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The Dopamine Slot Machine does your Christmas List!
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https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-dopamine-slot-machine-reviews-your-christmas-list-games-tickets-1969404096668
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Dopamine Slot Machine'
00:00:11
Andrew Wilmot
Good morning, good day, good evening. Whenever you are, welcome to the Dopamine Slot Machine, the podcast that discusses what you need to know about the video games your children are playing. How are they designed to get your kids hooked? How do they make money from your children? And what can you do to make sure that your child's relationship with video games is a positive one?
Andrew's Background and Holiday Gift Recommendations
00:00:28
Andrew Wilmot
My name is Andrew. I'm a dad of two and a lifelong gamer. And Christmas is coming. I'm recording this on the 4th of December. And if you haven't done your Christmas shopping yet, then don't fear. Here is another wannabe influencer telling you what you should buy. Unlike most other sources, however, I'm not sponsored, so perhaps tag the brands I'm about to mention and tell them I deserve a kickback.
00:00:48
Andrew Wilmot
I'm kidding, of course. I do this entirely to help other parents make more informed decisions on video games. I don't think I would ever take a sponsorship or anything like that. With the Robux and V-Bucks being
Digital Currencies and Family-Friendly Game Recommendations
00:00:59
Andrew Wilmot
the most asked for Christmas presents this year, and I'm not kidding, by the way, 43% of children aged 5 to 17 in the US, according to a recent study, say they intend to ask Santa for digital in-game currency. more than the 39% of kids who want a games console, or 37% are paid for game.
00:01:17
Andrew Wilmot
I'm going to be recommending some gifts for those of you who heard that stat and cringed inside. Everything here is something that I've got personal experience with that we've either bought already, or i think there's one item which I previously actually had as a child and will be buying for our eldest for Christmas.
00:01:36
Andrew Wilmot
So everything here is but is's recommended from a place of experience. That same study i referred to, by the way, had something I found really interesting. So more than half of young gamers say they want to spend more time playing games specifically with their parents, with 73% of children aged five to seven saying they want to play games with mum and dad.
00:01:59
Andrew Wilmot
One game I've talked to about a lot on this channel, which is perfect for this, is Cat Quest 3. By the way, I absolutely did write perfect as a pun there. It's available on all consoles, and it's a two-player simple action game.
00:02:11
Andrew Wilmot
game where you play as a swashbuckling cat on a quest to find the mythical North Star treasure in the pirate-themed world of the Peribian. It's got a great range of difficulty settings, so even parents who don't game can pick this up easily enough.
00:02:25
Andrew Wilmot
But the dialogue, setting, and story are truly a joy for kids and parents alike. Just to just to give an example, for instance, one of the ah One of the villains that you have to face throughout the game is Captain Meowtalica, a rock band themed cat that you have to beat.
00:02:45
Andrew Wilmot
Yeah, so there are no microtransactions, no online features, literally none of the nasties I talk about. The reward cycles are long and relatively fixed. It's just a gentle yet thrilling game.
00:02:56
Andrew Wilmot
I played through this and Cat Quest 2, which I'd also recommend with my daughter, and it was an experience we both cherish forever.
Cooperative Gaming with 'Trine 5'
00:03:02
Andrew Wilmot
So if you're looking for a game to play with perhaps a a younger child, this is a really great choice.
00:03:09
Andrew Wilmot
One game the whole family we can get involved in is Trine 5 A Clockwork Conspiracy. Actually, any of the Trine games fit in this category. It's been a series that's gone on for a while. Trine 5 is just the latest.
00:03:21
Andrew Wilmot
So it's a platform puzzle action video game set in a very Terry Pratchett-esque world. There's three characters and each has different abilities you have to use together to solve puzzles.
00:03:33
Andrew Wilmot
So a great game for mum, dad and a child or a parent and a couple of children. Or even if you've got three kids of different ages, they can all play this together and work cooperatively. How about that? Can you imagine, you know, you've got three kids. Can you imagine them all working together on a game?
00:03:48
Andrew Wilmot
I don't know if that will lead to more arguments, to be honest, but it's a lovely idea. You can play it with just two or even one players, like swapping between the characters. It is designed for that to be easy enough, but it really shines when you've got a group of people who are all engaged, interested in the story and want to complete it together.
00:04:09
Andrew Wilmot
It's lighthearted, humorous, but still with some real stakes in the story. And the story itself is its quality. It has an age rating of 12, but this, in my opinion, doesn't actually reflect the content in the game. I think it's perhaps more based off the difficulties in the puzzle. a Definitely a younger child might struggle with these, but I'd be happy.
00:04:30
Andrew Wilmot
playing this with my eight-year-old. We've played previous Trine games, for that matter. it's It's absolutely fine. Just expect if you're playing this with the with a younger child, relatively speaking, then you're probably going to be doing most of the heavy lifting when it comes to solving the puzzles.
RPGs for Teens: 'Clare Obscure Expedition 33'
00:04:49
Andrew Wilmot
For older gamers, and really here I'm talking 14, 15 and up, I'm going to recommend a game called Clare Obscure Expedition 33. This is a single player story based RPG available on Xbox, PlayStation, PC, not the Switch.
