Makes sense, I was never into FPS games as a kid so I'm not surprised im less than fluent with them.

eternalplayer2345

I think I've gotten worse. When I was in middle school, I was awesomer.

Eltigro

@Gex:

Doesn't begin to degrade in a significant manner is what I meant.

Gex

Just like anything in life practice makes perfect and kids do have the luxury to play all day so that does play into their favor. My brother and I suck and were getting schooled on COD4 when we first got it and now we tend to avg 35+ kills a game to maybe 3-7 deaths at the most. He got there a lot quicker than I did because he has more free time, hence more practice. Your body doesn't really degrade until your 40 at least not in a significant way that a child would end up having quicker hand eye coordination to an average healthy adult.

Gex

This is crap, maybe the adults in question just plain suck. I learned on the coleco and have yet to find a kid to even come near me in games. With Live now you can talk to the people your there with and the times I have lost or not come in first has always been with older individuals and not kids.

Gex

@Witzbold: Let me see if I'm understanding this:
Is it like he understands how the physics in the game world work, and he can adapt to them quickly, but then when he goes into the real world, he still tries to use game physics?

Or am I misunderstanding that completely?

Polywhirl

Depends, coming later into something may give you a fresh perspective and allow you to exploit avenues a regular gamer wouldn't explore. But i think coordination is one of those things that is easier as a kid, it just becomes second nature. But some people will always be better than others at picking it up and just being able to "click"

Thermopylae

Most definitely. I got all my children playing various games in hopes that I can breed an army of FPS, 2D fightin', street racin' GODS/GODESSES by time they grow up into their teens! I think it's in the genes.

HarrimusPrimal

Depends on the type of game...I grew up playing a lot of adventure games so my problem solving skills are pretty decent. Reflexes and hand eye coordination, not so much, but that could be because we didn't realize I needed glasses until I was 13 :P

tshack

I don't know. It'd be interesting if someone made a formal study on it though.

Samos42

I don't think that's really the case either. Game skills build with age rather than at a certain time, like language. I started gaming with I was eight, but I'd say I'm pretty good, and my reaction time is pretty fast =)

Sylent

Hmm.

I wasn't allowed to have consoles as a kid, and while I still fail epically at any FPS, I'm far better than average at certain games like Smash Bros. having only started playing them less than two years ago.

Personally, I think it's because kids have more downtime to practice. :)

TalKeaton: Game Design Major

@Polywhirl: As with anything some folks will be naturally better at things than others.

---

I know my friends kid brother goddamn does he learn fast in a virtual environment. But whats interesting is actions and reasoning that he uses in game he doesnt seem to use in the real world where his mind appears to be less developed. Not as an insult, but it just seems that for some odd reason his reasoning and motor skills just adapt better in a virtual world.

Has anyone else had a similar experience for themself or anyone else they know?

I find it highly interesting, kinda now want to see if there is a scientific term for such people. Would make an interesting topic for future discussion if there is an article on it.

Witzbold

I am hooking up my 2 year old to my n52te when I get home and I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Hand_O_Death

I don't know.
My relatives and neighbors have all been playing FPS's their entire lives(ranging 6-16 in age now), while I barely started at around 14, yet I can slaughter them all.

Polywhirl

Makes total sense... now I dont know what to think about my childhood. I really should have played Doom or something rather than Ecco the Dolphin or Grim Fandango as a kid... that natural experience hasn't quite payed off against any of my friends yet.

TheRedBayonet

It's a YES for me.

IntelSilver

This is probably true, but I think young kids kicking adult ass in video games probably has more to do with reflexes than anything else.

Zeliard

I have been exposing my niece to the likes of "Rally Cross" and "Flow". She definately is learning quickly for her age, so I support this Hypo.

Ahsayuni

I'd say a sensitive period rather than a critical period.

Iceking5

Simple answer: yes.

My hand eye coordination is darn good cos of games. I also wish to point out I was an expert Guitar Hero player before I picked up the guitar and I'm doing pretty good at it.

Communist_Gamer

Although I did learn on Coleco I also learned online multiplayer in quakeworld. within 10 minutes of switching to a 360 controller I was consistently placing in top 5 players a game in CoD 2. Tactics are more important than how fast you can twitch you fingers.

