Congratulations! Your Wife Just Had a Gamer!

(A Gleemax Post)

Childhood. It's a time when we start developing the talents, hobbies, and interests that stick with us throughout our lives. Sure, we develop other pastimes and our tastes change as we grow, but many of our childhood favorites stick with us. I know it has for me. I have very distinct memories of opening my parent's game closet at the top of the stairs and looking over the stack of cardboard, paper, and plastic goodness contained within. I would spend countless hours risking it all in global wars, patenting silly inventions, and wandering the barbaric countryside as a dispossessed prince.

So when the question comes up of why we, as adults, should play games with children, I can point to my own experience and say "Why not?" After all, no matter if you're a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, older sibling, caregiver, mentor, or whatever, there is no better way to have a kid think you are the most awesome (or whatever word is used nowadays) person ever than to spend time playing with them. I don't expect to always be the best friend of my children – after all, I AM their father and a lot of times I have to act like it – but I want them to know that I not only love them because they are my genetic offspring, but that I like them enough as individuals to spend my ever decreasing free time with them.

I suppose that since this is my first blog entry, I should introduce myself at this point. Hi, my name is Steve. I'm in my mid-thirties...and all that implies. I have a college degree in anthropology (I'm still trying to figure out why). I work for a local utility company and would be considered an "economically-challenged" gamer (although things are in the works that might change all of that). My wife and I are approaching the eleven year mark of our Happily Ever After and are busy with our five greatest works-in-progress: our children. You'll get to know them better as time goes on since this blog is about gaming with kids and they are, in fact, the kids I game with.

Yes indeed, a blog about playing games with kids. Why? Because those of us who grew up with tabletop games instead of video games (long before personal computers were a feature of middle-class America, and when they did become available...text adventures!) are now producing these little balls of chaos. They will grow up with such a huge variety of choices that it's nice to know we are not alone in this daunting task of raising children and, perhaps, providing them with quality entertainment along the way.

"Children" or "kids" can (and does) imply a large range of age groups, from newborns (where the gaming opportunities are understandably limited) to...what? At what age do they stop being "children"? For the purposes of this blog, I have arbitrarily chosen the ages between 5 and 11. Five, because my middle child is five years old; it is the age when they start kindergarten (at least in my area of the world). Eleven, because my cultural bias places 12-year olds at the beginning of the category labeled "youths".

Before I go any further, I want to make it very clear that I am not holding myself up as some kind of expert or authority. I have five kids. That means I know what those five kids like and how they respond to various things. Your experiences may be similar, or wildly different. There is a lot I can learn from you (yes, I'm looking right at YOU!), so I would prefer not to just sit here monologuing. Ask questions, provide comments, and indulge in opinions. Gleemax is about social networking...so let’s socialize! Without feedback, it is highly likely that I will run out of interesting things to say (some of you might be thinking, "Too late!"...Oh well).

Here is a short-term road map of where my next few posts will go: I would like to first start off with looking at the characteristics of the age groups we are talking about. See what makes them tick and how we might harness that with gaming. Reviews of children games will be somewhat limited; I'll do ones for the games I already own, but the financial situation puts a damper on new purchases for a while. Ideas on balancing kid-time with adult-time with personal-time (a topic near and dear to my heart). Looking at the various game types (board, RPG, online, video, outdoor/physical) and how that all fits into a modern childhood. There are lots of topics to cover; and we are just getting started...

“Girls and boys, come out to play,
the moon doth shine as bright as day,
Leave your supper and leave your sleep,
And come with your playfellows into the street.
Come with a whoop or come with a call,
Come with a goodwill or not at all.”

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