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Father and Son Learn From Games
Via GamePolitics, a Washington Post article that for once paints gaming as an activity that can bring people together. Apparently you can even learn thing from games. From the article: "I'm sure that not all games are good for you, just as not all movies or newspaper articles improve your intellect or morals. Williams, the professor at the University of Illinois, has studied the impact of computer games on social patterns, and he finds results both good and troubling. But games that teach 11-year-olds about inflation or history can't be all evil, and they may be an improvement on Clue or Monopoly for all I know. Besides, kids clearly enjoy them. That surely ought to count for something."
My magic sky deity says video games are bad, so this article is obviously wrong.
I knew it had to be out there.... The reason to give to everyone else as to why I'm play. To enlarge my brain, or was that to learn? Whatever :)
DAMN IT BOY, how many times did I tell you NOT to shoot the zombies with the rifle? Use the g*damn pistol for medium range, and the shotgun for close range, you need every bit of ammo you can save...For chrissakes, AIM FOR THE F*CKING HEAD!!... EQUIP THE ROCKET LAUNCHER NOW, HE'S FROZEN!...GIVE ME THAT CONTROLLER, go play with your sister or something. God you suck d*ck, boy...
Playing video games is interactive and multiplayer makes it even more fun. TV is passive.
It should be obvious which is more beneficial.
I didn't intend to stroke Nintendo with this post, but, frankly, make games that involve multiple people and multiple people will play. The Big N has a lot of those that we fool around with: Mario Kart, Mario Party, Kirby racing, etc., including non-exclusive titles like Lego Star Wars. The hyper-serious games get my attention but no one else's -- not even my wife, who is a pretty big gamer, wants to play Splinter Cell, because it's just too damn serious. It's the lighthearted party games that rule the day around here.
Our intelligent designer has never created an animal that we couldn't improve by strapping a bomb to it.
Some of my fondest memories of growing up were playing video games with my dad on our Commodore 64. I remember one game, Falcon Patrol, where you fly a blue Harrier and shoot down red enemy jets (probably Soviets). I could always fly and shoot the bad guys, but I never could land the plane. I would always wait until I was almost out of fuel and ammo and then try to quickly hand the joystick off to my dad for him to land it for me.
Another game he and I used to play was Threshold, and he actually got so good playing it with me that he crashed the game because he got so many extra lives.
It was because of playing video games with my dad that he taught me how to do the basics of loading programs and games on a Commodore 64. While, that doesn't seem like a big deal, but at 4 years old, I thought it was pretty cool that I could list the files on a disk, find the game I wanted, and load it all by myself.
"Extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." --Barry Goldwater
"Apparently you can even learn thing from games." Thing? Singular? I think I've learned more than..five things from games! That must make me a terrorist or a communist, I sure hope Junior doesn't do too much learning from that those electronic toys!
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There is absolutely nothing virtual about online economies. Neither is there anything virtual about the social relationships that take place online. Perhaps, by the abusive current definition of the term, we can refer virtual violence or virtual worlds, but the economies and relationships, the social aspects of these games, are decidedly *not* virtual. They are merely mediated over TCP/IP. Is your phone-call to your moms virtual?
illegitimii non ingravare
There's thousands of board games out there that most people (at least in the US) have never heard of that are far and beyond the standard Monopoly knockoffs. I recommend Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne as good entry points into this world, but there's many to choose from and a large, helpful community to interact with.
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
Funny, this has been Nintendo's exact angle with their TV ads for quite some time now in Japan. There are very, very few "just game" Nintendo ads which focus entirely on game footage. The vast majority of Nintendo's ads now focus on the PEOPLE playing the games.
Promoting Socialization A large number of Nintendo's ads show people playing together. One ad of memorable note (although I can't remember which game for the life of me) showed a grandfather and grandson being brought together by gaming. Even the more "normal" ads often have "people, together" as a theme, thanks to the DS networkability: Mario Party, Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing.
These ads probably suggest a fundamental change towards gaming as a social event. Of course, they must reflect, at least in part, the features and contents of the game. Oddly, despite the much-touted online prowess of the 360, Microsoft's ads have yet to really pick up on the interpersonal aspects of gaming, still focusing on solid product shots.
Use Your Brain There are a number of "Use it or lose it" games out for the DS. A recent series of ads features pop stars in their late 20s having their "IQ age" being diagnosed by one game, normally with the humorous result of them being in their mid 50s.
Wha?? Educational games not just for kids?
Sadly, the last time I was back in "Western Civilization", the local Nintendo ads featured dilating pupils (set to the unforgettable sound of Mario's "magic mushroom") and mostly compared the addictivity of the games to that of controlled substances.
... It's at least fifteen years old, and it was a huge hit in Europe, IIRC. Of course, it started as a niche game for many of us roleplaying geeks, but... Seriously, this game isn't known by each and every geek, er, slashdotter in here?
Shame on you! (not the parent, he actually has good taste in gaming)
Games - like all other social activities - can do a lot of good things for people. Now I don't talk about single-player doom, just like solitaire isn't so much use. But online games? Check.
.sig) - and among the praise I got was a father who played the game together with his children whom he didn't see for years after the divorce and the part plays a good part in helping them bond together again.
Two data points:
One, a recent study on MMORPGs (sorry, lost the link) revealed that quite a lot of couples play together. I do that myself and it helps keeping a long-distance relationship happy.
Two, I run an online game myself (see
Multiplayer games are social activities and should be seen in that light, with all the good and bad that brings.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
My seven year-old son and I play a fair amount of computer games together. It started with adventure games, that "gateway drug" to the hard stuff like Counterstrike. Some games he can do on his own, like Fable and virtually any FPS (he started on Jedi Outcast, as I recall). Some games spark lots of chatting outside of gaming, such as Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault and discussions of the era and our family history (my step-mother is Japanese-American and was born in the Nevada internment camps). We played Civ 4 and talk about technology and such.
Gaming in general has led to some funny moments as well. He and his young cousin were pretending to shoot other cars from the back seat, wildly making machine gun noises and pointing in all directions. "No, Sam!" I told him harshly. "Use short, controlled bursts!" He smiled and complied with my suggestions.