*** (1) What would you want their VERY FIRST video game to be (1B: how old is your kid going to be when they play a video game for the first time)?
Sonic the Hedgehog. The first one in the Genesis trilogy so they can move up toward the increasingly-awesome sequels from that era. Besides, it's the first game I played. And I played it when I was four so let's go with that for them too.
*** (2) Are there any games that YOU personally were never able to get into (because you were late to the party, etc), but would like to expose to your kids early so they can give it a proper chance?
Nah, I don't do much multiplayer gaming and most single-player games have plenty of avenues to get tracked-down through.
*** (3) Are there any games (especially very popular games) you would rather your kids NEVER play, for whatever reason? (Assuming they have the same tastes as you, you could hide games that are only going to be a huge disappointment to them; or you could stop them from getting too addicted to WoW, Minecraft or Civilization by preventing them from ever playing those games in the first place).
Just about any MMO. If they're magically going to have the same taste as me I can just flat-out explain to them that they're a dramatic time-waster and neither I nor them are going to enjoy them one bit anyway.
*** (4) What is YOUR favorite video game, and under what precise circumstances would you like to introduce this game to your kid? i.e., how old will they be, what games will they need to have played beforehand, and if this is a game with any degree of player/story customization, what choices would you encourage them to make (i.e., play a Thief in Morrowind, or date Yuffie in FF7)?
Xenogears. They'll be about thirteen and I'll have made sure they've already played games like FFVI and especially FFVII -- JRPGs with compelling enough plots that came out right before Xenogears -- so that they're familiar with the idea that a game can tell quite the story and also familiar with the general layout of a JRPG.
Honestly, there's not a whole lot of gameplay customization in that regard for this one. I'd jut make sure they get the absolute most out of the game without going totally overboard on leveling and such if that's not their cup of tea.
*** (5) Describe anything else you'd do with your kid's life of gaming. (Make them play all the Final Fantasies in order? Give them official remakes or fan-made patches of games to play instead of what was first commercially available? Hold off on giving them any of the games you know they'd get hopelessly addicted to until after highschool / college? Torture them with nothing but awful games for years because you're a sick, sadistic bastard?)
I guess I'd ask them to play the various series in order to experience the evolution. Otherwise nothing really springs to mind -- probably because I'm not interested in having children.
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Sir Chris Police ~Ace Detective in Homicide~
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