Let’s Try Gaming with Kids… - MMORPG.com

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Let’s Try Gaming with Kids… - MMORPG.com

Red Thomas attempted to introduce some of his nieces and nephews to gaming over the last week. Several have gotten old enough to understand how to play an MMO, so he decided to give it a rip starting with Final Fantasy XIV Online and then World of Warcraft. Which game did this favorite Uncle find most appealing to the kids?

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Az2002ro

You need to show them Black Desert Online. FAR more action Combat (from the beginning)

Octagon7711

GW2, ESO, have pretty good playerbases.  ESO Legends might work also.  

MadCoderOne

I tried this too, my kids (and all kids from talking to other parents) have the attention spans of ... well I don't know but its short. If there isnt another chest around the corner to open for IMMEDIATE gratification, then the game is "boring". I'm afraid. Millenials I hire are like this in the workplace too... if there isn't instant gratification and ego stroking, they aren't happy.

Hariken

I don't see alot of kids today getting into mmo's. They want faster moving games. That's why Fortnite is so big now. Kids love that game and can't go into a mmo's slower gameplay. Lets face it the mmo gerneration is getting older.

Octagon7711

I noticed mobile games are like that, pretty much non-stop action.  Just have to get them use to not using the cash shops.  

Phry

Gaming with kids is all very well, but it should be remembered that many of these games have an age rating that really should not be ignored.

JeffSpicoli

I think the magic of MMO's doesn't resonate as well with younger generations because the idea of playing with others online isn't really all that fascinating to them. You are talking about a generation that has ALWAYS BEEN ONLINE. If you are a old fart like me then you remember a time without the internet, and you remember the real magic of playing MMO's was the first time you realized you were playing with other Real People and not soulless NPC's.

So take away the thrill of playing with others and what are you really left with in a MMO ? Ask yourself would a kid or anyone for that matter really be enjoying this if it was offline?

I also think the new generation does as others have mentioned need instant gratification, But again this is mainly due to the fact they are so use to getting their information quickly from....Yes the internet. Anyone old enough to remember a time when if you needed to look something up you pulled out a encyclopedia or actually went to a library?

As far as your question Red, well I think you already know the answer , something quick , fast and to the point. Really all you need to do is go on Twitch and Browse top 20 games, All of those will do well with the kids. Guess how many in that top 20 are MMO's ? One... World of Warcraft

Panther2103

Hariken said:

I don't see alot of kids today getting into mmo's. They want faster moving games. That's why Fortnite is so big now. Kids love that game and can't go into a mmo's slower gameplay. Lets face it the mmo gerneration is getting older.

Yeah I tried to get one of my brothers into WoW just because it was the easiest MMO to get into without previous experience, and he got bored super quick. But he will methodically go through and 100% every single Zelda game, so not really sure where the disconnect is with MMO's and younger people. 

I think it might actually be the fact that when MMO's got big, it was basically the fortnite of it's time. For a genre to take over, you need the current generation of kids to tell their friends who tell their friends who tell their friends to play a specific game, which then in turn causes the boom of players. MMORPG's had that with WoW and that generation. MOBAs had that with League and that generation. Now BR's are hot and it's this generations game genre. 

I remember when I was in highschool and WoW was literally all anyone was talking about. The jocks, the nerds (minus a small group who played FFXI at my school), the band kids, the preppy kids, the punks, everyone was talking about WoW. I remember a kid in one of my classes reading his essay about his weekend off and it started with "I was moonfire spamming in AV" and nobody thought anything about it. It was crazy how big it got. 

We need another game to catch on with MMORPG's to get the population from the younger generation. 

Sovrath

Panther2103 said:

We need another game to catch on with MMORPG's to get the population from the younger generation. 

Nilden

https://www.roblox.com/home

I play Roblox with my niece all the time. Great for kids!

jarsku85

Boundless would have been perfect pick since they like ARK.

kosaboy

It depends what the kids are into. If your kid likes fantasy settings in movies or books then MMOs will work. Most MMORPGs have reading you need to do to understand where to go or what to do. That takes a certain mindset.

bcbully

I've been telling ya'll for few years now, no kid in the world is going to be interested in the slow, unevolved, boring PvE portion of mmorpgs. It's dead Jim.

Those kids right there are why there will be no more AAA investments into that style of play.

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Scorchien

blueturtle13 said:

jarsku85 said:

Boundless would have been perfect pick since they like ARK.

Agreed. I bought Boundless this morning and before I left my daughter was captivated by it. We are going to play this evening.

My daughter loved Wizards 101 for a long while. Then Trove but Maplestory 2? My daughter and son can not wait for that release. After playing on my beta account a while back both were immediately hooked. I think that will be a big hit with many, including the youth.

Maybe ill grab it for my kid to try he loves Minecraft and Roblox and such

Scorchien

Nilden said:

https://www.roblox.com/home

I play Roblox with my niece all the time. Great for kids!

My 7 year old Loves Roblox ...

DeadSpock

My kids play roblox and Fortnite I introduced them to the show Stranger things they watched both seasons in 2 days and can’t wait for season 3 they were disappointed it’s coming in 2019

Scorchien

DeadSpock said:

My kids play roblox and Fortnite I introduced them to the show Stranger things they watched both seasons in 2 days and can’t wait for season 3 they were disappointed it’s coming in 2019

never heard of it ... googlin

 ahh that does look fun for him , im gonna dvr the series .. thx

laserit

I miss playing games with my kids when they were children, it was a heck of a lot of fun. They were crazy over Vanilla WoW and the original guild I was in was great at interacting with my kids. They'd take them out on all kinds of adventures. My kids grew up on Nintendo's then Vanilla WoW brought them their first gaming PC's.

I miss those days, I was a lot younger then too. I do have a grandson who is 3 1/2 now and we'll find out what kind of gaming I will do with him.

He calls me Papa  

ceratop001

I play fornite which I totally hate with my 7 year old Nephew. I do this for bonding purposes. I suck big-time at the game , but I am 47 and losing my vision and reflexes. Problem is I am addicted to games and come from the 70's and 80's arcade era. When computers became the thing I just transferred my addiction to computer gaming. As I get older I'm realizing I'm not as good as I used to be lol. I love computers so much I even went to college and got a degree in Computer Information Systems. Thought I would share this insight with my fellow computer nerds. Have a great day...

Red_Thomas

Hey, folks! I've been out of town the last several days, so I'm just getting back to read through all this.

I'm really glad the article got this much response! Thank you all for the really awesome comments and thoughts. I wasn't sure if this would be a good article or not, but finding things to play with my horde of nieces and nephews has always been one of those harder questions for me.

Some really cool thoughts were posted in this thread. I took a few notes and am planning to give it another try using some of the suggested games.

Thanks again for everything!

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Wizardry

Not sure why the two choices,one is vastly different being an easy game to get into but much lesser an immersive mmorpg.Then i read someone mentioned get them into BDO for action oriented,are we still trying to change rpg's into simplistic moba's?

So in the end the kids chose the easy to understand,easy to play and easy to get into,very little thinking and immersion would have NOTHING to do with anything,i could have predicted this as anyone else could have as well.So what was the point,to say young minds prefer an easier gaming environment?So let's make more of these so our kids learn not to think and will have likely no clue what RPG stands for?

Wizardry

Should have asked them beforehand what rpg stands for and what it means to play a rpg.

To me this is like lining two kids up to look for a 50 dollar bill.There is two choices,one requires lots of analyzing,thinking,puzzling,team work and may take 20 minutes while the other path is easy to see and might take 10 seconds.Gee i wonder what path the kids will take?

Amathe

I really enjoyed this article. Kids are fun.