00:05:07
Andrew Wilmot
If you're a gamer yourself, then skip ahead a couple of minutes because this is a game you want to experience unspoiled. So in the world of Clare Obscure, there is this magical being called the paintress who erases people based on a decreasing age number each year.
00:05:25
Andrew Wilmot
and then every year the remnants of society send out an expedition to go defeat the paintress and stop this from happening this has been going on for a couple of generations at this point the the number started at 100 it's now at the start of the game at 34. these expeditions have so far been very unsuccessful and the whole philosophy is that you're building up for the next one so you're the previous You come across the remains of previous expeditions.
00:05:51
Andrew Wilmot
ah It really integrates really well to the gameplay and the work of previous expeditions helps your expedition on the way. So yeah, you the paintress wipes out 34 at the start of the game and paints the number 33, erasing everybody who is 34 years old, including very emotionally an ex-girlfriend of yours who you reconnect with the day of the erasing.
00:06:16
Andrew Wilmot
you then set out as part of Expedition 33. So, you know, just in that prologue, by the way, it's one of the most emotionally compelling starts to a game I've ever seen. It had my partner, who wasn't playing, in tears. it It's truly artful.
00:06:32
Andrew Wilmot
ah This is a game with obviously with very strong themes of loss, trauma, violence. It has a depiction of someone who considers suicide, so keep that in mind.
00:06:42
Andrew Wilmot
Explicit language and non-explicit sexual themes. um One of my favourite YouTubers slash video essayist, Jacob Geller, refers to it as an endless canvas of grief, which is, I think, a really apt description of it.
00:06:59
Andrew Wilmot
Content-wise, there's nothing in it that somebody who's doing GCSE English wouldn't have come across in one of their books. I did Edgar Allan Poe for my English GCSE, and there were worse themes in that.
00:07:12
Andrew Wilmot
But it's one of the most compelling stories, let alone games, I've ever enjoyed. Certainly not anything comparable in years. It is absolutely a work of art. There's no use of addictive design, no microtransactions, no online content, no endless loops of gameplay to get stuck in. It's just an old-fashioned video game that you complete and then it's done.
00:07:33
Andrew Wilmot
It's the most nominated game in Game Awards history, made by a tiny studio. I cannot praise it enough. It's beautiful art style, beautiful soundtrack. Every element of it is designed as really I wish all games were.
Innovative Audiobook Players for Kids
00:07:49
Andrew Wilmot
Moving away from video games completely and appropriate for children up to about 12 or 13 is the Yoto player. We love this so much that we have two, one for each of our children. We've got the larger one for our youngest to and the sort of smaller, more portable one for our eldest.
00:08:05
Andrew Wilmot
The Yoto player is an audiobook player where you can choose what to play with a set of cards that you buy. These stories range from classics such as Mog the Cat through to longer stories such as Harry Potter, How to Train Your Dragon or The Chronicles of Narnia.
00:08:18
Andrew Wilmot
There are also a set of podcasts available through it with Yoto Daily being the dev default one. So do keep that in mind. ah <unk> We've not had any issues with the content from Yoto Daily. it's It's very much aimed at kids of all ages.
00:08:34
Andrew Wilmot
Broadly seems quite quite safe, but you know mileage may vary. And perhaps after publishing this podcast episode, they they start recommending apps to your kids and things that. don't know.
00:08:47
Andrew Wilmot
Anyway. You can also ah program the make your own card. And I say program, by the way, it's really easy through the app to play one of a set of podcasts that you can discover through the app.
00:08:58
Andrew Wilmot
Our daughter is a big fan of Culture Kids, for instance, and these podcasts are curated. So you're not going to find the Joe Rogan experience on there. ah you're You're not going to have your son turn around to you and be like, mommy, what's a red pill?
00:09:16
Andrew Wilmot
whats What's an incel or anything like that? I mean, they might do that from conversations they have in school with ah with children whose parents aren't quite as ah on the ball when it comes to tech and having a healthy relationship with technology.
00:09:31
Andrew Wilmot
But I digress. So yeah, our daughter's is a big fan of Culture Kids, which is one of the podcasts on there. Now I say 12 or 13 is the upper age range for this, but that's primarily based on what content is available.
00:09:43
Andrew Wilmot
At this point there's not a huge amount of content aimed at older kids, but take a look and judge for yourselves. Now there is a limited amount of game playing in the form of quizzes that you press a button to engage with, but this really isn't anything to worry about. It is extremely limited, it's not really pushed at all, and the quizzes are super simple.
00:10:04
Andrew Wilmot
I will say that the cards do start to get expensive if you want to build a library of them. The complete Harry Potter collection is close to £200. when it's not on sale, but this is a gadget so good we bought it twice.
00:10:16
Andrew Wilmot
right And so we've we've certainly had our money's worth out of this many times over. For younger children as well, it can double as an OK to wake clock, and for older ones, an alarm clock.
00:10:29
Andrew Wilmot
The reason I recommend this over the very similar Tony box is actually specifically the card form factor over the sort of toy one, and the wider age range the Yota player could appeal to.
