In a recent episode of his podcast Boardgames To Go (titled "Where are all the Kids?"), Mark Johnson aired a discussion that he had with David Gullett back in April.  I participated in a thread over at BGG about this, but wanted to clear my head about this issue a little bit over here as well. 

The basic issue that Mark and Dave were discussing was, "playing games with other peoples' kids. Put another way, how come so few of the people I play games with are parents, and why don't we involve our kids in game parties & events?"  In a hobby that is based on something that it is an "activity for kids" (playing games), they discussed why there aren't more children around. 

My overall answer is that the question itself is flawed. Mainly, this is because his underlying assumption is not true. The way I see it is that he is essentially asking why there aren't more kids participating in an adult hobby. My simple answer is that, in general, modern "Euro" games (strategy board games, "designer" board games, whatever you want to call them) are not designed or intended for children. 

Once again, his thoughts are based on the idea that "normal" peope have that playing games is a "children's activity", but that statement itself is false, being based on an ignorant assumption present in our society. This assumption is based on the fact that the vast majority of people in the world have no clue of the complexity involved in these games, and their very idea of what a game is stopped with Connect 4, Monopoly, and possibly Risk. We, however, should know better, and we shouldn't be held back by this misguided perception.

Of course, there certainly are a whole new set of better games designed primarily for children. But with few exceptions, they still hold very little interest for the average adult gamer. We even have a pretty good selection of real "family" games that can appeal to people of all ages. But above the level of rules complexity and overall game weight, there is also the fact that when you play games with kids, you just play differently than you do with adults.

In fact, when you play games with a child, in most cases the whole focus of the activity is on them.  Usually, you are teaching them either the rules of the game, the academic skills involved with the game, the social skills of playing games, or even the ability to be a good winner or loser.  But even if you are actually just playing "for fun", you still have to be sensitive to their developmental level and make exceptions based on their inherent limitations.  These factors include their emotional state, their attention span, and their level of interest in the game.  It takes energy and effort to play organized games with kids, mainly because you, as the adult, are pretty much responsibe for how much the child will enjoy the game.  

Now, I'm not going to try to define exactly what it means to be a "child" or put any age limit on it. That's just silly, because at an individual level the link between age and maturity is extremely variable. But the point I just made has a huge part to do with it.  The "children" I'm generally referring to here are people who have not yet achieved the maturity necessary to be fully responsible for their own decisions, actions, and enjoyment.  And even more importantly, they have not yet developed the ability to look outside of themselves enough to realize that they are also at least partially responsible for the fun shared by all the other players of the game as well.  (Of course, there are probably lots of adults who would fit this definition, but I wouldn't want to bring them to a game night either.)

So, are people just not playing games with their kids?  That's not what I see at all.  Most "gamer" parents I know make a huge point to play games with their children, as I plan to do as well.  But what I also see is that they respect other gamers enough to also realize that not everybody wants to have kids around when they are trying to play "serious" games.  While the idea of a totally kid/family-centered convention sounds pretty interesting, I just don't see that kind of thing mixing with traditional gamer-based conventions, because the activities themselves are just too different.