Bullet Points @ timlongo.com

There are moments in a pop culture geek dad’s life which could be called milestones for his kid. This is a story about one of those.

It is hard to decide when and how to introduce your child to something that seems very important and life-defining for you but that when you really think about it is kind of weak as a legacy to pass on. I mean, at the end of the day, does anyone really care about things like science fiction epics like Star Wars? Does it really have any bearing on a child’s future? Well it did on mine and damn it, I was going to see if it did on my daughter’s. So, seeing that she is 5 (or was when this story occurred, she just turned 6 a couple weeks ago) and seeing that I wanted to start her out on a non-Wii game where she had to try out dual-sticks, I decided rather than watch the movie that we would start with Lego Star Wars. Low on the literal violence, pretty easy in general, etc. Plus I couldn’t remember how adult the first Star Wars film (Episode 4 for the kids out there) was, so this seemed like a safe place to start. However, there was a catch with that; the game forces you to start with Episode 1 before you unlock the rest of the game, this being The Complete Saga game. So, despite my wishes we had to start with that part of the game before we could start with Ep. 4. I had no choice. We quickly finished the first level and sort of kept playing the second level because she was having so much fun before I recalled the danger inherent in that. Here is how it went down.

• Lia: “Oh, who is this funny guy with the big ears?”
• Me: “Oh, no one.” (shit!)
• Lia: “He sounds funny.”
• Me: “Yeah, he is kind of goofy, isn’t he?”
• Lia: “I like him, look, he can jump really high too!”
• Me: “Uh…maybe we should play another level.”
• Lia: “What is his name Dada?”
• Me: “Well…uh…his name is Jar Jar.”
• Lia: “Jar Jar! Look, he jumps really high!”
• Me: “Ok, let’s play a new level.” (presses start)

My savior came in the form of a lovable trash can. The simplest design for a robot ever. One that has more character than any damn floppy-eared, duck-mouthed buffoon of a alien with insulting racial connotations. The one Wall-E owes everything to. I thought I had already ruined the whole thing, but then…

• Lia: “Did you hear him make that funny sound when he fell off the ledge! He is so cute!”
• Me: “His name is R2-D2. He is a robot. (well droid really)”
• Lia: “Ooo look, he can fly. And he can shock people. I got ya Dada!”

Thank the Force for R2-D2.

Then it was time. I was 5 in 1977. Lia is 5 now so it was the time for her first viewing. I had memories of some allusions to torture, a bit of charred skeletons (which you can’t really see too well), a guy in a black suit choking another guy to death, and Snaggletooth’s arm being cut off in a bar. So what the hell, let’s give it a try. Because of the game, she already knew the opening musical score and begun to hum it as soon as it came on. I cracked my first smile. Honestly, it is hard to say how she felt about the entire movie. She still seemed to love R2 and was mainly concerned about his well being. Obviously she has no idea of the power of Han Solo or Luke, really, but Leia is pretty high on the list and Chewie is always good for a 5 year old chuckle. Though I look back when I first saw it and think that I probably didn’t get what the hell was really going on either. There was an interesting conversation about Jawas. Another one about how an entire planet could be destroyed by the Death Star (which the Death Star, in some weird twist, has now somehow become the punch line for knock-knock jokes). I was happy that I was able to pass on the tragedy of how Chewie was left out of the final ceremony and didn’t get a medal like Han and Luke. Something the fans are still pissed about. Now she can carry on that injustice after I’m gone. In the end, I just wanted to know what she was thinking. I know you can’t force something like this and we’ll never know where her inspirations will come from, but it is worth a try, right? Truth is, we won’t know for many years and I need to just calm down about it all.

Yet another proud fatherly moment is the first time your child learns to down an AT-AT. I’m not kidding. Is this the modern day version of the first “hunt” as a rite of passage? I think it really is for a sorry-ass geeks like me. I didn’t think she would be able to do it either. Once again, the game was Lego Star Wars. The typical gameplay involves firing the tow cable and then making 3 to 5 tight circles around the legs of the giant mechanized beast transport full of snow troopers. This is usually hard for most adults, but she did it! I was so proud. Then, once the AT-AT was down I finished it off with a nice bomb from my snow speeder. Some good old Father/Daughter teamwork. Now it is one of her favorite things to do in the game and she asks to play the Battle of Hoth over and over again when given a choice. She loves that the AT-STs are nicknamed “chicken walkers” and calls out, “Let’s down some chicken walkers, Dada!” (sniff)

