My Evil Influence

I've exerted my evil and introduced Kid1 and Kid2 to Insaniquarium!

Insaniquarium is a fish game. You feed the fish to make them grow. Once in a while, a monster comes out to attack the fish. As the fish get bigger, they lay coins that are worth more. The more money you collect, the more things you can buy, like more fish, better food, more food, weapons to fight off monsters, and pieces of an egg. When you get all three pieces of an egg, it hatches and you get a pet that helps you in the aquarium.

The kids' play style is telling of their personalities. Kid2, being a girlie five-year-old, just wants to buy baby fish. She hasn't figured out yet that you have to save money to buy food for them. She clicks away happily and somehow gets enough money to keep buying fish. Her tank is full of fish that she can't quite take care of.

For example, you can buy a carnivore that lays diamonds. But you have to feed it baby fish. That doesn't sit well with her. Yet, she keeps buying carnivores, then forgets to or doesn't want to feed it baby fish, so lets them turn green and die. She say of that, "Oh well, I didn't know how to save him so I just let him die. I can get another one later." For her, the more fish in the tank the merrier, and the baby fish are so cute! She has yet to advance to level 3.

Her brother, Kid1, being a smartass seven-year-old boy, figured out the game immediately and whips through to the advanced levels. When you feed the fish, you have to time the feedings. If you buy food when the fish just ate, the fish won't eat again. That's when he calls out, "Eat that food, you fish. It costs money, you know."

He's fearless and tries out things to see how they work. But he's also cautious. He never has more than two fish in the tank at a time. That way, his tank is clean and neat, and manageable. He really likes things manageable.

They notice different things. Kid1 can predict when the mother fish will give birth (its belly pulses). Kid2 insists on calling the mother fish a duck (it looks like one). No problem at all with the logic of a duck giving birth to fish.

I think Kid1 has learned as much about the game in one day as I have in the months I've played it. Either he's much smarter than I am or I take the Kid2 approach to my play. See how my evil has flushed out our true personalities.