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[laynelane]

My nieces each have a Switch and all they want to play is Minecraft. My brother plays with them too. One time there was a long-distance call when he was visiting and we were having dinner. An armour he had given to his youngest had disappeared and she was in tears. All in all, though, it's a fun thing they do together as a family. So far, the girls have shown no interest in playing other games but I expect their tastes to expand as they get older.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Gaming has become mainstream to the point where there's almost a social Hierarchy behind a player's preferred genre. Arena shooters and battle royales and sports are on the more accepted regime of games, with something like a TPS action game or a fighting game more towards the casual middle.

From my experience, you still get largely derided for playing anything turn based, story focused, or RPG in nature. Doesn't really apply to WRPGS because nonce westerners will think "if it has guns, it's just a different flavor of CoD, even though I can pick up spoons and become overburdened," whilst anything JRPG will instantly and summarily (probably correctly so in a lot of cases, but) dismiss the content as "weird anime shit," on the same caliber as hentai and body pillows.

Supes fun. No matter what generation I was born in, I was always fated to be a nerd.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Games are now the platform.

It's no longer the hardware.

 

[Ecotic]

Online party-squad games like Fortnite don't really register to these kids as being first and foremost a video game. It's not as though these kids are into video games, of which Fortnite is their favorite. It's more like they're into Fortnite, which happens to be a video game.

To these kids a AAA single-player game like Spider-Man 2 is a mostly unrelated class of entertainment, as different as books and movies.

 

[Grechy34]

Got my daughter a Switch Lite with Animal Crossing. She loves it and it's a joy to watch her get excited over little things in the game.

She also plays Roblox daily. She's 4 going on 5. This is how their generation interact with games now. Times have changed.

 

[Shake Your Rump]

From 1996-1999, I spent almost all my gaming time playing Quake (CTF, QuakeWorld), Quake 2, Quake 3 Arena (rocket arena), Age of Empires, and EverQuest. Balder’s Gate snuck in there along with some N64, but that was pretty much my gaming life. Online multiplayer games.

 

[geary]

This is the generation which wont care if they’ll play on a console hardware or on cloud. Thats why the direction of the gaming industry is not set by GAF audience, but by them.

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

I notice the same with my stepson.
All he does is spend his allowance and gifted money on Fortnite and FC.

But tbh, most people I know only play either football and COD, football and Fortnite, or football and Apex Legends.

GaaS is here to stay due to internet, the younger generations especially don't know any better.

That's why I always look at people complaining about GaaS as grumpy old men complaining about how things were better in the past.

Why would you look at them like that if our complaints are correct and totally justified? Is gaming from the past NOT better than today's gaas?

 

[geary]

Chad

Kids nowadays....

Inconsiderate fucks!

Chad kid

 

[Red Crayon Aristocrat]

A "video game" to a kid is these days is nothing more than virtual legos, it sure isn't a storytelling medium.

It worries me, my cousin bought his son a Nintendo Switch, is he playing Mario Wonder like his old man played Mario? Hell no, Minecraft, Minecraft and more Minecraft.

I kind of fucking despise Minecraft and games like that, it's Fisher Price bullshit for babies, I want a more crafted experience if I can't get told a good story, I don't want to do everything myself.

 

[poppabk]

Why would you look at them like that if our complaints are correct and totally justified? Is gaming from the past NOT better than today's gaas?

Some better, some worse. I can't get in to minecraft but my kids loved it and it is an amazing game. It also had a great side effect of making a generation of kids not graphic whores. I have played a bit of the Fortnite Lego game with my kids, because I can't handle Minecraft of Roblox because of the shit tastic graphics.

 

[kiphalfton]

Strict parenting in China vs absolute freedom in the US: which country will produce the most engineers that shape the future? We'll find out in 20-30 years - my guess is that the US will lose miserably.

Not saying the average person isn't a complete idiot, but bro this is youtube. Easy to cherry pick the morons, and edit out the people who didn't sound like complete retards.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Why would you look at them like that if our complaints are correct and totally justified? Is gaming from the past NOT better than today's gaas?

