There has long been a stigma attached to playing video games for a wide variety of reasons, everything from scaremongering in the press when someone does something bad and just happened to have a copy of Grand Theft Auto lying around, being a different pastime from what older generations did when they were kids, or simple ignorance and presumptions. All of these have put plenty question marks over computer games from parents unsure if they are healthy or even safe.
We want to start out by saying that although most of the articles published on this site we typically use a communal “royal we” where we lose our individuality and speak as a single entity working for the website, however for this op-ed I am going to simply speak as myself for a moment, a game myself. I have played computer games for around 24 years, originally loading up floppy discs into my Atari 250STE, switching later to the NES and Sega Megadrive with the explosion of video game consoles, I got my first PC in 1997 and my Playstation shortly after. Over the years I have played countless single player games of all genres, I have played online and been an active member in many Clans and Guilds, I have started up and run my own roleplaying communities in different MMORPGs. I have made countless friends over the years who have come and gone and have met many in real life and travelled to neighbouring cities and even getting on a plane and heading to countries I’d never even visited before. I met my first love through playing online games and have seen more than my share of other relationships blossom.
Much of this was many many years ago, an entire lifetime of gaming, now I’m married (this being long after my first love) and have two young boys of my own, neither of which can even hold their own joypad yet; I am writing this article as both a gamer who has had many rewarding experiences because of it and as a father considering the future of my own children. In truth most people reading this article are already gamers and probably wouldn’t have much of a problem with their own children playing computer games (but I dare say we all believe we wouldn’t let them play them half as much as we do ourselves!), and so this article is more for those people who may accidentally stumble upon it or be guided towards it. This article is for those people who aren’t part of this gaming world we share, who will hopefully allow me some of their time one or two thoughts.
One of the bigger issues I feel with gaming is that many parents are concerned that for each hour their children are indoors playing on their video games then it is one less hour they aren’t playing outside and getting some fresh air. Though I’m a big advocate of physical fitness and believe activity clubs are great, I personally wouldn’t be too quick to demonize the benefits of playing computer games; for one thing it’s considerably safer in here than it is our there. Alright, I’m not the type of parent to wrap up their kids in cotton wool, or too afraid to let them go out and adventure, but the fact is that there are too many horror stories that circulate the news about viruses, online scams, cyber bullying and online predators that is enough to put a lot of parents off. Whilst they serve a purpose and are good to raise awareness that yes, these things happen the point is to treat it like you would your child being outdoors and make them aware and how to be both safe and sensible.
In truth a lot of the games that our children play are incredibly safe, more so when parents are attentive to what features are in a game themselves and at least keep some casual monitoring of what their kids are up to. Most games aimed at a child audience have a LOT of hoops they need to jump through and online safety is a big factor, having name and word filters so children aren’t exposed to bad language, or constant moderators that keep their eye on everything that is happening, some games such as Animal Jam even go to the extent to make a game/quiz out of learning the code of conduct and re-enforcing not to share personal details and reward children for choosing the right answers to questions.
Plenty of parents can worry that games are unproductive, that they are mindless and a waste of time; the fact that they are first and foremost a form of entertainment means they don’t always have to be productive;
“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time” – Bertrand Russell.
Aside from that, even if a game isn’t outwardly educational (though a lot of them are these days) you may be surprised at just what children learn when playing. Many games can be an open canvas for creative freedom, whether dress up games, MMORPGs with character customization and roleplaying (which is pretty much just acting and story writing) or even constructing immense buildings and their own creations in building games like Minecraft which is essentially a huge online box of Legos. MMORPGs are an amazing language learning tool, particularly to learn English where a huge majority of non-native English speakers play on predominantly English/US/Mixed European servers, where for many English is a common enough language to all speak to each other; you may just be surprised at just how quickly non-English speakers pick up the language due to playing online games. As well as that where else can someone living in rural North America make friends with an Australian, Swede, German and someone from the UK all in the same night, learn about their culture and more?
So we’ve established that children are able to learn things, but playing in your room on your own for hours at a time is pretty anti-social isn’t it? Surely they’d be better playing out with friends or joining an activity club? Honestly if your child doesn’t enjoy doing traditional club activities then don’t worry too much about them playing computer games, the fact of the matter is that they’re probably playing online with the majority of their school friends anyway and have organized at school that day to meet in game. With the instant communication both children and adults have these days then meeting up and engrossing yourself in a game with friends is extremely fun, and I say this as an extremely social and outgoing person, but I still enjoy just putting a few hours in a game in an evening (where my own children allow it…). For those who don’t play with their friends then any game they have played extensively they have probably made online friends because they already play the same game and so already share a similar interest. This last point is important, not every child is outgoing and not everyone makes friends easily; playing games online can be a great way to break up any isolation that they may be feeling.
One of the key benefits of computer games is the responsibility it teaches, for example a really popular game for children is Star Stable where children get to collect, clean and look after their own horses; logging in each day they care for them and are rewarded for it with resources to spend and Experience Points; teaching them that with work comes reward. Interestingly it’s not all that different from the huge Tamagotchi/Cyber Pet craze of the 90s. Particularly with in game resources and currency players are also taught about managing their own personal finances, at least to a scale where if they want something in particular in game then they must work for it and save up; never a bad lesson to be able to transport to the real world. Star Stable among others also encourages players working together to solve mysteries and quests, further adding to their problem solving and team building skills; all practical traits that are useful for any developing child.
At the head of this article I mentioned a few ways that gaming has impacted my life, the only reason I can tell you them is because a few years ago I ran a guild in Age of Conan where one of the guildies I recruited worked for this website. In time he got me this job, into an industry I love and out of a grinding 9-5 office job; gaming and the people I have met through it have given me so many experiences and opened up so many doors, it has made the entire world smaller and made me learn more about other places and realise just how similar we all are. I cannot wait for my own children to be old enough and start their own online adventures and look forward to being part of their experiences.
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