LoG with my 5 year old kid + 'Dungeon Addiction'

[evony666]

Hi, before you go picking up the phone looking for your nearest child services I just wanna say my kid loves this game and is unfazed by all aspects! The usual well done to the Devs for making a great game.

I played DM and CSB as well as various D&D games in my youth including EoBs and fell in love with the genre years ago, I would go as far as saying that I developed an illness known as "Just one more Dooritus" which meant that in the long summer holidays when I had no responsibilities, no money and seemingly infinite time, I 'had' to know what was around the next corner/spell/level/door. I don't get lots of ' computer time' these days due to a career, two kids, demanding (but lovely*) missus, sporting commitments but it just happens that I am off work for a couple of weeks injured so I was bored, read the Silmarilion, watched LOTR trilogy extended edition for the third time and was looking for a new venture. That's when I stumbled across LoG, a genre I thought was extinct now, on STEAM - What a pleasant surprise to say the least!

I promised to myself that I would reserve LoG to evenings only, but unfortunately I believe ‘Justonedooritus’ got the better of me. They say that once an addict, always an addict you are never really cured; once you taste the strong addictive grid map, even after 15 years, that’s you hooked again. So after playing one evening and failing to solve a puzzle that night, I had strange feverish dreams (partly down to medication) about how to solve the puzzle.

Anyway, my eldest child is pre-school (but ready for real school ) and attends nursery in the mornings but has every afternoon to herself. During our lazy afternoons last week she caught me playing LoG, she saw it again and then became inquisitive herself. She would watch for a while and enquire about buttons, doors, traps, levers and ‘fizzy wobbles’ and occasionally reel backwards when a creature bobbed its head around a dungeon corner. I finished the game on hard mode myself and then left it.

The other day, my daughter asks if I was playing LoG. I said no because it was finished, but she asked several times if she could see it again. I reluctantly accepted her offer and she created a team for herself, a slappy monk, a man with a dagger, a guy that throws rocks and a wizard. I was amazed at how good she is at the whole thing! I control most of the movement and read all the text, but she picks things, up (using the notebook pad), organises her inventory including and especially who gets to wear what, and decides how they will advance. But the best thing is she loves the puzzles: she totally gets the idea of pressure plates, torch holders, ‘fizzy wobbles’ and has worked out several puzzles all on her own, several more with clues from daddy. We are at the start of level 4 now.

So either my child is a genius of some kind (defo not!), the puzzles are too easy or logic is inherent and intuitive in children. Either way, I feel my child is learning good things like problem solving skills while I am not at my best. Has anybody else introduced their children and should I worry about ‘justonedooritus being hereditary???

*under duress

[Rozy]

I'd actually say "All of the above" for the puzzles. That's a lot more than some 8 year olds can find out on their own and she's 5 you say, that's I think a good sign for both of you. The puzzles aren't really massively complex really, but sometimes that's a good thing since it lets more intuitive logic take over rather than getting you to think "do I need to put this tape here so the cat gets stuck and I can make a fake mustache?"

Oh man. Adventure games.

I'd say it's a plus though. Some games can help with cognitive and logical development and so long as they aren't mindless blast fests can be a good thing for a kid.

[Disasterrific]

Haha, I was that 5 year old kid at one time...

[Jack Dandy]

I'll just say this- if I was a kid, I would most probably be bugfuck terrified of the game.

When I was little, my biggest phobia in videogames were those "scream" soundfiles that played when you fell off high places/died.

Heck- I still get startled by them here from time to time. If I was a kid, I'd probably start crying the second I fell into the first pit.

[Darklord]

Sounds awesome would love to play games like this with my kids one day.

Daniel.

[evony666]

for me it was dropping bombs on the exposed and brutally wounded chest of a dragon in 'Forgotton Worlds' until its guts and heart burst open. Thanks Capcom for those nightmares as a 7 year old! As far as LoG, I think the violence is very very moderate for todays standard, but yes I used to jump out my chair when you fell through a pit in DM and then cried as it would take 5 mins to load the next level (especially if it was one where you fell to your death and had to wait another 5 minutes to reload)!

[atngnd]

and I can make a fake mustache?"

Oh man. Is that some Gabriel Knight you've been smoking there?
I hate that kind of irrational puzzles. Maybe they were OK in a game like Sam'n'Max which was based on (somewhat) irrational humor, but in a supposedly serious game, it's just annoying.

The LoG puzzles however are fairly good, not too complex, and not too easy (at least in the lower levels).

[MASKOAA]

Thats awesome. My first PC game ever was Hexen.

[mabd]

Lovely story! I was one of those kids! in the early 90's (I was around 3 or 4) I'd play Captive with my father on his Atari ST and I guess I've loved dungeon crawlers since then. In fact, a great number of my best childhood memories were playing Captive .

"do I need to put this tape here so the cat gets stuck and I can make a fake mustache?"

Loved the reference I think I had to use a walkthrough for that one.....

[evony666]

I hated the counter-logic in games like Broken Sword (more Broken Bank Balance after phoning the help line) where there was no rational line of thought to solve some of the problems. Like lick clothes to make them wet so that you slide quicker down a shute. Oh yeh like duuuh why didn't I think of that.

That's where LoG has done a great job, becasue their puzzles tend to make sense and the clues lead you in the right direction (sometimes a little too obvious but how do you balance puzzle difficulty level?). Also, I have to say I did recognise the 'tribute' to some of the older games as almost identical puzzles from the originals, but I suppose how many puzzle types can you make with the tools? Maybe sudoku next on a massive grid?