Boo found a game online – Counterstrike – that has ‘skins’ to turn the shooters into Teletubbies.
My boys most favourite thing in the world.
{I even have a whole fucking blog category devoted to his devotion}
So now he is all into the first person shooter games and wanders around wrapped in a shit covered blanket toting a silly string gun with a bike chain attached and trying to shoot me in the arse while laughing hysterically.
It is AWESOME.
{lets just say that this font here that I use henceforth will be known as the SARCASM FONT}
So now, after spending the last six months beating me down to buy him teletubbies toys and motherfucking Lets Rock Elmo, he is begging me to buy him Call of Duty Black Ops.
One of the most violent games on the market.
I have offered Zelda.
I have offered Skyrim.
Moo has discussed different games with him.
But all he wants is Black Ops.
My 13 year old toddler wants to wander around shooting the shit outta people.
So, while he is playing on the HANNAH MONTANA SITE, I ask you my dear internet WWTID?
I want him to have something age appropriate to discuss with people {instead of his current subject of conversation WHICH IS YOUR FAVOURITE TELETUBBIE OMG} but I am a tad concerned about him playing a game like this.
What games do 13 year olds like?
Help. HIGH school starts in a week.
{just to save any confusion for those new here, Boo is on the severe end of the Autism Spectrum but with a very high IQ and Hyperlexia, he is only just starting high school this year and will only be going a few hours a day 2 days a week to begin with. I am trying to help him find ways to communicate with other kids his own age. So please don’t email me saying I am a fucking helicopter mother. Ta}
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{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
You are so not a chopper mum!
No idea about games here but wrestling shit is v popular
ooooooh that could be an option.
As long as he doesn’t want to act that shit out on me.
Heh.
Skyrim is good fun, I watch Nat play it.
Nathan says Medal of Honour isn’t too graphic, and Earth Defence Force, Insect Armageddon (he hasn’t played it yet, but says it’s arcade-y and shooting insects).
Nathan also says that the other kids are probably playing Battlefield, and there is Command and Conquer that is a strategy game (a bit older though), not a shooter. There’s also Oblivion, which is the game prior to Skyrim (if he was interested).
David used to shoot us, lots. When it got boring, we’d put on invisible full body armour and ruin his game.
If Nat thinks of anything else, I’ll let you know. Or if I decide to talk to my brother, I’ll ask him too.
xx
thanks babe.
I think he wants something that is not strategic, just wandering around blowing shit up.
He has never got into games or anything like that. He can’t even watch a whole movie… he just replays scenes over and over so I am thinking this is what he is wanting but on the computer.
Does this make any sense?
Yep, absolutely. Skyrim probably wouldn’t work for him then.
Hey there,
first post, purely because games are my life
I would go against Black Ops, not only because it is violent (not overly, there are much worse), but, as Veronica says, most of the kids will be talking Battlefield 3 or COD Modern Warfare 3. If you want a shooterish game without the actual shooting, you could go for something like Portal/Portal 2. also, depending on the platform (PC/Xbox/PS3) (I would assume PC because of the Counter Strike reference) you could download a program called steam on PC/Mac and look through their catalogue, there are alot of arcade shooters and such on there, some of which are free – Team Fortress 2 being one of them. there might be something else he sees on there too that will strike his fancy.
Hope I help, I’m open to contact if you want me to offer more suggestions
Walkie
thanks Walkie.
We are actually all Macs here but we do have an old PC that probably wouldn’t run anything (Boo is watching YouTube clips of the game with the teletubbies, I probably should have made that clear)
He is loving the ‘realness’ of the shooter walking around rather than the arcade shoot em up and that is why I thought one of the role play games would suit him. But I guess they are way over his head.
Thanks for the suggestions and I will be checking out your suggestions.
x
Seconding the Portal / Portal 2 suggestion. My husband got it and on Heidi’s birthday my 13 yo nephew and niece both spent the entire time playing Portal. It makes me feel see sick but the teens (and husband) love it to pieces.
No worries Kelley,
if you are Mac people (which i kind of already knew), the portal series might be a good start, it has the firt person shooter feel without the violence and is available on Mac. the people who made the original counterstrike game are the ones who made the Steam application and also developed the Portal series. I would suggest Portal as a good starting point, just youtube it to see if you think its suitable, it will probably provide him with some great catch phrases too
League of Legends? It’s an online game that is free to play…
And tattoodaddy said Portal
xx
i just bought my 11 yr old black ops… its al he wanted… i turned off the graphic content… but youre still shooting people… hes got ADHD and ODD… and hes doing fine… we llimit time on the wii and encourage outside play. he loves spongebob… i bought him black ops against my better judgement… but its been fine. dont stress
Good luck.
Strategy games are all I am familiar with.
I’m loving the idea of skins for the games though and am waiting for the first release of a first person shooter where you could choose whom you are shooting at! Rid the world of Justin Beiber, one level at a time!
Steam is good. And easy to use.
My 9 year old also wants Call of Duty and I said No Fucking Way, José! 18 for violence and languages and sex and all that shizzle, forget it.
She’s playing 007 shooting game at the moment but its less gory and more tactical. Its 16 for violence but I’ve seen it. A couple of blood splatters on the screen and that’s it. and no bad language either.
She’s bugging me for Grand Theft Auto as well. Humph!
would he like WoW?
Mass Effect is a pretty good one for shooting, but there’s a bit of rp in there too, so the decisions he makes on what to say can effect the story a bit.
The 3rd one is out in March, there’s a big hoo-ha about it.