Cpt_Bongwater

I notice that the genres I played a lot as a kid are still the genres I'm best at (good thing that was nearly every genre). However one genre I never touched as a kid is sports simulation games. As such I suck at sports games; not because I lack the reflexes or strategic skills necessary, but just because I fundamentally have no understanding of the abstract systems which underpin sports games. For instance I watch a lot of football (soccer), but I just can't wrap my head around FIFA 08.

I think that's because there's a disconnect between the way I view video games as operating and the way I view sports as operating. In a video game there is really never any 'rules' as such, just what's possible and what isn't, as opposed to sports which are run on abstract codes/agreements. And so when these two principles collide I just have no idea what's going on. Like when I kick the ball out of bounds in FIFA I'm just like, "Well if it's illegal why did you let me do it?" Like in most video games I spend most of my time looking for a way to exploit those laws of what's possible and what isn't for my advantage, try that in FIFA08 and you just get your arse carded.

But if I'd grown up playing sports games I'm pretty sure I would have gotten my head around these mechanics, as opposed to now, where I'm too set in my ways to leave room for them.

GregoriusH

My 4 year old is playing through GHIII on easy an is almost finished. He's already finished TNMT and Spiderman Friend or Foe. I'd like to see a study of DNA crossover from parent to kid. :)

elliottsa

@D Mitsuki: Coming from some one who has played and enjoyed both games I can attest to the fact that CoD4 is more complex than Brawl.

GUNDAM-RX-78-2

I was hooked on Quakeworld in the mid-to-late 90s when I was younger. That's helped me immensely in any FPS I play, though I chalk that up more to the high quality and tough competition of QW than anything else.

Still, there's no question that becoming well-versed in gaming at a younger age helps a lot. You start honing your skills in general and when it comes to genres like FPS, your aim. This in turn allows you to concentrate more on things like strategy and tactics as you get older, since you have perfected the basics and don't really need to worry about them.

Zeliard

D Mitsuki

I was a big FPS fan as a kid and still to this day. I noticed all those years I use to play CS help me greatly in my career as far as eye-hand coordination.

However, as a kid I pretty much only had a NES, and I guess you can say it helped with my problem solving skills? I mean some of the hardest games (that i still haven't beat) I have ever owned/played were on the NES.

Cuban__B

I got into games really young. And truthfully, I was distracted by anything even remotely electronic. So, I branched out into everything and can hold my own.

Bowser-Gaiden

probably. anyone remember lil poison? youngest pro gamer? i read somewhere that he started playing halo at 2 yrs. i really only started playing video games at 12 (before that it was just gbc and gba) and im not as good as my friends who have played video games their whole lives.

Xeros606

@Cpt_Bongwater: aw man, i miss quakeworld :\

cavingman

This is the only explanation to how *anyone* has beat Through the Fire and Flames on expert. I'm still stuck on Devil went to Georgia on expert, WTF was Neversoft thinking?!?!?

cybereality

Here's my real take. My above comment was a joke, but true.

There is a reason why there is such a thing as the "terrible twos." The human brain is like a massive breadboard with millions of wires making connections with various parts. Around the age of two, the brain essentially reorganizes things. Connections start breaking and reconnecting in other ways. Usually the end result is a more organized and efficient brain and can better carry out tasks. This explains the big difference between a five year old and a three year old, and also may be the reason why children (in America at least) don't start school until the age of five. Usually by then, the connections have settled down and the brain, freshly rewired, is ready for new programming. The same thing happens again when children are between the ages of about 11 and 15, which is why middle school kids can be so erratic and can sometimes act like 2 year olds. (Above the age of 15, the children are essentially rewired for adulthood and that's why teenagers think they know everything.)

Here's my point to this. If a kid is playing video games with great frequency while this rewiring process is occurring, I have no doubt that some of the rewiring incorporates some of the skills necessary for playing video games. And if the developing brain does incorporate those skills, they probably become more innate and allow for such things as "beginners luck." Their brains are wired for this stuff.

But I don't think that's all of the story. There's a saying that says that once you learn to ride a bike, you never forget. That may be true. I rode my bike incessantly when I was young, then didn't have a bike for years. I got one again about three years ago and, yep, sure enough, I could still ride a bike. But, I can't ride without hands anymore and probably couldn't stand on the seat like I used to. I think the reason is practice. I played games when I was younger. From the 2600 up. But I don't play them as much now as I did then. And I think that I was probably better then than I am now. If I were to go back in time and challenge myself to a game, I think that, unless the game were Jeopardy!, I would probably lose. And the sole reason is practice. I haven't kept up my form. People beat me in multiplayer games all the time and seem surprised. "You have all these games, you must be good." Nope. Apparently not. I point to the dusty guitar in the corner and say, "Just because I own a guitar doesn't mean I'm Jimi Hendrix."