The culmination of all of this was the first Star Wars toy purchase for her birthday: A Lego Star Wars X-Wing Fighter set. Complete with her favorite…R2-D2. We spent each day of the Thanksgiving holiday putting the damn thing together bit by bit and once it was finally done I somehow felt that my mission was complete. A modern day introduction to one of the defining mythologies of my own childhood (and adult) life passed on to my own 5 year old, and she actually enjoyed it, despite little mermaids, fairies, and princesses. At least the melodic digital beeps and boops and “screams” of a tin can on wheels can still hold his own against a muscial score by Alan Menken.

Special Thanks: To my good friend Geoff Jones who gave me a DVD copy of the original cut from laser disk of the first three movies before “old man” George came around. In all its grainy and low quality glory. I know that the original cuts have come out on DVD since then, but I’m happy to not have a remastered version for her. So we can get as close as possible to the real deal from 1977. The special editions will just not do. Can’t wait for Empire in three years.

More from the world of gaming through the eyes of my five year old daughter…

She was humming a tune this evening. Something she hasn’t quite done before. You know, when you get a song stuck in your head and you can’t get rid of it. It is funny to witness these kinds of moments for the first time in her life. So I get to asking her about the song. Turns out it was from a children’s music band that she listens to while riding in a friend’s car. So I start to ask her more about it to see what she really thinks of it. She says it is a song about bikes and that she likes how the singer asks the audience what their bikes look like. She seems to love that he speaks directly to the listener. I ask her some more fairly directed questions about how it makes her feel and what parts she likes, etc. But she really doesn’t reveal much more than she just likes it because it is about bikes. Now, I have to hand it to her, she has had some pretty profound thoughts of late. Things have come out of her mouth that amaze us on an emotional level. But with this song she was coming up short on her opinion of it. Or was she?

So, of course, I go directly to games after that. We haven’t played anything in months (I don’t bring up games unless she asks about them and she hasn’t been) so I ask her what her favorite game is that she remembers us playing. She says Animal Crossing. I ask her what she liked about it. She basically says that she likes the “animals and the people.” As I try to delve further into that thought she only really says that she likes to move the people around. I asked her what she liked to do in the game and it boiled down to just playing it and being in that world. Even pointed questions about how she felt playing it or when she brought up Viva Piñata (ñ = Opt + n, then n for those who don’t know how to type that accent) what was boring or scary or funny (as my wife joined in and added) came up with nothing more than descriptions of what she did in pretty general terms.

Overall I was suprised she didn’t want to talk more deeply about how she liked or disliked these experiences when she typically does with other experiences. Now it could be the types of games she is playing, those with no real linear stories. Or it could be she just isn’t ready to talk that way about entertainment. But I had a different thought which brought up a feeling I bet most of us have had about judging or being a “critic” of anything remotely artistic, “just let it be what it is.” We talk all day long at work about what we think of this game or that game and we rank them and judge each other’s ranks of them but why can’t we leave well enough alone and just enjoy it (or not) as is and let it stop there. I kept wanting Lia to be a critic and hear the five year old analysis of a song or a game but all she wanted to do was talk about what she did in the game and what the song was about. That was all that mattered to her. I guess I’m coming down to the point that maybe we should spend more time just enjoying experiences for what they are and maybe we can learn a few things from kids on how to do that without all this baggage of criticism creeping into whatever we consume. It might help us all move forward in some way. But as you judge this post I bet it won’t.

This special edition of The Lens (where my poor daughter’s gaming life is recorded on this blog for any fool to read) deals specifically with a slight marketing angle for gaming. I knew this would happen and I should have gone with my gut in the first place but as much as you try to protect them from the evils of the world, sometimes it turns out the problems are right in front of you. I recently decided to show some studio and franchise spirit and wear more Tomb Raider related t-shirts from time-to-time. I’m proud that my studio works with Tomb Raider and consider it an important part of my gaming life, so it made sense to me to fly the company colors openly. Jen, of course, was not too happy but hey, it is my work so it seemed justified.

Once I started wearing them though, something struck me. Each and every shirt (except one) has Lara holding a gun usually in a very prominent way. I remember thinking to myself that maybe it wasn’t a good idea to wear them around Lia because of this. Then I talked myself out of it and figured she may never notice and really probably doesn’t care what is on my silly shirts. Well, turns out I should have listened to my gut (you can see where this is going).

