| |
| |
|
|
|
|
A Parents Guide to Online Gaming, Part 2
In part 1 we talked about online gaming and your children, including FPS games and exposure to violent content. We wrap up this week by talking about RTS games, MMORPGs and the additional threats of addiction and social predators. RTS stands for Real Time Strategy. Strategy because these games generally take a much larger perspective, casting the player as a general or commander of an army or even the leader of a civilization rather than as a single person. Real Time because the action moves forward whether the player acts or not. The alternative to Real Time is turn-based strategy, where each player moves in turn, taking whatever time they need. Turn based games tend to have deeper strategic components and complex non-military progressions that make them less popular with children. RTS games are a relatively benign genre, as they abstract the violence and conflict out to at least the unit level, removing much of the graphic gore found in FPS games and reducing it to numbers and lost units. They also tend to have complicated decision structures, making playing them a good exercise in critical thinking. Those same quick, complex decisions make this type of game difficult to look away from, particularly if the player is competing online where there may not be a pause button. Due to the less graphic content, this type of game doesn't require as intense parental scrutiny as some others may, but it's a good idea at least to casually observe a game and possibly to learn what the loading screen looks like so you can tell when "Just a minute" means "I'm in the middle of something," and when it means "I just don't want to do whatever you want me to do." MMORPG stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. They are descended from older, single player, RPGS. In this context, an RPG is a game that tells an evolving story using characters defined by various skills, attributes, and professions. The Massively Multiplayer part of the name comes from the fact that there can be upwards of several thousand players in a game world that may have surface area to rival small states. It is difficult to express how large and complicated these games can be. Accept that your children will talk about things you don't understand, often about equipment or items they've acquired or battles they've fought. Put on your best "That's nice dear" face and let it go. While it never hurts to try out the games your children play, you wont get nearly as much benefit from logging on to a MMORPG for a bit to see what its like, as they require a sizeable time investment to even get a feel for what's going on. That time investment gives rise to one of the biggest problems with MMORPGs. A gaming writer once suggested that MMORPG should be pronounced Morgue, because once you go in, you never come out. If your children are starting to get heavily into this type of game, watch how they spend their time. The game will always present something new to do, some greater hill to climb, and it can be easy to get caught up. Talk with your kids, make sure they know the limits on how much of their time they can spend playing, and what they need to get done first. That said; understand that they are often going to be playing the game with other people, to whom they may have made some degree of commitment. Be flexible and use your judgment when deciding whether to let them keep playing. Generally, it's better not to let them start if you aren't sure then to try to get them to stop once they've begun. Lean toward get your homework done first over quit in time to get your homework done. Playing a game with thousands of others will expose your children to a wide variety of people. Most of them will be harmless, some will be helpful and a few will likely come to be good friends. However, there are a select few with malicious intent, just as there are in any large group. The fear here is much like that felt in letting your children use chat rooms or instant messaging service. The good news is that the type of real social predator parents fear are far less likely to in a game world, because the game itself is much more complicated than simply logging on to a chat room. Make sure your kids know that the danger exists, that they shouldn't let anyone know anything more than generalities about whom they are outside the game, that there are bad people in the world. Ask them about their friends online, see what they know about them, watch for the same warning signs you would with any stranger that spends a lot of time with your kids. Again, most players are harmless or better, but you're far better off being informed and watchful than complacent and hopeful. We've barely touched the surface of the possibilities of online gaming, but hopefully you are better informed about what your children may be doing. Gaming is as good as any hobby and better than many. It has a lot of positive developmental benefits, but as with any activity out of your control there are things to watch for. Make clear, knowledgeable decisions about what's right with your kids and stick to them. In the long run, they'll thank you for it. Steve is a member of the GrandMatrix team. They provide a broad range of games and puzzle articles and reviews. Read more articles and play the latest PC games for free plus thousands of user submitted puzzles, quizzes and word games at GrandMatrix Free Game Downloads
MORE RESOURCES:
Games - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
