Gaming @beehaw.org sylverstream @lemmy.nz 1 yr. ago

How to let my kids find quality games on Android? Right now they only find the pay to win / ad riddled games.

My 9yo daughter has a tablet with family link, so I can monitor what apps she wants to install. As the garbage games are mostly at the top free, she keeps asking for games that I reject, in most cases because it's riddled with ads.

The Play Store has a section for kids, which seems to have better quality apps and games. Also thinking to subscribe to Play Pass so she can try out paid games.

Any other tips? Especially how to find good free / paid games. I don't mind paying for good games.

Also I'm aware I can block ads using eg Pi Hole (already doing that) or sometimes putting it on airplane mode, but that's not my point. I want to find and support quality games.

79 comments

Install an emulator for her alongside with some roms. Unfortunately, that's pretty much the only option we have nowadays.
- Interesting, hadn't thought about that. Will read more about it!
  
  Lemuroid is a great open source emulator. Vimm's Lair is a great place to find games/ROMs. It's difficult to play games though that require the bumper buttons on a touch screen. Maybe consider getting her a retro gaming handheld device. They can either run based on Linux, so an emulator, or Android which can operate like normal and then you can select an emulator to play. ETA Prime has lots of reviews of these devices.
https://f-droid.org/categories/games/
- I agree, open source games are designed with fun in mind instead of attention grabbing garbage and ads.
- Thanks, that's a good idea!
When my kid was younger he had a "garbage games on tablet" phase as well. As others have said, paid games are the way to go (Play Pass sounds cool). Looking for indie games for Android, or PC games ported to Android gives some good results. Stardew Valley’s an obvious one. I haven’t played Ordia, but it looks gorgeous.

What worked really well for us was to teach him about some dark patterns in simple terms and spot them with him in the freemiums he was playing. "Fear of Missing Out" events/notifications and "Progression Paywalls" are typical ones. It made him realize the game wasn’t built to give him a good time as much as to frustrate him into endlessly spending real money in exchange for some phony currency. In the end he was happy to switch to saner games. It’s a good opportunity to work on their critical judgment basically.
- Thanks for your insights. My goal as well is to teach them instead of just refusing those games. She already starts to understand better.
  
  SV was a favourite but we've played it a lot already and we have lost interest. Will look into Ordia!
https://www.darkpattern.games/

I have not extensively used this site but it seems to have some good pointers

So maybe check with them there first, then install
- Thanks, interesting site! Bookmarked.
- I loved that this one explain each of these dark patterns too
get them an offline console
- Yeah, perhaps a better idea. Will do that once the tablet reaches end of life.
  
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This is probably not a terribly helpful answer, but on the iOS side, there is Apple Arcade, which is a huge library of “free” (aka included with the subscription) games that don’t have any ads or microtransactions. If there’s an Android equivalent, just give her that as her app store. You’d spend a set amount per month and keep her away from the predatory business models.
- I guess Play Pass for Android is similar. Thanks.
  
  Play pass is surprisingly not terrible.
- Exactly where I landed after giving them a fire tablet.
  
  Fire tablet is Android, right? Or am I mistaken.
Netflix offers free Android games with no ads too. If you have ad subscription it might work
- Sorry, no Netflix here. Thanks anyways.
One thing you might need to pay attention to is your daughter would want to play the same game as their friends do.

You may want to reject games base on your criteria, but if your daughter feels isolated because she can't play with her friends, that could be a bigger problem.
- I'm not too worried about that tbh. It's the same thing that when she gets a mobile phone it will be very limited, only call, text and messaging. No social media until she's 18. Thanks though for checking.
  
  Good luck. We tried that rule too, it has led to so much stress and fighting. I'm certainly not suggesting to not try and hold the line. I'm just wishing you luck with it.
  
  That... seems a bit too extreme, I honestly don't think you can achieve that... unless you get her a dumb phone and assuming she never gets her own by her own means.
  
