5 Crucial Lessons Learned by Watching Kids Play Video Games Read more: 5 Crucial Lessons Learned by Watching Kids Play Video Games | Cracked.com http

[CHINESE BABOON]

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-crucial-lessons-learned-by-watching-kids-play-video-games/

Cracked is like my new fav site to burn time reading. Tons of good articles with witty writing. Really digged this article and the author.

[Title]

He does enjoy his f-bombs, doesn't he?

[Dateranoth]

I read the entire thing and the last sentence summed it all up fine. Spoiled children.

[Avahra]

I enjoy reading the cracked articles. This one was no exception haha

[Kevnvek]

On some levels I agree with most of those, on others I don't.

#5 I think dying in a game is fine if you aren't punished too heavily or forced to repeat too much, because I hate wasting time and losing progress when I want to get to the next part of the story. It really depends on the game type, arcade ones like Geometry Wars should still have lives and an end when you lose them.

#4 Grinding is bulls*** and always has been. It's just a way to pad out the length of a game, just like filler, episodes in an anime based on a manga that have nothing to do with the manga and are usually utter s*** and only exist to extend the show's life. It's most common in Japan, but is also probably in some American shows. There should be enemies and bosses that are too strong, but you should never have to fight a bajillion wild animals to beat them. Grinding done right is when you can go do a bunch of interesting side quests to level up before advancing the main quest, and actually have something to do, or an objective for your grinding.

#3 Kids these days... While I dislike when a game has utterly ridiculous amounts of text to describe mundane things (like Mount and Blade), I play my games for the story. I like that the text stories are there, because any amount of story could be made very easily at any time with text, not having to hire voice actors, but it also shouldn't be required reading when it's utterly drawn out to describe simple things.

#2 Who in the hell does this? Again, kids these days. I play for story, so the cutscenes, pre-rendered or not, are a real treat. Skipping them means you're just playing the game to blow up aliens or shoot cops and have no interest in the story the developers put so much effort into. A lot of work was put into GTA IV's story and dialog, so if you skip it all, I think you're playing it wrong, regardless of whoever says GTA is just for messing around.

#1 I like to play a game legitimately unless it's designed to be utter bulls*** and a cheat would make it much less of a pain in the *** (like Far Cry 2). I play around with all the cheats and have fun with them after beating a game, or when planning to revert to a save, it ruins the game to use it in your actual playthrough in my opinion.

I prefer the interactive movie/book approach to games. I really hope kids these days don't ruin it for all of us and lead them into a state where all games are like Call of Duty, with all your objectives being tersely shouted at you, all games having tacked on multiplayer, and story takes a backseat to seeing how many aliens you can blow up. It's already starting to happen, sadly. Why the hell is multiplayer being added to Mass Effect 3? It will be alright if it's co-op, but if it's competitive multiplayer, tacked on to a completely story driven game, then the future is dark indeed.

tl;dr

#5 Dying shouldn't punish you unless the game is setup as a challenge like an arcade game.

#4 Grinding/filler is bulls*** in any media.

#3 Text is alright but shouldn't be required reading to get the whole story and your objectives, maybe just extra details and backstory.

#2 People who skip cutscenes they've not already seen should burn in a fiery pit.

#1 Cheating is fun, but should only be done after you beat the game legitimately or intend to revert to a legitimate save point, in my opinion.

Also, reading that article made me go on another Cracked binge and spend a few hours reading through a dozen plus awesome lists lol.