Eltigro

this is pretty obvious so why even bother? hell i particpated in NES world championships only to get my ass kikced in smifinals by some other skinny dude named edward. Will never forget that day on kung fu.

cherrybomb

well.
if u ask me i always thought that gaming was either a you have it or you dont have it.
like in my family starting from my dad he knew how to play in his day which was the 70's and 80's.
One of my cousins has it and started playing at age 6.
i have it and i started off with resident evil at age 5 on the first ps1 and ive played everything from sports to kids games.
and now 11 years later im 16 going on 17 and i can play everything and im pretty good at it.
but on the other hand i have two little cousins who are 7 and 9 and they have hard trouble with kid games like tmnt and other kid games i would find super easy.
They werent playing like my me my dad or my older cousin was playin at thier age so my answer is yes

Despacio

So this must be why I suck at RTSs.

muu

I think that this is a solid argument. There's a tonne of developmental evidence to support the critical period hypothesis for learning language in children. So why not for other stuff?

Someone really should do a study.

Musai

I don't know if I can support this theory since when I was younger (about 11 at the time) I played Kingdom Hearts and no matter how much I played, and believe me I played a lot, I could never get past the final row of bosses. About a year ago or so I found that game in my collection by accident and decided to give it a try for a bit of nostalgia. After half an hour of searching for the damn memory card I loaded my save and went against the boss. Even though I had to learn the buttons again I beat the first one on my first try and the rest on the second. I thought I had just been lucky so I tried again and I won them all once more.

So I say it's easier for you to learn how to handle the basics in a game but you can't really become really good until later when your brain is more developed and you have better hand-eye coordination.

Spiderbait

I feel like when I was younger, I was much better at games. I tend to pick up a game and say, "Damn, my old self would have whupped my ass." I know since then I've learned to learn different ways to play the game and to approach it. I wish I had learned or known these things when I was younger because I believe it would have opened my eyes to the different nature of playing different games.

As for younger, a few years ago, I was at my at-the-time girlfriend's house and her little brother was playing Kingdom Hearts. He was like 8 or so I guess, but he wasn't doing very well and I wanted to pick up the controller and show him how. I think about situations like that now and think that learning early doesn't necessarily apply to everyone, just like learning late doesn't.

ForgotMyKeys

An interesting proposition. Also a depressing one, since I started on RPG's, which have no effect on reflexes or coordination. Damn it. I blame Pokemon for my poor Brawl skills.

Boolean

I'm not so sure. I didn't really start playing until relatively late in life (because video gaming wasn't really around when I was young).

I think it might have more to do with the type of games you start on and your level of determination at beating them. A kid who learns on Ikaruga and beats it without continuing is always going to whip the ass of the player who starts on GTA: Vice City and uses cheats to get through. See if you have the patience and skill to beating Global Defense on Master System to see what I mean.

floppylobster

@Eltigro:

This man has it, its the rewiring that happens at the ages he specified that can give kids a better headstart at games. However thats all it does, the brain continiously rewires itself it just does so at a much slower pace later in life, so while it might be hard you could still obtain the same skill level.

The same goes for language, kids learn language easier but adults can too if they try. However with adults its different because we're trained at a young age to recognizes, is it phonemes?, but its the sounds that make up a word and if you don't get trained then to hear it the brain has forever lost the ability to acquire that sound, its why foreigners have accents.

Morberis

I don't think skills are innate at all. Pretty much anyone can do anything they put their mind to. As far as Smash is concerned, experience playing the previous games in the series helps tremendously.

There are no developmental advantages as far as skill. The kid had played Smash, and as a result, has more experience with the game than his brother. However, Brandon, who plays CoD4 often, easily bested his kid brother at that game, citing his brother's inexperience with the entire genre of dual-analog first-person shooters.

Experience helps, but it takes more than that to win consistently in a competitive game. Someone with two months of competitive Smash experience can easily defeat someone who has been playing casually for years.