Only if you're one of those grumpy opd men.
So, case in point.

It's highly subjective anyway. It was amazing at the time, but most of that is nostalgia.

 

[Ozzie666]

I want fornite to die a quick death too. But this generation is fucked in terms of what they expect of a game going forward. The amount of social engineering that has taken place is unreal.
Sometimes it feels just as bad as Big Tabacco. It's extremely difficult for parents to control due to social groups and peer pressures. Gaming companies keep pushing the boundries with little legislation, except if it's a casino or loot box. Anything to turn a quick buck for the share holder.

 

[Ribi]

I don't blame him, those mary Jane segments are awful

 

[Fredrik]

At least they aren’t just playing some dumb game on their phones That’s the real Pandora’s box, keep it closed as long as possible.

I have no experience in Fortnite but I think Minecraft is fine for kids, my young ones got Skyblock for Christmas and they love that.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

My daughter is only 2.5 months old. I'm praying by the time she's 5+, Fortnite will finally be dead and moved on from. I'll be starting her on NES and moving on to Genesis, SNES, N64 and PSX before she can move on to 6th Gen and up.

Don’t be too surprised when the social services knock at your door and you find out it’s your daughter who alerted them and wants to be adopted by someone who’ll let her play Fortnite instead.

 

[Hunnybun]

Act like they have a fucking functional brain?

My son spent $20 on Fortcrap cosmetics 3 years ago, it was hard earned money doing chores. When I got to see what he was spending his money on I told him he could play the game but never buy cosmetics, explained why and that was it. He was MAD at me.

Fast forward, he does still play but never spent a dime on it ever again.

I think this is the right attitude. Fair enough if they want to play these GAAS, but acting like we're the grumpy old men for objecting to this naked exploitation of kids is bullshit.

The business models of these publishers is fucking sick.

 

[simpatico]

My son is 15 and his gaming diet consists of 75% Madden and 25% FPS flavor of the month. He's got a Series S with Gamepass and he's never asked me to buy him a game. Games daily and 100% of the time with friends. He will play along with big AAAA releases like GTA, RDR, Elden Ring etc but doesn't really stick with them. He did beat Arkham Asylum when he was pretty young and didn't know you could spend skill points. I was super impressed lol.

Daughter is 17. Has a PS4 and has played through all the first party story stuff. Loves Horizon, Uncharted, Control, Tomb Raider etc. I don't think she's ever even tried online MP. Her demographic does benefit greatly from Sony's girl boss fad. She buys games semi often. Has a good job and makes car payments but has no interest in saving for a PS5.

Youngest is 13 and she plays Roblox and Minecraft 100% of the time with friends. She's an Apple only gamer. Has expressed interest in a Series S like her brother has, but doesn't want to spend allowance money on Gamepass. Has a hand me down PS3 with a huge game collection. Only plays Minecraft on it.

 

[Drell]

Well I guess giving them vbucks so they can buy cosmetics in fortnite is the same thing as giving them a voucher for a cloth store so they can buy expensive clothes from a hyped brand among teenagers and being accepted socially (or maybe not getting bullied?) at school.

Won't be that boomer old man because that's how society is but I personally never had any interrest in these kind of social schemes even as a teenager. Though, I hope these kids can maybe some day have the same enjoyment I had back in 2000 when I could finally play that Majora's Mask my mother bought me weeks ago.

We all have stupid phases at some point in our life but having a hobby not involving the need of being accepted by the other but true passion is important.

 

[Generic]

I think this is the right attitude. Fair enough if they want to play these GAAS, but acting like we're the grumpy old men for objecting to this naked exploitation of kids is bullshit.

The business models of these publishers is fucking sick.

Buying a skin in Fortnite is no different from buying an action figure or a toy 20 years ago.

 

[darth.shrimp]

My boss' kid is... 9 now I think?
Two years ago all he did was watch/play Minecraft and Fortnite. Used to make fun of me for playing "kiddy games" like Mario.
Now he has a Switch with every single Mario game on it, and has 100% nearly all of them.

