Need help with my goddaughter getting into gaming

[kelthuzadinho]

If you speak Portuguese, you can falar na nossa língua.

Okay, so apparently I now have a goddaughter. Baptized and everything. She'll be 10 months old this November. However, as a good godfather who went way too deep into video games, of course I'm already thinking about how to introduce her to this universe. Her father, who is also my best friend, entrusted me with this task. We'll do some things together, but he gave me carte blanche in this concern to think and do things my way. So, actually, what he gave me wasn't carte blanche, but rather existential crises and philosophical, ethical, moral reflections. lol

This is proving much harder than it seems. First, I thought about the sheer number of games I'll be introducing her to. I grew up with an NES clone that had few games, then I moved to the PS2, where there were many more and they were easily accessible because of piracy. Not only were there many options, but there were games like SNES Station with 1000 Super Nintendo games. But it's not at the same level now. Even with all that, we still had to leave the house and buy the games; it's not like it is today, with emulation allowing you to fit all the 1st-6th generation games onto a single Micro SD card. That's the starting point. Secondly, we decided for now that we'll go with chronology, that is, NES > SNES > GB > N64 > GC. We want her to be raised more on Nintendo, it stimulates more creativity in our view and, above all, because it's more user-friendly, in a way. Also when she gets to GC she'll play Sonic so whatever. But then the real problems begin.

Which game? Should I put on the first Mario, then Mario 3? Should I put on one at a time, let her get bored, or finish one and then put on another? And what about other games, like Zelda, should I put on the NES version right away or only when she gets to the SNES and introduce A Link to the Past? Should I wait until she finishes learning to read to introduce these? Children learn to read around 5-7 years old, so it will take a while, but what about when she starts? What about RPG? Mario RPG? Or just Zelda? What if she likes Dragon Quest?Or Final Fantasy? Idk. There's too many options. When she became a pre-teenager (god help me) I'll problably show her to PS games, Valkyrie Profile or Parasite Eve. I don't know what girls usually like about videogames in general. Hope this didn't sound sexist. My women friends grew up loving those I cited. There's this friend of mine which love Darkstalkers and Bloody Roar, so the pattern is kinda shattered. There's also the influence of your social conjuncture, she'll love the games we introduce to her, when you are a child I guess you just like everything. I did hate Tomb Raider, though. Which is a good option as well. I thought too about some farming game, maybe Harvest Moon? Or just wait and Rune Factory? That'd be cool. Maybe I'm thinking about the cuteness and whatnot. Really don't know, I grew up addicted to God of War and Crash Twinsanity.

I also thought about introducing Pokémon, which her father will surely want, but then there are some doubts. I didn't want her to look down on older games because they're "ugly," so instead of putting in the GBA games, I thought about putting in Yellow, which has Pikachu, and going from there. That's also an option. Everything will take time; I'll need to see what she adapts to best. I'm clearly overthinking this lmao

Another thing is the detail of which device she'll play on. I'm thinking of keeping my Miyoo Mini Plus to give to her when she's about 4 or 5 years old (the age we plan to start introducing her to games, because it was our age too, with Bomberman and Mario on NES). I'll configure the Miyoo Mini Plus for a few consoles; in fact, I'll initially only put in one, as I said above, based on the linear logic of generation releases. It's a great handheld for playing Game Boy, so the Pokémon idea is very good. That's one aspect of it. On the other hand, one of the coolest things about video games is playing with other people. In that sense, the Miyoo Mini would be very limiting, unless you have another one, because with Onion OS you can configure and play multiplayer on LAN. But you can also build a desktop gaming machine, which I can easily configure, to play on the TV and have everyone play together, which would also be cool. We'll probably do both.

So? What do you think? Has anyone been through this or is going through it now? Please give me some advice, I'm going crazy.

 

[TheMinuMaster]

Primeiro de tudo: calma. A paixão dela por jogos vai ser inevitável, ainda mais com o círculo familiar que vai cercá-la. Agora, sobre como inseri-la nesse mundo... bom, essa é uma daquelas perguntas com centenas de respostas possíveis, mas nenhuma impossível.

Pensando de forma prática, o mais lógico seria começar com algo simples, tipo Pac-Man. É intuitivo: só quatro direções, sem botões extras. Diferente de Super Mario Bros. 1, que já exige correr, pular, pegar power-ups... pra quem nunca segurou um controle, isso é um bicho de sete cabeças. Pra nós, parece fácil, mas pra quem tá começando, até um simples shoryuken parece um feitiço proibido.

Pessoalmente, se um dia eu tiver filhos, eu gostaria de mostrar a montanha de jogos e deixar eles escalarem por conta própria. Se um dia quiserem jogar Mario 3, jogamos Mario 3. No outro, quiserem Zelda 1, jogamos Zelda 1. E assim vai. Mostrar um pouco de tudo e deixar o caminho mais livre parece o mais sensato, principalmente no começo, afinal, gosto muda, e ninguém sabe de cara o que vai amar.

Sobre os RPGs, eu deixaria os de turno pra bem mais tarde. É muita informação pra quem tá começando. Mas algo mais solto, tipo Zelda 1 ou A Link to the Past, pode funcionar bem.

