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QuarkJets posted:My 7 year-old still really likes watching youtube videos over pretty much anything else. I'd like it if he spent more time doing things and less time watching things. I can get him to watch me play games, when I have time for that, but I can't get him to just sit down and play something on his own - if it's Mario for instance, then we have to be playing together, likewise for Mario Kart. He's discouraged by the difficulty of things that hasn't tried yet. I'm not sure what to do. Sounds similar to my daughter. She will try playing an action game and then after dying the first time (which is in two seconds in a Mario game), she will hand me the controller and ask me to play. What has managed to keep her interest has been games that are not just easier, but slower paced (ie not real-time). In Pokémon, she’ll happily wander around the landscape and then ask for help in the battles.
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Feb 25, 2024 09:57
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Update: I offered our 7 year-old a bowl of popcorn (his favorite food) if he'd try out Stardew Valley coop mode and now he's having a great time on my Steam controller while I play next to him with KB+M, he mostly wants to collect wood/rocks from our farm plot or walk around swinging the sword in the mines. He no longer cares about the solo farm that he was just observing before. That's progress!
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Feb 26, 2024 04:26
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Dusting off my FF14 account, reupped my subscription this month. This character is older than my children, took a bit to shake the rust off my fingers. I strapped my baby to the clockwork orange highchair. Sometimes I set up the game in the inn room and read some quest text out of the book labeled "The Unending Journey". This is some Neverending Story type poo poo and I'm so happy I get to read these silly tales to my daughter. Very well paced, I like the morals this presents, the music is calming. Just good pop up storybook time.
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Feb 28, 2024 19:42
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My in-laws recently hosted my 8 year old for a week. My BIL (with our approval) built him a "gaming computer" and installed Steam from my wife's account with the restricted games she's approved. The big game my son and uncle love to play together is Valheim. We got the computer setup last week. As an experienced computer toucher, I was able to complete the setup of Windows (added wireless adapter, bought product key, upgraded to 11, installed/verified Microsoft family restrictions on my son's account) but audio turned out to be a PITA with the crap we had laying around. I figured they'd want it "just because" and in brain damage from me getting that working and then immediately coordinating with BIL to get their game on, he asked me install Discord so they could chat and so my critical thinking skills were off. After trying to set my son up with his own account, being rejected due to age, I logged in using mine, and later looked into restricting access to realize, no that's not possible with Discord. What's a good app for one-on-one voice chat and maybe a text window for typing? The kind of thing my son can just click from the desktop and only talk to his uncle? I'm used to using Google Meet for work meetings which could fit the bill, but I'm thinking something easier/lightweight?
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Mar 7, 2024 00:43
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Messenger Kids will do that, but is perhaps not what you want. A Mumble server will do what you want, but from memory it's kind of a pain to setup, plus you have to host it somewhere. (you can host a small amount of stuff on a Oracle Cloud account for free)
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Mar 7, 2024 01:08
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Cheesus posted:My in-laws recently hosted my 8 year old for a week. My BIL (with our approval) built him a "gaming computer" and installed Steam from my wife's account with the restricted games she's approved. The big game my son and uncle love to play together is Valheim. Honestly Steam is a pretty good solution for text and voice chat if both users have steam accounts anyway
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Mar 7, 2024 04:56
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Steam also does group voice chat, BTW, if you want to play and chat with both of them
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Mar 7, 2024 05:00
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I can't believe I had no idea Steam did this. Thanks!
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Mar 7, 2024 13:06
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QuarkJets posted:My 7 year-old still really likes watching youtube videos over pretty much anything else. I'd like it if he spent more time doing things and less time watching things. I can get him to watch me play games, when I have time for that, but I can't get him to just sit down and play something on his own - if it's Mario for instance, then we have to be playing together, likewise for Mario Kart. He's discouraged by the difficulty of things that hasn't tried yet. I'm not sure what to do. My only solution to couch potato child was to have a literal backyard neighbor she plays with enough to drag the neighbors kids outside regularly. Even the other parents said their kids would sit on the couch if not for her. It's a forever battle with YouTube and it's algorithms, we've kept it to "You can do YouTube for background music" and let her pick stuff that's equivalent (she's huge on chillhop and down tempo so that works). Commonly tropical backgrounds with relaxing stuff. Gaming at ages depends on maturity. She loves watching me play XC3 at 9 but I don't have her play much of anything switch right now or I can never get her to stop, except for Tales of Vesperia which is a huge draw for her.