It's never too late!

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

One better, modern GaaS is around 20 years old. So even for many 20 year olds today, they never experienced a world without it.

Yeah, but modern GaaS games hasn't taken off until PS4 gen at best. Before it was mainly (if not only) MMO which were "no-life" games anyway.

 

[Mobilemofo]

This just in: kids are dicks! Shocker...

 

[STARSBarry]

I spent over 2 hours watching and talking to my cousins kid about Pikmin 4 (which I had bought him for Christmas) he's 8 and all he can talk about is how awesome it is and
repeat that "it is an underrated Nintendo franchise" which makes me think some streamers said that... he's 8, kids don't talk like that.

So I suppose it depends on the kid. He's not shown no interest in roblox or fortnite yet... im sure his time will come.

 

[ChoosableOne]

I stuck my nose up at Fortnite ever since it came out. Watching my daughter play recently and having a go or two myself as well, I have to admit it is fun. I can see the appeal. Also I get slaughtered in COD, Halo, etc however it’s seems relatively easy to get place first in Fortnite. Maybe because I’m playing against toddlers?

I feel like Kramer when playing

I think it's harder than COD, especially with the building mechanics. I can only build a wooden wall in front of me while they are building a fortress in mere seconds. That's not fair.

I bought every Mario game available on Switch and my daughter doesn't want to play them at all. We are playing this game for like forever now:



We are going to the mall, doing some chores, playing hide and seek etc. in it lol.

 

[Hoppa]

I noticed that when I bought my niece and nephews games for their Switch, they'll pop them in for 20 minutes and then they're right back to Minecraft. This game has them in a chokehold it's crazy.

 

[Bojanglez]

Yeah this is the same for my son and most of his mates. Occasionally one or two play a game like Spiderman, but most seem to play Fortnite, Rocket League and FIFA almost exclusively now.

I raised him to play proper games, as a very young kid (3-5yrs) he played through Pokémon games to completion, but now (age 8) he doesn't seem interested. When the PS5 came out he played and platinumed Astro's Playroom and I thought that might be his gateway back in.

In some ways I don't blame him because I see him and his mates hanging out and socialising online which it's great, but I tell him he's missing out on some great experiences elsewhere. Ultimately I look on the positive side, I've played hundreds of hours with him on Fortnite and he's at the age where he still thinks it's cool to play with his Dad, despite him quickly surpassing my ability at it, so I'm making the most of it.

 

[Valt7786]

I think the problem is that kids today didn't "Grow up" along with the medium like us 30+ers did. We've all gone from NES + Master System up to now and seen how it's evolved and grown. Remember how groundbreaking FF7 or Silent Hill was graphically? "omg those CGI Scenes are like real life!" and then seeing how FF8 and 9 improved on that fairly significantly and then 10 or Silent Hill 2 comes along and blows our teenage minds.

Now these kids pop out the womb and they go straight onto PS5's loaded with Fortnite, they just don't know any better, they don't get to appreciate it in the same way we did growing up with it all.

 

[E-Cat]

Gen-Z is absolutely fucked. They brainwashed into gambling for EVERYTHING. We got our 3-year-old daughter one of those Fire HD Tablets so she could play ABC-Mouse games like puzzles, numbers, etc. Outside of a few apps. There's only macrotransaction ridden apps. The app store is a plague. I wanted to BUY an app (Bubble blowing) and there were none. Literally could not buy a bubble popping game. Only options are macrotransaction apps that you cannot buy. Just have a ton of ads and a lot of bullshit on them.

Current kids are not Gen Z, they are Gen Alpha

 

[Rawbutt Jellybean]

People spending all their gaming time on 1-2 games has been happening since the late 90s. Just for most of the past 2+ decades there hasn't be a "vbucks" equivalent. I know for me between like 2003-2007 I wasn't playing anything besides counter-strike.