Poisonous Taoist

I agree with the article as exposed to my own observations. My cousins could never hack it in regular fighting games (street fighter types) but utterly thrash me at super smash bros. even though my overall gaming skills are light years better, there are certain games that (starting with the N64 era) they completely own me at.

On most games where we are at an even level (usually after buying) I find that some types of games they are better at but other types I'm better at. The games they are better at are usually what they call ADD games where mashing and mass screen confusion rule. Games that require some strategy and mind games I rule at.

RPGr

Sometimes when you get your ass handed to you by an 11 year old you wonder how the hell that was possible. It's just that at that age kids have almost superior hand-eye coordination. However, they would normally lack intelligence in such a respect.

Jinto

EmeraldCockroach

That would explain why I suck at fighting games. Never played them as a kid, just hack n' slash, RPGs, and Shooters.

Xerxes 8933A

I've been gaming since I was 5 and I'm 35 now. I went through just about every system. I'm not sure how much it's effected my skills. I'm good at some games and bad at others. I guess like everyone else. I know it's developed my eye to hand coordination. Because I'm good at targetting. I may have heightend senses while playing a game, but that would have to be tested.

Orionsaint

well, nearly all fighting game pros are in their 20s or so, some a bit older, so maybe they grew up with the games? Dunno, genres are way too different to make a generalization like that.
On the other hand, PC Chris, #2 in the world in Melee, never owned a gamecube.

ZinkO: The Game (the kind you just lost)

Well I'm 30 now, and I don't doubt the fact that I didn't cut my teeth on the N64 or PlayStation has at least a little to do with why I'll never "get" games like Ninja Gaiden (Sigma) or Mavel Vs. Capcom 2 the way kids a good decade my junior seem to.

On the other hand, I own so damn many games that there's a genuine reluctance on my part to take the time necessary to master a title, but merely beat it a few times.

Nightshift Nurse: Nursier and Shiftier

@Jinto:

exactly, i'm not proud to say a 9 year old kicked my ass in gears of war, but it happened hehe.

Orionsaint

peAr_nectAr

Sounds reasonably plausible. I got my start on the Atari and NES, but didn't really take off until I got my first PC (Packard Bell, 166Mhz, 16Megs of RAM, good memories). I kick total ass on a PC FPS, but I'm practically a nublet with Dual Analogs.

Pezdispenser

I don't buy this at all. I've been an avid gamer from as far back as I can remember, but my boyfriend had barely even touched a controller in his life until I convinced him to try a few games about a year ago. While I'm still better than him at most of the games we play, his progress has been pretty remarkable. I think gaming skill is more a factor of one's interest in games + time to practice than childhood exposure or even raw talent.

If kids are generally better at games, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that kids usually have a lot more free time on their hands than the average adult, and can spend more time playing/practicing.

atarashii_123

I had no videogames until I was in middle school and that was an NES I got at a tag sale for $5. The Atari 2600 came shortly thereafter (like a year or two later) and I can kick most of my friends butts in 2D and 2.5D games.

I suck at FPS because they bore me to tears.

battra92

I was thinking this very thing over the past few years. Never put it into words though. So I definitely agree.

Gam3r

Since i played starfox on the SNES like a fr3aking insane i really got mad skills at flying games, now after many games is almost natural to pick a game with planes and get the idea very quick...

TOCATL

This is why we all suck with a Wiimote.

dowingba

simple answer yes... I was a platformer genius when a few years Nintendo Entertainment System was released. That skill doesn't go away. But training gives skill and habit.

But I'm suckage with the wiimote. Because of the very different control scheme. As I don't play as much as I did back in the days, I don't get the habit and skill with wii games.

Elrinth

I have to disagree.

My dad can kick my ass at Halo. Besides Duke Nukem 3D on the PC, Halo on the Xbox was the first 3d shooter my dad had ever played in his life, and he fell in love with it. Then proceeded to go through easy, then medium, then hard, then legendary campaigns. In that order, one after another.

He grew up with a Commodore 64. I can *beat* him at Commodore 64 games, even though I never had one as a kid (was lucky enough to have parents that divorced and got me a gameboy and NES in a 'who loves their son more' battle. No C64 for this kid).

I can beat him at other games usually. But thats because I play a lot.

I think all of us have innate inner skills that lend better to some games than others. And for some people, it just takes that 'special game' to bring it out of you.

