h0bgawblin
04-19-2007, 4:19 PM
Ok, so here is the context, I am writing an article for the parents of a local middle school. It explains my personal struggle, and what I believe is a non-biast perspective on the effects of video games on kids. I request one thing, this is a personal story, so I would like if you guys could give feedback without harsh language or unneccesary put downs. You can express anger, by all means, but be tactfull please. Also, if your good with english, go nutts. I'd love the perspective of a writer as well.
One of the first things we all need to understand when we talk about video games in any context is why they exist and are so popular. Video games are able to accomplish something quite fundamentally wonderful that other sources of entertainment can not do. Music hits the sense of hearing; TV hits both visual and audio senses, video games however have more versatility than some 1 or 2 senses. Sight, sound, movement, and above all, participation create a form of entertainment that’s simply more of an experience than the others. The closest comparison that I can offer is a book. I think it’s safe to say that almost everyone can relate to reading a book where they fantasize about that world. From Harry Potter to stories of kings and knights, this lore that grabs us as children has taken a new form. I don’t believe I’ve met a child that hasn’t fantasized about participating in these worlds on occasion. The difference between books and video games are exactly that one thing, participation. Why dream about slaying monsters for the purpose of the people who are being affected by them? Why dream about becoming a legend when I can simply play a video that allows me to partially live these dreams? Children dream about the things above all the time. Their desires to be as powerful as their parents and as in control of their world as their parents, lead them to desire such things. When I was young, I didn’t bother to hassle my parents for things I’d know they would say no to. When it was 9pm and I wanted to go outside to play with my father, he would say no. I didn’t begrudge him; I simply turned to another source of entertainment that would offer an outlet for the desires of youth. After all, sitting and doing next to nothing for what seemed like an eternity (1 hour before bed) seemed unacceptable. So instead, I would play a video game. It would give me that sense of adventure that I so desperately yearned for. It’s easy to see how video games are enticing to kids.
I hear on a seemingly regular basis that video games are dangerous or cause children to lose a sense of reality. The truth of the matter is that I was as far away from reality as I was when reading a book or watching TV, if anything other forms of entertainment would have me day dreaming of being active in those fantasies. Video games delivered onto me the ability to satisfy those desires, get up, and go outside with friends and continue a normal life. It is unfortunate for me, that life began to slip away from normalcy at such a young age.
There are pit falls in video games, excessive use of anything, generally isn’t a good thing. When I was put on medication for my mood swings at a fairly young age, it affected my social life. Without many people to assist me in these times, and non to assist me with exactly what I needed, I turned to fantasy and isolation (isolation refers to someone who is spending an irregular amount of time by themselves). That much gave me sanity; I dread to think the misery that would have ensued if I didn’t remove myself from the situation I was in. Video games have a place in social life, kids talk about them quite regularly. However, when someone isolates in video games there are social ramifications. Someone who plays a lot of video games does not generally spend their time with people. This lack of exposure to people leads to less social maturity. However, there is a trade off, since video games involve reading, problem solving as well as many other traits. Kids who play an excessive amount of video games are rather smart in these areas. Which gets them labeled as “nerds” because of their lack of social maturity and their learning’s being higher than that of their peers. This imbalance makes it extremely hard to fully participate with people. The obvious feelings of inadequacy and inferiority follow rather quickly.
Though my coping skill (video games) prevented me from having to face many things that were simply beyond a child, they also crippled my social life. I was too young to notice the path I was walking down, however, I solved my social problems the same way I solved my family problems and education problems, video games. Fortunately, there was a saving grace, though not as satisfying as going out and playing sports with friends. I had many friends that were completely satisfied playing video games with me. Though it was rare that we would communicate, we would enter competitive situations as well as build team work from playing video games because that’s all we had. Later I found that there are communities based around video games. I attended parties called L.A.N. (local area network) parties. I could play computer games with 20 people in the same room and it was always a riot.
