Jane: This is, But Why: a Podcast for Curious Kids from
Vermont Public. I'm Jane Lindholm. On this show, we take
questions from curious kids all over the world, and we find
answers. Today, wait, hang on just one second.
Video Game: Good.
Jane: Hang on, I just got it.
Video Game: Powerful.
Jane: Yes!
Video Game: Unbelievable.
Jane: Sorry, I got distracted. I finally beat the level on my
phone game. I've been really struggling to get past it.
Appears sometimes I get a little distracted by video games, and a
lot of you might get distracted too. And many of you certainly
enjoy video games and have been sending us a lot of questions
about them.
Sophie: Hello, my name is Sophie. I am six years old. I
live in Wyoming, and my question is, How are video games made?
Because I really want to make one, so I want to know how
they're made.
Jackson: My name is Jackson, and I live in Forney, Texas. I am
eight years old, and my question is, Why do people play video
games?
Cecelia: My name's Cecilia, I'm nine years old. I live in
Liberty, Missouri, and my question is, Who invented video
games?
Jane: We're going to tackle all those questions and more today,
and we're going to look at video games more broadly as well.
Patrick: These days, video games can reflect whatever interest
you have, whatever passions you have, and allows you to explore
a little bit of yourself. And the people that make these video
games, they want to make something that they enjoy too.
Jane: That's Patrick Klepek, a writer and editor for Crossplay,
that's a newsletter focused on parenting and video games, and
yes, he does get to play a lot of video games for his job, but
maybe not as often as you might think.
Patrick: I wish my job was sitting down to play video games
every day. In reality, it is playing video games late at
night when my kids are asleep, or when I get a chance to play
with them, it's a lot of talking to people who are much smarter
than me about, like, you know, why do video games scare us?
Like, why are why do kids love to play scary video games? Like,
what is interesting about that? And then I come to you and
explain, this is what the smart people said. How can I explain
it in a way that you can understand too?
Jane: With Patrick's help, today we're going to start out on
level one.
Emerson: My name's Emerson. I am seven years old. I'm from
Wichita, Kansas, and I want to know, how are video games made?
Emily: Hi, my name's Emily. I'm eight years old, and I live in
Kaiser, Oregon. How are video games made?
George: My name is George, and I'm from Sunnyvale, California.
How are video games made?
Kai: My name is Kai, and I'm five and a half years old, and I
live in Fitchburg. How are video games made?
Seamus: Hi, my name is Seamus, and I come from Live Oak,
California, and I'm seven years old. How do we make video games?
Patrick: It starts with the story that you tell on a
playground, or with your friends, or to yourself, like it
is just an idea that somebody has. What happens after that,
though, is it's great to have ideas like I want a character to
go on a quest. Well, what are they going to do on that quest?
Here are different things they could do. Who are the characters
that they're going to meet? What are the actions they're going to
take? What dangers are they going to encounter? And then you
may have the idea for that story, but then all of a sudden
you need friends to help you build out everything that's
going to happen on that story, and maybe you're the one that's
really great at coming up with the really snappy line of
dialog, or the cool quest that they're going to go on, or how
the hero is going to save the day, but then you might need
your friends who can like make that appear on screen, who can
draw up those characters, because we all have unique
talents and interests, and the cool thing about video games is
that it takes advantage of all the fancy new technology, but
also the same creative interests that we get to explore on a
daily basis, and then puts it into the cool thing that we call
a video game. It's sort of like when you're at school and you
get assigned into a group, and everyone has a different
assignment on the project. Maybe you're a great artist, maybe you
have great ideas, maybe you like writing words, maybe there's
somebody who's really good at math, they understand how
numbers work, and so when you see a character like Mario jump
across the screen, someone came up with, why does he jump that
high? Why does he run that fast? And someone programs a bunch of
numbers into a computer that then, for you, become the game
where you hold the A button down, and I can get Mario to
jump a little bit, or a lot, or walk slow, or run fast, and
those people all come together with different skills and
different talents, largely built on computers to make the games
that you get to play at home, it takes a lot of time. It takes a
lot of talent, but it is the kind of thing that you can get
these days. The tools are now readily available, so that even
as young as 6,7,8,,9, there are ways where you can learn how to
build simple video games. If you ever wanted to perhaps turn that
into a career yourself.
