Redditor Introduces Kids To Retro Games With Interesting Results

Last week reddit user ZadocPaet took it upon himself to organise a social experiment of sorts: providing children aged 5-16 with access to his vast collection of oldschool videogame consoles. One could also see this as simply sharing his toys but the former is more fun.

Setting up at the Game On Expo in Arizona, Zaco organised a couch, tv, and an arse-load of games with the console of choice alternating every hour, progressing chronologically through their releases. He found that not only did these kids enjoy most of his classic games, they were blown away to find a lot of the bullshit we deal with today was absent.

Coming from a time when post-launch updates, microtransactions, and paid DLC are the norm, these kids were drastically unaccustomed to booting up a game straight away, without additional login requirements or “accessing server” pop-ups. These delays are can be fleeting but to lose them altogether unsurprisingly improved the experience.

These young, impressionable nerds were also unused to the fighting games of yester-year, when new characters were unlocked as in-game rewards instead of paid for directly. Now, admittedly this still exists to a degree but knowing new fighters will be available to purchase later on can often make the game feel like an incomplete package at times.

Zadoc believes the barrier of entry was less severe thanks to the wealth of retro-emulated games available via digital platforms like Xbox Live and PSN. “I think YouTube entertainment has a lot to do with the knowledge factor,” says Zadoc. “It’s cute when a 9 year old is explaining why Atari Jaguar said it was 64 bits and then questions whether or not it had all of those bits.”

With such a positive response to this old-world style of game packaging, ZP says he feels the popular Kids React series on YouTube is a poor gauge of both young ‘uns appreciation and skill when it comes to retro games.

I recommend reading his original reddit post for more info and a less jaded, bitter outlook on the landscape of games today than my own.

via – reddit

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