Vidja games and gaming in general

I was going to put this post in the technology post, but it ran much longer than I wanted to, and I still didn't get everything across that I want to.  So, I decided to put this relatively quick post in it's own post.  I think I'll say the word post just a few more times... post post post.

Your mother severely doesn't like video games, possibly hates them.  I'm fairly certain I drove her to the negative side of opinion on video games; I believe she was fine with them before, but I drove her to the loathing, so you can blame me.  That's not to say she hates all forms of entertainment that require interaction and a display; she loves some things like Rockband; at one point she said she even liked some of the Move Sports Champion games.  I believe her dislike comes from her perception that video games take away from other responsibilities.

First I want to tackle my disagreement that many people (including your mother) view video games as a generally negative thing.  I think it's pretty unanimous (as unanimous as a society can get) that reading is good and video games are bad (other than video games that are designed specifically to teach); it's always better to go read The Hunger Games than it is to go play Uncharted.  I believe it's even more acceptable to go watch a show on TV than it is to play video games, now that's a mindset I'll never get behind.  I honestly don't see why, and I know I'm not the only person, but I know this is a chasm between your mom and me.

Stop playing Brain Age and why don't you watch Jersey Shore or something?!?!

Books consist of a story, told to you by someone, in a static way, and you have no influence on the story.  But, you're engaged because it's a "theater of the mind" thing; your brain is creating the scenery based off suggestions by the author, you create the voices for the characters, etc.  Not only are you being transported to another place and/or time, but your brain is actively creating it; influenced by the writer, but ultimately it's your creation.  Television is much like a book, without all the personal creativity; there's a reason they call it the boob tube.  The creators of a show tell you a story, and they provide the set pieces, you know exactly how a character looks and sounds because... she's right there, and the story continues at its own pace without any interaction from you what-so-ever except to turn on the TV.  In a video game, you've got the basis of a story and you've even got the imagery fed to you much like a TV show or movie, but the twist is you influence the story itself.  You have to figure out what to do next, and you have to have the skill to actually do it; you might even be able to experience the story in different ways, or the story might end up differently due to your choices.

So a video game takes away the "theater of the mind" but gives you power over the story.  To me, playing video games is on par with reading a book.  Sure, there are games out there that are mind numbing, or games that don't really have a point, but there are plenty of books like that too.

I think I completely ruined games for your mom in two ways.  I arrived and married your mom around the time your siblings were young teenagers; I brought with me the newest fangled gadgetry in gaming.  I also as an adult was a regular gamer, something your mom hadn't really come across, at least in a day-to-day interactive way, before I believe.  So your siblings, Caleb more so than Promise and Promise more so than Charity, had access to better gaming and their tastes started growing beyond "casual" video gaming.  As a child, video games did provide a degree of a distraction for me; there were times I'd choose video games over doing something I should've been doing (chores, homework, etc.).  I might be thinking about how to beat a certain boss instead of focusing on the lesson the teacher was giving.  I could argue that my mind was wandering, it just happened to be about games; blaming video games would be a scapegoat because if I didn't have video games, I'd just be thinking of whatever it was I was interested in (sports, building stuff, etc.).  But I won't make that argument, I will freely admit it was video games that had me distracted.  As an adult, however, video games don't really distract me; if I'm playing a video game, it's because as far as I know, I've taken care of everything.  Now I probably have simply forgotten something (as forgetfulness is a character defining trait for me unfortunately if you haven't already picked up on that), but I definitely do not choose to play games when I know I could/should be doing something else; if I didn't have video games, I'd just be watching TV, or reading a book, or napping.  Blaming video games, for me as an adult now, is definitely a scapegoat tactic.

So, if there's one thing I can bank on, it that you're going to play video games (yes, I could end up being wrong and I'd be perfectly fine with that, but I would find it sad that here's one thing that we could've shared a passion for).  But, I will do my best to teach you to be a responsible gamer; to teach you to game in moderation.  Like anything, there's a time for gaming and there's a time for working.  I hope to teach you how very low of a priority gaming should be.  I hope that you'll enjoy all kinds of games, from shooters, to adventures, to story driven, to mindless gem matching.  I hope that you have such a broad horizon of video game enjoyment, it doesn't become an obsession.  I hope you'll rather go play kickball with your friends than to go play ANY video game; I hope playing video games is just one of a plethora of ways you get entertainment as well as interaction with other people.  I especially hope you're not just a video gamer, but a gamer in general.

I hope you love board games, card games, role playing games, role playing board games that have lots of cards.  Sure, you may end up being a sports jock for all I know, and I'll support you as best as I know how, but I'll tell it'll be hard for me because where as I enjoy sports, they're not that high on my list of things to enjoy.  I played baseball from 2nd grade through 9th grade; I LOVED playing volleyball every Sunday at Youth Group; I enjoyed playing football whenever the "group" would decide to.  But they were never really that much of a "focus" for me; although even sports are a type of game.