 

[Morrie’s wig shop]

This has been going on for the last 10 years my man, where you been…

Wait till you have your own kids, cause those gaming choices will also leave you scratching your head lol..

 

[CGNoire]

I'll be starting her on NES and moving on to Genesis, SNES, N64 and PSX before she can move on to 6th Gen and up.

This is the Way.

 

[Pedro Motta]

That’s exactly what I do with my 8 year old son, pay him robux for chores. I try to like it to play with him and act like I enjoy it…. But I hate Roblox.

I try to get him to play Ratchet and Clank, all the best kids games on PlayStation, got him a Switch with Mario and Legend of Zelda, and he wants to play Roblox on a tablet with horrendous touch controls.

God of War, Spider-man, Legend of Zelda, can’t compete with this…..

Yup, my 8yo nephew is the same, damn it I spent so much money on a Switch a lot of games and the little devil doesn't even turn it on.

 

[jufonuk]

My nephew got Roblox gift card. My daughter got the bluey game on the switch. As a game for a younger child it works. Mechanically it’s simply as anything It’s “fun” to play as a family. My daughter having fun is the main part. But otherwise it’s just for her.

 

[CuteFaceJay]

Never underestimate the power of Fortnite skins. I still to this day get people adding and PMing me with requests to by my OG account for the Alpha banners I have on the account.

It's = to the online version of Hype Beasts.

 

[themonk]

He will be beat Spiderman in a few hours of course he’s going to play multiplayer games. As someone who competes at work I play pvp games because I love competition.

I don’t even understand how some of you like Spiderman outside of graphics doesn’t the hame bore you after you complete it.

Hell GOW bored me in an hour…

I’m sure this is very opinionated and maybe a little off topic, but I’ll never understand why this new generation of gamers kids and adults only play one or two games for the entire generation. I can understand having your favorite games, but don’t you want to experience new things every once in awhile especially when there are literally thousands of games out there? To me it’s like seeing the same movie or listening to the same song over and over a gun for years.

Is experiencing Spiderman 2 really new?

If your game has an amazing playback loop of course I’m going to want to play that over a single player game that i can beat within a few hours going up against some mindless AI.

 

[RJMacready73]

I don't understand this, as a responsible parent I would never allow my kids to spend any more than £10 in any one session on cosmetic items, mine were allowed to convert some money they where given at Bday/Xmas into vbucks or robux, I can't imagine giving young kids such free reign with cash to do as they please. My kids are older but I still control their accounts to stop that shite

 

[Nankatsu]

Kids nowadays are fucking spoiled.

I gave my nephew Super Mario Odyssey back in the day, and the brat barely played it because he said he was to difficult.

I'm so gonna give him a Dark Souls in a near future.

 

[Majormaxxx]

I’m sure this is very opinionated and maybe a little off topic, but I’ll never understand why this new generation of gamers kids and adults only play one or two games for the entire generation. I can understand having your favorite games, but don’t you want to experience new things every once in awhile especially when there are literally thousands of games out there? To me it’s like seeing the same movie or listening to the same song over and over a gun for years.

These games are like sports. I was passionate about basketball as a teen. Same thing for kids and their minefortblox.

 

[Portugeezer]

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Games are now the platform.

It's no longer the hardware.

We laughed when Nintendo launched things such as the 2DS, saying “it’s a Pokémon machine”.
Now everything is a Minecraft / Roblox / Fortnite / Rocket League machine.

 

[gunslikewhoa]

 

[Valt7786]

We laughed when Nintendo launched things such as the 2DS, saying “it’s a Pokémon machine”.
Now everything is a Minecraft / Roblox / Fortnite / Rocket League machine.

Thats what you call a "Series S". Only damn thing it's good for.

 

[MagnesD3]

I mean kids are dumb and most people dont grow out if it. Most of us would probably be caught in the spider web of mediocrity just the same if we were raised in that environment, consider yourself lucky to be brought up in a time in video games when they were still just trying to be really good video games.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

This is the market Sony wants a slice of.
It's funny people talk about how PS 1st party offers are "easy", "for braindead people", "puzzles are too easy" etc...as if they were to appeal to the mass market...but even that market (AAA single player action games) is niche as fuck.

