It's Genetic

When we go to my in-laws' house, everyone has something they do. My wife talks, my daughter wants to bake cookies, and I want to nap or listen to my Tom's (my father-in-law) latest bit of scientific trivia he's excited about. My son, however, always says the same thing as soon as we walk in the house. "Can I play bidyo games?"

At home it's much less of a desire. He enjoys computer games, but he's happy to play his "guys" or acting out a movie with his sister. But at Nana and Papa's house, it's his time for gaming.

This, of course, is made even more awesome because Tom has a Super Nintendo complete with Star Fox and Mario Kart. But while we were there today, my three year old decided he wanted to play Wii Sports Resort. Max has always enjoyed the swordfighting, but today he was put in to the cockpit of a plane and let loose over the skies of the island resort.

Now understand, Max is only 3. He's finally to the point where I only have to translate about 50% of what he says to a stranger. I watched this kid control an airplane in a three-dimensional area and he knew what he was doing. The game uses the Wii controller like you'd fly a toy airplane, so he wasn't such a prodigy that he was rocking the dual analogs like an ace. But watching my boy, who still trips over his own feet, gain control of his spatial awareness was a proud moment for me.

Of course he refused to hold it like a toy plane

While lunch was being made he moved on to his favorite mini game - sword fighting. Usually I'll play this with him and Emma and watch while Emma pummels him, then let him beat me while shaking my fist at him like a cheesy 70s villain. Only one controller was behaving today, so I set him loose on a mode he hadn't played. Basically his avatar would walk through a level as swarms of other avatars would charge him with plastic swords and he'd have to hack his way through them (think 300 for preschoolers).

Again, I sat there impressed. Sometimes he'd go nuts and just flail the controller about like a madman, but othertimes I saw him watching the people on screen and he'd attack when he thought they could reach. Believe it or not, he even beat a "boss" that had defeated me on my first attempt!

This kid is the next generation of gamers. He's using motion control at 3 the way we first used an NES controller to make Mario jump over Donkey Kong's barrels. What is still a "new" technology to me is just ho-hum to my kids. Emma stand in our living room and play catch with a baby panda on Kinectimals. Max is flying around an island and shooting balloons with as much fluidity as I had when I tried. Emma can already work with the Wii's crappy motion control much better than I can, and I've been gaming all my life!

As I thought about this, I realized that my kids are going to beat me at video games one day. It's not like basketball where your limitations are physical. In 10 years, who knows what gaming will be like! Will motion control be the thing? Will they finally create a home-friendly virtual reality game? Will games continue to get more advanced and complex?

I can only grow with it all so much! Anyone I know who was an adult (or older teen) when the first Nintendo released usually doesn't keep up with the current gaming scene. They can't keep up with 13 year olds on Halo because they weren't raised to game that way. Pressure-sensitive thumbsticks and triggers, fast-swapping between items, playing in a fast-paced, three-dimensional game... it's something that has to be learned as an adult. Heck, I still have a hard time keeping up with these young wipper-snappers!

It's interesting to see my kids as gamers though. As infants, I would rock them to sleep while playing RPGs or strategy games - nothing that would require fast reflexes that would send them flying off my lap. And now I realize that they will eventually excel at games that are just too new fangled for their crotchety old dad.

See you tomorrow!

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