Video Games

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Ann
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Re: Video Games

Post by Ann »

Awesome support given here already!

As someone who has played video games since a very young age, I also have some experiences to share.
I started playing video games also around the age LJ started, 6, but at the same time I also played a lot outside. I grew up in a rural area with fields, and I still considered playing outside the funnest thing. Only later when I got older and not many kids played outside and we moved to a less rural area, I played video games more and more.

I find it unfortunate many children don't have the opportunity to enjoy nature as I did, and to explore the fields and be able to go on your own outside without much danger. For city children this is quite different.
The only time when I found video games a problem is when I was almost playing it constantly, and it became a pre-occupation. When it starts to become virtually all you do and you stop taking responsibility. So that is something I had to stop when I realized it (for example when I played world of warcraft).

My little nephew is allready pretty addicted to it. He always wants to play on either a cellphone with games on it, or a playstation or computer, everywhere he goes. When he is somewhere he will asks someones phone to play on. And when he doesn't get it he gets upset. So that is a problem to adress right there. And the suggestions how to deal with this are allready given by others here in this thread which I agree with.
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Carrie
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Re: Video Games

Post by Carrie »

Anna wrote:Somerthing I do as a teacher with the kids who are learning how to read and write is to for example make ABC books with them, where they make their own book (folded paper) and then we look through magazines for the letters, like having one page only with A's -- and then also look for things that starts with an A. The we cut it out and glue it into the book This exercise is fun and the kids learn different ways to approach language.
After reading this suggestion, I gathered all of the things to do it and we played with this project for about an hour. It was AWESOME. My child really enjoyed this. Next, we'll be using textures as Sylvia suggested and get into practicing describing the textures. Thanks!
KellyPosey wrote:Eventually when I started playing World of Warcraft in my later teens, is when I finally started to get tired of putting all this time and effort into something that was having no effect on my actual life whatsoever. I was putting so much time and effort into building up 'virtual skills' which was really drudgery and I realized I may as well being doing things in real life, so that I could develop skills in real life that I could then actually use. Why am I spending hours repeating the same task so that I can learn to make 'dragonhide armor' when I could be perhaps sewing in real life so that I could then make real clothes that I could actually wear, for one example. And no matter how high-level and prestigeous I was in the game, I was still the same 'loser' in real life. And I realized the more time I put into developing myself in a virtual reality, the more diminished I become in actual reality.
I relate to this because for about 10 years I was addicted to online text-based roleplaying on a MUSH where there were a hundred or more of us on at most times acting out our characters, earning experience, and increasing our characters stats. I lived more of this character's life than I did my own. I stopped going to school and slowly let go of most of my responsibilities. I did not stop until I had control of the actual MUSH and was making decisions about the game - at that point, I was God - now what? So, I just started building environments on a building MUSH until I found Desteni. It is astounding to look back and see the decisions that I made back then - which is in-part of my worry about my child spending so much time on the computer - he looks like a much MUCH younger version of myself.
As has also been suggested, to find things to do with the child is great as well, to assist them in increasing their options and abilities of what they can do, like bake some bread/learn to make food for example, making other activities approachable/accessible as well, so they have other options to explore and know that they have someone to assist them with real world stuff which can be more consequential than virtual stuff.
Cerise wrote:Video games in themselves are not "the issue" - it's when people do not understand how the physical works, what is required to live effectively in this world and they get "lost" in the game and it becomes their entire reality.
This makes sense. So a solution would be to better balance his gaming activities with physical activities. I will work on this.
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Anna
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Re: Video Games

Post by Anna »

Cool Carrie!
Marlen
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Re: Video Games

Post by Marlen »

Cool thread and support.

I have very little experience with this, I mostly got hooked on videogames while playing with a girlfriend when I was around 7-9 years old yet we precisely would balance it out: riding the bike, playing around with actual toys, watching movies, playing videogames and that was fun. When I grew up I deliberately kept myself away from videogames because I would spend far too much time in it when I was at my cousin's house playing stuff like mortal kombat and Tony Hawk, and I knew that if I would get a game console, I would be quite stuck in it so I simply decided to never have one.

I found jigsaw puzzles to be exactly the kind of 'challenge' that I enjoyed, so I spent long hours on that, also painting, drawing, riding bicycle and books and I mean at that age I was hooked on R.L. Stine spooky books to begin with. I would highly recommend inculcating reading since that enabled me to not only develop vocabulary in my own language but also get interested in writing my own stories which also became a hobby/ past time. I did watch TV for LONG hours everyday while doing my homework and studying, that was possible in my case and all went fine but I would definitely recommend to work on that balancing point where he is also aware of the fun that is possible when working with physical reality, hell even cleaning up can become a similar challenge where the end is having everything clean and tidy, lol. Just dropping some ideas here

But I see that in your case Carrie I suggest focusing on the worry and concern about it and instead kind of hang-out with him while playing but at the same time share how cool it is to have a variety of options and activities to do in physical reality, where he can also go exploring his actual skills and talents and so also go explaining how what matters in physical reality is not a score one gets in a video game but the actual skills he can develop in reality.