Jane: You know, when I was a kid, there were video games, and
more complicated video games that you could play at home were
just getting started, but they didn't feel like movies. But we
had a series of books that I used to like to read, called
Choose Your Own Adventure Books, and you could make the choice as
the reader, what you wanted the character to do next, and then
it would tell you to go to a certain page, and you'd go to
that page, and then the character would do the thing
that you said they should do, and if you read the book again,
you might make different choices, and different things
would happen to the characters, and there weren't as many video
games like that when I was a kid, and now it really is often
these video games are choose your own adventures, so you, as
the storyteller, have to have a lot of different possibilities
for what might happen, depending on what the player decides is
going to happen next for their character.
Patrick: Absolutely, and I think one of the big differences is,
you know, when you and I were growing up, video games were
still figuring out what they are. Can they tell stories?
Video games didn't tell stories really when they got started. It
was, you're a spaceship, there are asteroids. Have you thought
about blowing them up? You're Mario, there's a princess. Think
about going and rescuing her. It isn't something that necessarily
stirs emotion, but these days video games tell very
complicated stories that allow us to experience and engage with
all of the emotional spectrum. We can be happy, we can be sad,
we can make choices to be good, we can make choices to be bad.
Video game stories now allow us to explore the entire sort of
human condition of like how we feel on a daily basis, the
stories we experience in movies and games are not that
dissimilar, like the feelings we can have in a book are something
we can explore in a video game, and the neat part about a video
game is you get to be the participant, you get to choose
what that character does, you can for a moment go, hey, I'm a
good person in real life, but like, I wonder what happens.
What are the consequences if I'm a bad person in this video game?
And it becomes a safe place to explore different ways that
we're feeling. How might other people react to our actions in a
way that doesn't necessarily impact our friends and family if
we choose to act badly in front of them.
Rafi: My name is Rafi. I'm eight years old and I live in Chicago
Illinois. Why do games have levels?
Patrick: Video games had levels because video games started out
in the arcade. Video games used to be something that you had to
go to a store that we called the arcade. There are arcades these
days, but you couldn't play video games at home, and in the
arcade you had to put in money, like quarters or dollars, in
order to play them, and they wanted you to lose the video
game because they wanted you to give them more money, and so if
you finished level one, but die at level two. You have to start
back at level one, and that sort of basic idea of, hey, these
video games need money in order to play, which allows the people
who run the arcade to make money by buying the expensive arcade
machines. The people who make the video games know that the
person who buys the arcade machines can make money by
having you play the video game, and so there is sort of a sort
of economic money structure of like why video games have
levels, and then also just like chapters in a book, it allows a
video game to tell a story broken up into pieces. If you
play a Mario game, the first level might be in a desert area,
the second level might be in a water area, and so it allows the
people who make these games, like, hey, this is going to be
the level that does this, this is going to be the level that
does that, allows you to break that up into different teams
that focus on that, allows the games to change course and
change direction and try new things, and if you really like,
hey, I like this desert level, I'll just stay in the desert
level, and I'm looking for something different today. Well,
I'll go to the water level, and so it allows games to be broken
up into chapters like a book or acts in a play, and it also
allows the people who make the games to break it up into
different chunks that allow them to work on it in different sets
of teams as they build it.
Jane: So while video game levels started in part as a way for
companies to make money in an arcade type setting, they also
acted like a sandbox for developers to test new ideas.
Whoever invented the video game must be really cashing in on all
of this.
Felix: Hi, my name is Felix. I'm nine years old, and I'm from
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. And my question is, Who invented
video games?
Cowen: My name is Cohen. I am nine years old. I live in
Minnesota. And my question is, who invented the first video
game?