I began feeling that the amount of video games I played was justified and it was to an extent, but it didn’t help me none the less. My parents seeing my grades slipping and other things in my life falling through my fingers attempted to intervene. However, due to my experience of being mocked for playing video games, I perceived this intervention as an attack on my playing video games in general. That in combination with those awkward teen years led me to fight with my parents on the subject. Low and behold, in high school I had developed a strong sense of sarcastic humor. This allowed me to find a group of people who became my friends. However, it was an awkward relationship because they didn’t play video games what so ever. I was amazed to see that sitting down on the couch “talking” was actually quite the experience. It had been as long as 8 years (from child hood to teenage years) since I had experienced the opportunity to participate in such a thing. I even remember laughing because when I was a child, these things were EXACTLY why I played video games. Now I was doing anything to try and establish those situations.
The unfortunate side effect of my playing so many hours of video games led me to suffer immensely upon realizing something. So good was I at living without people for so long, that my desire to finally engage with people forced me to accept my dissociation. I was actually afraid of people; my hours upon hours had numbed me to my world. I hit many walls in my attempt to feel close to people. My fear of honesty, inadequacy, rejection, and judgment prevented me from experiencing a fully satisfying bond with friends. Such was the cost of my earlier experiences in child hood. My honesty was considered unstable, the constant claims of something being “wrong” with me, being turned away because of my extreme emotions and the judgment that came with that. I became immensely depressed. School started looking impossible. Even though I was already a C student because I cared nothing for school, and who would when you’re told that something is wrong with you by nearly everyone you work with. I could no longer appreciate my work, and the only reason I got even a C average was because I didn’t want to accept what others had told me. Now, however, these things were not important, and my C average turned to barely passing grades. I slowly turned to video games again to ease my pain, to deny my feelings of being caged by my own numbness. However, it was too late; I already knew too much and was no longer ignorant. I needed people, but I hated them at the same time.
My perception was withdrawn, and I would attempt to base my perception off of that of video games. I began to relate my world to a tactical, problem solving mentality that I developed by playing video games. I even dropped out of school because of my lack of motivation for anything else in life. The cost of the amount of hours played at this point was my humanity. I denied several human needs by forcing myself to sit in a chair for 8 hours. Things like talking to people were simply not existent because the situation never presented itself. To give a better example of this, I have had several friends give various examples of dissociations. My friend said he tried to “click” on someone to see their level. He tried to use a mouse to see someone’s level in real life, in school, when he was walking into our senior commons. It was such a habitual action in his game, which he would play every day after school for about 6 hours. Even scarier than that, a friend who played video games about 12 hours a day swore she fell in love with someone online. This person she had never met and she more over fell in love with the character of that game than the actual person. There can only be repercussions for the denial of humanity and its needs.
However, video games were not without their good points. I originally used them for my sanity; however, I had garnered a surprisingly large amount of knowledge from the experience. The constant exposure to people not of my age, both younger and mostly older, gave me knowledge of things before my time. It wasn’t uncommon to have a conversation with a person in their late 30’s. It’s one thing when teachers tell you to get good grades. Even less care goes towards parents telling you to get good grades. However, when someone who you just played with, and is someone you respect as a person tells you to get good grades, it’s somewhat more convincing…
Also, while my peers were learning about sex and violence from a source I can’t quite name, I was focused on playing the “hero” of the game and was increasingly turned off by the seemingly random use of drugs and sex. I found myself turned off by the use of drugs and separated from people who had engaged in sex at what I consider to be an age far too young. Though I must admit, I think my religious upbringing helped those as well. I want those who just read that sentence to note, I am not religious nor am I making a claim that religion makes a better person. In this case, I simply had friends in the church community that wouldn’t engage in those actions; thusly I did not feel an immense pressure to engage in them.