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Mar 7, 2024 15:15
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I started playing Haven last night and it might be a really good game for playing with kids. Pros: mechanically it's perfect, the game switches between solo and co-op seamlessly as a second controller turns on and off. The gameplay is low-stakes, scooting around on hover-shoes as you follow glowing paths and gather ingredients for the cooking minigame. There are extensive dialogue sections that are fully voice acted and subtitled, and you can pick the gender of both characters. Cons: I haven't played more than a few hours so I don't know what's coming up, but already there have been some references to a traumatic past foreshadowing of violent conflict. There was one PG-rated implication of sex so far, and a dialogue option hinted at suicide. Plus the core story matter (young lovers escaping their upbringing) just might not be interesting for some kids. Overall it's worth checking out in my opinion. If nothing else, it's a good casual couples game if your partner is into that, and the soundtrack is a chillout banger. fez_machine posted:Haven is a game most reviewers say is pretty horny lol never mind wizzardstaff fucked around with this message at 22:59 on Mar 7, 2024 |
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Mar 7, 2024 18:33
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Haven is a game most reviewers say is pretty horny
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Mar 7, 2024 22:07
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This seems the perfect place to ask: I host kids in the foster system professionally. They stay with me for weekends and school holidays and sometimes when they're in crisis, or their full time foster parents have thing like surgery or whatever so about once a year I have kids staying with me for a month or two. Ages range from 4 to 21. All the kids have a history. The luckiest 'just' have behavioural or developmental issues (ADHD, ASD, things like that) but some have fairly severe trauma and all of them have an attachment disorder to varying degrees. Most kids, like 95%, stay with me on a (semi) regular basis so I get to know them quite well and form a bond with them, which given their attachment disorders important. Now, the younger ones (up to age 8ish) I have plenty of entertainment for. I'm a big lego guy myself which is usually a hit, arts and crafts, playing outside (several playsgrounds, petting zoo, etc in my my immediate neighbourhood.) Video game wise it's simple single player games like minecraft, Untitled Goose Game popular, Goat Simulator or maybe Faal Guys it they've got the motor control. The older teens (15+) I can connect with because I'm very good at just hanging out with them, watching movies and talk about all their puberty related issues like love and sex and social relationships and whatever. They're independed enough that they find their entertainment out of the house with their peers, as they should, so I can take more of a distance. It's the middle group that I'm thinking about. They're not quite there where they can just go outside and hang out with friends, but also they're beyond 'childish' things like lego and arts and crafts and simple video games. Problem is all they want to play is either roblox (younger group), minecraft or fortnite. I'm too old for roblox and minecraft and I'm not interested enough to get into fortnite to get at their level so it's not suitable for a bonding experience I have had great success with It Takes Two. Gameplay is at their level, forgiving enough, and it gave me and the kid stuff to talk about while bonding over achieving things together without being too competitive aside from the the occasional screwing the other player over moment, which is another bonding and learning moment. So I'm basically looking for other coop games I can play with the younger teens, preferably on a single PS5 with two controllers but crossplay between the PS5 and my laptop is also an option.
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Mar 7, 2024 22:42
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Unravel 2 is very similar (proto version of) to it takes two. Maybe different LEGO games? There's a ton of different franchises and some of the more recent ones have an absolute bonkers number of characters and content (marvel 2, Skywalker saga, DC villains). Minecraft dungeons is basically Diablo for kids and can be pretty fun too.
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Mar 8, 2024 01:09
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Valheim has been mentioned as a big hit amongst pre-teens as a more mature Minecraft before in this thread
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Mar 8, 2024 01:54
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notwithoutmyanus posted:It's a forever battle with YouTube and it's algorithms, we've kept it to "You can do YouTube for background music" and let her pick stuff that's equivalent (she's huge on chillhop and down tempo so that works). Commonly tropical backgrounds with relaxing stuff. Another rule that I've found mostly works for us (although my kids are younger, so I'm not sure how long I can keep it going) is Youtube is for searching out and watching "specific" items only. Autoplay is turned off and recommendations are removed with a browser addon.
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Mar 8, 2024 01:57
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YouTube Kids is supposed to turn off the recommendation and comment stuff, I think?