As I was brushing her hair after a bath the other day she looked at my shirt and asked me some questions.

Lia: “Daddy, what is that lady holding?”
Daddy: “Who, this lady?” (Pointing to my shirt hoping she was talking about something else. Oh crap.)
Lia: “Is she holding a wand?” (Magic and Fairies and Mermaids is her life right now, thank the gods.)
Daddy: “No it isn’t a wand.” (Shit, let’s hope she doesn’t…)
Lia: “Is that a gun?” (I have no idea how she knew that really.)
Daddy: “Yes, that is a gun.” (Already knowing this is quickly going south.)
Lia: “What is she doing with the gun? Does she want to shoot people?” (At this point I’m not even sure how she knows that guns do that in the first place. The most violent game she has played so far is Zelda – report incoming, she likes the sword apparently.)
Daddy: “Well, she does sometimes, yes. To protect herself.” (Here I’m trying to soften the blow, of course.)
Lia: “Why does she want to shoot them? Does she want to kill them with the gun?”
Daddy: “Well, this lady goes on adventures and sometimes she need to use her guns to protect herself.”
Lia: “You mean she goes on adventures like princesses do?”
Daddy: “Well sort of. You could say she is a type of princess.” (Jen and I try to go pretty princess-lite but Disney is too powerful for us it seems.)
Lia: “Would she shoot me with the gun?” (Right about now I’m feeling like the hole I dug is pretty damn deep.)
Daddy: “Oh no, she would never use the gun on you. She is a sort of hero, like…ur…Peter Pan.”
Lia: “Can she fly?” (In the image Lara is jumping through the air.)
Daddy: “Oh no, she can just jump really high.”
Lia: “Is she bad?”
Daddy: “Well, not really, but she can be really mad sometimes.” (Thanks Toby!)
Lia: “She should be careful with her guns.” (And truer words have never been spoken…)
Daddy: “Ok, open your mouth for teeth brushing!”

I guess I’m not wearing those shirts after all. Back to Wilderness themes with trees and animals. Maybe they will make good cleaning rags.

Continuing the category of “The Lens” in which I share some thoughts on what it is like to watch and play video games with my daughter, Lia. She is now almost five years old and we took a bit of a break with video games just because we’ve been gone and busy with other things. After a break, even though it was only a few months, there was a noticeable difference in her interest in questions regarding the game rules. This process is still proving to be very valuable and extremely fun for me to see how she reacts and evolves as a gamer. Nothing like using your own daughter as an experiment subject!

Catz DS
This is a pet simulator where she had to adopt a kitten and take care of it and raise it to good health on the Nintendo DS. She had a great time with the adoption process, naming the kitten, picking the breed and in general being introduced the the kittens available. There is a very simple mini-game that results in calculating her starting money, but she of course could care less about that. It’s funny how easy it is to pick out gameplay that is so clearly for older gamers when you see it through the eyes of someone so young. Here are some more specific bullets:

• She really wanted to adopt more than one cat.
• There was a lot of petting and touching of the kitten. The DS functionality was a hit in that way.
• It was fairly easy for her to use the stylus. Nintendo wins there too.
• She had a hard time with the concept of tapping versus scratching. She would always fall back into scratching the screen for some reason.
• She was not interested in game rules at all. The simulation aspects were all she really wanted to interact with.
• When the rules of the world aren’t clear or are abstracted she obviously had a hard time understanding what she could and could not do.
• There is a sort of inherent problem with games stepping into the simulation space but not being able to fully realize a simulated world. Because some simple simulations were present, she just assumed all the other aspects of a simulated real world were there too, and they weren’t.
• She really wants the cats to play together (only one per house though).
• Once I introduced her to the microphone feature the first thing she said to her kitten was “I love you.”
• As usual, bugs that look like slapstick are hilarious to her. The cats sometimes roll in their food bowls accidentally as a bug, but she thinks they are doing it intentionally. Good laughs there.

Animal Crossing: Wild World DS
We played a bit of AC on DS as well. A few new observations there:

• While wandering around she kept asking if we could camp. Again, as mentioned above under Catz, she assumes there is more simulations going on than there is because the game takes a tiny step into the simulations space and never really sets the limits in a strong way.
• When we were in the museum looking at the fossils, she asked if we could make the dinosaurs come back to life.
• In the DS version you can change your hairstyle. She couldn’t be more excited about that feature.
• Virtual star gazing is damn boring.

