Post AcelvJHbP2Y2NMUOZM by mattgemmell@mastodon.scot
 (DIR) More posts by mattgemmell@mastodon.scot
 (DIR) Post #AcelvHNuScPAULQP7g by mattgemmell@mastodon.scot
       2023-12-09T21:50:31Z
       
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       Watershed parenting moments this weekend. Son, 3, has lately been watching a kids’ entertainer on youtube whose schtick is pretty much scenarios that use what I know to be videogame mechanics. My dad brain thinks, aha, I can use this to get him into games! So I casually mention I have a game where he can also see lava, and things freezing with ice, and monsters, and so on — and I put Tears of the Kingdom on.
       
 (DIR) Post #AcelvIE1Ks5Z5xo1Lc by mattgemmell@mastodon.scot
       2023-12-09T21:52:38Z
       
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       Son is RAPT. Points things out, asks to go and see them, enquires about characters and scenarios. Seems amazed that the game mechanics he’s already seen are replicated here in interactive form. He’s on the couch beside me, cuddled in, for two hours. Never asks to press the buttons, just constantly agog. So we’re exploring Hyrule and, entirely unplanned by me, we happen upon a balloon canopy component.
       
 (DIR) Post #AcelvJHbP2Y2NMUOZM by mattgemmell@mastodon.scot
       2023-12-09T21:54:23Z
       
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       Son says “that looks like a hot air balloon!”, just as an observation, and I can’t properly express how excited I was, because this is Tears of the Kingdom and it has the physics model and the construction mechanics, and there’s a balloon basket assembly near by. So I go WELL, maybe we can build a hot air balloon. So we do that. Then I ask, how could we make it fly? And he’s already learned from youtube: “Fire can make it go!” So I put a flame emitter on there, and we FLY.
       
 (DIR) Post #AcelvKE5tZKtIlr6jw by mattgemmell@mastodon.scot
       2023-12-09T21:56:32Z
       
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       We did the same down at Lurelin on the south coast, where he saw a stationary boat and asked if we could make it go, and I said well maybe we could build a boat ourselves (having seen a big board lying on the beach nearby). We do that, and cruise the southern sea. I can see THE EMPOWERMENT OF KNOWLEDGE written upon his wee face. Neurons starting to high-five each other and form a dim view of the idea of underlying principles that make the gears of the world turn.
       
 (DIR) Post #AcelvL72bHHw3BYzNw by mattgemmell@mastodon.scot
       2023-12-09T21:58:16Z
       
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       Just tooling around in Zelda not really accomplishing anything in-game, but lads it was maybe the most important and rewarding thing I’ve ever done? His first words the next morning (today) to his mother were “I want to see Link and go and see a castle and some goblins, and a dragon, and the red yuck that makes you sick.”
       
 (DIR) Post #AcelvMuLvQKLcPdssy by mattgemmell@mastodon.scot
       2023-12-09T22:00:48Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       Just that coincidence of him knowing what a hot air balloon was, that heat makes it rise, recognising the design in the game, and the game offering the actual mechanic to build it and make it fly, was an incredible moment for a dad. Caught him at exactly the right age and developmental stage. I (mostly accidentally) did something super incredible for my kid, thanks in large part to Zelda TOTK’s game design.