The use of mathematics to analyze my performance and increase it gave me valuable skills in math. I found myself able to understand the relevance to things like algebra. Where my teachers would roll their eyes at the common question, “what am I going to use this for?” video games had the answer. In an extreme case, my brother learned to program with code at the age of seven. Coding that requires the use of algebra. He took a tutor just to learn more math for his hobby. He is in school now for a degree in computer science and has straight 4.0s in his third year of college. I’m not feeling any pressure at all…
Though my math skills came in later in life my reading skills were always superior to the average student. My reading in class was fluent, and other kids seemed to struggle. After all, the amount of text in video games is huge. It becomes a liability to not be able to read quickly, otherwise games take a turn towards boring. As I’ve said before, this came at a substantial cost, but I can’t say I regret it. I can not imagine my life going any different than it has been; I have tried, and that path led me to the fantasy world I was so desperately trying to escape. I just got out of imagining myself in a world of video games and finally got a grasp on reality. I wasn’t going to lose reality again. So quite frankly, imagine what might or could have been, is not my concern.
I think it necessary to bring into this article some of the generalizations about video games. I hear often times that the constant hacking and slashing of video games “can’t do any good” to kids. Well, that part is true, but that’s not all there is to video games. There is a story to video games, like there is a story to Shakespeare. In Shakespeare Romeo killed a man because of honor, in video games I find myself killing monsters because they are endangering a civilization. One could make the argument the other way around of course but the point is that there is violence in all forms of entertainment. Whether or not you engage is not as relevant as people think. I remember kids in my class who watched wrestling be scary. They would try “moves” out on each other. With that said, it’s not video games; it’s the exposure to violence that kids receive that makes them violent. Kids learn by example, and examples come from all over the place. My opinion however, is that there should be more available options for parents to be able to monitor what their kids do. That to me is the real problem, how are parents supposed to know about what they are buying their kids? A rating system was indeed a start, but older parents and grand parents don’t relies such a thing exists
. I hate the blame game towards parents more than the crucifixion of video games. I can easily understand ones fear towards video games; however this is tossed around too much. Being a parent is the hardest job there is. Can you imagine what you would have to do if you had to put up with raising yourself? I feel kind of sorry for my parents; I probably would have given me the boot. Kids are incredibly hard to raise, and we as a society, don’t need to make this job harder. Ask yourself this, what’s more productive? Blaming parents for raising their kids poorly or helping parents raise their kids better. Even if you think parents are incompetent in protecting their kids, what’s blaming them going to do? For the sake of less frustration between the gaming community and parents just trying to raise kids, I say we sit and educate parents on what they CAN do, and leave them with information instead of useless insults.
I plan to add here a webpage or hotline where you can have access to information partaining to any particular video games. As well as a rating from the ESRB for the video game in question.
One of the first things we all need to understand when we talk about video games in any context is why they exist and are so popular. Video games are able to accomplish something quite fundamentally wonderful that other sources of entertainment can not do. Music hits the sense of hearing; TV hits both visual and audio senses, video games however have more versatility than some 1 or 2 senses. Sight, sound, movement, and above all, participation create a form of entertainment that’s simply more of an experience than the others. The closest comparison that I can offer is a book. I think it’s safe to say that almost everyone can relate to reading a book where they fantasize about that world. From Harry Potter to stories of kings and knights, this lore that grabs us as children has taken a new form. I don’t believe I’ve met a child that hasn’t fantasized about participating in these worlds on occasion. The difference between books and video games are exactly that one thing, participation. Why dream about slaying monsters for the purpose of the people who are being affected by them? Why dream about becoming a legend when I can simply play a video that allows me to partially live these dreams? Children dream about the things above all the time. Their desires to be as powerful as their parents and as in control of their world as their parents, lead them to desire such things. When I was young, I didn’t bother to hassle my parents for things I’d know they would say no to. When it was 9pm and I wanted to go outside to play with my father, he would say no. I didn’t begrudge him; I simply turned to another source of entertainment that would offer an outlet for the desires of youth. After all, sitting and doing next to nothing for what seemed like an eternity (1 hour before bed) seemed unacceptable. So instead, I would play a video game. It would give me that sense of adventure that I so desperately yearned for. It’s easy to see how video games are enticing to kids.
I hear on a seemingly regular basis that video games are dangerous or cause children to lose a sense of reality. The truth of the matter is that I was as far away from reality as I was when reading a book or watching TV, if anything other forms of entertainment would have me day dreaming of being active in those fantasies. Video games delivered onto me the ability to satisfy those desires, get up, and go outside with friends and continue a normal life. It is unfortunate for me, that life began to slip away from normalcy at such a young age.
