The world of computer games

[adriatomy]

I want to ask that is it right for kids to play computer games all their spare time of day? what kind of other activities can be their to avoid sitting in front of computer and participate in physical games?

[wings7]

Playing games all your spare time is not good, reading is very important, volunteering is good. I must say gaming can be good for understanding, logic and eye and hand coordination! Also, going out to check out nature!! [:)]

Patrick

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: adriatomy

I want to ask that is it right for kids to play computer games all their spare time of day?

No. It is not.

[MrsWargamer]

Well when I was a kid, climbing trees and playing in creeks and running around playing tag sure ensured we got a lot of fresh air.

Now of course an urban kid might lack the trees and the creeks and the fresh air.

I don't think playing the games is bad. It's been pretty well proven that the mental stimulus is actually beneficial, heightens reaction times, sharpens ability to concentrate. Yeah you won't win a lot of anti violence debates with some of the titles out there. But playing video games more than 4 accumulated hours in a day for more than 3 days in a week is probably over kill. I think too much TV is not overly good for anyone. I think doing anything that is done sitting is not good for anyone.

I try and get in a walk each day which averages 5 miles by the time I walk back into my home. It counter acts how much time I spend seated.

If you want kids to like something, you have to make it interesting for them. Want them off the computer, give them a reason they LIKE.
Take the family out for a bike ride on the weekend. Get some board games and actually play them with them. Make reading real books something that they get rewards from. It's win win. They will learn to like books, and they get rewards.

Parenting isn't rocket science.

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: MrsWargamer

Well when I was a kid, climbing trees and playing in creeks and running around playing tag sure ensured we got a lot of fresh air.

Now of course an urban kid might lack the trees and the creeks and the fresh air.

I don't think playing the games is bad. It's been pretty well proven that the mental stimulus is actually beneficial, heightens reaction times, sharpens ability to concentrate. Yeah you won't win a lot of anti violence debates with some of the titles out there. But playing video games more than 4 accumulated hours in a day for more than 3 days in a week is probably over kill. I think too much TV is not overly good for anyone. I think doing anything that is done sitting is not good for anyone.

I try and get in a walk each day which averages 5 miles by the time I walk back into my home. It counter acts how much time I spend seated.

If you want kids to like something, you have to make it interesting for them. Want them off the computer, give them a reason they LIKE.
Take the family out for a bike ride on the weekend. Get some board games and actually play them with them. Make reading real books something that they get rewards from. It's win win. They will learn to like books, and they get rewards.

Parenting isn't rocket science.

Well said. If you want your kids to stay away from video games then YOU as a parent must take an active role in their life. That means MORE than simply TELLING the kids what to do. "Do as I say not as I do" DOES NOT WORK! [:-]

[AbwehrX]

From the age of 3 until I was 18 we rode trikes & bikes, played baseball, football, soccer & basketball every week. Went swimming every summer, played volleyball, hide & seek and explored the caves of the unknown. Built model tanks, planes, ships and cars, fought battles with miniatures, discovered wargames (board versions) at 12 and have kept it all going ever since. Rarely sat around in front of the boob-tube and chased the chicks whenever possible. Thats a good start if your kids get bored. [:D]

[Capt. Harlock]

Mind you, the Great Outdoors is not without its hazards:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29319401

[aaatoysandmore]

ORIGINAL: adriatomy

I want to ask that is it right for kids to play computer games all their spare time of day? what kind of other activities can be their to avoid sitting in front of computer and participate in physical games?

When I was growing up and it was pretty outside my Mom told me to get my butt outside and play. We used to play football, softball, baseball, scoccer, basketball, horseshoes, washers (a game where you thow these 2" round rings(washers) into a hole about 4" wide about 10' apart. tennis, ride bicycles
remote contol planes and cars, sandboxes, swings, monkey bars, seesaws and later I got on a school golf team.

There's sooooo much one can do outside but the youth of today just don't want to do it anymore and parents don't coax them anymore. Parents for the most part are happy and enjoy that the computer and tv makes for a great babysitter.

[Gilmer]

When I was a kid you didn't HAVE to tell us to go outside. When Saturday hit during the summer, I was out the door and doing something by 8 AM. I wanted to be outside.

Is it right to let them stay inside all day? No. I don't think so. Above a certain age they have to get some physical activity. I played organized sports almost through my whole teen years and also was in an amateur boxing club at 17-18. I was constantly running. The only sport I did not play at some point was football.

