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Comment by ck2 | Hacker News Reader

I think people are missing the point, it's not the invention itself, it's how a 13 year old kid made his imagination into reality (instead of, for example, playing video games all day).

Just imagine what they can do at 20 with the right encouragement.

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Video games can encourage imaginative thinking.

Check out Scribblenauts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh65m-3o1co

Yes, but video games don't necessarily encourage going out and actually doing something, as opposed to just imagining it. Not to say imagination isn't important, but imagination without action is definitely not first best.

It probably depends on the kid/environment.

My first attempt at programming was to write Breakout in Basic, so video games can inspire I guess (this was longer ago than I care to disclose).

But today's video games are so advanced I get the impression kids wouldn't even bother to try to write their own game because it wouldn't compare to their experience.

I halfway agree with you - they probably wouldn't try to write something like Halo, because they wouldn't know where to start. Simple, fun games still exist though. Just look at all the Flash ones.

Simple, fun games are usually the most successful games out there. The hard-core gamer market is small comparatively, especially if you're counting by players instead of purchasers.

(Numerical comparison: Half Life life-time sales: 9.3 million as of the end of 2008[1]. Bejeweled life-time sales: 50 million+ as of Feb this year[2]. And how many play FarmVille (though it's not overly simple)?)

[1]: http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/56193 [2]: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27183/Bejeweled_Sales_Hit...

My first major project was also a videogame. I made it almost ten years ago, and I still get fanmail about it once a month. I think creative people will create.

http://marathonrubicon.com/

Holy crap! Marthon Rubicon was you? Great work man!

I've always thought Marathon was a bit of an under-appreciated masterpiece game, particularly given how old it is. I got stuck into Rubicon after I lost my original install disks (and moved to a windows machine...)

Thanks :) Can't believe somebody on HN played Rubicon. Made my afternoon.

He got the idea from a TV show.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1qoINo2MPM

Eh, there have been vacuum-based wall-climbers for far longer than 1 year. I remember seeing robotic ones built by high school students at least a decade ago.

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