At least he’s not obsessed with Mortal Kombat videos on bloody youtube. Doesn’t matter how many times I erase the fecking history and such on the ipad – Max still manages to find his way back to them. Oh, their kill-shots? Horrible. Brutal. Disgusting. Actually makes my stomach churn.
And it makes Max laugh.
I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or not, but damned if I can stop him watching them no matter how many things I’ve tried! >_<
I just asked my 14-year-old what his mates play and it seems to be Call of Duty Black Ops and Halo as the main ones. He did say with Black Ops you can do single campaigns which are quite violent with torture and other hideous bits (which he found too much and doesn’t play), but with the multi-player it is pretty much just shoot each other, you die fall down get up and start shooting again. Not fantastic but not as bad as the single player, ‘mission’ stuff. All charming, really. He did start in on the whole different kid groups have different games they play eg he has a group who still like Mario Bros, but overall it’s the Call of Duty. If you want more info I can ask him.
He’s just come out and told me Need For Speed is also popular in his group.
My 14yo plays Minecraft and Terraria downloaded from steam. He plays both online and stand alone. HTH
I know nothing about online games of any kind, I just hung around to see what others were suggesting and why.
How’s your back holding up?
Another Mac household here. Shucks kid, that game I disapprove of won’t run on Mac…
I think some of them are still into Minecraft, which seems to be about Digging Things Up — my bright 10yo loves it. You do get to Blow Things Up too. Play it in Creative Mode, or other players will mess up Boo’s creations.
Portal mightn’t be a bad one either, but … from time to time it asks the player to do immoral things to continue the game, like kill what amounts to a pet, and there’s a verbal element where the Evil Computer tries to mess with your head. I don’t know how much Boo would understand of this, and whether it would disturb him. The visual-spatial logic aspect will probably be attractive, though. My kids (10 and 6) only play it with their Dad at the computer because I think the moral stuff renders it 14+. Yes, *I* think that; the Geek doesn’t agree.
My son is 12 years old also autistic – Not as severe, but I know where you are coming from, he also wants those type of games, I don’t let him because it is a shooting game where you kill people. I don’t allow toy guns in my house, I don’t like the shooting games, but I will occasionally make exceptions where you kill Aliens, monsters etc..
You can apparently turn off the blood and gore and profanity if that is the issue for you… An alternative is to hire it from the video shop and try it (or get your husband to) for yourself!
My teen really likes racing games like Need for Speed and Gran Turismo, no violence. The only problem would be if Boo wants to actually drive round like the players in the game.
Need for Speed and Gran Turismo – two games I play and I love. Oh. And Tiger Woods Golf.
And as for you being a “Helicopter Mum” that’s SO not you. No. You’re more like a B-52.
My favourite Teletubbie is Laalaa.
Mine play Battlefield. I would not allow Black Ops etc, too violent. And Sam, who is weird anyway, does become much more aggressive when he plays violent, gory games. I think many boys play battlefield, it is ‘Cool’. And BONUS! they communicate in text boxes. It might suit Boo to a T.
You can download a program to limit the time he spends: times up kidz. Sam goes crazy if I make him come off the computer, but if the popup comes up and says ‘Fifteen minutes left’ and then ‘One minute left, save and log off’ in a computer voice, it’s perfectly okay and he comes off happily. That program totally saved this mother’s life. Or maybe it has saved Sam’s life.
I’d probably put Battlefield on par with Black Ops. obviously the interrogation cut scenes and such aren’t in battlefield, but battlefield and COD have been facing off against each other for years, so pretty similar gameplay wise
I play exactly 2 games and I think he’d love them both:
Left 4 Dead in which you shoot zombies (which I guess you’d feel more comfortable about than shooting people.) PLUS it’s got about twenty shortish scenarios to play through rather than one long game, so it might be better for a shorter attention span. AND it’s great for multi-player too if he has friends round.
The other one is called Katamari Forever and there’s no shooting involved but if he loves Teletubbies I think he’d love this too (though I’m not sure if it’s something you’d get him talking about with new school friends) It’s bright and colourful; You’re basically a giant anime ball that’s rolling around strategically collecting items of increasing size from little cartoon worlds; cats and trees and houses etc until you grow big enough to pass the level. There’ all sorts of levels with different goals and I frequently lose entire afternoons to it.
The music will drive you MAD though on that one.
I do hope this helps.
really? Left 4 Dead? pretty sure the kid would have night terrors for the following 3 months
You’re so NOT a chopper mom.
That being said, I allowed my son to play video games that may not have been “age appropriate”.
You know your own child better than anyone else. If you feel that he CAN handle that kind of violence, then let him play the games. I don’t see anything wrong with it.
But then again, like I already said, I let my kid play crazy games and watch crazy movies way before he was a teenager. So I am probably NOT the best person for advice.
I have no idea what to suggest for him! Clearly I have zero parenting instincts!
My about to start high school next week boy is all about 2 games at the moment – World of Tanks & Minecraft. World of Tanks seems to be all about blowing others up with tanks, but doesn’t seem to be too graphic.
Minecraft seems to be about digging & building. All I know is that I have to fight both boys for the computer at the moment.
He has some other first person shooter games on his ipod but not sure what they are.
Team Fortress 2 is awesome. http://www.teamfortress.com/
Mine is 15 and LOVES Minecraft – think Lego but on a larger scale.
He has downloaded mods to get animals (you can get Moo-shrooms, mushrooms that grow on cows, and if you milk them you get mushroom stew, cos isn’t that what EVERYONE wants?!).
There are things you can kill, throw into molten lava, animals that wander aimlessly, etc, etc, etc.