There are pit falls in video games, excessive use of anything, generally isn’t a good thing. When I was put on medication for my mood swings at a fairly young age, it affected my social life. Without many people to assist me in these times, and non to assist me with exactly what I needed, I turned to fantasy and isolation (isolation refers to someone who is spending an irregular amount of time by themselves). That much gave me sanity; I dread to think the misery that would have ensued if I didn’t remove myself from the situation I was in. Video games have a place in social life, kids talk about them quite regularly. However, when someone isolates in video games there are social ramifications. Someone who plays a lot of video games does not generally spend their time with people. This lack of exposure to people leads to less social maturity. However, there is a trade off, since video games involve reading, problem solving as well as many other traits. Kids who play an excessive amount of video games are rather smart in these areas. Which gets them labeled as “nerds” because of their lack of social maturity and their learning’s being higher than that of their peers. This imbalance makes it extremely hard to fully participate with people. The obvious feelings of inadequacy and inferiority follow rather quickly.
Though my coping skill (video games) prevented me from having to face many things that were simply beyond a child, they also crippled my social life. I was too young to notice the path I was walking down, however, I solved my social problems the same way I solved my family problems and education problems, video games. Fortunately, there was a saving grace, though not as satisfying as going out and playing sports with friends. I had many friends that were completely satisfied playing video games with me. Though it was rare that we would communicate, we would enter competitive situations as well as build team work from playing video games because that’s all we had. Later I found that there are communities based around video games. I attended parties called L.A.N. (local area network) parties. I could play computer games with 20 people in the same room and it was always a riot.
I began feeling that the amount of video games I played was justified and it was to an extent, but it didn’t help me none the less. My parents seeing my grades slipping and other things in my life falling through my fingers attempted to intervene. However, due to my experience of being mocked for playing video games, I perceived this intervention as an attack on my playing video games in general. That in combination with those awkward teen years led me to fight with my parents on the subject. Low and behold, in high school I had developed a strong sense of sarcastic humor. This allowed me to find a group of people who became my friends. However, it was an awkward relationship because they didn’t play video games what so ever. I was amazed to see that sitting down on the couch “talking” was actually quite the experience. It had been as long as 8 years (from child hood to teenage years) since I had experienced the opportunity to participate in such a thing. I even remember laughing because when I was a child, these things were EXACTLY why I played video games. Now I was doing anything to try and establish those situations.
The unfortunate side effect of my playing so many hours of video games led me to suffer immensely upon realizing something. So good was I at living without people for so long, that my desire to finally engage with people forced me to accept my dissociation. I was actually afraid of people; my hours upon hours had numbed me to my world. I hit many walls in my attempt to feel close to people. My fear of honesty, inadequacy, rejection, and judgment prevented me from experiencing a fully satisfying bond with friends. Such was the cost of my earlier experiences in child hood. My honesty was considered unstable, the constant claims of something being “wrong” with me, being turned away because of my extreme emotions and the judgment that came with that. I became immensely depressed. School started looking impossible. Even though I was already a C student because I cared nothing for school, and who would when you’re told that something is wrong with you by nearly everyone you work with. I could no longer appreciate my work, and the only reason I got even a C average was because I didn’t want to accept what others had told me. Now, however, these things were not important, and my C average turned to barely passing grades. I slowly turned to video games again to ease my pain, to deny my feelings of being caged by my own numbness. However, it was too late; I already knew too much and was no longer ignorant. I needed people, but I hated them at the same time.
My perception was withdrawn, and I would attempt to base my perception off of that of video games. I began to relate my world to a tactical, problem solving mentality that I developed by playing video games. I even dropped out of school because of my lack of motivation for anything else in life. The cost of the amount of hours played at this point was my humanity. I denied several human needs by forcing myself to sit in a chair for 8 hours. Things like talking to people were simply not existent because the situation never presented itself. To give a better example of this, I have had several friends give various examples of dissociations. My friend said he tried to “click” on someone to see their level. He tried to use a mouse to see someone’s level in real life, in school, when he was walking into our senior commons. It was such a habitual action in his game, which he would play every day after school for about 6 hours. Even scarier than that, a friend who played video games about 12 hours a day swore she fell in love with someone online. This person she had never met and she more over fell in love with the character of that game than the actual person. There can only be repercussions for the denial of humanity and its needs.