The truth is, PS5 is mostly used for Free 2 Play stuff like Fortnite, Fifa, COD, Roblox, GTA Online. And this last sentence is true for all platforms.

The game IS the platform.

 

[Fafalada]

Yeah, but modern GaaS games hasn't taken off until PS4 gen at best. Before it was mainly (if not only) MMO which were "no-life" games anyway.

Not at all - the first really big GaaS hits were Golf and Kart Rider - and then there was the whole rise of 'Social' gaming a few years later (which didn't die - it's bigger than ever on phones, it just migrated platforms) that happened in the middle before mobiles were even thing. By the time PS4 came about - we've already had DF, XFire and LoL each hitting 5-10M CCUs, and that was just tip of the iceberg. Not to mention Minecraft...
The only thing PS4 gen changed was that some of the traditional publishers finally found success in the market (mainly Activision - but still).

 

[SmokedMeat]

Strict parenting in China vs absolute freedom in the US: which country will produce the most engineers that shape the future? We'll find out in 20-30 years - my guess is that the US will lose miserably.

This is why China pushes their dumbed down garbage on the west, while restricting it in their own country. Of course American companies only care about the almighty dollar, so they’re more than happy to allow it all.

It all comes down to the parents though, who are hopefully doing their job and limiting their kids on social media.

 

[kruis]

This is why China pushes their dumbed down garbage on the west, while restricting it in their own country. Of course American companies only care about the almighty dollar, so they’re more than happy to allow it all.

It all comes down to the parents though, who are hopefully doing their job and limiting their kids on social media.

Western countries don't do anything to stop kids from getting addicted to mobile phones, dumb social media trends and addictive online games, China does.

The Chinese version of Tiktok was exactly the same as the western version and just as successful except the Chinese government stepped in and forced radical changes on that app. That doesn't make China the bad guy here, that makes us stupid for letting our kids waste away their talents in their most precious years on the dumbest shit.

How China takes extreme measures to keep teens off TikTok

TikTok announced a one-hour daily limit for users under 18, but authorities in China have pushed the domestic version, Douyin, much further.

www.technologyreview.com

China’s internet addiction regulation could hit Big Tech users over time

The new regulation that takes effect next year is not expected to have much short-term impact, but user habits may shift over time.

www.scmp.com

China keeping 1 hour daily limit on kids' online games

HONG KONG (AP) — As the week-long Lunar New Year holidays in China draw near with promises of feasts and red envelopes stuffed with cash, children have another thing to look forward to –- one extra hour of online games each day.

apnews.com

 

[Filben]

I was playing Fortnite on PS5 with a buddy who persuaded me to play a few rounds with him. Then his nephew, 12 years old, joined the party and he went immediately to show off his skins and said things like "look at this! or this one!" with all the dance emotes and stuff. At first I want to puke but you got to see it from social-educational perspective. Kids are like that. They want to belong, they want to show both skill and things they do. I don't know how many times my friends' kids came at me like "can I show you my room? can I show you this and that. look at my picture, look at my puzzle, look what I've drawn/crafted etc.. Kids want to be noticed and accepted and approved of and a group they belong to.

When everyone in the school yard talks about fucking Fortnite or Roblox it's difficult to be that guy saying "get outta here. leave me the fuck alone with that shit".

The pathetic thing is the corporations knowing exactly that and monetise said behaviour with manipulative tactics (FOMO, artificial scarcity, time-limited pressure and offers).

I think the only thing helping is being a good role model and lead them to something better; don't let them consume media alone (you wouldn't let them eat a whole pack of sweets every day, too); talk about it critically but without thrashing the game (you know people, children included, don't react too fondly if talked down to them and the things they like). Make them question themselves and the games. Remind their parents of their responsibility and the consequences of the abusive manner many games work with.