  Working with your kids to have a decent social media experience? That I can see!
My 9yo daughter has a tablet with family link, so I can monitor what apps she wants to install. As the garbage games are mostly at the top free, she keeps asking for games that I reject, in most cases because it's riddled with ads.

Did you ever consider using this as opportunity to educate your daughter about ads in general, how some games try to push adds to get you to do something, and also how some games have game mechanics trying to push you to do specific things, and then just let her figure out if those games are worth playing, or not?

She's definitely old enough - I had that discussion with my daughter when she was 5, we have an agreement that we limit the number of games installed on her phone - and the kind of shitty game you're talking about typically gets uninstalled again pretty quickly.

In a few years she'll be able to install stuff by herself - if you never explained to her what and why games/apps are doing she'll not be ready to deal with that, and it'll be out of your control.
- Thanks for the insights. Totally agree with you. Yep, I'm having those conversations and she understands it more and more.
There's an app called mini review that has reviews for games you can browse through there but not sure if there is a kids section but it's helpful to filter out as heavy games.

I'll never forget my friends kid being upset on our camping trip while we waited in the car in a store run saying how he has no wifi out there so he can't watch his ads for coins
- This is also great because you can filter out games with ads and microtransactions. See https://minireview.io/browse?monetization-android=no-ads+no-iap&monetization-ios=no-iap
My kid has this problem too. So many games interrupt him mid level to force ads, its ridiculous.

But we've found a few games that arent total popup nightmares (that he enjoys):

-Two Dots, a beautiful puzzle game, very kid friendly

-Bad Piggies - a spin off of angry birds, Physics based building/puzzle game, very cartoony and fun gameplay. My kid loves this game, probably his favourite (its older so the ads arent too obnoxious. You can pay to disable them, also)

-Stumble Guys - massive multiplayer platformer like fallguys, loves this one (there are ads but you can pay to disable for 4.99)

We have the ios equivalent to play pass and it helped a lot, too.
- Thanks! Going to look into those games.
Private DNS server. Blocks most ads even in games.

Here's what I posted in another thread:

Private DNS FTW!

dns.adguard.com

On Android:

Swipe down and select settings (the gear)

Search for: DNS

Select Private DNS.

Select Private DNS again.

Select Private DNS provider hostname.

Enter: dns.adguard.com

Select Save

Enjoy most ads being blocked in apps.

Might work poorly on public wifi (Walmart wifi for example doesn't work with a private DNS set).

On Apple:

Fuck if I know.
- Mullvad DNS works well for this too: https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls/
  
  Using DoH (DNS over HTTPS) means it should work on networks that try to block usage of private DNS servers.
- Thanks, I already have set up pi hole. See the last paragraph in my post as well.
  
  My bad. I did miss that final paragraph but hopefully the private DNS can help someone else. Cheers!
Play pass is a fantastic idea, made me discover a lot of awesome small little experiences
- Yeah I like it so far. We also have xb gamepass which made me appreciate indie games much more.
  
  How do you find apps included in play Pass though, do you know? Can only find lists on random websites, not on play store itself.
  
  Once you're a member it shows you a section in the app store. Unfortunately I'm not sure where to find a list before subscribing.
"Shattered pixel dungeon" is a rouge-like top down rpg with no ads and is quite fun. You can only pay if you choose to support the dev.
- As much as I like that game, the learning curve is steep af! Unless the little one handles frustration well, it will be a hard sell.
  
  Yeah you are probably right.
I think the category you’re looking for is premium games. On mobile it appears to mean that the game is complete and not sold in pieces.
I'm doing some scraping on the playstore, there is few stuff that has no ads nor in app purchases

I posted a few here on https://lemmy.fbmac.net/c/free_android_games
- I've made it a link that works from all instances : /c/free_android_games@fbmac.net thanks!
- Love it! Subscribed
RetroArch
Ahh... I remember simpler times when we had proper handheld devices... and not having to deal with ads bullshit (shovelware was a thing though).

Perhaps the Nintendo Switch might be a good option down the road?