However, video games were not without their good points. I originally used them for my sanity; however, I had garnered a surprisingly large amount of knowledge from the experience. The constant exposure to people not of my age, both younger and mostly older, gave me knowledge of things before my time. It wasn’t uncommon to have a conversation with a person in their late 30’s. It’s one thing when teachers tell you to get good grades. Even less care goes towards parents telling you to get good grades. However, when someone who you just played with, and is someone you respect as a person tells you to get good grades, it’s somewhat more convincing…
Also, while my peers were learning about sex and violence from a source I can’t quite name, I was focused on playing the “hero” of the game and was increasingly turned off by the seemingly random use of drugs and sex. I found myself turned off by the use of drugs and separated from people who had engaged in sex at what I consider to be an age far too young. Though I must admit, I think my religious upbringing helped those as well. I want those who just read that sentence to note, I am not religious nor am I making a claim that religion makes a better person. In this case, I simply had friends in the church community that wouldn’t engage in those actions; thusly I did not feel an immense pressure to engage in them.
The use of mathematics to analyze my performance and increase it gave me valuable skills in math. I found myself able to understand the relevance to things like algebra. Where my teachers would roll their eyes at the common question, “what am I going to use this for?” video games had the answer. In an extreme case, my brother learned to program with code at the age of seven. Coding that requires the use of algebra. He took a tutor just to learn more math for his hobby. He is in school now for a degree in computer science and has straight 4.0s in his third year of college. I’m not feeling any pressure at all…
Though my math skills came in later in life my reading skills were always superior to the average student. My reading in class was fluent, and other kids seemed to struggle. After all, the amount of text in video games is huge. It becomes a liability to not be able to read quickly, otherwise games take a turn towards boring. As I’ve said before, this came at a substantial cost, but I can’t say I regret it. I can not imagine my life going any different than it has been; I have tried, and that path led me to the fantasy world I was so desperately trying to escape. I just got out of imagining myself in a world of video games and finally got a grasp on reality. I wasn’t going to lose reality again. So quite frankly, imagine what might or could have been, is not my concern.
I think it necessary to bring into this article some of the generalizations about video games. I hear often times that the constant hacking and slashing of video games “can’t do any good” to kids. Well, that part is true, but that’s not all there is to video games. There is a story to video games, like there is a story to Shakespeare. In Shakespeare Romeo killed a man because of honor, in video games I find myself killing monsters because they are endangering a civilization. One could make the argument the other way around of course but the point is that there is violence in all forms of entertainment. Whether or not you engage is not as relevant as people think. I remember kids in my class who watched wrestling be scary. They would try “moves” out on each other. With that said, it’s not video games; it’s the exposure to violence that kids receive that makes them violent. Kids learn by example, and examples come from all over the place. My opinion however, is that there should be more available options for parents to be able to monitor what their kids do. That to me is the real problem, how are parents supposed to know about what they are buying their kids? A rating system was indeed a start, but older parents and grand parents don’t relies such a thing exists
. I hate the blame game towards parents more than the crucifixion of video games. I can easily understand ones fear towards video games; however this is tossed around too much. Being a parent is the hardest job there is. Can you imagine what you would have to do if you had to put up with raising yourself? I feel kind of sorry for my parents; I probably would have given me the boot. Kids are incredibly hard to raise, and we as a society, don’t need to make this job harder. Ask yourself this, what’s more productive? Blaming parents for raising their kids poorly or helping parents raise their kids better. Even if you think parents are incompetent in protecting their kids, what’s blaming them going to do? For the sake of less frustration between the gaming community and parents just trying to raise kids, I say we sit and educate parents on what they CAN do, and leave them with information instead of useless insults.
I plan to add here a webpage or hotline where you can have access to information partaining to any particular video games. As well as a rating from the ESRB for the video game in question.