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Mar 8, 2024 02:01
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Taeke posted:So I'm basically looking for other coop games I can play with the younger teens, preferably on a single PS5 with two controllers but crossplay between the PS5 and my laptop is also an option. Lego games for sure. Rayman Legends was released on PS4, so that'd be backwards compatible on your PS5. I don't know if they ever re-released Portal 2 after the PS3, but that's a good one. I know you mentioned PS5, but a Switch is a relatively inexpensive console with a lot of great co-op / multiplayer games (Mario games, Smash bros, Mario Kart, Luigi's Mansion, Kirby Forgotten Lands, Warioware, Mario Party, etc.) that might be worth a purchase consideration. I know Nintendo games are often looked at as geared towards younger games, but they often have a solid challenge behind the cutesy veneer.
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Mar 8, 2024 02:37
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Parkitect is pretty sweet and has multi-player in they have their own pc
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Mar 8, 2024 03:02
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Phogs is a lot of silly stupid fun for two people
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Mar 8, 2024 06:07
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Rocket League is the answer
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Mar 8, 2024 21:38
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QuarkJets posted:Rocket League is the answer It's true, Rocket League is crazy fun.
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Mar 9, 2024 06:08
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I’ve found Pokémon let’s go for the switch to also be a really good intro video game. The controls are super simple and the gameplay hook is easy to understand. I played it with my kids when they were young and we had a lot of fun going through it together.
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Mar 9, 2024 11:53
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wish I could get my kids to Pokemon go to bed
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Mar 9, 2024 14:45
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Scribblenauts Unlimited has been a huge hit with my daughter for the past few years. She's 6 now so can actually type out the words she wants to create sometimes. There's an unbelievable amount of content in the dictionary, such that we still discover new things the developers thought of. She often has an idea for something, like when she was little she wanted to make an electrified thundering house and drop it in some water, then create ducks to fly into it and get zapped, turning into feathers. Later she wanted to do animal rescues, so we created a bunch of bunnies and cats and snakes and some cages, then transported them to different levels that matched their natural habitats. Recently we summoned a doppelganger which comes with a book of his own and literally spawns random things, like monotonous lovecraftian kneepads and sullen immobile Santa and mitotic crimson qipoa(a Chinese dress) which is how we discovered what mitotic means (from mitosis), because the dress kept dividing into smaller and smaller pairs, exponentially growing in number while shrinking in size. So knowing this new power the development team had accounted for for some reason, she had the idea to make an ecosystem in the ocean with a few large mitotic clownfish and a shark that would eat them. The actual game is even more suitable for kids, where you're presented with tiny challenges ("what does the teenager need to get ready for his date?", "how to free the caveman from the block of ice?") which allow lots of space for creativity. Like maybe you give the boy flowers or fancy clothes or mouthwash or concert tickets, maybe you make a campfire or a flamethrower or summon a dragon. The only downside to it is that you need a keyboard and it's technically single player, even though we always play it together. I'd highly recommend it though, we've had tons of fun with it.
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Mar 9, 2024 19:39
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My near 5 year old just found out about Jurassic World Evolution 2, and while he had zero interest in the management/park running side, he's having a blast just tossing a bunch of dinosaurs down and watching them go.
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Mar 9, 2024 21:40
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I forgot to mention there's also a decently robust object editor in Scribblenauts Unlimited, so you can create or alter objects and give them different behaviors. Like my daughter wanted hunters to attack mermaids, so we created one that did.
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Mar 9, 2024 22:47
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the just yesterday dropped Moomins game Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley https://store.steampowered.com/app/1808680/Snufkin_Melody_of_Moominvalley/ is very good for younger kids, no violence and still not boring, plus good messaging in general. FoolyCharged posted:My near 5 year old just found out about Jurassic World Evolution 2, and while he had zero interest in the management/park running side, he's having a blast just tossing a bunch of dinosaurs down and watching them go. yeah the animations of the WE2 dinos are fantastic to watch, my son loves them too.
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Mar 9, 2024 23:31
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I just downloaded scribblenauts to check it out. I added a cat to the scene because I know that's what my kid would like to do. I clicked on the cat and selected "pet" and the character walked over and pet the cat. Very cute and serene. Then the cat immediately attacked the character and fought until it died. What the heck.
