Should You Let Your Kids Play Video Games?

It is not my intend to say how much is too much. My view is that it is quality you should be worried about. 

Games bring entertainment which is good on its own, but if your kid games a lot you might ask yourself if he is failing to develop other skills critical for success in life. Leaving school aside, let’s consider 6 elements of your kid’s development that should be monitored. Let’s have a look on how will video games affect them. We will forget educative games, we want real fun here. 

Health

This is probably the best argument to get her or him off the screen. Let us be clear, not even Wii Sport is enough. Most of the time you will stop before sweating and you know the saying, “no pain, no gain”. I am not big on muscles, but health is different. Cardio-vascular well being is a life long struggle, but the individual potential is created in no small part during the childhood. Muscles can be created later, but heart and lungs can’t be train as efficiently as an adult. Sure you can make progresses with hard training, but you will never be a great marathon runner if you did not exercise as a kid. 

Note that these little devils, with the help of Google, will counter your arguments with 2 true facts backed by scientific research:

First Person Shooters develop some reflexes.

Vision agility is increase by a large variety of games

But really, what do you do with lightning reflexes when you can’t outrun a grandma in wheelchair?

Advice: No game replaces sport, but try console games with some physical movement (Wii Sport, Guitar Hero etc…)

Sociability

Here, it is important to realize the huge progress that have been made in the past 10 years: Tactical coordination per Skype (player to player voice conversation), guild role plays in World of Warcraft, Online tournaments, forums, school yard discussions:  It so happens that you can make friends playing games. But like in real life, it takes some efforts to make friends. Be attentive to what you hear: Is there social talk involved ? Some games call for tactical efficiency, no to say very poor language “left! Shoot! Go, attack” but what matters is what is said after the game. Does your team connect with his team, laugh, tell stories, analyze the game or is it the end and everybody disconnect to watch some internet site or TV show? You have to be attentive to see if video games allow your kid to stay isolated or if he builds relationships with them.

Advice: Almost all games can lead to social interaction nowadays, just encourage him to discuss what he does.

Self-Image

Challenged in class, low performance in sport, difficulties to fit in with friends: Life can be tough at school. Video games won’t solve that, but they give you another opportunity to shine. Reflexes, fast clicking, fast decision making are only partially correlated to traditional academic or athletic success. There are really a lot of opportunities across the many games, tournament and ranking to be “good” somewhere. It may be a micro community but it is still great to feel success and may help to develop psychologically. Of course, there are also losers online. One cannot describe how often the word “noob” (new player but in reality more like “unskilled, stupid player”) in typed in game chat rooms.

Advice: So again, watch out, and don’t limit yourself to “he plays too much”. Ask what he does, why he does it. Once in a while he can be late at lunch for a tournament if he warned you in advance that it is important. What you do not want is an unfocused gaming that is merely passing time.

Creativity

Just search for images of Minecraft and see what happens. Google the name of any game character and see the massive amout of fan art. Look at the websites dedicated to guilds and group of players. Look at the graphics or at the quality of the role-playing texts. How many kids have begun learning more about computers while modifying “modding” games to make them better? Creativity is really were gaming shines. Not every kid will embraces these aspects, but if he does, encourage him. It’s a gateway that will let him develop many other skills.

Advice: Take interest. Don’t force a focus on traditional arts if he is already doing something creative around gaming.  

Logic

Games can really shine here. If you want to win, you need to think. It may look obvious for some strategy games, but most games require thinking. One could argue that even shooting game played in team require the elaboration of a strategy. On top of that, a deep understanding of the game is often required to optimize the play. Sure online guide dumb it down to basic information, but in many games it’s useful to know how the game engine calculate health, damages, bonuses etc… It helps to invest in the most efficient units/objects/strategies etc…

Advice: Ask your kid why does he win? “Skill” should not be the only answer. Does he have a plan? Let him explain why this or that strategy is superior (even if you clearly don’t care), and see if he is applying is brain to the game or is merely reacting to the images.

Culture

Well, first gaming is becoming a cultural object in itself. Some storylines or arts are up to the better standards. But what about the rest? I believe there are quite a few opportunities for learning through gaming. A lot of games have historical or real life setup. It’s possible to learn a considerable amount of history and geography through gaming. Sure some of these games are not exact depiction of reality, but they trigger interest. How many kids end up arguing about History after playing a game? Well, quite a lot!

Advice: Civilization (for overall culture), Paradox games (for more accuracy), Mount and Blade (for more action) and many many others…

Final words,

Gaming can be a self fulfilling hobby. It is definitively be better than TV, chilling with a beer, social networking or watching hours of funny videos on Youtube…  But to be sure:

1.       Check and challenge, why is it great, and what does he do?

2.       Try yourself, if it looks stupidly hard, maybe there is something to it?

3.       Link it to other things: Player gatherings, Book or movies about the historical theme of his games, art, programming…

To prove my point, go to my small quiz about historical knowledge, and see if you can do better than a young Civilization player?
EuroExark