No fim, se fosse pra resumir tudo em uma frase, eu diria: apenas se divirtam. Não se prendam a uma ordem ou a um “plano perfeito”. Escolham juntos o que der vontade e curtam o momento. O amor pelos jogos vai vir naturalmente, o importante é que seja divertido.

 

[Roy U. OmOm]

Okay, so apparently I now have a goddaughter. Baptized and everything. She'll be 10 months old this November. However, as a good godfather who went way too deep into video games, of course I'm already thinking about how to introduce her to this universe.

She is less then year old, and you are already thinking how to make her addicted to video games? bro

With all due respect, but in 20 years you will be making same thread asking:

How do I make my adult child quit League of Legends and get a real job?

But then again, it's not your kid, so not your problem I guess

Post automatically merged: Nov 13, 2025

My advice? Start from where it all began with Nethack. No mercy.

This way she will grow to appreciate beauty of the older games, instead of being easly impressed by the bloated graphics.

 

[moonbits]

If she shows interest on the hobby, play games that are popular with kids her age. Like Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite. (If those are popular in 4-5 years from now)

If there's one thing you should never do is to force them to play a certain game because "it's what I played when I was your age!" they don't give a two shits about that.

 

[kelthuzadinho]

Primeiro de tudo: calma. A paixão dela por jogos vai ser inevitável, ainda mais com o círculo familiar que vai cercá-la. Agora, sobre como inseri-la nesse mundo... bom, essa é uma daquelas perguntas com centenas de respostas possíveis, mas nenhuma impossível.

Pensando de forma prática, o mais lógico seria começar com algo simples, tipo Pac-Man. É intuitivo: só quatro direções, sem botões extras. Diferente de Super Mario Bros. 1, que já exige correr, pular, pegar power-ups... pra quem nunca segurou um controle, isso é um bicho de sete cabeças. Pra nós, parece fácil, mas pra quem tá começando, até um simples shoryuken parece um feitiço proibido.

Pessoalmente, se um dia eu tiver filhos, eu gostaria de mostrar a montanha de jogos e deixar eles escalarem por conta própria. Se um dia quiserem jogar Mario 3, jogamos Mario 3. No outro, quiserem Zelda 1, jogamos Zelda 1. E assim vai. Mostrar um pouco de tudo e deixar o caminho mais livre parece o mais sensato, principalmente no começo, afinal, gosto muda, e ninguém sabe de cara o que vai amar.

Sobre os RPGs, eu deixaria os de turno pra bem mais tarde. É muita informação pra quem tá começando. Mas algo mais solto, tipo Zelda 1 ou A Link to the Past, pode funcionar bem.

No fim, se fosse pra resumir tudo em uma frase, eu diria: apenas se divirtam. Não se prendam a uma ordem ou a um “plano perfeito”. Escolham juntos o que der vontade e curtam o momento. O amor pelos jogos vai vir naturalmente, o importante é que seja divertido.

Boa, mano. Acho que é por aí mesmo. Vou tocar conforme a banda, vamos vendo. Meu amigo disse para deixá-la simplesmente escolher dentre as várias opções, talvez por capa mesmo. Chegamos nisso pq tava dizendo que iria colocar pra ela os jogos traduzidos, algo que não tive na infância e me frustrou muito, porém, ele veio com um ponto muito bom: isso atiça a experimentação e a criatividade, por consequência.

Parando pra pensar faz muito sentido. Nós ficávamos muito tempo nos games só pra descobrir e nesse processo, o aprendizado de inglês era inevitável. Associávamos as palavras por sobrevivência kkkkkkk. Fora que, ao passar dos anos, os que tiveram sido inacessíveis, nós revisitamos e é um evento muito mágico jogar aquilo e entender, finalmente. Tive isso com Kingdom Hearts 1, que é um dos jogos que mais tenho apego em tempos recentes, por ter zerado finalmente algo que na infância era impossível sequer sair da praia inicial. O ponto é deixar ela escolher, mesmo se estiver em inglês, japonês, mandarim, russo, tanto faz. Só deixar torar.

O que importa é ser divertido, de fato. Valeu pelo toque

Post automatically merged: Nov 14, 2025

She is less then year old, and you are already thinking how to make her addicted to video games? bro

With all due respect, but in 20 years you will be making same thread asking:


But then again, it's not your kid, so not your problem I guess

Post automatically merged: Nov 13, 2025

My advice? Start from where it all began with Nethack. No mercy.

This way she will grow to appreciate beauty of the older games, instead of being easly impressed by the bloated graphics.

Speak for yourself, my man.

This way I think it's best just let her play Akalabeth, lol

Post automatically merged: Nov 14, 2025

If she shows interest on the hobby, play games that are popular with kids her age. Like Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite. (If those are popular in 4-5 years from now)

If there's one thing you should never do is to force them to play a certain game because "it's what I played when I was your age!" they don't give a two shits about that.

I'll never do that, but I'll introduce her to, obviously, what I think I should as a grown up knowing my stuff. She can play whatever. But Roblox? That game is a shithole for pedos, my brother. There's some sort of limits, including the problem of internet and online gaming itself. We'll think about that, we won't prohibit or anything, but we forward her to don't let play at a young age something like that, you know? This hits way harder when you are a girl.