My 9yo daughter has a tablet with family link, so I can monitor what apps she wants to install. As the garbage games are mostly at the top free, she keeps asking for games that I reject, in most cases because it’s riddled with ads.

The Play Store has a section for kids, which seems to have better quality apps and games. Also thinking to subscribe to Play Pass so she can try out paid games.

Any other tips? Especially how to find good free / paid games. I don’t mind paying for good games.

Also I’m aware I can block ads using eg Pi Hole (already doing that) or sometimes putting it on airplane mode, but that’s not my point. I want to find and support quality games.

  • luciole (he/him)@beehaw.org
    19·
    1 year ago

    When my kid was younger he had a “garbage games on tablet” phase as well. As others have said, paid games are the way to go (Play Pass sounds cool). Looking for indie games for Android, or PC games ported to Android gives some good results. Stardew Valley’s an obvious one. I haven’t played Ordia, but it looks gorgeous.

    What worked really well for us was to teach him about some dark patterns in simple terms and spot them with him in the freemiums he was playing. “Fear of Missing Out” events/notifications and “Progression Paywalls” are typical ones. It made him realize the game wasn’t built to give him a good time as much as to frustrate him into endlessly spending real money in exchange for some phony currency. In the end he was happy to switch to saner games. It’s a good opportunity to work on their critical judgment basically.

    • sylverstream@lemmy.nzOP
      3·
      1 year ago

      Thanks for your insights. My goal as well is to teach them instead of just refusing those games. She already starts to understand better.

      SV was a favourite but we’ve played it a lot already and we have lost interest. Will look into Ordia!

  • ZILtoid1991@kbin.social
    9·
    1 year ago

    Install an emulator for her alongside with some roms. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much the only option we have nowadays.

      • sic_semper_tyrannis@feddit.chEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        Lemuroid is a great open source emulator. Vimm’s Lair is a great place to find games/ROMs. It’s difficult to play games though that require the bumper buttons on a touch screen. Maybe consider getting her a retro gaming handheld device. They can either run based on Linux, so an emulator, or Android which can operate like normal and then you can select an emulator to play. ETA Prime has lots of reviews of these devices.

        • sylverstream@lemmy.nzOP
          3·
          1 year ago

          Awesome, thanks! I’ve tried retro gaming before but they didn’t really like it, we also had a Wii for a couple of weeks, but perhaps I should try again.

  • kratoz29@lemm.eeEnglish
    6·
    1 year ago

    Ahh… I remember simpler times when we had proper handheld devices… and not having to deal with ads bullshit (shovelware was a thing though).

    Perhaps the Nintendo Switch might be a good option down the road?

    If not I agree about Chinese handhelds, there are so many out there and they keep improving over time.

    • sylverstream@lemmy.nzOP
      3·
      1 year ago

      Yeah was thinking about a switch, but I’m a bit reluctant due to high cost of games. They mainly use the tablet to game while traveling, at home they play with their toys or on the xbox.

      • Terrasque@infosec.pub
        2·
        1 year ago

        Maybe steam deck could be an alternative? Hardware itself is more expensive, but there’s so much good cheap or even free games.

  • aard@kyu.de
    6·
    1 year ago

    My 9yo daughter has a tablet with family link, so I can monitor what apps she wants to install. As the garbage games are mostly at the top free, she keeps asking for games that I reject, in most cases because it’s riddled with ads.

    Did you ever consider using this as opportunity to educate your daughter about ads in general, how some games try to push adds to get you to do something, and also how some games have game mechanics trying to push you to do specific things, and then just let her figure out if those games are worth playing, or not?

    She’s definitely old enough - I had that discussion with my daughter when she was 5, we have an agreement that we limit the number of games installed on her phone - and the kind of shitty game you’re talking about typically gets uninstalled again pretty quickly.

    In a few years she’ll be able to install stuff by herself - if you never explained to her what and why games/apps are doing she’ll not be ready to deal with that, and it’ll be out of your control.

    • sylverstream@lemmy.nzOP
      3·
      1 year ago

      Thanks for the insights. Totally agree with you. Yep, I’m having those conversations and she understands it more and more.

  • Storksforlegs@beehaw.orgEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    My kid has this problem too. So many games interrupt him mid level to force ads, its ridiculous.

    But we’ve found a few games that arent total popup nightmares (that he enjoys):

    -Two Dots, a beautiful puzzle game, very kid friendly

    -Bad Piggies - a spin off of angry birds, Physics based building/puzzle game, very cartoony and fun gameplay. My kid loves this game, probably his favourite (its older so the ads arent too obnoxious. You can pay to disable them, also)

    -Stumble Guys - massive multiplayer platformer like fallguys, loves this one (there are ads but you can pay to disable for 4.99)

    We have the ios equivalent to play pass and it helped a lot, too.

  • sculd@beehaw.org
    5·
    1 year ago

    One thing you might need to pay attention to is your daughter would want to play the same game as their friends do.

    You may want to reject games base on your criteria, but if your daughter feels isolated because she can’t play with her friends, that could be a bigger problem.

    • sylverstream@lemmy.nzOP
      0·
      1 year ago

      I’m not too worried about that tbh. It’s the same thing that when she gets a mobile phone it will be very limited, only call, text and messaging. No social media until she’s 18. Thanks though for checking.

      • MDKAOD@lemmy.ml
        4·
        1 year ago

        Good luck. We tried that rule too, it has led to so much stress and fighting. I’m certainly not suggesting to not try and hold the line. I’m just wishing you luck with it.

        • can@beehaw.org
          4·
          1 year ago

          I don’t even see how it’s possible to stop someone from using social media until they’re 18 unless they truly don’t want to.

        • sylverstream@lemmy.nzOP
          1·
          1 year ago

          After watching The Social Dilemma and seeing that people who worked high up at eg Facebook also didn’t want their kids on there, I’m going to try to do the same.

      • kratoz29@lemm.eeEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        That… seems a bit too extreme, I honestly don’t think you can achieve that… unless you get her a dumb phone and assuming she never gets her own by her own means.

        Working with your kids to have a decent social media experience? That I can see!

        • sylverstream@lemmy.nzOP
          1·
          1 year ago

          With Family Link everything can be locked down.

          Yes it may sound extreme but based on The Social Dilemma and presentations at our school from people who did a lot of research into this topic, I’m going to go with their recommendation to keep them off social media until 18. Probably won’t be easy indeed.

  • bermuda@beehaw.orgEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    Spelltower is a classic. Still might have ads but they’re less intrusive, and it’s educational but it probably won’t be boring