$20 Buys a Lot of Game These Days Watching the evolution of sports games has been like watching a retarded child grow up to become a handsome and brilliant Master of the Universe. Now I'm not saying ESPN's NBA 2K5 is the pinnacle of sports gaming, but I will tell you why it comes pretty damn close - especially for all of us basketball fanatics. Guns Dont Kill People - Videogames Do! "Ban these evil games", "Videogame violence corrupting our nation's youth", "video games stole my husband". It seems everyday that the media are making more and more claims about the evils of videogames. Sega Dreamcasts Cause of Death? What ever happened to that game console we used to call the Sega Dreamcast? Why did it suddenly disappear after 2 years of production? Was the government involved in brainwashing our minds like in George Orwell's 1984? All these questions will be answered as I investigate the Dreamcast's devastating decline.IntroductionIn the beginning it was good. Ten Things You Should Know in Video Games BloodRayne | It's Zero Hour | Midasplayer | The latest in online gaming | Computer GamesYou are not an hardcore person in playing video Games and if you want to know the facts which I set hereunder, there are many attraction in playing video which I may share an idea to those wish to play video games:1. Two giant video games company, that is ATARI and SEGA having its own unique historical. 10 Innovative Game Features Watch yourself struggle, sweat, collapse as you turn your video game console into a personal trainer.Here are ten ways the latest development by Eye-Toy technology is doing away with the couch-potato stigma that's commonly attached to gaming, and developing the hottest new innovation moving the video game industry right now. Solitaire RULES Half Life DROOLS It's a popularity contest.Solitaire is hip, cool, and way more popular than Half Life 2. Free Pocket PC Casino Game Casino Gambling Wherever You LikeAre you absolutely crazy about pocket pc gaming? One of the very best things about pocket pc casino games is that nearly all of them are free games. There is a free pocket pc casino game everywhere you look on the Internet. Reviving Old Computer Games Remember the good old days of gaming, when there were only 5 pixels in the protagonist and your imagination could turn them into a heroic figure of Schwarzenegger proportions? When the enemies and the heroes were distinguished by colour and you only needed one button on the joystick? Well times have changed and technology has moved on. Pulling my old Commodore 64 or Atari out of the back of the cupboard and setting them up often takes more time than the nostalgic pang lasts. A Comparison Of the Next Generation Gaming Consoles (Part 2) Arguably Microsoft can attribute a great deal of its success to the hugely successful online capabilities. The new Xbox 360 will continue with the online feature and develop it even further. A Parents Guide to Online Gaming, Part 1 The internet touches every aspect of your children's lives. Where you might look up an unknown word in a dictionary, your kids are more likely to use dictionary. Directional Afterburners for Tighter Turns, Vertical Flight and Agility Directional Thrusters can increase the maneuverability of just about any modern jet fighter.http://www. Play a Cool Jeep Game Online If there were anything that could excite a Jeep enthusiast more than a 4x4 trail run, it would have to be a Jeep game! Jeep games are as close to the real thing as you can possibly get without actually being in a Jeep. The best part about Jeep games online are they are completely free, so play away to your heart's content. UAV GeoBat Balloon Radar Decoy Strategies A GeoBat small UAV might be the perfect platform for an enemy radar decoy and disruption balloon concept. A swarm of GeoBat UAVs could be hand launched and sent into enemy territory and travel using tiny amounts of fuel. Flying an MAV Through Fan Blades to Attain Target Flying an MAV Through Rotating Fan Blades - It maybe possible to write into the software code of a MAVs Optic Flow Sensor Network an algorithm, which would allow it to fly though a rotating set of fan blades. Now then as difficult as this may sound the idea might not be as complicated as you think. Indie Games that Made It to the Tops of the Charts this Year 1. Platypus http://www. Playing Games Like Its 80s Do you miss the good old 80's Amiga and Commodore games? You are not the only one. In fact, creating remakes for popular eighties games is all the rage. RPG: Table and Computer It's not a secret that table RPG games are not so popular as they used to be. However a certain number of amateurs are still fond of them. Sapphire Tipped UAVs for Midair Collisions to Defeat Enemy UAV Swarm Threats Defeating enemy UAV Swarms will be a challenge for our Net-Centric Blue Force Team. When our enemy launches 1000 UAVs at our forces in the battlespace, will we be able to shoot them all down? The answer is most likely no. Free Games For Your Pocket PC Admit It-You're Often BoredA pocket pc has about a million uses. But one of the most popular uses of a pocket pc is to play games on it. Best of British: Gizmondo Doomed To Fail? The Gizmondo combined media player, phone and gaming gadget went on sale in the last month for 229. The device sports an impressive spec: - It can be used to play games, music tracks and movies, it can take and store digital photos and can send SMS, MMS and emails, GPS, GPRS and Bluetooth for multi-player gaming.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
