When I first proposed the idea of a tech blog to Nathan, my 7-year old son, he told me he didn't want to participate. But now he's changed his mind. I think he was initially drawn to participate after he saw John include game rating icons in his game reviews. Nathan wanted to pick his own icons and rate his own games. Sibling rivalry is dependable motivator.
My plan was to ask Nathan what he liked about his favorite games thinking I could just type as he spoke, doing a little light editing and summarizing as we went along. That's where things got interesting. When I read back what I wrote he would start laughing and say, "No, no, no. That's not right!" I have never played any of these games myself. This meant he had to simplify and clarify his explanations so they made sense to someone with no prior knowledge. Most of his explanations were lost in translation. There's a big difference between doing something and explaining something. Occasionally we had to bring in John to translate some of the finer points.
In the end I found this to be a fun exercise. So often I'll pick the boys up and school, I'll ask how their day went and they'll reply "fine" without any further elaboration. But if I ask them about their video games they will give me more details than I generally want to hear. Asking Nathan what he likes about the games gave him a chance to work on his communication skills with me and we got to spend some quality one-on-one time together. And now I know what he's doing when he's playing his games :)
Games:
1) Gizmonauts (iPod Touch and iPad): It's like Dragonvale but you have robots and you're in space. You can clear out stuff and find mowhawks for your robots. If the robot gets to level 5 you can get toys, like a saw for a builder bot, or a mowhawk or microphone for a perform bot, or a banjo for a rock bot.
My rating: 5 out of 5
2) Dragonvale (iPod Touch and iPad): You get dragons and you can breed them to get different dragons. It's like Gizmonauts with dragons instead of robots. When you get an egg you can hatch it, put it on a pedestal or sell it. You can buy things like flower boxes with coins or dragons with gems. You get goals and once you do the goal you get coins, gems and XP. XP helps you go to the next level so you can get more stuff.
My rating 4 out of 5
3) Minecraft (PC): Everything is blocks. You can dig in the side of a mountain and make houses. You can even make a floating house by putting a house in a tree and then destroying the tree. You can slaughter cows and pigs and chickens and then you can eat them in survival. (Note: Slaughter is my word, Nathan said "kill". I didn't think that was appropriate but he thought kids might not know what slaughter means.) In creative you never die and you don’t need to eat – you are invincible and have infinity stuff.
My rating 4 out of 5
4) Temple Run 2 (iPod Touch and iPad): It’s like Temple Run except you’re in the sky and you’re getting chased by a giant monkey. You find gems and coins along the course to buy stuff. You can buy new characters with the gems. You can also use coins to buy gadgets like a coin magnet.
My rating 5 out of 5
5) Subway Surfers (iPod Touch and iPad): It’s like Temple Run but you’re on subway tracks. A sheriff is trying to catch you. In different places there are dump trucks that have dirt dumped out of them. You can go up on the dirt and then get on top of the subway trains. I don’t know how to do the surfing part yet.
My rating 5 out of 5
6) Hill Climb Racing (iPod Touch and iPad): You get a Jeep and the wide open countryside with hills to start. You get coins along your track and when you jump off hills you get an air times. You get coins for the jumps. Insane air time will get you the most coins. You can get different levels and vehicles with the coins.
My rating 4 out of 5
Educational:
1) Essential Skeleton (for the iPad): You can see the different parts of your body. You can tap a part of your body like a tooth and tap “erase others” and then you can see the tooth by itself. You can turn the skeleton around and it’s like it’s dancing. You can also make your siblings (Note: Sibling is his word, not mine), if you have any, guess what the body part is that you chose. You can also read about the parts of the skeleton.
My rating 5 out of 5
2) My Math Flash Cards App (iPod Touch and iPad): I need to do flash cards for homework. These are good because you choose addition, subtraction, multiplication or division.
My rating 4 out of 5
3) Tell Time Little Matchups Game (iPod Touch and iPad): I'm learning to tell time at school and this is a good game. You have to match the digital clock to an analog clock or an analog clock to a digital clock.
My rating 4 out of 5
No comments:
Post a Comment