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Games Entertainment

Indoctrinating The Young As Gamers 42

Posted by Zonk from the next-generation-was-the-best-show dept.
Gamers with Jobs has an interesting look at what it's like to indoctrinate the next generation of gamer. From the article: "Now, as I stumble through my fourth decade on this spinning marble in space, it is my great privilege to pass this obsession on to my own son. It is something of a shock to me that my years of gaming can be measured reasonably in terms of percentage of a century. I shudder to think how many productive hours and how much money I have sacrificed to my passion. Instead of dwelling on that point, I pretend that the question doesn't even exist, in much the same way that I occasionally like to pretend the mortgage doesn't exist when a desired game finds its way onto store shelves. And now, already, my own son has begun his own epic sacrifice to the pastime, so that someday he too can struggle in the decision between food and maintaining his subscription to World of Warcraft."
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Indoctrinating The Young As Gamers

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  • Hmmmm (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Lord_Dweomer ( 648696 ) on Thursday December 08, 2005 @08:39PM (#14215752) Homepage
    You know, I was thinking about this the other day and realized that I don't think of this as wasting my time and money (well...especially since I haven't paid for any media of any sort since Napster was born). Gaming and media in general has become such an integral part of society that I consider it to be an essential part of my everyday life. Communication is becoming more and more vital to us, as is entertainment. Now yes, you have your old forms of entertainment....but these are just new forms. And if people don't consider old forms of entertainment to be wastes, I don't know why they would consider these new ones to be.

    Besides, its snowing like crazy now, its 20 degrees outside, what the hell else am I going to do?

    • Besides, its snowing like crazy now, its 20 degrees outside, what the hell else am I going to do?

      Well, it has been about -6 here in Broomfield the last few days. I thought playing a board game or some cards would be fun. Unfortunately of the two people I live with, one was busy chatting on AIM and playing around the crapfest that is MySpace and the other was busy playing a videogame.
      • The wife and I were just talking the other day, about maybe buying the board game Life [hasbro.com]... it's been forever since either of us played it. Sounds like it could be fun to mess with over the winter. We have Backgammon, but she hates it.

        Board games are cool. Or at least, I think they were.

        • Re:Hmmmm (Score:3, Funny)

          by Meagermanx ( 768421 )
          Life? Isn't that like Monopoly but with little pegs you can stick in your car?
          Right.
          You're better off with a strategic board game, like Chess, Checkers, Go, or something like that.
          • Yeah, it's semi-childish. But that's the point. Just something fun to relive the old days. We have Monopoly, we break that out occasionally. We may pick up Life, then pass it on to her niece.

            Besides, didn't Life have some way to "choose your destiny" or something? That sounds kinda fun.
            • Sir, it sounds like you haven't played Life in a while.
              I suspect you will soon find that spinning a spinner and moving the token accordingly gets old about two rounds into the game.

              I understand wanting to relive the old days, or whatever you old codgers are always rambling on about, but why not go for something from Cheapass games? [cheapass.com]
              They're cheap, they're original, and you're not paying $14.95 for a copy of Life.
              Or how about The Sims? That has destiny-choosing too.

              Come on, man. I'm only trying to save you
              • Sounds like you haven't been married in awhile. This was all HER idea, you know. And we're prolly not as old as you'd think. Sure, we both graduated HS when Guns 'N Roses was still making music, but still. ;)

                I'd much rather play some backgammon, or use one of the 2 chess sets we own, but whatever. We have Scrabble, and Yahtzee. Yahtzee is fun, maybe we'll break that out. But I like the site you mentioned. I'm considering a few now. As a matter of fact, 'Get Out' [cheapass.com] looks like it might be cool. And 'Mana Burn [cheapass.com]

    • Besides, its snowing like crazy now, its 20 degrees outside, what the hell else am I going to do?

      Play football?

      Seriously though, we don't need another generation of kids growing up in front of the computer getting fat and pale. Obesity's at its highest level in history, we should be condemning slothful activities in favour of more beneficial activities.

      Get him playing sport instead. He'll be healthier, he'll concentrate better at his schoolwork, he'll develop more social skills.

      If he wants to play computer

      • Re:Hmmmm (Score:2, Insightful)

        by sdhankin ( 213671 )
        Classic mistake: life isn't an either/or game. My son is an avid gamer and D&D (PnP) player. He's 13, and been doing this for at least 6 years. His favorite TV shows are Xplay and various anime shows. He loves reading fantasy books. He'll play video games or do D&D (as GM - he likes designing the scenarios for others more than playing) as much as we let him. So, of course, we impose limits.