Plus constant practice practice practice.

Komrade_Kayce

I don't think children are better at games because they game from an early age. I think it's because a child looks at a game differently. I used to play games as a kid because it was fun. Although these days i still play for fun but i also play for something else: i'm addicted to winning.

These days i still pick up a game and just have a look at the controls and thats it i just start playing. no real practice involved. Actually i hate tutorial levels. I hate having to look up and down at the beginning of halo because i know i don't need my axis inverted.

I need a game to just throw me in the deep end because i already know how to swim.

The only thing i'm not good at anymore is fighters. Simply because i don't like them anymore and i don't care for having to learn thousands of combo's. As a kid i used to like fighters because they were fun and i used to just mash the buttons until i would find something that worked for me.

Have you ever played a fighter against a kid? Ever notice what they're doing? Exactly what i used to do: mashing buttons until they find something that works for them.

Oh i'm not saying that playing games from a young age doesn't make you a better gamer. Because that part is 100% true. I would't be this good at adapting to new games if it wasn't for my parents buying me and my brother a nes when i was 2.

Cchrist

I think we already have or are going to have proof of this when we look at the kind of games people excel at based on their age.

I'm in my mid twenties. Myself and my friends grew up playing platformers. From the moderately difficult like Mario to the insanely difficult ones like Ninja Gaiden or Ghouls and Ghosts.

Now platforming is not so dominant as it was, a lot of our people just getting into gaming play a lot of FPSs. Also, rhythm games like Guitar Hero/Rock Band are very popular in this age group.

Now, I'm "okay" at FPSs and rhythm games. But there are a ton of kids out there who are better then I'll ever be. The kid who's been playing Halo since he was five. The kid who kills expert level songs in first grade.

But give those kids an NES and ask them to play some Super Mario Bros and while they're "skilled" they're not dominant. Half of them are going to stop playing the game saying it's "lame" because they don't understand the genre. Very few of them (the true gaming "savantes") are going to excel like an old pro like my friends and I would because it's not their genre.

knulpm

I recall reading about how neural connections are formed. The brain has all these tiny electrical impulses going through it all the time. It works kind of like a computer in that regard. Send a jolt here, you scream "UMBRELLA!" at the top of your lungs. A jolt there, and you'll throw a baseball. The brain releases a chemical that reacts to these jolts by growing more neural tissue along the 'power line'. Basically, the more you do something, the thicker the 'strand' linking one bit of the brain to the other gets, and that causes fast brain function.
In other words, practice makes perfect. But, there's a downside. As we get older, our brains produce less and less of this stuff, thus diminishing how fast NEW neural tissue grows.

You CAN teach an old dog new tricks... but it's gonna take him a while to learn them.

So, really, this phenomenon isn't just limited to games and languages. It's every new thing we learn. With abstract things like games, however, it's easier to see the evidence of this effect on a wider sample of people.

Suck up all the knowledge you can, before your brain gets old and slow!

Insomnia Bob

I have been wondered about this thing for about half an year ago. I've been thinking if there is something as "game instinct"...

shadow_judge

As you get older its harder and your pretty much less willing to learn new skills or stuff compared to people who are younger than you.

zonetrooper5

@Komrade_Kayce:

I have to disagree with you and agree with the article:

This whole topic bring in the question of nature vs nurture. Which affects us more? While I agree that some people are naturally better at certain things, no study has been able to prove consistently that intelligence is anymore than 50% inheritable. The rest of it comes from nurture, or how you're raised. IF intelligence isn't completely determined by our genes then I don't think our video game playing abilities are either.

NeoAkira

At young ages, our brains just retain information easily. So young kids can quickly master expert TTFATF on GH2 while I sit and weep at the devil in GH3. I can still play mario 1's first few levels perfectly because of all the time i spent with it as a kid. If those basics may translate into future skills.

San

that's downright fascinating...

snowlock

"Is there a "critical period" in children for learning video game skills, the same as there is for language?"

No. There's a physical part of our brain dedicated to language processing, and it is trained best in the earlier ages of our life. Playing a video game is closer to riding a bike or cooking - you can learn it quite easily at any point in your life and you get better at it with practice.

Master Chefs are good at what they do because they practiced, not because they learned how to cook when they were babies. The same can be said for the Master Chiefs among us.

imikedaman