I was 15 once. A lot has changed in 15 years: I’m older and balder, but I still play a lot of games. My younger brother, who we’ll name Basil for the purposes of this list, is 15 years old. He’s also an avid gamer, as I imagine most teenage boys are.
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In the past few weeks, I’ve managed to break into the fortress of a teenager’s mind by talking about video games and video games only. Here’s what I’ve learned.
For some perspective, my brother has a decent gaming PC and an Xbox Series S.
10 “Call Of Duty Sucks, But I’m Gonna Play It Anyway,” The Perfect Reasoning Of A Teenager
I asked Basil (I can barely type that with a straight face, but we’re going to persevere) whether he was interested in the upcoming Black Ops 7. For some perspective, I was around 15 when the first game in the franchise came out, and I remember it fondly.
Are the kids still really playing Call Of Duty? Yes. Obviously. The game has got wilder and wilder over the years, with enough cosmetics to resemble the bargain bin at an abadoned Toys R’ Us.
9 Game Pass Is Everything
I was incredulous that he’d actually played quite a lot of Black Ops 6 (and admitted to it also) because I’d pretty much forgotten that the game even existed. He is going to play Black Ops 7, but only if it’s on Game Pass. Which I assume it will be.
In fact, he’s probably played most games available on Game Pass at some point, because much like Roblox (more on that below), why wouldn’t you at least try some of the free games? He hasn’t really enjoyed any of them, though. Not so much into single-player RPGs, puzzle games, and platformers.
8 “Roblox Isn’t Cool, But I’m Gonna Play It Anyway,” A Theme Is Being Established
Roblox
- Released
- September 1, 2006
Just a couple of years ago, my brother proudly showed me his max-level Blox Fruits character, but when I ask him about Blox Fruits now (one of the most-visited and most-played Roblox games of all time), he gets a bit embarrassed.
Some Roblox games are seen as a bit corny now, but new ones are coming out all the time – Grow A Garden currently has over a million players active. That makes it bigger than most game releases this year, except for a few super-successful outliers.
7 Roblox Is Never Going Anywhere
Roblox is still at the heart of modern gaming for children – which makes me sad, considering all the nasty stuff that Roblox has been linked to in the past couple of years – but I do understand it, at least somewhat.
It’s a platform for free games that you can play on almost any computer. Basil can play with all of his friends. There is basically an unlimited pool of new games to play, and you don’t need to download them. It’s CoolMathGames.com but on steroids. A lot has changed, but some things stay the same.
6 GTA: Online Is All Encompassing
I’ve never played GTA: Online. I don’t fully understand what the point of it is. But it’s clearly successful. And I have watched lots of people role playing as minimum wage food service staff, so there has to be some compelling reason for people to spend their lives (and money) on the game.
Basil spends a lot of time on the game. He runs the same heists over and over and over again, and if his friends aren’t online, he’ll do them solo. I watch over his shoulder as his helicopter emerges from a yellow submarine. He lands at the base of a hill, rides a motorcycle up to the top, dodging the vision radius of NPCs along a well-rehearsed path, and then accidentally crashes into a fence. The heist is over. He’ll need to do it all again.
I don’t get it. But it looked kinda fun. I guess. I ask him what he’s saving money for: he says nothing.
Okay then.
5 All His Friends Play Games – I Mean, ALL Of Them
Basil is just an ordinary kid who has some friends at school. Back in my day, there was a little group of us that played games quite a lot, but most people we knew didn’t. All of my brother’s friends play games. There are like 15 of them. It’s kinda wild. They’d rather play Xbox than go to the park.
Fair enough, I guess, I make that decision more and more often on a Friday night. I know this is classic “kids don’t go outside anymore,” but, like, they literally don’t.
4 Spending Money On New Games Is For Old People
You might have noticed a theme: Basil tends to lean towards free games and free games only. Black Ops and GTA: Online are both available via Game Pass, and Roblox is free. Basil has some money. Quite a lot of money, really, because he never spends anything on anything. Tenners from his grandma for birthdays have added up over time. He has a real aversion to spending any money at all, and games are right at the bottom of the list.
But that extends to my parents, also. He doesn’t ask for games. None of that, “This is the game I want for Christmas.” I asked him if there were any games he was looking forward to, and he said no, he “doesn’t really pay attention to any of them.” He even shrugged off GTA 6. That being said, he is much more likely to purchase subscriptions, battle passes, and cosmetics.
3 Teenagers Are The Perfect Market For Modern Games
Now I don’t know if this is the norm, that all the magic is seemingly lost from games, but if it is, that’s really sad. Where’s that magic gone? The anticipation? Basil is being farmed like a robot on multiple live-service games. Except he’s a useless crop, really, because he doesn’t spend a penny.
Outside of Game Pass and maybe a few bursts of V Bucks here and there, he hasn’t bought a new game – like a fully-priced video game – in years. I know he’s a teenager, but when I was his age I was begging for new games all the time. He just doesn’t have to. The world doesn’t work like that anymore.
2 Crossplay Is Probably The Make Or Break For Most Games
Most of my brother’s friends don’t have a gaming PC, which makes sense. Consoles are a much more reasonable expenditure for most people, and most kids aren’t interested in running their games with high graphics and max FPS. Consoles can run everything most teenagers want to play.
That means the games that get played the most by my brother and his mates are games that provide cross-platform play between PC, Xbox, and even PlayStation. Games like Sea Of Thieves, Fortnite, and Roblox are the best for this.
1 He’d Rather Watch YouTube Videos
Minecraft
- Released
- November 18, 2011
Quite often, the reason my brother doesn’t pick up a new game is because he can just watch someone else play it. YouTube is full of lets plays and professionally edited content these days.
Some of the effort that goes into these gaming videos is akin to thousand-dollar productions, with animated segments, slick editing, and professional voiceover. If you can watch someone grind for 30 days in Minecraft, why would you ever do that yourself?
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