I work at a Bible Summer School, which of course means working with lots of little kids. Aaaand the hat I usually wear has lots of nerdy pins/buttons on it filled with references to various fandoms and what-have-you. I wasn't thinking much about what the kids would think of this when I decided to wear it.
So today one of the kids asks me, "Why do you have Minecraft on your hat?"
And since I'm not into Minecraft and therefore don't have any pins of it, I was rather confused. I replied, "Did you say Minecraft?" (And admittedly I was kind of amazed the kid knew what Minecraft was, as well.)
And he says, "Yeah, right there." and points to it.
I really hate when people do this because, as much as it may surprise them, I cannot see my own forehead (adults do this rather often, too). So I took off my hat and said, "Which one?"
He points to the three pins depicting the Gen I overworld sprites of Red, Blue and Pikachu.
So then in my talking-to-little-kids voice, I said, "Ohhhh no no no, that's not Minecraft - that's Pokemon. Do you like Pokemon?"
And he says, "Yeah I like Pokemon!"
And I said, "I like Pokemon, too! This is old-school Pokemon, though."
And then he asks, "So it's Minecraft Pokemon?"
And that's when I realized that the kid just didn't get it, and I had an opportunity to completely blow his mind. "Oh no, you see, it's still not Minecraft at all. Just Pokemon. The game is so old - that's what the characters looked like on the screen back then! Lots of old video games were really blocky like that!"
And his eyes are starting to widen like he really can't believe that he's looking at Pokemon sprites. "How old are they?"
And I said, "The first ever Pokemon games came out all the way back in 1996!" And I said the year really slowly, partially for emphasis and partially so that he fully understood what I was saying.
And his jaw dropped and his eyes got so wide like 1996 was ancient history to him.
It was adorable.
I never considered the fact that kids these days wouldn't know about what old video games look like or why they look like that, and that they'd only see pixelation as a stylistic choice rather than a graphical limitation.
All old video games must look like 2D Minecraft to them.
So today one of the kids asks me, "Why do you have Minecraft on your hat?"
And since I'm not into Minecraft and therefore don't have any pins of it, I was rather confused. I replied, "Did you say Minecraft?" (And admittedly I was kind of amazed the kid knew what Minecraft was, as well.)
And he says, "Yeah, right there." and points to it.
I really hate when people do this because, as much as it may surprise them, I cannot see my own forehead (adults do this rather often, too). So I took off my hat and said, "Which one?"
He points to the three pins depicting the Gen I overworld sprites of Red, Blue and Pikachu.
So then in my talking-to-little-kids voice, I said, "Ohhhh no no no, that's not Minecraft - that's Pokemon. Do you like Pokemon?"
And he says, "Yeah I like Pokemon!"
And I said, "I like Pokemon, too! This is old-school Pokemon, though."
And then he asks, "So it's Minecraft Pokemon?"
And that's when I realized that the kid just didn't get it, and I had an opportunity to completely blow his mind. "Oh no, you see, it's still not Minecraft at all. Just Pokemon. The game is so old - that's what the characters looked like on the screen back then! Lots of old video games were really blocky like that!"
And his eyes are starting to widen like he really can't believe that he's looking at Pokemon sprites. "How old are they?"
And I said, "The first ever Pokemon games came out all the way back in 1996!" And I said the year really slowly, partially for emphasis and partially so that he fully understood what I was saying.
And his jaw dropped and his eyes got so wide like 1996 was ancient history to him.
It was adorable.
I never considered the fact that kids these days wouldn't know about what old video games look like or why they look like that, and that they'd only see pixelation as a stylistic choice rather than a graphical limitation.
All old video games must look like 2D Minecraft to them.
