Metapackages review: junior-arcade

Well, so far nobody has said they didn't like the restructuring around
tags idea, so I assume we're all OK with going in that direction.  I
want to wait until Enrico is able to respond on the debtags-devel list,
as he seems to be tied up for now.  In the meantime, let's hash out some
changes within the current structure (metapackages) with a view to
translating these choices into debtags once we have the tags we need in
the debtags database ...

Today, I'll start with junior-arcade:

On Tue, 2006-02-07 at 09:14 -0400, Ben Armstrong wrote:
> $ apt-cache show junior-arcade |grep Depends
> Depends: bugsquish, bumprace, circuslinux, cuyo, heroes, koules,
> lbreakout2, madbomber, thrust, toppler, wing, xscavenger, xsoldier,
> zblast-x11
> $ echo `debtags search junior::arcade | cut -d' ' -f1`
> bugsquish bumprace circuslinux circuslinux-data cuyo koules lbreakout2
> madbomber moon-buggy moon-buggy-esd thrust toppler tuxmath wing xblast
> xpilot xscavenger xsoldier zblast-svgalib zblast-x11

As indicated before, I agree with adding tuxmath.  I have also added
holotz-castle and supertux.

Sorting these out with my 11 year-old son, these are the favourites
enjoyed by all ages (current kids ages in the Armstrong household: 4,
nearly 8, 11, 14, and 15):

bugsquish, circuslinux, cuyo, holotz-castle, lbreakout2, madbomber,
supertux

I'd consider these to be in junior::core

Out of these, the ones that are particularly suitable for the youngest
kids (ages 2 to 4) are bugsquish, (although Mom says it's a bit gross --
when you miss too many bugs, they suck all of the blood out of your arm,
your arm turns a deathly shade of grey, and finally when you die, your
character lets out a moan; not all parents will appreciate this, though
it has particular appeal for little boys ;) lbreakout2, which has a
special "kids" mode, and madbomber.  So these would be tagged
junior::early (if that's what we decide to call it).

Of the remaining games:

Tuxmath, while not a current favourite fills an important niche, and is
a mature game.  On those grounds, I'd make it junior::core as well.

The remaining games I would make junior::extra, simply because they
appeal to a narrower age range and/or are less interesting.

Heroes, xsolidier and zblast are too difficult for the youngest kids.
Kids age 8 and older may enjoy these.  Toppler is even more challenging,
probably suitable for age 9 and older.  Koules, thrust and xscavenger
are very challenging, probably suitable for ages 10 and older.

Wing is an inferior game to xsoldier and is similar in many respects.
So I have decided to drop it.

After our discussion about these games, I am beginning to realize that
we might be oversimplifying things a bit much if we only tag the
junior::early (early development) packages.  Should we make an attempt
at some rough age ranges?  The trouble is, each child matures at a
different rate in different skills, so the ages at which my own kids
take an interest in certain packages are only a rough guide for when
other kids will find them interesting (or if they'll find them
interesting at all).  It might be hard to arrive at a consensus for age
range recommendations.  Unless we can do a really good job at this, is
it even worth the effort, or should our energies go elsewhere?

Ben