Hating on Candyland: Why most games for kids are awful
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Hating on Candyland: Why most games for kids are awful
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Re: Hating on Candyland: Why most games for kids are awful
#2The purpose of Candyland is to play a game, without playing a game. It's for toddlers to learn to take turns, to accept negative or positive outcomes without stomping off in a huff, and to play a game with a level playing field between the adults and children... and at the level we are talking about, if there is a meaningful choice at all, then the child, or perhaps rather toddler, will simply lose. It's more than just "following directions", it's the whole set of skills necessary to play a game.
This is why family games have a gradient to them, gradually trading chances for decisions, and gradually expanding the state space, until the game player is ready to join the adults fully with something like Scrabble in the early teens or so. The mentioned Connect 4, for instance, is relatively simple and can be effectively "solved" by an 8 or 9 year old, for instance, so a 8yo and an adult are still not separated by such a large gulf that the game is a joke. Children are actually pretty good at figuring out that they are being "let" win.
If you replace Candyland with something that has any choices at all, you've replaced something other than Candyland.
That said, I'm not saying the progression is optimal as it stands, but if you don't understand the reasons for the enduring popularity of the "standard game loadout", which hasn't seem to have hardly changed in 50 years, you're not going to improve on it properly. And I'd say most of the flaws are on the higher end and solved with things like Settlers of Catan and such, not the children's part of the progression.
Re: Hating on Candyland: Why most games for kids are awful
#3This is off the topic of the actual post, but the concept of Kids Dungeon Adventure is just awesome. I'm getting this to play with a friend of mine and her 5 year old daughter -- we play games whenever I'm in town, but I've never felt they tapped into her (mindblowingly amazing) creativity and imagination. Great job, Ben; we need more of this!
Re: Hating on Candyland: Why most games for kids are awful
#4The purpose of Candyland is to play a game, without playing a game. It's for toddlers to learn to take turns, to accept negative or positive outcomes without stomping off in a huff, and to play a game with a level playing field between the adults and children... and at the level we are talking about, if there is a meaningful choice at all , then the child, or perhaps rather toddler , will simply lose. It's more than…
When I have opened up this debate among friends, your counter point is the one brought up the most. I think they can learn taking turns and accepting outcomes while making decisions, even if at the start those decisions are random. Even if I concede that Candyland has a place in the progression, kids jump past it so fast I wonder if it is even worth including.
Thanks for reading and responding, though.
Re: Hating on Candyland: Why most games for kids are awful
#5This is off the topic of the actual post, but the concept of Kids Dungeon Adventure is just awesome . I'm getting this to play with a friend of mine and her 5 year old daughter -- we play games whenever I'm in town, but I've never felt they tapped into her (mindblowingly amazing) creativity and imagination. Great job, Ben; we need more of this!
Thanks and I hope you like it! Send me the pics of your dungeon and I'll post them up on the blog.
Re: Hating on Candyland: Why most games for kids are awful
#6Ah, but you can make decisions in these games.
Years ago I was teaching English in Japan to a 6-year-old, a 4-year-old, and a 3-year-old. We were playing some utterly moronic game where the kids took turns drawing cards, having me read the letter of the alphabet they drew, and then moving their pawn as appropriate.
It was really more for the younger kids, so the 6-year-old made a decision: he attempted to cheat! He simply moved his pawn forward ten squares or so when he guessed we weren't looking.
Regrettably for him, we were indeed all looking at the board. He offered to move his pawn back the ten spaces, but no, it was back to the beginning for him.
Re: Hating on Candyland: Why most games for kids are awful
#7I've got to say, I find even Monopoly to be a terrible game. My strategy for the game can be summed up as: "buy the property if I can, otherwise pay rent if I have to".
I almost never stray from that strategy, and even when I do, it's not like those exceptions make the game any more interesting.
Re: Hating on Candyland: Why most games for kids are awful
#8This is off the topic of the actual post, but the concept of Kids Dungeon Adventure is just awesome . I'm getting this to play with a friend of mine and her 5 year old daughter -- we play games whenever I'm in town, but I've never felt they tapped into her (mindblowingly amazing) creativity and imagination. Great job, Ben; we need more of this!
Thanks and I hope you like it! Send me the pics of your dungeon and I'll post them up on the blog.
Absolutely will do. Gonna head out there in a couple weeks and give it a try. Can't wait to try it -- brings me back to the days of sitting around with friends in elementary school and creating our own little RPGs.
Re: Hating on Candyland: Why most games for kids are awful
#9I've got to say, I find even Monopoly to be a terrible game. My strategy for the game can be summed up as: "buy the property if I can, otherwise pay rent if I have to". I almost never stray from that strategy, and even when I do, it's not like those exceptions make the game any more interesting.
I know what you mean. It doesn't get interesting until you start making deals and trades with the other players, especially when everyone agrees to relax the rules a little. The plotting starts to get messy as you try to figure out who is getting screwed worse in a given deal, or when you have to work out three-way trades.
Re: Hating on Candyland: Why most games for kids are awful
#10I've got to say, I find even Monopoly to be a terrible game. My strategy for the game can be summed up as: "buy the property if I can, otherwise pay rent if I have to". I almost never stray from that strategy, and even when I do, it's not like those exceptions make the game any more interesting.
I know what you mean. It doesn't get interesting until you start making deals and trades with the other players, especially when everyone agrees to relax the rules a little. The plotting starts to get messy as you try to figure out who is getting screwed worse in a given deal, or when you have to work out three-way trades.
I find a much better game if you're into "deals" is Risk. You know you've had fun when the cleanup involves finding all the pieces that were put on ballistic paths in the final forfeit gesture of the game... good times.