Today's kids' views on retro games

[stuffedmonkey]

An article from 1up.com, where they have a bunch of 12 year olds play older games and give opinions. Funny stuff


http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager....=0&cId=3137498

[Dahne]

Parker: Nothing is bad publicity.

Dang. Even 11-year-olds have gotten cynical. (Not to say that it isn't accurate...)

[Aswald]

Pity they didn't make them play the 2600 E.T., or 2600 Congo Bongo...

[Leo_A]

After reading just the first few, I bet not one kid was involved in this. I bet some writer wrote everything up.

[NE146]

Actually it's a pity they let them play Adventure on that all-in-one joystick which of course has a horrendous version of it. And how did they play Star Wars arcade? On an emu? On the Rogue Squadron Bonus disk?

I mean.. it can be a funny/good experient for an article. But at least make them fucking play the real thing. Otherwise it's sort of like asking someone how they like an Elvis song and then playing a Filipino cover version of it. x_x

[Aswald]

Hmmmm, possible- except as kids we used to like to goof on things my parents liked.

Also, part of our enjoyment of the arcade games was the overall experience. The music (Journey, anyone?), the overall pop culture, being with friends away from the house or school, the then-excitement of those new games...emulators, or even a few arcade machines "just set up in a room for this thing," just cannot capture it.

[GamblinMonkey]

On the graphics of the Legend of Zelda:
"Bobby: Those bushes look like petrified snails."
That's what I always thought they were when I was a kid.

[Lady Jaye]

It's basically EGM's second annual "kids say the darndest things" article pertaining to classic gaming.

See this thread from last year for our comments and reaction to last year's piece (and yup, the same comment about how it must have been written by an adult comment was made back then too): http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19507

One comment that may bring some doubt as to the veracity of the kids' comments, is the fact that 2 of the kids know who Billy Mitchell is (and one of them actually remembered his name!)...

Methinks that the kids did sit down and play, and they probably did say some of the stuff, but I have the feeling that the comments had been "enhanced" to add more pizzaz. I didn't really get that feeling with last year's article, but more so with this one.

[Aussie2B]

Are kids these days really that weird? O_o

And what's up with the kid that said this:

"EGM: If this game had blood and gore like Mortal Kombat, would you like it more?

Parker: Then this would be the best game ever created. Ever. Because violence is so cool-in videogames."

What the hell kind of kids is this country raising?

[Jincman]

After reading just the first few, I bet not one kid was involved in this. I bet some writer wrote everything up.

Agreed.

Kids don't know what a Ken doll is these days.

[mr_jiggles_13]

maybe its just me, but when i was 11, i didnt talk like that. i can see the 14 yr old saying that, but not the ohers.

[Aswald]

Well, let's see- there are a lot of video gamers right here, at least some of them "old school," and with younger relatives. No doubt, some of them were invited to try the older games by the older members.

Did they ever react in that fashion?

[Flack]

I liked last year's better. Last year it was kids being kind of silly and funny and I felt they were being more honest. This one just seems like the kids are trying to get attention or be cool or something. I tried something like this with my neices and nephew, I should do it again with some more games and see what they say.

[s1lence]

According to the EGM acrticle CNN was there with TV cameras which would tell me that the kids were a wee bit star struck. So my guess is that they are trying to out do each other.

[Cleatis]

Kids don't know what a Ken doll is these days.

Sure they do. Didnt you see on the news a few months ago when Barbie broke up with ken? Seriously...it was on CNN.
Im going to try this with my nephew the next time I go down to Oklahoma. I already know he hates NES. Yeah I know...bad parenting!

[slip81]

I read this about a week or so ago when I got my EGM. To me it all sounds pretty realistic, except for the kids knowing who Billy Mitchell is, I can't even remember that guys name off the top of my head.

[MegaDrive20XX]

*grandpa rant*

The graphics are wasted on the young, why in my day we had arcades everywhere, and for five nickels we could play all the games we wanted! We didn't need violence in games! We had MERCS, Golden Axe, Black Tiger, Altered Beast, and many more!

I'd like to give those kids a spankin or two! Darn kids don't know a thing about games these days! Why when I was a lad we had to blow on the cartridge to make it work! Not this fancy pants Compact Disc! Ohhh Look at me! I'm so hi-tech! Bah says I! If we had a cartridge with LOCK-ON Technology, now that was hip! Speaking of which, there goes mine...oooo....

[rbudrick]

One comment that may bring some doubt as to the veracity of the kids' comments, is the fact that 2 of the kids know who Billy Mitchell is (and one of them actually remembered his name!)...

Yeah, I thought that was pretty damn weird too...

I gave my 11 and 9 year old cousins the all in one Pac Man and Ms Pac Man joystick systems for Xmas. They were totally psyched...I had no idea they would dig them that much. I asked them if they liked old school games, and they said they loved them. They had some Ps1 compilations and said they thought they were awesome. It really renewed my beliefs I had about kids and older games. I thought all kids nowadays had 0 attention spans and dissed all old school games. Who woulda thought?

-Rob

[Kepone]

Today's kids are spoiled brats and I don't give a s*** what they think about games from yesteryear.

[Jincman]

Kids don't know what a Ken doll is these days.

Sure they do. Didnt you see on the news a few months ago when Barbie broke up with ken? Seriously...it was on CNN.
Im going to try this with my nephew the next time I go down to Oklahoma. I already know he hates NES. Yeah I know...bad parenting!

I'll be darned!!

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/02/12/off...ie.breakup.ap/

Just shows you how not having kids leaves you out of the loop.