Immediately after finals last week, in preparation for traveling down South to meet my partner’s parents, cousins, sister, aunts, uncles (basically all of Texas), I began a hunt for games I could play on my iPad and on Steam – especially since bringing my Xbox One with me wasn’t exactly feasible. Among the games I’m playing during this vacation is Who’s Your Daddy, Fallout Shelter, Neko Atsume, A Bird Story, and a series of unexpectedly toddler-friendly games. While all of these are certainly worth the attention of this post (I cannot wait to talk about Who’s Your Daddy and my compound in Fallout Shelter!), I wanted to take a minute to focus on A Bird Story, the toddler, and all the many judgments I’ve had as a non-parent observer.
Being that this is my first time going home with my partner, I fully expected a series of questions; actually, I anticipated being interrogated and hazed into membership: Who are you? Where are you from? What’s your social security number? What’s your credit score? How’d you meet? What’s your blood type? What I hadn’t prepared for was bonding with the two-year old nephew through a series of games, one being A Bird Story. To start, A Bird Story is a beautifully designed game with little to no dialogue – everything communicated comes through the actions of the player, musical cues, and thought bubbles filled with images the main character desires or needs. And, it’s a short game, coming in at just about an hour. When winding down for the first night, I decided to play the game a bit. And then the two-year old peaked at the screen. Upon hopping on my lap to see what was going on, he became completely enthralled with the game, using the direction pad correctly, and asking questions (in his toddler language) about where the birdie went and what it was doing; since this game is so different from his usual ABC games, I was a little taken aback. What’s more, I found myself challenging my preconceived judgments of toddlers playing games and owning iPads.
Since I don’t have children, I’ve often had this critical voice inside whenever I see a toddler playing games or consumed on iPads and tablets. Part of me always wondered if it wasn’t technology’s fault for ruining children’s social skills (I hate admitting this), and if children/parent relationships suffered as a result. To be sure, there should certainly be a level of monitoring and appropriateness when allowing kids to play digital games (as many of the other authors here at NYMG have discussed). There are dangers of 
overuse and reliance on games to pacify kids rather than teaching them healthy ways of managing their feelings and thought; but my judgments were hasty and unwarranted – what do kids gain by not playing games? What’s wrong with a two-year old playing a computer game that’s so well designed even he can manage to follow the mechanics without any tantrums or confusion? Having much of the same design as The Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past, A Bird Story requires only the direction pad, the space bar to jump, and the enter button when opening a door or selecting an item. While I did assume the little munchkin would not be interested in a game that, to me, required a level of cognition beyond him, his little brain consumed everything before him and his little fingers followed instruction. Not only that, but he seemed genuinely interested in the narrative – a relationship between a wounded bird and a school age boy who is often alone and mistreated; actually, it’s a mix of the boy’s imagination, memory, and dreams. He, the real life munchkin, ended up having a level of empathy and curiosity that moments before eluded him. Not only that, but his toddler tantrums and incessant “No’s” ceased as we played together (neither one of us can recall why he was so hulkish beforehand; I can only assume that he’s always angry).
I suppose my lesson for the Holidays are this:
- Games don’t ruin children and, like everything else, can actually be educational and foster a sense of bonding between intruders (like myself) and toddlers.
- Games can foster empathy and curiosity at a young age.
- You shouldn’t judge parents until you are one – and even then, keep those judgments to yourself (have a little empathy!)
- Games make meeting the parents a little easier.
So I hope you’ll play some games (table top, digital, iPad, whatever your choice) this Holiday and bond with family.
