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Barrie Teen runs away, parents blame Video Games (pg. 6)
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| Skipper |
Video games were hardly as popular or accessible when we were kids.
Seriously, all of you seem to know so much about parenting, despite not having any children of your own. When was the last time you spent any length of time around kids in the 10-15 age bracket? |
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| Wurm |
| Parenting is a long series of strategic withdrawals. The key is in the timing. |
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| DigiNut |
| quote: | Originally posted by Skipper
When was the last time you spent any length of time around kids in the 10-15 age bracket? |
Just last Friday when I was hanging around after school.
What?
...And video games were plenty accessible when I was a kid. Half of my friends had Game Boys (or later on, Game Gear, colour!) and I remember going over to friends' houses to play Space Quest and Leisure Suit Larry because I couldn't get 'em at home. This was even before high school - by high school we already had the first few Quake, Diablo, and Descent games, and I think Unreal Tournament came in the last year or two. There were tons of games and several were internet-enabled.
Sure, the games weren't quite as elaborate and we didn't have MMORPGs, but it doesn't take that much to get people addicted; I knew people addicted to video games back in those days too. |
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| Skipper |
| video games back then were not networked by the internet. i think the advancement of communication since we were kids has caused the younger generation to be much different than we were. |
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| Yohan |
| quote: | Originally posted by Skipper
video games back then were not networked by the internet. i think the advancement of communication since we were kids has caused the younger generation to be much different than we were. |
true. but the addictiveness of video games haven't change much |
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| DigiNut |
| quote: | Originally posted by Skipper
video games back then were not networked by the internet. |
Yes, they were. Did you read what I wrote? Battle.NET (Diablo) and Ultima Online both came out in 1997, over 10 years ago. EverQuest was only 1999. Hell, Neverwinter Nights was technically a MMORPG (through AOL which millions of people still used back then) and was released in 1991! And these were just the popular titles, there were dozens of these games on the market.
Seriously, you don't know what you're talking about. Just let it go.
Damn Web 2.0 crowd thinking the Internet was invented with Wikipedia and Flickr... |
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| smuncky |
| quote: | Originally posted by DigiNut
Damn Web 2.0 crowd thinking the Internet was invented with Wikipedia and Flickr... |
and facebook |
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| DaRoZa |
video games have definitely always been addictive to some, but online services like xbox live games or any mmorpg are a MUCH different experience than other video games so there's no surprise we're seeing these unprecedented cases.. could see a lot of kids handling it badly without close watch of their parents, and in the time i played WoW i learned a lot of adults don't know how to handle it themselves either.
when you're constantly playing with or against dozens of others it becomes much more competitive and satisfying to win/improve your stats. seeing people who have a much better account in a MMORPG, or seeing someone do well in CS gives feelings of relative deprivation much greater than any game played alone or with just a few people... and with voice communication and clans it feels much more social, and can become almost a responsibility to show up and play with your "friends" regularly, and as with any addiction spending time with people associated with your vice never helps.
i don't think you can say the parents were COMPLETELY at fault here, we're living at a weird time in history with communications improving every year.. and kids today are the guinea pigs. he still needs to be slapped though. |
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| Abercrombie |
| The kid's been playing RPG games for 4 years according to the paper, CoD4 for 2. Desensitized at way too early an age... we all had a very false sense of reality as teenagers. Sure teens will circumvent, we all did. But we're also appreciative of the limits our parents set for us, now. If we wanted something we couldn't get it at home, we got it elsewhere. Parents can set a foundation, not build the whole being. They got to do the best they can. But in my eyes, the parents should have looked at the labels on their games, and just took the game disc away. They weren't very saavy, and were naive. |
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| FunkyCrew |
I've been reading this thread for a while, but didn't comment just yet
I think that parents are fully responsible for what happened - game or no game, parents should know how to make sure that kids get a healthy balance of video games and other activities.. they should have been able to talk to him about his gaming addiction |
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| UmmiE |
| Like said earlier in the thread......Beat your kids.....so they know how to act like normal person and not be like some addicted emo who doesnt know when to stop. |
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| kaniz |
| quote: | Originally posted by Skipper
video games back then were not networked by the internet. i think the advancement of communication since we were kids has caused the younger generation to be much different than we were. |
I had a brief period during high-school of which I was addicted to MMORPGS. Know what my parents did? they stepped in. Things that they did
- Forced me to spend a few hours of "family time" with them frequently, no more logging into EverQuest at 5pm after class and playing non-stop until midnight/2am - if they were having a "family dinner" (which happened more often than not) - I had to go eat with them, if they were watching a movie - I had to join them (or - be doing homework, or, be out having a real social life - but sitting in front of a MMORPG for 5-6 hours straight was not an option), I could do it a few nights a week - but not every night of the week.
- Encouraged other activities related to computers outside of video games. They knew I had a knack for programming/etc, and would often come up with programming books / related things to help foster an interest in more productive-hobbies related to computers that were not just games
- Come midnight on school nights, they'd force me to log-off, and would check in after to ensure that I was logged off. Was more than 1 time where I found my internet connection disconnected if I was trying to 'break the rule'
- In the summer, did not put up with me not having a job
- Ensure that my homework was done
- Had /real/ consequences for coming home with bad grades on my report card
- Also had real benefits for coming home with good grades on my report card
- Ensure that my room was clean / kept up with chores / pulled my weight around the house - if not, cut off again.
Soon enough, they rarely had to "enforce" these rules - but they were there. If I started to fall back into my - get in from school / logon / play straight until bed-time without saying boo to the family, I'd hear about it.
Generally speaking, this was consistent with the parenting they had given me growing up as far as I can remember: Do your chores, do well in school, spend some time with the family - and you're pretty much free to do what you want in your free time. Keep up with that, and they will be pretty chilled out / relaxed about things.
But, start to let any of them slide - and you start to see that freedom be taken away from you until you earn it back again. Thankfully I was a quick learner and rarely had to deal with the consequences more than once or twice, I also enjoyed a great deal of freedom and trust in my mid-late teen years.
This was also combined with an /active/ interest in what I was doing in terms of free time, friends, social life and school.
They wanted to know who my friends were, they wanted to know what my classes were, they wanted to know what projects I was working on, they wanted to know what video games I was playing. They usually managed to get this information out of me in more of a 'conversational' method - "How was your day, what did you do?" kind of thing, not like an interrogation.
Yes, the internet, video games and technology in general is making it harder to accomplish this - but are you saying parents should just throw up their hands and say "oh well, kids these days and their technology"? I think that the parents should learn to adapt and stop being push-overs.
If I ever become a parent - I'd hope I can follow many of the ways my parents bought me up. At the time, I'd curse them now and then - but in retrospect, I think they did a great job on most parts. |
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