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Stormrider:
My little niece is almost 3 years old now. She loves watching the screen of my computer when I play videogames and also smashing the control panel and moving the stick. Now I'm trying to make her understand how to play. I've tried with colourfull and simple shoot'em ups and also with Pacman. She understands when I tell her right!, left!, up!, down.!.. and she moves the stick in the right direction, but I'm not sure if she's able to understand that the sprite (which she follows with her eyes when I tell her so) moves according to what you do with the stick. At what age should I expect her to understand this? How could I teach her? I don't know what other games would be better for this, so advice is appreciated. I've heard some kind of chimpanzees were able to understand how to play pacman and the fact that they have to escape from the ghosts and even that they can pursuit them after eating the big pills, which is really impressive. So, I hope my niece is able to reach the primate level soon.
Hoopz:
It will vary from child to child, but from my perspective it will occur between 4 and 5.  Until then, they have difficulty with the relationship between the controls they have in hand and the movement on the screen.

If you have a trackball, you may try a "slower" game like Golden Tee or a bowling game.  They have more control, can go out there pace for the most part, and may pick up the fact that what they do dictates the behavior on screen.  My two daughters started on those games and Pac-Man but were "better" at the trackball games earlier than Pac-Man.
patrickl:
I found that the trouble is not so much that my kid couldn't understand what to do, but the game just goes too fast for him to catch on. Most games are just too difficult for a small child just getting to grips with the whole concept.

He did play games like Donkey Kong and Galaga, but he had more fun playing flash games that don't have him die in 5 seconds. I bought him a Wii and that's even easier.
weisshaupt:

--- Quote from: patrickl on March 15, 2008, 08:40:44 am ---I found that the trouble is not so much that my kid couldn't understand what to do, but the game just goes too fast for him to catch on. Most games are just too difficult for a small child just getting to grips with the whole concept.

He did play games like Donkey Kong and Galaga, but he had more fun playing flash games that don't have him die in 5 seconds. I bought him a Wii and that's even easier.

--- End quote ---

I Agree. The Arcade games are simply a bit too fast for them . You eaither need to slow the emulation down or provides them with different gaems. I have mine set up so they can go directly to IE explorer in kiosk mode - THe kids can't get off the site pointed to and they can play the flash games there. I have places like Noggin, Nick Jr and Lego that the kids just select off of the menu...

They play the arcade games when daddy is around, and mostly play web games when I am not. (Except my Son has discovered TMNT and now plays that quite a bit. Enough his old man can't beat him at it anymore0
ahofle:
One of the first games my son was able to play was World Class Bowling.  All you do is roll the ball forward.  There was also a darts game that worked the same way (Shoot the Bull I think).  Try those out for starters.  Gauntlet is also a good game to teach a young person with because you have time to just run around and get a feel for the controls without dying.  It will come in time.
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