduction to gaming for a child, with all the options that Steam has and the mature games, lack of curation and shittons of shovelware as well as the handheld being a fat fuck.... it's a shit option. It works better for more seasoned people like you and me who understand gaming.

 

[Shifty1897]

You're not a terrible uncle, but it may be time to come to terms that he is not going to tinker and would be better off with something that works with zero effort.

 

[rofif]

This is really why you should've given him a Switch. The reason they gravitate to that junk is because it's colorful and wacky, even if it's a product with no soul or passion. Nintendo has colorful and wacky games that are actually good. If he were playing on that instead of a Deck he'd have way better gaming taste, imo. Stuff like Mario Odyssey, Minecraft, Kirby, Zelda ETC would've made him much more appreciative of the hobby from an earlier age. Everybody grew up on Nintendo for a reason... Except me. I was a Sega kid.

The Steam Deck is better as a gaming device in general i agree without a doubt, but as an introduction to gaming for a child, with all the options that Steam has and the mature games, lack of curation and shittons of shovelware as well as the handheld being a fat fuck.... it's a shit option. It works better for more seasoned people like you and me who understand gaming.

yeah absolutely I see it now. Sadly I had no money for switch at the time and only got him used ps3 (when we started with that) and so it began