Harrison: Hello, and my name is Harrison, and I'm six years old,
and I'd like to know who invented video games, and who
got the idea, and how, when, and why did they do it.
Floyd: My name is Floyd, and I'm seven years old, and I'm from
San Jose, California. I want to know how video games got
invented.
Patrick: There is not one single person who invented video games.
In fact, there is not even really agreement on what the
first video game was.
Jane: Oh, that's Auggie's question.
Auggie: I'm from Lake Oswego, Oregon. I'm seven and a half
years old in my question is, what was the oldest video game?
Patrick: Video games were, you know, tied to some of the
earliest computer technology, and so then it becomes a
question of what, what is a video game? When did we define
that this is a video game, there are examples of a video game
called Tennis for Two, which was used as a demonstration of, if
you can think of table tennis with like two little paddles,
like ping pong, that was showing off an early computer
technology. Well, nobody could buy that, that was a public
demonstration, you had to go somewhere to watch someone show
you, look what this computer can do. The tennis for two is in
1958 which goes to show how long video games have been around.
And tennis for two, you know, becomes this early demonstration
of computer technology, but you couldn't buy it, you couldn't
take it home. There was no arcade to go to. It was
something you could see demonstrated in public. It
wasn't until we get games like Pong, which is just another form
of table tennis. Lots of early video games were grasping at
what can we display on these computers that is simple, but
that people will also understand, and the idea of two
lines hitting a ball back and forth became one of the earliest
and most common examples of what a video game could be, and then
all video games kind of come forth from that, which is, well,
if we could do that, what else could we put on the screen.
Henry: Hi, I'm Henry, I'm eight years old, I live in
Tenterfield, Australia, and my question is, Why do people
create game controls, and why are they expensive?
Patrick: Video games have always been expensive. Video games have
video games exist because they originally were examples of new
computer technology, and so video games have always been at
the forefront of demonstrating, wow, look at this new piece of
technology. Look, how amazing the graphics are. Look, how
realistic it looks. Video games started out not with reflecting
a version of real life, like a lot of video games do these
days, but like tiny little abstractions, like little
pixels, in which you have to squint, and like, I guess that
looks like an asteroid, I guess that looks like a person, and I
think you'll notice, like, if you go to a museum and have old
computers, computers used to fill a warehouse, they used to
fill a building, they used to fill a room, and over time,
like, let's say you had, if you have a watch, a computer watch
on your wrist that, like, lets you call your mom and dad,
that's a tiny little computer. Computers have gotten smaller
and smaller, and more and more powerful. And what people
discovered was, oh, the giant arcade machines - we can shrink
those down, and we can put that in people's homes, where they
don't have to go to the arcade, they don't have to use an arcade
machine. The arcade machine can just be at home. It can be on my
Nintendo machine, it can be on my Apple TV, and so rather than
having to go to a movie theater to watch a movie, instead of
having to go to an arcade to play a video game, suddenly you
could play a version of that arcade machine of that video
game at the arcade, and then maybe a year later you could
play it at home, just like you might watch a movie at the movie
theater, and then, oops, it's on streaming, or my parents can
rent it at home a couple of months later, and that's that's
how video games eventually came in to everybody's homes. As for
why they're expensive, it's because phones are expensive,
tablets are expensive. These use really fancy pieces of
technology, and as a result, they end up costing quite a bit
of money.
Jane: Coming up, what do we do when we just want to keep
playing and playing and playing and never stop?
This is But Why. I'm Jane Lindholm. Today we're talking
about video games with Patrick Klepek, who writes about video
games and kids and parenting. We've been talking about the
games themselves, but what about how we feel about video games?
Araya: Hello, my name is Araya, and I live in Oakville, Ontario.
I am nine years old, and my question is, why do I like
playing video games so much?
Zane: My name is Zane. I'm from Green Hill, Kansas. My age is
eight. And my question is, why are video games fun?
