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Jun. 5th, 2003 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dweniusI have been needing a brainless distraction from work lately, and have started playing nethack again. Thankfully, I suck...the game has changed a lot since I last ascended a character, and the perpetual string of stupid deaths keeps me from staying up late and developing a real obsession like, say, the one I had in grad school, or in 1996. I am hopelessly loyal to the game, which rewards me by booby-trapping doors with paralysis traps so I can be memorialized by "plord [...] killed by a pony", but I digress. Last night, Nina wanted to play. She had seen the letters flying around the screen for a few evenings and asked me what was going on, and wanted to play for herself. Ok, I can downshift to her playing speed, teach her enough to keep her character alive for a while, and this should be fun.
We had a blast. I discovered that nethack is an EXCELLENT TOOL for PHONICS, as we worked out how she could remember how to (o)pen doors, (k)ick things, (r)ead scrolls, (z)ap wands, etc. Furthermore, nethack teaches MORAL VALUES, as we discovered during a discussion of why a lawful character would not kill a peaceful monster, or knowingly train her pet to steal from a shop. We dabbled in THEOLOGY while discussing whether our god was angry or not, and whether it was safe to pray to get out of a jam (it was, luckily (also, she did not ask if this worked in the real world, and I did not offer an opinion)). When she found some gold, she immediately wanted to know if the game had a store, and we had to go buy something. We bought food (kiwis, as it happens), which Nina thought was just great.
Mostly, though, Nina likes playing a game where you have a pet. Here we are, a decade into the whizbang 3D jumping singing dancing educational video frog rabbit ice mountain adventure math reading video game age, and what my daughter wants is ASCII art and a pet dog named phydeaux who eats newt corpses.
To which I say, you damn right! Because you don't mess with a gamer-luddite six year old with 18/02 strength weilding the blessed, rustproof, +3 longsword named Excalibur.
We had a blast. I discovered that nethack is an EXCELLENT TOOL for PHONICS, as we worked out how she could remember how to (o)pen doors, (k)ick things, (r)ead scrolls, (z)ap wands, etc. Furthermore, nethack teaches MORAL VALUES, as we discovered during a discussion of why a lawful character would not kill a peaceful monster, or knowingly train her pet to steal from a shop. We dabbled in THEOLOGY while discussing whether our god was angry or not, and whether it was safe to pray to get out of a jam (it was, luckily (also, she did not ask if this worked in the real world, and I did not offer an opinion)). When she found some gold, she immediately wanted to know if the game had a store, and we had to go buy something. We bought food (kiwis, as it happens), which Nina thought was just great.
Mostly, though, Nina likes playing a game where you have a pet. Here we are, a decade into the whizbang 3D jumping singing dancing educational video frog rabbit ice mountain adventure math reading video game age, and what my daughter wants is ASCII art and a pet dog named phydeaux who eats newt corpses.
To which I say, you damn right! Because you don't mess with a gamer-luddite six year old with 18/02 strength weilding the blessed, rustproof, +3 longsword named Excalibur.
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Date: 2003-06-05 10:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-05 10:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-05 11:19 pm (UTC): says "rock!" in squeaky voice
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Date: 2003-06-06 06:37 am (UTC)Totally awesome.
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Date: 2003-06-06 08:09 am (UTC)That is beautiful
Date: 2003-06-06 09:03 am (UTC)Joy. Extatic giggling joy!!!
Date: 2003-06-06 05:44 pm (UTC)----
Incidentally, I also still binge on either Nethack or Civilization (although now it's Civ 3) about once every 6 months. And the nethack, is for the record, YOUR FAULT. All those years ago. I haven't ascended a character since some time in the 90s though. Also, you might check out ADOM (Ancient Domains of Mystery) which is similar but refreshingly just slightly different. Google for it, sweetie, I'm too lazy to go get you a link.
k.