And most importantly I hope you learn how to play games (physical or video) for fun, not to win.  Winning is definitely fun, and you should always play to the best of your abilities, but focusing on winning can be detrimental to your overall enjoyment.  First off, if winning is your first goal then you'll also need to learn how to lose gracefully; if winning is your first goal, then the other people you're playing with might have less fun.  But if your first goal is to have fun, when you lose you can still get enjoyment from the experience, and you'll be sure to be a source of fun for the people you're playing with.

"Technology"... ewww

This might sound like a contradiction, but I'm not a fan of today's technology... for the most part; I'm especially not a fan of technology that makes the world smaller.  You can take any one one piece of technology and say "See, this isn't so bad," but a combination of all this technology, and our reliance on it, is what worries me.  What worries me even more is that, like many things, you'll either end up on my side of the fence and all the kids will make fun of you, "Ha ha, I can't believe your parents won't let you have a cell phone, I mean, we're in 4th grade, your parents are so lame,"  (Note: I don't care if your friends think I'm lame) or you'll be like most people MY age and your age, in which case it's going to be a constant struggle between you and me.

Ha ha, your dad won't let you get Brain Jack^tm, you have to use your
phone with your hands, you're so lame.

I was originally going to give a section about cell phones and another section about computers, but they're already blending today (yes, there once was a time when a cell was just a way to call people, and maybe do some basic functions like a calculator), who knows what's going to happen in the next 10~20 years, so I'll try to talk about them together.  Computers, especially mobile devices, give us unprecedented access to all knowledge... pretty much anywhere, anytime.  It's not the information that's new, or the amount of it, it's the accessibility to it that has me worried.  Why will we, as people in general, ever need to "learn" anything other than learning how to find the knowledge?  Yes, having the ability to seek out knowledge is important, arguably more important than the having of said knowledge itself, but that doesn't mean we should not strive to learn that knowledge for ourselves.  I've often seen kids who put off doing work now-a-days because they know the information is right there, over at the desk where the computer sits; they don't have a certain window in which they can access the information or to go to a specific place to get that knowledge (i.e. go to a library when it's open).  And this is coming from me, a true procrastinator if there ever was one.

I believe there's something to be gained by having the discipline to plan to set aside time to do the work.  I'm not talking about doing the actual work.  A research paper isn't going to write itself, it's always going to require time to actually write up the paper; the information that's out there isn't going to gather and organize itself, you still have to do it.  I'm talking about planning ahead; back in the days of yore (i.e. my childhood), I had to say to myself, "OK, the library is closed on Sundays and it's only open until 6:00.  I get out of school at 2:30, so I've got to head over there right after school to do this research.  Since this is due on Monday, I have to make sure all my materials are gathered prior to Saturday."  I believe this unlimited access to knowledge is making us lazier.  And if I do things to try and instill in you those, what I believe to be, important values it will, again, drive a wedge between us because you simply can't understand why when you see all your friends who are carrying all the information the Internet holds in the palm of their hands.  Yes, it's convenient to have this knowledge at our disposal, I'm not knocking the access itself, I'm knocking our reliance on it.

With this unlimited access to this information also comes unlimited access to each other.  I believe we, as human beings, aren't meant to be as connected as we are, or at least how we're becoming.  When God confused the languages at Babel, maybe He did it simply to spread the tribes to repopulate the Earth, or maybe He did it because he knew that we weren't meant to be that connected with that many people.  I believe most of the Laws he gave to Moses weren't because he was lording rules over us, it wasn't a power trip, I believe all of His commandments are because He knows how we work, He knows what's best for us.  What I know is that I don't like being so accessible to everyone; I don't want people to know what I'm doing every moment of every day.  I like that I have the ability to reach someone at anytime, wherever they are, but I don't expect or rely on that connection; I know that if I want to make sure someone is available for something, I need to plan for it, and if plans couldn't be made then it's just a shame if that connection can't be made.  There used to be a time when, if a child couldn't get permission from his parent he wouldn't do it (or he would do it and know he would get punished if he got caught).  Today I see too often children saying, "Well, I texted you that I was going over the Frank's house," or, "I called your cell phone..."  It seems like because now we have this always available connection to each other, we shifted our thinking from "I couldn't get in contact with them because maybe they're out in the field doing work, we'll have to hold off on doing this until I get in touch them," to, "Well, they're not answering their phone, they must not care if we do this so let's just go ahead and do it."

Again, I think it's unhealthy as a people and I'm worried that you'll either agree with me and be ostracized, or you'll be like everyone else and and just have another barrier between us.