        He's also an A+ student in a very competitive school system, in advanced classes where they're available.
      • >Get him playing sport instead. He'll be healthier, he'll concentrate better at his schoolwork, he'll develop more social skills.

        That's err... totally debatable. How is it healthier if you keep getting a broken bone every couple of days, and end up having to retire at thirty because you've got so many aches and pains?

        >If he wants to play computer games then fine, if he wants to buy games with his own money then let him, but don't indoctrinate him into it.

        Quite. But, same goes for football.. I think th
    • well...especially since I haven't paid for any media of any sort since Napster was born

      Besides, its snowing like crazy now, its 20 degrees outside, what the hell else am I going to do?

      I don't care how much you think you're getting screwed out of your money, buy some of the shit you use and complain about DRM and RIAA with the rest of us. And since you can't play outside, maybe you should get off your ass and find a way to generate some income. I'm assuming your hands work well enough to do data entry...

      • Well, while I do think I'm getting screwed out of SOME of my money, I'm not exactly claiming I'm innocent and justified in what I do. But I do it anyway. If that pisses you off then so be it.

        And for the record, even though I'm a recent college grad, I'm fairly successful, so that is not the main reason. I just feel like it, and most of the time it is the most convenient way for me to get these things.

        Especially for music since what I listen to (mostly full electronic DJ sets) is not purchaseable.

        • Especially for music since what I listen to (motly full electronic DJ sets) is not purchaseable

          I'm with you there. A good deal of my music is very hard to find or import (or too expensive). But, given the oppurunity, I'll usually purchase it in one form or another (I don't buy songs off iTunes or other sites, I want the full quality CD tracks).

          What pisses me off is people that don't buy any of their music (and in college, when Napster came out, in a week I went from a fast connection to borrowing my pare

          • I think most of the reason that people are downloading music so rapidly is that artists quit making a great ALBUM and started concentrating on making good SINGLES. The download industry will (hopefully) kill pop music and leave room for bands who legitimately work at what they do. If you love a band, you buy the album and listen to the other songs. If you like one song 'cause it's catchy or whatever, there is no reason to purchase the album which kills bad albums. Survival of the fittest. Darwinism in the

  • Aww (Score:5, Funny)

    by pnevin ( 168332 ) * on Thursday December 08, 2005 @08:39PM (#14215757)
    In no time at all, he'll be bagging your favourite childhood games as being unplayable crap.

    Kids grow up so fast these days, don't they?

    • Re:Aww (Score:2)

      by rf0 ( 159958 )
      This is why I refuse to go back and play those games I've got happy memeories of as a kid on the Spectrum. I used to love Jet Pac but being older now I can't help but things i would just look back at it and think how dull or boring it is as I've changed (prehaps for the worse in some cases)

      I'd much rather just keep the memories

  • ...je'll act like this [somethingawful.com]

  • Goddamit son. (Score:5, Funny)

    by sharopolis ( 819353 ) on Thursday December 08, 2005 @08:43PM (#14215777)
    Daddy can I got outside and play? No! You'll stay in the house and play videogames! Why can't you spend all day cooped up in your room like normal kids?
  • I don't get the whole "I'm getting old thing" and I don't think it's just because I'm 29, though I suppose it does help that I watch anime shows like Tenchi Muyo! [wikipedia.org] and Crest of the Stars [slashdot.org] that have people that are chronologically old but physically young. Oh and watching Doctor Who [wikipedia.org] growing up didn't hurt either.
  • It's called spending "quality time".

  • My Son and Games (Score:5, Interesting)