Patrick: Video games are fun in the same way that is fun to play
baseball or basketball, or what do you enjoy doing the thing
about video games today. Video games, you know, when we're
talking about tennis for two, or like ancient video games, there
weren't a lot of options. There weren't a lot of different
styles of video games. Lots of video games start out as trying
to capture something in the real world, you know, like it's fun
to kick a ball, it's fun to like swing my leg and like watch that
ball go forward, okay. But it's night time, I don't have a ball,
like it. What if we just did that in a video game? And a
video game doesn't, it doesn't need to be daytime out. I can
invent people to be here. Why are we here? Actually, that ball
can be a fireball, and all of a sudden, video games allow you to
express yourself and to let an imagination run wild. You are
not constrained by well, recess is only half an hour, it can be
as long as you want, or at least as long as your parents will let
you continue playing the video game.
Abe: My name is Abe. I live in Charlottesville, Virginia. And
my question is, why are video games addictive?
Casey: Hi, my name is Casey, and I'm four years old, and I live
in New Wilmington, North Carolina. My question is, why
does games turn your brain to mush?
Isaac: I'm Isaac. I'm seven years old. I'm from Lakewood,
Colorado. My question is, why are video games addictive?
Adrian: My name is Adrian. I am 10 years old, and I live in
Happy Valley, Oregon. My question is, why are video games
so addictive?
Taj: Hi, my name is Taj. I live in Utah. My age is seven. My
question is why are video games addicted?
Adult: Addictive.
Taj: Addictive.
Patrick: Well, it turns out like anything else, it is best
experienced in what one might call moderation. If you, for
example, love soda, and someone told you you can drink soda all
day. I think at some point your stomach might feel upset. And
video games work in the same way, they're fun, they're
interesting, they make us feel things, but just like the
endless supply of soda, at some point you have to do something
else, and video games are just like anything else in your life
that makes you happy. Eventually, you have to find
variety in your life to do other things, to be around other
people, and video games eventually hit that point as
well. When you play a game like Fortnite, it's exhilarating and
exciting. You can achieve victory. It's competition. Other
video games allow you to explore stories and emotions. Other
video games, sometimes called cozy games, are really just
about building things, like I want to stack blocks, Minecraft,
in which, like, I just want to build a world. It's not the
video games turn our brains too mush. It's more that we need to
experience them like everything in life in moderation. We're
like a little bit of a video game here, a little bit of
watching a movie here, a little bit of reading a book there.
Video games are really no different than anything else we
enjoy in life. It's mostly that we can only do it for so long
before our body, our brains desire something else. Our
brains want to be stimulated, and as many video games as there
are, as many different types of video games as they are, as many
different worlds you can go to in a video game, a healthy,
balanced life is one in which video games are a part of it,
and it's up to us, our parents, the other people in our life to
help us understand, like, hey, I know we're having a good time,
but I think we need to balance that out with other things.
Jane: And Patrick, in some cases, I mean, you mentioned
that a lot of video game developers develop a game
because they have a story they want to tell, or they find this
immersive world that's so cool. And they want other people to be
able to experience it, but there are also really big companies
behind these games, and, and they know how our brains work,
and they know how to make games that make you want to play more,
because that's good for them, and so we, we have to think a
little bit sometimes too, that these game developers are often
putting things into the games to make us want to keep playing,
and not stop, and so we have to be aware of that, because we're
not going to want to stop, and they don't want us to stop, but
they know the psychology, they know how to make people want to
keep playing, so there there are times where it's not just a fun
thing that people want you to be able to share, but there there
are businesses that are trying to get you to play more.
Patrick: Yes, video games don't exist unless there is someone to
make money off of the video game that you are playing. And a lot
these days, the video games don't actually cost you
anything, you know. Roblox does not cost anything to download,
but if you play a Roblox game, I'm sure you've encountered, if
you've been given permission to play Roblox, immediately you
will see a pop-up that says, "Hey, would you like a
checkpoint for 100 Robux about $1? Like, "Hey, would you like
this cool costume for a couple of dollars? And so that is how,
even though the game itself doesn't cost any money, there
is, the people who make these games the one who entice you?