00:10:40
Andrew Wilmot
So I could see our eldest being quite happy to carry this round for years. Whereas something like the Tony box, where you have to place a little toy figurine on top for it to play, less so.
Enhancing Reading with 'Warlock of Firetop Mountain'
00:10:52
Andrew Wilmot
An even lower-tech gift for the gamer in your life, check out the fighting fantasy book Warlock of Firetop Mountain. This is a book that is also a game. A choose-your-own-adventure game book where the reader becomes an adventure on a quest to find the evil warlock Xagor's treasure deep inside via Top Mountain.
00:11:11
Andrew Wilmot
To succeed, the player must navigate a dangerous dungeon, battle monsters, and locate three keys to open a treasure chest. So it's ah it's a dungeon crawl.
00:11:20
Andrew Wilmot
You've got various paths and dangers along the way, so you can make a choice that ends up with your player being killed, for instance, and that's it. That's that's the end. So probably best played with a pencil rather than a pen.
00:11:31
Andrew Wilmot
There are loads of fighting fantasy books. This one's the first and they all operate the same way. So you roll dice, make choices and turn pages based on the results, such as if you fight the goblin, turn to page 45. If you run away, turn to page 62. It's a lot of fun. And although the vocabulary is quite advanced, so keep that in mind when considering this as a Christmas gift, ah it doesn't have a huge amount in the way of inappropriate themes. So, you know, even if your your child isn't necessarily the biggest reader,
00:12:00
Andrew Wilmot
there's probably something that you can help with them through. It might be a good opportunity to expand the vocabulary. I actually had this very book as a child myself. This series has serious been going on for decades. I think it started in the eighties.
00:12:14
Andrew Wilmot
So it really is old school and it really captured my imagination. Now don't tell my daughter, but this is being wrapped in Santa's workshop as we speak. Um, As mentioned, there are dozens of fighting fantasy books, so if your child really gets into it there's loads they can enjoy. i think i can't, there's about 60.
00:12:32
Andrew Wilmot
So maybe that's opening the floodgates for having an entire library of these, but compared to, say, wanting to sit playing video games all day, I would say that's that's a positive thing.
Screen-Free Hobbies: 'Warhammer 40k Kill Team'
00:12:44
Andrew Wilmot
And for a low-tech gift for older gamers, I want to recommend the Warhammer 40k Kill Teams Starter Set. So this comes with everything you need to play the game Kill Team, two squads, some MDF terrain, a board, and the various tokens and dice needed.
00:13:00
Andrew Wilmot
Kill Team is probably the cheapest way to get into the notoriously expensive hobby of Warhammer, where you build, paint, and field armies of little models you buy, with a starter set costing £70 for the Warhammer website. and if you get it from a third party, it's typically a bit cheaper, about £60. It's a great screen-free hobby for older kids tools and paint must be bought separately with starter paint and tool sets running a bit below 30 pounds and yeah there'll be people at your local game store that play regularly but there might be a warhammer club at their school ah but it's a great game to play at home too and kill team's relatively quick and simple to to play as a hobby there's the building painting elements of it the game playing and even if you want to get into like the background lore and stories
00:13:48
Andrew Wilmot
There's literally hundreds of books. So it's all over a really wholesome experience, I think. we've been We've been painting with our eldest for a couple of years now. She has a little she doesn't so much play. she The game's a little bit complicated her at this stage. But she likes having a collection of elves that she's very proud to have sat down and spent hours painting.
00:14:09
Andrew Wilmot
The fantasy equivalent is called War Cry, if your child's more interested in elves, vampires and wizards than space soldiers. And that's priced pretty much the same and works pretty much the same way. All right, and that's it. That's the final gift that I was going to recommend.
Upcoming Webinar and Community Engagement
00:14:24
Andrew Wilmot
But if you didn't know, i am running another webinar. So this Saturday, 6th of December, I'll be reviewing the games you submit. Maybe you've got a game your child has asked for for Christmas.
00:14:35
Andrew Wilmot
Maybe a well-meaning, but perhaps slightly ignorant family member has brought your child the latest call of duty. Maybe there's just a game you've heard of that you want to know more about. Tickets are free for those who just want to come watch, and £5 if you want to submit a game with all proceeds being donated to Smartphone Free Childhood.
00:14:53
Andrew Wilmot
I will be playing all games that are submitted and building content around that, with the one exception of if you submit a Switch 2 exclusive game. I don't have a Switch 2 at this point in time, so for that I would have to go away and watch gameplay footage and make notes that way. I'm only accepting 10 game submissions and we are down to the last couple of slots. So if it is something you'd be interested in, make sure to check out the link in the description and I look forward to hearing from
Conclusion and Upcoming Content Teaser
00:15:20
Andrew Wilmot
you. That's all we have time for today. Thank you so much for joining me. I'd love to chat with as many of you as possible at and my Christmas list review, but for those who can't make it, keep watching this space.
00:15:29
Andrew Wilmot
I'll have some more Christmas content coming your way. This has been the Dopamine Slot Machine. Thank you and see you soon.