Of course you have to watch your kids better it seems these days. I used to leave the house early when I was 8 or 9 and not come back until after dark and no one was worried or scared. I would get in trouble because I was supposed to be home before dark, but I was generally a good kid.

[rhondabrwn]

I will add that sitting in front of a computer playing games that challenge your thinking is far better than sitting around on the sofa all day doing nothing but texting friends in abbreviated or misspelled English about inane subjects of no consequence... or viewing videos and kitten pics. I see no redeeming virtue in such social isolation and physical immobility.

Not that sitting around inside playing games is all that much better, but at least there are some positive benefits of the mental exercise.

[gradenko2k]

I'd just like to chime in that playing a multi-player game all day is arguably better than playing a single-player game all day because it at least turns gameplay into a social activity.

[MrsWargamer]

ORIGINAL: gradenko_2000

I'd just like to chime in that playing a multi-player game all day is arguably better than playing a single-player game all day because it at least turns gameplay into a social activity.

I'd just like to say, that if you think playing a game online multi player mode,or for that matter doing virtually anything social media is actually socializing at all, you might have done yourself critical harm and just not realized it.

I do most of my internet postings in a manner of attire that would normally be unacceptable in a social setting. But as I am not really socializing, it is not relevant

You can post to others while online and you can chat while online, and you can be in audio mode or even video mode, but if the person is not actually present, you are not actually socializing.

It is the illusion that we are socializing at all, through the internet, that is actually harmful. It's a lie. It's far worse than just being pointlessly inactive for too long a span of time too frequently.

The main reason I don't care for MMOs is I'd rather be playing the game for real, or not at all. To me 'role game' means funny shaped dice, or it's not a role game. I COULD be playing ASL successfully with VASL, but all of my fond memories of Squad Leader came from playing it with a person ftf. Watching the dice rolls and laughing at lousy luck. Enjoying a beer together with my opponent. Offering them a snack during the game. Just socializing during the game.

I've greatly enjoyed playing Battle Academy mainly as the turns are quick and efficiently sent and the experience is simple and you can play it while doing other tasks. Compare that with any game, where the other game requires I sit for an hour playing out the tedium of a single turn, and the other title is likely not going to win my affection so readily.

I'd take a pass on any computer wargame though for a board game wargame played in person ftf. It's a no contest thing.

I don't like shooters mainly at a visual limitation level. I have to admit, that they can be fun. I've played Battlefield 42 a bit when it first came out. But unfortunately my eyesight simply isn't up to the needs of the experience any more. I used to love arcade games in the 80s. Things have changed though in 30 years

[gradenko2k]

I was referring less to "social media", forum posting and random anonymous multi-player matches, and more towards using games as an avenue to keep in touch with friends.

Yes, of course playing over a tabletop, or just actually being out in the world hanging out with your friends is better by far, but I wouldn't really say that it did me critical harm to keep in touch with people I've known since childhood via Age of Empires and Baldur's Gate as a backdrop.

[MrsWargamer]

Well my son seems to regard most MMOs as a chat program with a game attached instead of a game program with a chat program attached

But as he has several girls in his life, even while rarely seeming to leave his room, he must have learned some enviable skill to make him able to attract girls without needing to go look for them very much

Well at least it seems most of my local single male gamer friends normally do NOT have much success in finding girl friends thanks to never getting off of their computer much.

[Agathosdaimon]

computer games all day doesnt seem healthy - lacking movement, lacking vitamin d, and not to mention for a growing brain it is forgoing making the new connections in the brain that a direct experience with the world can bring - yes a game might improve reflexes for some functions, but for its own sake that is useless, and to gain that but let the rest of the brains capactiy for imagination wither away - that is the big thing i feel is overlooked with games and movies - there is no stimulation for the person to have their own imagination take any role - which is always why movie adaptations of books just fail to meet expectations, most of the time and why CGI is so empty and anything but soul-nourishing - of course i am really just thinking of console and online shooter tripe that is just also teetering to much on gambling and nurturing additions - games with a cerebral bent and ones that stimulate planning and imagination are much better - hence why i love turn based strategy games, as they promote the use of imagination just by asking the player to think out possibilities - like chess

of course it just comes down to moderation - children can play computer games and ones that are suitable for their age, but just in moderation, not all day long every day and not just the same game all the time - it was fortunate that i grew up in the nineties when games were getting awesome but the internet was not widespread and social media was nonexistent, games played in multiplayer were done with friends all hanging out (great fun having goldeneye 64 and Mario Kart competitions - it was alot of good conversation and humour involved- not disembodied trolls from other continents
also PC games came with great additions like big books of lore, or historical supplements - just check out the tomes accompanying Falcon 3.0 and Across the Rhine and M1tp2 - Microprose! also the graphics were not trying to be 100% realistic, nor could they be, they were symbolic representations which left a nice amount of room between that and the thing it was representating for imagination to exist - i think this may also be reflective in the return recently of more retro graphics in games and also why games like Harpoon and CMANO - and many others, are so great!