If not I agree about Chinese handhelds, there are so many out there and they keep improving over time.
- Yeah was thinking about a switch, but I'm a bit reluctant due to high cost of games. They mainly use the tablet to game while traveling, at home they play with their toys or on the xbox.
  
  Maybe steam deck could be an alternative? Hardware itself is more expensive, but there's so much good cheap or even free games.
Fdroid --> unciv

Civilisation clone. Really fantastic if she enjoys that sort of thing.

https://f-droid.org/categories/games/

Also I don't know anything about adblockers but I was lucky enough to have a device supported by www.divestos.org and I think the OS defaults to a DNS that ignores ads somehow. But I'm not sure! I just know I get WAY less spammy ads than friends do :P

#divestOS #Fdroid
- Thanks for civ tip!
  
  I've got pi hole as DNS ad blocker. Works great.
  
  Sweet!
  
  If you like tech and if she might too, there are coding games for the desktop https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-programming-games/
  And for the mobile device https://blockly.games/
  
  Have fun!
It's not easy finding good game, harder for young kid :

Andor's trail

Room

Mindustry

Mindtest, control may not be good

Milo milo, can't recall its name but its a puzzle

Dragon quest

Broken age

Machinarium (and all anamita game)
- Thanks, will look them up!
The play pass might be the way to go, since the paid games are a lot better. There are also a lot of guides online for which games are good.

You can also look into games that are ports of old PC games, as well as emulators (which open up a whole new world of games)
- Thanks, yes play Pass looks cool so far.
  
  Also going to look at emulators. Thanks.
I am on the exact same boat as you. 9yo daughter keeps asking to download a bunch of crap with in app purchases or ads. The problem is that there's so much crap for mobile. I almost never play anything on my phone, but her at her age and the current times of short attention span being bored for longer than a second seems.like a taboo, she needs to have stuff on her phone, even though we have a Switch at home with loads of good quality games.

It's just the way it is.
- I agree there's a lot of crap, and it takes some time and conversation. Lots of tips in this topic as well. Eg Play Pass looks pretty cool so far, and I'm going to look at F Droid and installing an emulator.
  
  I'm also explaining to her why I reject some apps. She seems to understand it better and better.
  
  I'm also going to look at using Tasker to set it to airplane mode on all apps except Play Store and Chrome.
  
  In case nobody's said it already, it's awesome you're taking an active role in teaching your daughter media literacy. 🙂
Tbh I gave up on mobile gaming about 8 years ago. Got so tired of sifting through the crud looking for gems.
Spelltower is a classic. Still might have ads but they're less intrusive, and it's educational but it probably won't be boring
Emulation, geometry dash, Minecraft.
Usually, I find ports of PC Games best. I don't know if they are suited for 9 year olds, but broken sword, baba is you or papers please are really good on mobile devices. Point and click in general is a very portable genre for mobiles.
You could try installing gamesnacks.com as a pwa on their phone. They have a bunch of little games that I assume children would like.
This guy (Nimble Thor) developed an app called Mini Review, I've used it frequently.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=minireview.best.android.games.reviews

Check him out on YT as well.
- That's cool. Downloaded! Thanks.
Play pass is really good for games but my kids still constantly want shitty ad filled ones tbh.

Setting up adguard DNS worked really well but it can break games if they're dependent on ads. Which isn't a bad thing in my opinion.
- Yeah agreed, my kids have accepted that stuff doesn't work if they rely on ads, and they are fine with it (after some initial batyles).
Emulation full stop Anything else is a waste of time or a risk to get your kids addicted
Fdroid --> unciv

Civilisation clone. Really fantastic if she enjoys that sort of thing.

https://f-droid.org/categories/games/

Also I don't know anything about adblockers but I was lucky enough to have a device supported by www.divestos.org and I think the OS defaults to a DNS that ignores ads somehow. But I'm not sure! I just know I get WAY less spammy ads than friends do :P

#divestOS #Fdroid

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