Gaming toddler’s skills improving rapidly.
My daughter’s come a long way from her first pictures with a Gamecube controller more than a year and a half ago. Her favorite game is Super Mario Bros, but she’s never been very good at it. Tonight however, for the first time, she had some success playing it, taking out a couple of Buzzy Beetles multiple times (they kept getting back up, you see) and finally hopping up onto a block and out of their reach before suddenly seeming to forget which direction she needed to move in.
The changes in her abilities are pretty dramatic as her understanding of the way everything works develops. When she sees me walking around by the TV, she’ll ask me, “Daddy, play Mario?” If I decline, she’ll move to, “Play Sonic?” and then, “Play Pac-Man?” But ultimately, even if I play Ninja Gaiden she starts insisting on getting a turn, taking the controller and meticulously fitting the wrist strap over her arm (sometimes the wrong one) and then hopping madly around before leaping off a cliff or getting knocked around by a badly-animated sprite.
One thing that struck me tonight is how she’s learning to play games but doesn’t have the frustration factor that I grew up with over games. That had to be broken from me by some really tough games, but now she gets to grow up gaming without getting frustrated over games that are very challenging. Factoring that into how early she’s starting, she’ll be pwning me at every game by the time she’s three.
I have to say I feel very fortunate to not only have married a gamer but to have spawned one. Perhaps the former makes the latter that much more likely. I know that it makes shopping for holidays easier.
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