Ask GamerDad 5/2/08
Posted on May 4th, 2008 by
Not to take anything away from the special Grand Theft Auto IV Edition of my column, but the newest edition has arrived and with it I move away from GTA and talk about game addiction, Portal, and just a little bit more!
May 5th, 2008 at 6:52 am
I definitely agree on Prtal, and was glad to see the ESRB rated it T on its’ own. I let my kids play a bit with me and found it a bit edgy but nothing out of control.
General observation – has there ever been a kid looking to play a game that is beyond his years in terms of ESRB rating that has NOT said “I’ve played / watched / read X [insert more advanced media here] and have not become a murderer / been affected / turned out bad”. Just playing devil’s advocate here, that sort of inverse logic is inherently flawed – heck, when I was born mothers routinely smoked and drank – something that has been medically shown to be dangerous to a fetus to the extent that there have been laws considered and lawsuits filed about ‘reckless endangerment’ … yet the overwhelming majority of us turned out fine.Two things about that:
– Lack of demonstrated harm doesn’t equate to lack of potential harm.
– The ‘subject’ of exposure to something, particularly when they have a vested interest, is almost never an objective witness to effects.
… all that said, I think that you should show Portal to your parents and demonstrate to them that it is one of the most fun puzzlers in recent memory.
On the subject of ‘addiction’, us gamers toss the word around casually in a very positive way. For us (ok, for me) telling my wife at 9PM ‘just a few more minutes’, then muttering ‘uh huh’ when she says she’s going to bed. and finally realizing that it is 1AM and I have to get up in less than four hours to exercise before work … that game was *addictive*!
But addiction has biological and psychological implications. GamerDad mentions the ‘physical addiction’, but there is also psychological addiction, which is where gaming gets involved. Think for a moment about gambling – there are treatment centers for ‘gambling addiction’, yet there is nothing in there that is physically addictive. As GamerDad mentions, teens love going over-the-top with stuff – and we adults see warning signs everywhere. So there has to be a middle ground.
I suggest that you work with your kids and look at how the game threads through their lives. If it complements their other stuff well, it shows that they are mature and have balance, even if it doesn’t look that way. But if they are routinely spending 6 hours on WoW rather than studying – and their grades and other activities / relationships are suffering, then perhaps there is a problem. That doesn’t mean look for the local ‘Gamers Anonymous’, but instead do some parenting and help them manage their time as GamerDad says. WoW and others like that have tools to monitor online time, and if you make use of them as well as throttling control over the PC, you should be able to come up with a system that works. Of course, I left out the huge battle in the middle, but you’re a parent of teens, so I figured it was implied 😉
May 5th, 2008 at 9:08 am
I’d agree with Mike that Portal is pretty “Edgy”… its a funny trade-off in that the machine guns are a bit violent for youngsters, while the dark psychological humor in the game would go over their heads.
I’m definitely on the “T for teen” box here due to the disturbing psychology stuff… trying to kill of the test subject, some of the insane ramblings on the walls, etc…
May 6th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Heh, I’ve beenn getting some pretty hateful messages from kids because they thought I was going to recommmend GTA IV for teens. I’m not. But to be honest, the ones who are writing to me – even the ones who are pretending poorly to be their parents – are showing a certain “light a candle ‘stead of cursing the darkness!” initiative.
Also, Mike, if you think about it, by referencing the movies/books/other games that the kid CAN play means thew basic argument these kids are using is precedent. Like our legal system they’re trying to get to play GTAIV and using precedent to make the argument.
Good show!
May 6th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Very true, GamerDad – but it wasn’t the precedent thing I was talking about … it was the ‘no damage’ thing.