Young Geneforgers

[Student of Trinity]

My daughter is now trying Geneforge, at just under age 6, with a fair amount of help from me, including reading all the text. With the game set on easy, and playing a shaper with all AI creations, it's actually quite manageable for a little kid.

 

In a form of role playing that surprised me, my daughter and her friend decided to name several of the creations with their own names and those of family members, having named the shaper with a nickname. But there was no grief when creations died, apparently because they could so easily be recreated.

 

I'm not sure how much of the story and sect politics is going over her head — probably most if not all of it — but my daughter says she really likes the game because she wants to learn how to make new monsters.

 

Anyone else have experience with little kids playing Geneforge, or with playing it at a young age?

[Lilith]

Quote:

Originally written by Student of Trinity:
In a form of role playing that surprised me, my daughter and her friend decided to name several of the creations with their own names and those of family members, having named the shaper with a nickname.

Doesn't surprise me too much; I did the same thing with Exile when I was 8, and I'm sure lots of other people did too.

[Xaiya]

If I played at a very young age, I would probably want to be one of the creations or the shaper. (I haven't actually, though)

 

The reason I think this is because when I was about that age, I played this demo of a game called "Planet Blupi". I pretended to be a blupi for a long time.

[Taliesin]

My youngest brother is obsessed with any game I like, so of course he plays Geneforge a lot. True, most of it is over his head, but he likes the creations. He always plays as a Guardian, though.

[The Ratt]

I think it would be interesting to see a child's point of view on the game and which sect they chose to ally with. To bad they probably wouldn't get most of what's happening.

 

Tal, you make it sound like playing as a guardian is a bad thing. Why?

[Acky]

The first time I played G4,I couldn`t find the drakon canister in Gasslin Freehold. My little brother wanted to help. I said `Whatever` and expected him to loose intrest in a few minutes.

HE FOUND IT!!!

[Taliesin]

Quote:

Originally written by The Ratt:
Tal, you make it sound like playing as a guardian is a bad thing. Why?

I only meant that it's a bit strange that he does, given his obsession with creations. He hardly puts skill points in anything else. All he thinks about is "must have more essence, must summon more drayks." Exactly what I do with my shapers/lifecrafters.

Guardians can be very fun and effective, but they don't fit his strategy well. Except for the HP bonus, of course. But with a good creation army, you don't die very often anyway.

[The Ratt]

Oh, huh. That's wierd. Maybe he just wants to look cool.

[Taliesin]

Quote:

Originally written by The Ratt:
Oh, huh. That's wierd. Maybe he just wants to look cool.

I think he also puts a lot of points in endurance, so that could be a major factor.

[Spidweb]

I knew very early on that a lot of small children would really enjoy the Geneforge games. After all, it lets them make their own army of fire-breathing dinosaurs. How cool is that?

 

When my brother-in-law was nine, he played through a lot of the first one. He ignored the plot and simply killed every single thing he met.

 

- Jeff Vogel

[Marlenny]

Quote:

Originally written by Thuryl:

Quote:

Originally written by Student of Trinity:
In a form of role playing that surprised me, my daughter and her friend decided to name several of the creations with their own names and those of family members, having named the shaper with a nickname.

Doesn't surprise me too much; I did the same thing with Exile when I was 8, and I'm sure lots of other people did too.

My god. You've been playing SW games since you were 8? I knew you had been around for about 6 years. But 12? Insane. Anyhow, My little brother used to play Geneforge back when he was 8. He was quite good at it. Although I was a bit disturbed when I found out how much he enjoyed killing the Takers and stealing their stuff.

[Callie]

I don't consider eight as surprising; I began playing Exile II back in '99.

[Retlaw May]

I was first introduced to SW games around the time of Blades of Exile I think so I was pretty young when I started playing. Can't quite remember how old I was at the time, but I'm 17 now.

[Lepus timidus]

I know that I played Version 1.0 on Exile 1 when it first came out on Mac. I must have been about 6 at the time.

[Killabreu]

I remember playing Geneforge very early myself, from a disk full of demos. In fact, I still have it. It just says "Computer Games 7/02". Has some space ships shooting at eachother with explosions. In fact, it was the only game I liked on the thing.

[Demon Blade]

i played GF2 when i was 8, i think

[Upon Mars.]

Originally Posted By: Killabreu

I remember playing Geneforge very early myself, from a disk full of demos. In fact, I still have it. It just says "Computer Games 7/02". Has some space ships shooting at eachother with explosions. In fact, it was the only game I liked on the thing.

Same thing here although a little older. I was introduced to History via my father but also, via a trial version of Age of empires on a CDrom.

And it's through CDs with demos on them that I learnt of the game "avernum I" when I was about 10.