    by under_score ( 65824 ) <mishkin@berteig. c o m> on Thursday December 08, 2005 @09:14PM (#14215943) Homepage
    We're homeschooling. Educational games play a part of that. We have games from the "Reader Rabbit" series as well as a few other one-offs such as "Physicus" which is a cool physics simulator/tutorial/game and "Rosetta Stone" for Arabic and Chinese. However, much as he doesn't mind these, they are not what gets him really interested. He's been a Civ player for over a year... and he's only seven and a half. Right now he loves CivIV. He is starting to learn the difference between strategy and tactics, learning about planning, and of course, learning some things about history from the game itself. However, we have found that we need to put tight limits on his time playing. Currently, he plays CivIV only on weekends, and only in the time he has available when we're not doing other things (visiting, groceries, etc.). We have had some struggles with obsessive game-playing and we are trying to moderate that, but given that I myself go through periods of intense game playing (and so does my wife), we have to balance that with our own example. When we first got CivIV, we didn't do much else except eat for about three days... I truly hope that this is not a problem. I haven't seen anything conclusive about this and we do have a balance with visiting, regular academic work, and my son is an avid reader as well. I'm not worried, but like with television or other forms of entertainment, I don't think that children are able to set their own boundaries very well. It's important as parents to do that both verbally and by example. For those interested, my wife keeps an extensive web site about homeschooling [melanieandersen.com] and some other things.
    • Elijah is four years old; his computer sits directly in-between mama and papa's computer in the living room. He games for 2-3 hours every day; his favorites being Novadex Rocket, MoonBase Commander, Incredible Machine, Homeworld 2, Don Pachi (Mame), Takumi Fighters, Unreal 2k4, and Google image search + Photoshop. Elijah's gaming habits were definitely something we thought long and hard over, but eventually we decided to give him access to almost everything we play and do on computers. Keeping him from p

  • Burnout Revenge? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Gogo0 ( 877020 ) on Thursday December 08, 2005 @10:13PM (#14216239)
    What kind of father is this guy?

    When the fruit of my loins is unleashed upon the world, I am ready to raise him properly.
    That means starting him out with Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Burgertime, and all the classics. He will move up to the NES, SNES, Genesis, and along up the generations as he gets older. Of course, Number Muncher and other classic educational games will be on tap, too.
    Start a kid off with current-gen stuff will only produce another graphics-obsessed drone that will shun anything that isnt 3D and is too soft to handle the occasional hard game that is released by brave studios (FZeroGX, Ninja Gaiden, etc).

    Off-topic:
    And when he isnt playing the classics, he will be watching Transformers, Thundercats, the original TMNT, and all the other great cartoons that were on when I was a kid. It worries me that kids are growing up these days watching YuGiOh GX and other drivel CN and the other networks are putting out. Sleep in on saturday, kids. We can watch some cartoons on DVD when you get up.
    • You forget the Root of Roots, the Game of Games, the Big Bang of the Gaming Universe, the day that the Great Gamer looked down into geekdom and said....."Let there be....PONG."
      • If only I had it =[

        Even though I dont have Pong, the kid will grow up in a way that he can see it or something like it and consider that he may have fun playing it. I would bet that any kid starting with Burnout Revenge would rather wash dishes than try Pong.
      • True enough - it's like going back to playing Dune on an old 486 after Starcraft, or Warcraft, or a hundred other games. However - there's also a sense of classicism in playing Pong (or Pac-Man, or whatever), even on a emulator of some kind. I wonder if a hundred years from now, young hackers will have to learn to create a version of Pong (or whatever) in almost the same way literature students read Antigone, or Jack London, or John Steinbeck. The point is NOT that it's the greatest Literature (or Game) of
    • My daughter is starting to get to the age where she is taking an interest in video games. DK, Pac, and Burget Time are all good games, but so is Super Monkey Ball. Monkey ball is her favorite game and Ms. Pac is a close second. Interestingly enough, she's not a fan of Marble Madness (which goes hand-in-hand with Monkey Ball in my book). Instead of forcing your kid to follow the same path you did as a kid, why not let them choose their own games (as long as they are appropriate for kids)? I think you'l
      • Preaching, oh, I know what you mean:

        Ancient spirits of evil, transform this decaying form, to MUMM-RA, THE EVERLIVING! mulrhahaha!

        Yeah, he was kind of preachy.

        • Actually, I was thinking of the "lessons" they beat over your head. Like when something is stolen and Tigra looks right and the camera and says something along the lines of "And STEALING is wrong." It happens a lot and I never really noticed it as a kid.

  • "Too?" (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Guppy06 ( 410832 )
    "so that someday he too can struggle in the decision between food and maintaining his subscription to World of Warcraft."

    "Too?" As in you think about whether to buy food or WoW? And you have a son to feed?

    Look, we get enough flak from Jack Thompson types as it is, why don't you do us all a favor and call child services now before your face is plastered on TV news.

    • Humour. (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Humour.
    • I have to admit that this stunned me as well. I'm a gamer - heck, I've even managed to make a pretty good second living consulting for a game company - but I don't have to battle between that and FOOD. I don't even have to battle between that and my girlfriend. REAL LIFE COMES FIRST. That's the lesson gamers (myself included) need to pass on to their children. Love your hobbies. Love your passions... and don't let them overcome you. Everything in life in moderation; gaming isn't anything special. It's the

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