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Playing Video Games with My Son Isn’t What I Thought It Would Be

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Re: Playing Video Games with My Son Isn’t What I Thought It Would Be

#121

Post by ascorbic »

aianus wrote: post #109
ascorbic wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My naive question is why so few governments or central banks tried implementing QE as helicopter money, rather than for bond purchases. It seems to my (undergrad-only econ) perspective that the person in the street is far more likely to put the money to use in the economy.

Bond purchases or helicopter money is essentially the same thing. 1) The government sprays more money around in welfare and salaries than they raise through taxes 2) The government issues bonds 3) The central bank prints money to buy those bonds It's equivalent to the central bank printing money to pay for welfare programs and salaries (which go to common people in the streets)

QE books purchases aren't about allowing the government to borrow more. In any rich country the government can borrow as much as it wants. It's about crowding out private purchases of those bonds so that those lenders will lend to businesses and people instead. I'd be willing to bet that a $1000 tax refund is more likely to be spent than an extra $1000 that banks may or may not lend to someone.

Re: Playing Video Games with My Son Isn’t What I Thought It Would Be

#122

Post by dudul »

katastic wrote: post #25

>How to Raise a Boy is a weeklong series centered around this urgent question in the era of Parkland, President Trump, and #MeToo. HAHAHA. Why is this here? Citing #MeToo implies that somehow, after #MeToo, you're supposed to do something different in raising your boys. As-if teaching your boys to respect women is some magical new idea, or, that telling your boys to walk around with collective guilt for crimes they h…

I also didn't understand what this intro had to do with the rest of the post. There is zero reference to this context in the entire article.

Re: Playing Video Games with My Son Isn’t What I Thought It Would Be

#123

Post by evanpw »

gowld wrote: post #33
sdfin wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Resource management in video games is a skill that I'm sure transfers to real world resource management. Apart from the simulators you mention strategy games like age of empires and red alert also teach about it. Some weeks ago a co-worker told me something similar to what you share, how he learned about resources while playing SimCity. He also said his younger sister asked him "If people doesn't have money, why does…

It's not a naive question. She was on the verge of re-inventing Keynesian Economics, which ended the Great Depression. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/k/keynesianeconomics.asp

Sounds more monetarist: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/012615/what-differe...

Re: Playing Video Games with My Son Isn’t What I Thought It Would Be

#124

Post by duwease »

jsemrau wrote: post #13

There should be more collaborative games rather than competitive games. One of my fondest memories is playing Quake 2 in COOP mode at a LAN Party back in the 90s getting stuck in a mineshaft with the group way past midnight. Extremely immersive and bonding experience. We still talk about this moment years later.

Nintendo is still the go-to for couch co-op, especially with players of varying skill levels. Between the flagship and indie games, their brand is still very much based around family and friends playing together.

Re: Playing Video Games with My Son Isn’t What I Thought It Would Be

#125

Post by roel_v »

gonzo41 wrote: post #72
icelancer wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Keynesian Economics, which ended the Great Depression This is a pretty bold claim and not one that should be stated as fact.

Keynesian Economics kept Australia out of recession in 08. They literally gave everyone 800 bucks. It was awesome, went out a bit more, bought lots of takeout and a few bits for around the house. And the economy kept moving. Now if only i could figure out a way to get more people to live in my SIM tower!

Yeah, I'm sure that mining boom had nothing to do with it...

Re: Playing Video Games with My Son Isn’t What I Thought It Would Be

#126

Post by reificator »

pasabagi wrote: post #35
gowld wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't infiniminer just a computerized copy of Lego. As the old saying goes, "If you could have invented Facebook, you would have invented Facebook". Ideas are cheap. Execution is everything.

I generally agree. To be honest, I wasn't so much making a general moral judgement about copying. Hamlet was a copy. Bach was a music kleptomaniac. Execution is way more important. I just find minecraft a particularly uncreative copy, and personally like zachatronics - so I 'don't like that he ripped it off'. Which he did. I don't think this dislike could or should extend to other copied pieces of work, games or othe…

I like Zachtronics, but I really, really don't get how you view Minecraft as a ripoff of Infiniminer.

Infiniminer is a competitive class-based game in a constrained arena. The goal is to get a higher score than your opponents.

Minecraft is a survival game in an infinite world. The goal is to build a base and progress through a tech tree, or to build things for fun.

Ace of Spades is closer to being a ripoff of Infiniminer, though with more of a focus on combat. Minecraft is a game that has a similar (but more polished) aesthetic but with completely different rules.

Star Wars is not a ripoff of Star Trek just because they're both set in space. They're fundamentally different at every level.

Re: Playing Video Games with My Son Isn’t What I Thought It Would Be

#127

Post by roel_v »

What age is ok to start Minecraft with? Can you do couch coop with it? I have a steam link and some couch coop games but it doesn't work very well for my 5 and 7 year olds. (Steam link and steam conrollers are really finicky to set up, too). Should I just get a ps4 or xbox?

And how does minecraft compare to Lego Worlds? I've played Terraria in the past, but that seems too hard for that age - at least for kids who aren't really intrinsically interested in video games like mine. Maybe one day...

(Could probably google this, but I imagine there must be ppl here who have actual experience)

Re: Playing Video Games with My Son Isn’t What I Thought It Would Be

#128

Post by senectus1 »

I found playing Minecraft with my 9yr old son a painful experience.. all he wants to do is get into creating mode and make stuff then grief it. All I wanted to do was explore and battle against the odds with what I could make of it.

It was/is a disappointing experience.

Re: Playing Video Games with My Son Isn’t What I Thought It Would Be

#129

Post by Filligree »

reificator wrote: post #29
IIAOPSW wrote: post #7

>He loves extreme symmetry, varying bands of bright colors, and elaborate lighting comprised of dozens of fixtures. Um I'm pretty sure if you don't go overboard on the lighting monsters spawn. This is more of an in-game thing than a preference thing.

That's my biggest problem with Minecraft as a game, I think there are a lot more options to handle this that don't force aesthetic choices on the player.

Stick a Magnum Torch somewhere, or just turn off monsters entirely.

Re: Playing Video Games with My Son Isn’t What I Thought It Would Be

#130

Post by rtpg »

teamonkey wrote: post #118
skookumchuck wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be very careful about applying lessons from a game to the real world. Lots of games designed by economists, for example, tend to validate the pet theories of the economists, despite not working in the real world. Real world economics is infinitely more complex than the handful of rules in a game.

> tend to validate the pet theories of the economists I don't think that's really true. I don't think any game company or designer cares about forcing a pet economic theory to work. More that game economies have a purpose and can be explicitly modelled to achieve that purpose, even if that means doing unrealistic things (such as conjure up resources out of nowhere). That's not too say that they can't be an effective…

I agree that game designers are also trying to make a system that's a good game. But I do understand GP's point here, insofar as the designers have to build the system within a certain frame of reference.

As an adjacent example, City Skylines is a pretty fun city builder. A huge simulation, down to very complex traffic models. You can build sprawling cities with a bunch of highways.

But it's extremely hard to build anything that replicates old European cities, or denser cities like in Asia, because your smallest useful road is very big in relation to the buildings. The tools given to you basically point you directly to American-style zoning that leads to suburban sprawl and huge highway systems.

In a sense, that's the point of the game (to make you fight traffic), but it's difficult if you are trying to build a certain kind of city that we know exist and are, in fact, "better cities".

The simulation presents a certain worldview of how cities are built.

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