How do I learn about video games without having to play them?

[wewearshortshorts]

Hello - I am taking a birthday party of 9 year olds to the Science Museum’s Power Up exhibition.

I’m a bit worried that I won’t be able to help the children with the games because I don’t know very much about them.

However, I have a month to get my head round it all. Can anyone help with advice and direction?

Do any of the kids have an older sibling into gaming you can pay to help out?

I doubt they'll want your help! They'll probably just want to play and work it out for themselves.

Your job is to get them there and provide the food haha

In my experience of computer issues with kids, a more experienced kid is preferable to a fumbling adult. They'll probably help each other out.

Every game is so unique that it's impossible to learn enough to be able to give general help.

It's like reading one book and expecting to be able to answer any question someone has about what happened in the plot for any other book.

I went to a similar thing in London on a college trip and we had a blast though so I'm sure the kids will love it. There were staff around who were able to answer questions we had. There are so many games to try that you only have time for a few mins on each one so if you get really stuck it's usually time to move on anyway.

If you haven't been a gamer for the past 30+ years, you haven't got a hope of 'helping' them with all the different games there, and nobody expects you to help anyway.

You will probably find the kids would be embarrassed to have mum helping them anyway.

The exhibition will clearly label games that are for over 16s so you don't need to worry they'll try to play something they are too young for.

Just let them have fun and don't worry about it.

Thank you. I did rather hope to gain some insight though before we went. I watched the Tetris film. Are there other things like that? Or a very good book about the history of it all?

I can’t imagine that anyone would find my input embarrassing. But I do see the point about trying to read 30 novels before we go - it’s not realistic.

But one big book … that must exist, surely?

You don’t learn gaming through reading. Surely you’ve played some games at least once in your life?

Watch some YouTubers. As a non gaming mum with gamers for husband & son, I’d suggest DanTDM as a nice way in. He plays lots of games on his channel & isnt shouty!

There are loads of YouTubers who make content about video games. You can find walk throughs of any game. The person plays and explains what they are doing. You might need to try a few as some like to do a lot of yelling. LaceForest is a lovely creator, you might like her work.

They’ll be too into it to even pay attention to you op!! In the nicest possible way, kids run rings around most adults in the gaming sphere!!

Watch this if you want to see what it's going to be like and understand why there is no book you can read that will tell you how to use every gaming device from the past 50 years.

I've been gaming since the 70s.
I am a dev.
I hadn't heard of, or seen some of the stuff there before.

Agreed. Honestly even if you'd been gaming since you were a kid they would probably be better at it than you. I can't imagine many adults being able to navigate games better than a group of 9 year olds could.

Awww you won't need to help them with it..they can teach you! It's a fun exhibition..my son went and enjoyed it.

Surely the point of an exhibition is to celebrate our gaming history and inform people like you who are new to it?

Thank you so much! Looks like I’ll be visiting YouTube a lot over the next few weeks! But I will be coming back here with questions, I’m sure!

I’ve been to an exhibition very similar to this (possibly the same one) and it was very much families experiencing it together, it wasn’t groups of kids cringing at adults being there with them. It’s not like taking them to gaming cafe and asking them to shove up and give you a go.

Dd and I are very much into games, dh is 50 and barely plays more than candy crush. We all had a blast. DH loved playing on the “vintage” stuff, the older games had much simpler controls, one button to run, one to jump and one to fire and he like that. Just embrace the clumsiness cluelessness, my daughter has many happy memories of watching her grandparents fumble with video games.

You won’t have to help them much (if at all) I’d imagine at that age they want to experience and play for themselves, the exhibits will have info about the history of consoles and stuff like that.

Because you asked where you can learn about gaming. These are some things that might help.

This YouTuber has a playlist where he documents his non gaming girlfriend playing various games for the first time with zero experience to build up on. He has her play some popular games. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLordXx8iNEyStcX_WzqM0JCpiJYgqhinc&si=5EGEnGExaXj3fJBq

There night we video reviews of the exhibit on websites like tik tok where you could maybe see the most popular areas, you could then watch a bunch of deep dives, tutorials and lets plays for a few.

There’s loads of history of certain franchises and systems on YouTube and shorter bite sized ones on tik tok. That might be a good place to start too for some basic insights.

DS and I just watched this. It’s really useful - exactly what I was looking for, actually. Thank you 😊

You are absolutely overthinking this. They will work it out themselves, and there are plenty of staff more than happy to help if needed. Let them crack on and find a comfy seat.. take a (non gaming) book!