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[More_Badass]

freemium shovelware =/= games someone personally doesnt like. It's designed to be addictive, designed to make you want to spend money and designed to keep you coming back. It's objectively BAD. So kids should be kept away from it.



people saying that are probably young themselves, because when you're young you WANT your parents to leave you alone haha.

Except in this case, the parent has limited his time, removed the ability to pay, so it comes down to him having fun and playing with his friends. Trying to replace what your child enjoys with what you think is fun because you think what he's playing isn't fun, is the questionable part here

 

[RPGam3r]

Guidance on things that matter, sure. Not on video games.

As many people have pointed out the design behind many popular freemium games are potentially not good for children. Also you comment completely ignores ESRB entirely.

 

[Gamezone]

Give him a Sega Megadrive or Super Nintendo. Mobile games are dangerous if they get their hands on a credit card some day.

 

[Nesther]

Ironically, my dad who, like the OP, was very into getting me to play high-quality games on the SNES and Genesis (which in hindsight I'm very grateful for), is now really into f2p mobile games while I a stay far away from these Farmville type of games.

I don't think there's a clear solution here. In my teenage years I've made my fair share of experiences with browser games that feed off peer pressure and make you constantly micro-manage stuff, and I was able to recognize them for the soulless timesinks that a lot of them are.
But in the end, I made that decision and not my parents. So yeah OP, I'd say keep up what you're doing and see how it develops.

 

[Laws00]

Did this get an answer or solved?

I would say even if you don't like his choice he should play what he wants to play. Now if he is spending or using money on these things then ya that maybe a problem id say you should intervene

 

[ArtHands]

freemium shovelware =/= games someone personally doesnt like. It's designed to be addictive, designed to make you want to spend money and designed to keep you coming back. It's objectively BAD. So kids should be kept away from it.



people saying that are probably young themselves, because when you're young you WANT your parents to leave you alone haha.

Its not objectively bad. There are still some quality freemium games too. freemium shovelware = what OT doesn't like, and his kid personally like. Its still an issue of enforcing personal taste onto the kid. (for all you know, maybe his kid is trying to help his dad to save money on game at the same time too, hence he's playing those free games).

Did you read what you wrote? What game maker doesn't want the gamers to keep coming back and replay their game? Do you realized that almost every non-freemium games are designed to make you pay for them too?

 

[The Hermit]

Gaf, my son is a casual! What do I do? What was my mistake?

 

[Kelegacy]

Don't let kid play anything they want. He's still too young for that. Do you let him eat whatever he wants (i.e. sugar-filled crap 99% of the time)? You're supposed to guide and educate your kid not let them do whatever they want just because it seems fun.

Those games are most of the time not even 'fun'. They are forming an addiction, and exploiting addictive/pavlovian instincts in people, without giving you any kind of meaningful reward or improving any kind of skill.

This is how I feel and what I was going to post. You don't let kids do whatever they want. These are their formative years, and they are like sponges. It's the reason "brainwashing" of some sorts works so darn well on younger people.

I am not suggesting games are the equivalent of drugs, but the idea you should let kids do whatever they want, even within reason, is faulty and dangerous.

I have 2 young children and sincerely hope they don't contribute to gaming's demise (i.e. its current business models) like so many have before them, including many on these very boards. I want them to have fun and game if they want to (and my oldest who is 5 does) but like most everything at that age, they need a guiding hand. Otherwise, they may wind up as jobless adults living in my basement playing Candy Crush 5 in a credit card induced high.

 

[Clunker]

Don't let kid play anything they want. He's still too young for that. Do you let him eat whatever he wants (i.e. sugar-filled crap 99% of the time)? You're supposed to guide and educate your kid not let them do whatever they want just because it seems fun.

Those games are most of the time not even 'fun'. They are forming an addiction, and exploiting addictive/pavlovian instincts in people, without giving you any kind of meaningful reward or improving any kind of skill.

Let's be real here, though: there's a fundamental difference between nutrition and entertainment choices.

As a thought experiment: Would those who share the above sentiment do the same thing for their children's tastes in music? "This Ariana Grande song is objectively terrible, I'm banning you from listening to Top 40 and forcing you to listen only to my preselected list of progressive rock and 90s era early grunge"?

I think, yes, a lot of modern pop is pretty shitty and disposable, but I also wouldn't completely remove my child's own interests from the equation of his/her hobbies and pastimes. It's a completely valid (and opportune) time to introduce your child to the basics of game design, but just saying "no, this is for your own good" will do nothing but ostracize her from her friends at the lunch table.

A relevant Onion article, as always.

 

[IISANDERII]

I honestly feel as though brain cells are dying if i play these games. I would never allow my kid to play them.

 

[Mandoric]

I find it amusing that so many people have forgotten the ultimate stamina cooldown of their own generation - "mom won't give me another quarter until next time we do laundry".

Let the kid play what he wants, but if he asks for money treat it like the arcade - limit it, meter it, and try to teach him the value of mastery. There are a fair amount of good F2P titles out there, even stamina-gated, and if he can't normally whale it up he'll gravitate toward those; at that point, when he DOES get a few bucks App Store or Play credit, he'll be torching it on the equivalent of spending all afternoon trying at high scores rather than the equivalent of feeding The Simpsons quarters until he sees the ending.

I have 2 young children and sincerely hope they don't contribute to gaming's demise (i.e. its current business models) like so many have before them, including many on these very boards. I want them to have fun and game if they want to (and my oldest who is 5 does) but like most everything at that age, they need a guiding hand. Otherwise, they may wind up as jobless adults living in my basement playing Candy Crush 5 in a credit card induced high.

Or they can end up in the basement posting to GAF "well, this Youtube guy finished The Order in five hours, but I bet he's a gaming god or he wouldn't have a Youtube channel so it'll probably take normal people like me 15! And 15 hours of Epic Content® is worth 80 bucks, so it'll be a great game!"
F2P's so hot right now because it brings all the bad AND the good of the arcade model to a userbase that finds something vital missing in a Skinner's-rats-style chase after the next cheevo or cutscene. For the medium, or at least the less-than-a-medium more-than-a-genre, to reach its full potential, we need to reject BOTH the bad-cop Skinner boxes, modern-day quarter munchers like iOS Dungeon Keeper that tell you you can only get an endorphin rush by dropping in another credit, AND the good-cop Skinner boxes, content tours so common in AAA that promise you the endorphins will never stop flowing as long as you always have fresh content to database as Azuma described.

 

[FyreWulff]

Do you also dictate what careers your kids will take?

lol, no. I will be a parent and guide them to what I think is a better use of their time, talk to them on why those types of games try to exploit you instead of having actual fun or creativity, and if they don't like it, too bad. They can wait until they move out and do whatever they want.

Kids' minds are not like adult minds.

I think, yes, a lot of modern pop is pretty shitty and disposable, but I also wouldn't completely remove my child's own interests from the equation of his/her hobbies and pastimes. It's a completely valid (and opportune) time to introduce your child to the basics of game design, but just saying "no, this is for your own good" will do nothing but ostracize her from her friends at the lunch table.

oh, there's the "but they won't be cool at school" excuse

 

[Allegrian]

Show him this: http://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s18e06-freemium-isnt-free#source=fba639b0-ae4d-49b0-9d5d-addb27823f4b:c6cbd5e3-7eae-4cc3-94b7-119c8d412f99&position=6&sort=!airdate