Viva Pinata 360
For those who don’t know, Viva Pinata is a pretty cute game where the player is a gardener who tries to lure living pinatas to there garden by planting certain things and building the animals houses and such. I guess the goal is to build the biggest garden with the most pinatas as possible.

• She loves to build houses for the pinatas. It is by far her biggest request.
• She is not so sure about the pinatas eating each other, which is required for some of them to become residents of the garden. Animal Crossing does a good job of not crossing this line for the younger crowd.
• The game rules are too complex and deep for her. There is a definite “achiever” layer to this game that really will only appeal to adult gamers. Which is very odd if they were trying to hit the AC crowd.
• She loves to go inside the houses and watch the animals sleeping. I think they is the main reason she likes to build the houses in the first place. This matches what she does with her playtime and her own stuffed animals.
• Growing the garden is a key feature for her. She is very interested in this out of the game world as well, so this concept for kids may have been a win for Rare (the developer).
• The catchy opening jingle and movie is resonating with her almost as much as something like the opening of Sesame Street or something similar. So good job there Rare.

In general I’m noticing more depth to her questioning, which is no surprise seeing that she is getting older and older and now that she is in school she is stimulated in new ways. If anyone knows of some other good games she may like let me know!

One of the categories of posts I have been wanting to publish for some time revolves around observing my daughter’s behaviors while we play video games together. We generally get about one 30 minute session a week so the progress will be slow, but each session proves fruitful in some way. “The mind of a 4 year old..” and all those cliches apply. There is nothing more pure than that it seems. So I’m finding that in order to boil things down to their most basic form all I have to do is play with her and somehow it all makes sense. Here are some of my profound observations so far:

All Games: General observations from all of the games we have played so far.

• She generally defaults to wanting to help characters she meets and if the game doesn’t support it she makes something up.
  
• If there is ever any way to produce slapstick comedy, she wants to do it.
  
• Comedy wins over all else.
  
• She would much rather talk to an animal than a human. (No aliens or monsters have been introduced quite yet.)
  
• She would much rather explore than travel on any sort of linear path and even questions linear paths in the first place.
  

Animal Crossing: This was the first game we played. We started when she was 3 or so and still play from time to time.

• She gets the most joy out of new animals visiting the town. It is the first thing she wants to check when we start playing.
  
• She remembers every single animal in the town as well as their catch phrase.
  
• She has no interest in one of the key features of the game…collecting.
  
• She LOVES making designs to wear at Mable’s and Sable’s shop.
  
• Every single session she tries to intentionally fall off cliffs and every single time I tell her it won’t work. She laughs.
  
• She really wants to go swimming.
  

Okami: I wanted to show this game to her mainly for the art direction and style. She could care less about art direction.

• We only played in town, so no combat, and she mainly just wanted to bark at people.
  
• A bark button was genius as far as she was concerned. She really wanted the people to react to her barking in their face.
  
• A digging button was gold.
  
• Charging a wall and bashing your head into it was the biggest hit by far. Hilarious!
  
• She loved jumping into the water and swimming.
  
• She was VERY upset when the wolf would “drown” after swimming for too long.
  
• She was in even more upset that she was the one who was responsible.
  

Elebits: The first exploration of weird little creatures and physics in realistic spaces.

• She really could care less about the Elebits and had no interest in catching them.
  
• Slapstick and destruction was the biggest hit here over all.
  
• We basically played the kitchen every time because she loved to demolish the place. Especially shattering plates on the floor.
  
• Picking things up with the physics beam and waving them around was allowing her to do things we would never let her do at home. It seemed like a sort of release. No rules was appealing I guess. Duh.
  
• She had a really hard time aiming the controller.
  
• Yeah, she isn’t buying that these little creature make electricity. She had no interest in the storybook feel of the set-up.
  

Katamari Damacy: I assumed this one would be a big hit due to its absurdity.

• Turns out I was totally wrong. She had very little interest in it.
  
• It may have been so abstract that she couldn’t relate to what was going on.
  
• Rolling around picking up objects just wasn’t enough for her.
  
• Need more playtime to see if later levels cause different reactions.
  
• She couldn’t care less about the characters themselves.
  

Next post in “The Lens” category will hit our most recent endeavor…Viva Pinata! (Filled with fun!)