[Rising-Sun]

Yeah I was addicted playing video games when I was young and cant get enough of it. The problems is that I didn't have good parenting back then. So it can carry it rest of your life, depending on which type of games you are into. Good news I don't like video games, I like realism and strategy games. I guess some people out there when they get older, it become more complex and serious.

So watch your kids, don't let this happen to them. If they having social issues or any other serious problems, sometimes these games keep them out of troubles. But make sure it is not violence games, it would effect them later on when they get older.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: MrsWargamer
Well when I was a kid, climbing trees and playing in creeks and running around playing tag sure ensured we got a lot of fresh air.

The world has changed a lot since we were young. In the middle class neighborhood I grew up in all the kids ran together in packs every day doing all kinds of stuff and we knew every tree in every backyard for a 4-5 block radius intimately. Today I live in a very similar middle class neighborhood and it’s full of kids, I know because I see them walk to and from the school a few blocks away.

But my neighborhood is a ghost town from about 10 minutes after school lets out, kids simply do not go outside anymore the way we did when we were young. I don’t think I’ve ever had a kid climb the trees around my house and I’ve lived here for almost 20 years.

Occasionally some kids will come out into the street and play basketball on the portable hoops in front of their houses (2 houses on my street have kids that do this). But they seem to be family members and I never see packs of friends running together the way we did when we were young. So times have changed, whether or not it’s a good thing remains to be seen, we’ll have to wait and see how this raised on computers generation turns out in another 10-15 years.

Socially I think kids today are going to be crippled, but they may be smarter than we were as most computer related activities require more intellect than climbing trees and playing cops and robbers did. I do see there is a rise in computer dating according to some news commentators I’ve heard discussing it, so perhaps kids are simply developing differently socially than we did and it’ll all work out.

Jim

[Rising-Sun]

That is true Jim, I see this as well. Not sure what our country is becoming in the next fifty or hundred years.

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: gradenko_2000

I'd just like to chime in that playing a multi-player game all day is arguably better than playing a single-player game all day because it at least turns gameplay into a social activity.

Yeah..."omg you suxxor" "hope u die n00b" and other interactions sure are great for kids [;)]

I too grew up spending as much time as possible outside just popping in for a quick meal and then out again. Nowadays however there are too many rules and regulations (atleast here in Norway), to the extent that if todays government had seen what I was allowed to do unsupervised as a kid, my parents would have lost custody.
Today the sand underneath a swingset has to meet EU-regulations, be EU-approved etc. If kids today are seen using a rope and an old tyre for a swing, their parents might get a call from social services because it is dangerous for the child...

I was a scout for 20 years, starting at age 6, and in the end was a leader for the local branch. After 3 years I realized that I no longer had any interest, as the kids did not want to go out into the woods anymore, and a large reason for that was their parents. We were no longer allowed to let the kids wield knife, axe or saws, they were not allowed to go swimming, they were not allowed to use a zipline, nor to rapell.
Some parents even kept their kids home because they might be attacked by a viper or a wolf, which is really hmm well idiotic since the norwegian viper has the toxicity of a normal bee, and we have ONE wolf in the entire "fylke" (equivalent to a US state)...

The parents and the government rules are as much to blame for how the kids end up as the PC and TV itself.


Terje

[wodin]

ORIGINAL: MrsWargamer

ORIGINAL: gradenko_2000

I'd just like to chime in that playing a multi-player game all day is arguably better than playing a single-player game all day because it at least turns gameplay into a social activity.

I'd just like to say, that if you think playing a game online multi player mode,or for that matter doing virtually anything social media is actually socializing at all, you might have done yourself critical harm and just not realized it.

Rubbish. For some kids like my daughter who has Aspergers Syndrome i's the only way she is able to socialise and infact being able to socialise online has been a godsend for her and it has helped her to develop. If ti didn't exist she would be very lonely I'm sure. The internet has provided people who have her shared interests which she wouldn't find as easily in the street. She has alos benefited from being able to socialise with people from all over the globe.

Also as a disabled single parent who can't get out much the internet has been a lifeline otherwise I imagine I'd be extremely lonely and be extremely depressed.