deepblue Yep - same here for the time constraint, but it sounds awesome to get to play stuff together! I’m looking forward to when he gets old enough to play co-op games with him since my friends (and myself) have been so unpredictable for schedules. I figured the early stuff would be used more to get familiar with certain simple concepts and using a controller, but would rapidly increase to the point were he picks the games he wants to play based on box art, maybe by like five. (He’s almost one now and he’s good at pushing individual buttons on his toys!)
There is also something to be said about playing “bad” games. We played a bunch of Friday the 13th on the NES when I was a kid and that game, while interesting, sucks. However, it’s important to see value in the imperfect if the game is at least trying something, and often times a fresh perspective or positive anticipation can make a bad game fun. It’s important to have a contrast where you can play a variety of games and come to your own conclusions, because at the end of the day games are about discovery and being surprised to the point where you want to play more. When you figure out a game that’s when it ends - just as you would call a match early in Chess.
Another thing is recommendations are extremely difficult for people, including kids. I had no interest in slow or complex games when I was a kid because I only played platformers, beat-em ups, fighting and sports games and wanted the fast action. Of course I was the only person playing/renting games in the house by that point, so I had no one to guide me other than Nintendo Power (I would skip right over anything top-down or text heavy). By 12 (1998) I was getting truly immersed in complex games, but I had better comprehension, was reading previews and became fully invested in 3D gaming. Of course that was also a banner period for games in general, so the timing worked out nicely for me. Coming of age in the years of Mario 64, Goldeneye, MGS, Final Fantasy 7, Resident Evil 2, Zelda OoT and Half-Life was a great gift. But therein lies the rub - great games will always be great, but it’s a matter of the zeitgeist.
I would by no means force someone to play a game because of it’s importance. I think all games stem from previous ones. If the person is interested in the history of the genre then by all means, but just because someone loves Modern Warfare Warzone doesn’t mean they need to play DOOM. I do think it’s a tragedy if someone gives up games altogether because they feel it is stagnant, childish, boring, or had nothing but bad experiences - but that could occur at any point.