So, I understand that it is quite a challenge at the moment to do this due to how ingrained video games are however this is also what we have limited ourselves to view and understand as 'entertainment' instead of considering parts of the day as moments for different activities and create the understanding of 'this is how a day operates, you cannot just do this one thing all day.'

I also suggest to only keep an eye that it doesn't become a way to avoid interaction with reality and taking responsibility for his own stuff, as LJ mentioned.

Thanks for opening up this point
Marlen
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Re: Video Games

Post by Marlen »

Check this article out! Gamers, stop supporting violence!
"Buying games is a political act, and gamers need to start voting with their wallets - We need to demand that games reflect new living values and that means not supporting gratuitous violence. We need to start to demand that our pastime reflect our sensibilities. Those of us who would criticize films or television for containing misplaced violence and misogyny, or for having simplistic depictions of good and evil, need to apply the same critical appreciation to video games. Game writing is still relatively immature when compared to film, and is perhaps still trying to appeal to a young male demographic which is decreasingly a true representation of the gaming population. Not keeping up with the maturity shift in the gaming public risks alienating potential buyers and reinforcing the perception of gaming as a pastime for children. Games are no longer simply toys, and are capable of remarkable complexity in storytelling and character development. It is therefore time that mainstream games took responsibility for the messages they convey."
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Carrie
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Re: Video Games

Post by Carrie »

Hey cool Marlen! Thanks!
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Joana
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Re: Video Games

Post by Joana »

Hi Carrie and All,
It is a great point to look at. While reading your experiences I could associate these "symptoms" not so much to video games but to the desire to watch TV series, so this is a transverse pattern. Yesterday I just wrote about the points that watching series apparently "give" me that I am not giving to me in all the other things that I do. Investigating this relationship to entertainment for the first time was very cool. For example, one thing that I asked myself was Why am I curious about the character's life, and not in discovering me? Why is that I enjoy seeing the actors finding solutions and I am not doing the same in my own real-life? How am I being passive about my own life? Why do I participate in the polarity of comfort (while watching) versus stress (when I am not watching it). Furthermore, I also came to the conclusion that the series is not the problem, because this pattern would exist with or without the series, or probably manifested in something else. It is actually an opportunity for me to look at the labels that I give to the things that I do (fun vs boredom), to my prioritisation of responsibilities and, of course, an opportunity to change the relationship with myself/what I do.

DAY 20: My relationship to entertainment - opening this point within me
http://joanaslifeprocess.blogspot.com/2 ... nment.html
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tormod
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Re: Video Games

Post by tormod »

Cool support in this tread. And cool honest sharing. - (I am getting more and more used to opening up here at forum , at different topics and it is nice)

I would definetly investigate how so many games have become a so incredible violant. I clearly see that point that Cerice and others are mentioning that it is not the actuall game that there is it is something wrong with , it is the people watching it and that will not step out into reality - from gaming illuitions or twillights in between.

Candy Crush - saga is a type of game that i dont know what is specificlaly named - like branded.


How mind is stimulated with this type of pictures and actions as sound is definetly worth looking into, it is a huge interest and a huge buisnes.

- My experience with computer games is varriated. I have been told by other who played Amiga 64 and other - early editions of TV/PC gaming. We did not have Amiga/pc games when i grew up. But there was friends that did. On several occations there was these small computer games about the size of todays smart phones, or a ordinary calculator. Now, I played some Nintendo - at visits of relatives when i was a young boy (9 - 14 )playing Super Mario at Nintendo and later when i was (20 - 25) i played a lot of Tekken 3 on Playstation. And then my "need" to play video games stopped. When i was 24 or 25 aproximently. Some of the interest came back now with Candy Crush saga but, it dont realy last. The candy Crush sage is not "doing " it for me.



I wonder where the connection to smart phones and litel toddlers playing on the touch screen - recive radiation from smart phones - is. I mean radiation from smart phones/ mobile phones that are used to gaming, is seldom heard of, and i realize that buissens like Samsug, Apple or Black Berries become more and more ruthless in their way to hide for instance such reports and to undermine their criticers. It is not known for giving workers , or consurems their rights. Rather oposite, I fear that sientists that are making reports or documenst about radiation from phones that is being forced to silence. These 3 companies for instance have lists as long as the day on violations and crimes commited against hummaity and life. Wistleblowers like myself is needed to create what is best for all. But that might be of - track in a post on gaming.
And i realice since that silenc is forced - there is huge numbers that are "missing" when shit comes to show... or should i say when radiation comes to show.


Here is a link to the probably new era of smartphones. - its very much worth watshing. And it is a step on what is best for all. enjoy

http://9gag.com/gag/axN0Nr2


cheers -
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Rebecca Dalmas
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Re: Video Games

Post by Rebecca Dalmas »

I can see where video games, like chess, can develop planning/conceptual skills, meaning looking at a series of steps to complete something. It also gives time to look at what is known and pretend into the unknown, to build some idea and play it out with the forces given within the game. Which was a point Kelly mentioned. But it is to realize that this is all it is. Saying this, I could see where some really cool video games could be developed!
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