In response to "Character Creation" from The Escapist Forum: Good article, I think, and something that hasn't really been heavily explored before - so kudos for that. It reminds me of something I read about how the younger (and future) generations can be defined as being "digital natives" because they grew up with it all around them. Whereas the older generations are "digital immigrants" because it is something which often has to be thoroughly explained to them, since they didn't grow up around computers, mobile phones, the internet, etc.
Interesting and insightful article. Having a baby brother of my own, I tend to be strongly in favour of granting children the freedom to play with technological devices that they encounter. I never would have been anywhere near as proficient with computers had I not been given the opportunity to learn in my formative years, so I'll be helping my brother through the fields of technology, just as I plan to teach him the wonders of reading at an early age.
My brother loves to press keys on a keyboard - I suppose it's that interaction with the screen, a feeling that his actions are doing something to the computer, that he's interested in. I'd let him loose on my own laptop, but I run Debian Linux on it. Not exactly a good operating system to be volatile with.
We're a pretty technological family anyway - we have nine computers, seven of them in the house and five belonging to me. We've got five television sets as well, but my brother doesn't seem as interested in the television as the things he can properly interact with. He'll play with computers, telephones and even the occasional game - little will he recognise it, but I carefully orchestrated it so that his first gaming experience would be a game of Space Invaders.
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In response to "In the Beginning There was Populous" from The Escapist Forum: Kudos for the Act Raiser reference. There was no better way to spend a rainy afternoon than save a few souls from the evil demons and then beat an insanely hard platforming level. I always liked the fact that the game required you to descend from your lofty godlike realm, take on mortal form, and do battle with evil for the sake of your followers.
Not a bad game design metaphor for Christ, if you think about it.
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In response to "The Gods Must Be Crazy" from The Escapist Forum: I loved the Sims: Bustin' Out because you could just be an utter bastard to your sims with many weird objects. Enclosed them in a maze and gave them 1 fridge and lots of dangerous objects. Eventually I felt like a sick individual but I loved forcing a Sim to fix a light, even though it had a 90% chance of electrocuting them and killing them.
- Dommyboy