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Mar 9, 2024 23:53
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wizzardstaff posted:I just downloaded scribblenauts to check it out. I added a cat to the scene because I know that's what my kid would like to do. I clicked on the cat and selected "pet" and the character walked over and pet the cat. Very cute and serene. This checks out for a cat though. Pet me, pet me, yes, yes, continue, yes, NO gently caress YOU HOW DARE YOU.
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Mar 10, 2024 00:36
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wizzardstaff posted:I just downloaded scribblenauts to check it out. I added a cat to the scene because I know that's what my kid would like to do. I clicked on the cat and selected "pet" and the character walked over and pet the cat. Very cute and serene. A lot of interactions in Scribblenauts end up with things attacking you or each other to the death. It's one of the few downsides of an otherwise very imaginative game.
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Mar 10, 2024 00:54
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wizzardstaff posted:Then the cat immediately attacked the character and fought until it died. What the heck. The belly-rub is a trap, always.
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Mar 10, 2024 01:09
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You can just make yourself or the creatures you want to live invincible by adding that adjective. My daughter and I make lots of vegan predators so her animals can all coexist together.
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Mar 10, 2024 05:50
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I made the cat a pacifist and not only did it stop attacking me, it let me pick it up and carry it around while it mewed in peace sign speech bubbles.
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Mar 10, 2024 07:45
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Thanks for the tips all! Some good titles to check out.
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Mar 10, 2024 15:30
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I looked into the switch version briefly for scribblenauts, and it sounds like it's a bit more limited than the PC/steam version, so PC/Steam (linux)version is what I'll go for.
notwithoutmyanus fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Mar 10, 2024 |
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Mar 10, 2024 16:03
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The past week, my 5-year old has enjoyed sitting by me when I play Paper Mario - the Thousand Year Door. The story is silly and a lot of the mechanics are very playful. My only gripe is I have to translate this type of game on the fly from English because they never issued it in our language (of course). But that’s fun, too! Making up plausible sounding names for things like punies.
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Mar 10, 2024 21:34
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7 year old I was caring for last weekend loved watching me play Pacific Drive. Tinkering around in the garage, driving around in pretty-ish landscapes with loads of cool and 'scary' things with bright colors, all culminating in an exciting race to a huge beam of light to teleport out of there.
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Mar 11, 2024 11:19
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notwithoutmyanus posted:I looked into the switch version briefly for scribblenauts, and it sounds like it's a bit more limited than the PC/steam version, so PC/Steam (linux)version is what I'll go for. Yeah, I'm honestly not sure how it would work on a non PC, because to me being able to just type in whatever you want is the whole point. If you had to select from a word list or navigate a keyboard with a controller, that sounds pretty painful.
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Mar 11, 2024 15:48
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I'm screencasting it from my phone to a TV which seems to be working out fine. A joystick controller keyboard sounds miserable though.
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Mar 11, 2024 15:51
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My wife and I have done almost everything in GTA Online, and she was saying how she wishes our 9 year old could join us. True, there are somewhat ok modes and things to do, but it's surrounded by typical GTA-shenanigans. I'm very much not willing to even attempt to have my 9 year old traverse Los Santos, short of there being some sort of standalone racing and stunt game, which there isn't. There are stunt and racing modes but it's still in GTA Online itself, so no thanks. So, my question is, does anyone know of any open-world multiplayer games similar to GTA Online, but ok for a 9 year old to play? Two things to consider: - I'm already aware of Lego City Underground, but while I think there's split screen on the Switch, it's single player on Steam, which is the platform I'm targeting. - it can have some objectionable content, like stuff that might be PG or PG-13, like he plays Valheim and that's no problem. He's played and loved Super Meat Boy, which is literally covered in blood, getting sawed in half, etc. It's not so much the blood, as it would be the context of the blood that's the problem. Meat Boy? Fine, it's cartoonish. Going into a safe house in GTA and offing everyone in there, painting the walls with their blood? Definitely not. Same with the other adult stuff in GTA. We're very open and honest with him regarding the topic of sex, without being explicit, or telling him stuff he doesn't need to know yeg. But there's no way in hell I'm setting him loose in a game where you can go to a strip club or where you can pick up someone and 'park'. So, yeah... I can't think of a game that fits that criteria that we could play online via Steam, but I hope there are options out there.
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Mar 11, 2024 22:10
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