The phrase often used is FOMO, fear of missing out, which is
like you see another player, maybe it's a friend, maybe it's
a stranger, ah, they've got that cool like blue shirt on, like I
want that cool blue shirt. Well, you can just walk around the
corner and if your parents say yes or you have the Robux in
your account, well, you can buy that blue shirt too. And so you
have to remember when you play these things, sometimes people
make a video game and they just release it into the world
because it's something they wanted to make and express
themselves. More often than not, it is a combination of someone
wanting to express themselves and other people wanting to make
money, and there's a tension between those two things, you
know. In the same way that you have to buy a ticket when you go
to the movie theater, that movie can't exist unless someone can
make money on it. And so it then it becomes important for
ourselves to understand why these things exist. Why are they
asking money from me, and also the people in our lives, like
our parents, to help us, like, understand, like, "Hey, I think
you've had enough. I don't think we need to spend the money on
this, and that is just like in real life, it's learning to
understand how we spend our time, how we spend our money,
and how sometimes these games, much like in real life, might be
asking more of us than we actually have access to, and we
have to learn our own limits, and what do we really want
versus what does this thing think we want.
Jane: Patrick, if kids want to get involved in video game
development, do you have any advice for them?
Patrick: Yes, first think about what are you good at, what do
you like, what are you interested in? Because, like,
anything else, you can become good at something if you spend
the time and the effort, and maybe I really want to learn how
to help the character, like, walk on the screen, like, I want
to, like, be the person that, like, makes the guts of the
video game work. There are so many tools these days that make
it so they can turn what's called a video game programming
language. It's all the ones and zeros behind the scenes that
make a video game function. You can just like write sentences
like this is what I want to happen, and you can drag and
drop these sentences, and then the program does the work to
make that appear on screen, so that you can start from one one
part of this, which is like I have an idea, and then the
program is going to let you figure out, hey, you take this
idea, you write it into words, and then it appears on screen,
and if you're still interested, well, hey, hey, hey, come behind
the scenes, like these are what these words are doing, and you
can go layer by layer by layer to understand how video games
are made.
Jane: Patrick says these days there are a lot of free things
you can do to start exploring how video games are made.
Patrick: You can start as easy as going on YouTube and looking
up video game tutorials. Oftentimes, in those tutorial
videos, they will link in the description. Here, here's how
these video games are made. Here's where you can get these
tools, and these are things you can get on your tablets, on your
computers. They will run on very simple computers. You don't need
a flashy, high-end gaming PC with all the colored lights and
big fans. These are things you can do on your phone, on your
tablet, on your computer, that you get at school. You can start
learning how to make video games, and if you don't have
access to any of that, one simple trick that a lot of video
game developers do is they look at a video game and then try and
break it down on pen and paper. You just get a piece of paper
out, and you think about what is happening in the video game. If
I had to explain to someone how this game works, how would I
write that down? And just breaking it down sentence by
sentence will help you better understand what the video game
is, what it's doing, how you're interacting with it, and that's
how a video game starts.
Jane: A little understanding can go a long way in how we play and
think about our favorite games, and maybe Patrick's
encouragement will help set you on a path to start making your
own games. Thanks to Patrick Klepek for sharing his expertise
with us this episode. If you want to read what he writes
about video games, you and your adults can check out Crossplay
online at Crossplay.news. That's it for this episode. As always,
if you have a question about anything, have an adult record
you asking it on a smartphone. You can use an app like Voice
Memos, then have your adult email the file to
questions@ButWhyKids.org. But Why is produced by Sarah Baik,
Melody Bodette, and me, Jane Lindholm, at Vermont Public and
distributed by PRX. Our video producer and today's episode
producer is Joey Palumbo, and our theme music is by Luke
Reynolds. If you like our show, please think about having your
adults help you give us a thumbs up or write a review on whatever
platform you use to listen to us, it helps other kids and
families find us, and helps us keep doing this work. We'll be
back in two weeks with an all new episode. Until then, stay curious.