What's this? An article on a mainstream news site proclaiming that gaming will not turn our children into mini Charles Mansons? It's true!
According to a story published at MSNBC, the Pew Internet & American Life Project is discovering that online games are positively affecting our children's civic experiences. The research doesn't simply track how much time kids are spending in social games, but it's delving into what the children are doing with that time.
"Video games can provide hands-on learning opportunities for kids that can be much more meaningful than reading a textbook," this article states. It goes on to make an interesting analysis of social interaction in our favorite online games, "Helping a newbie get his sea legs in a game simulates the real-world experience of volunteering. And playing games online can expose kids to people with worldviews that differ from their own - in positive and negative ways."
source : www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26726230/
This is a nice change.
Wed Sep 17 2008 8:00AMIt is a nice change, but if you read it, it seems a little misleading. It sounds like they mostly talked to people who play casual puzzle games, not people who play WoW for 4 hours a day. I've met plenty of girls who tell me they play games, and they mean they used to play nintendo as a kid. There are also plenty of guys who say it, who only play Madden and maybe Halo. That obviously counts as having played games, but no one ever doubted that people who barely play games had social lives. Of course I also don't think those people learn anything meaningful from games. In fact I'd say the only people who learn things from games are the people who didn't need to in the first place in order to be good citizens.
Wed Sep 17 2008 8:46AMWhatever keeps them off the streets, the little hooligans ;)!
Wed Sep 17 2008 11:05AMhmm.. yah its a bit vague. i also know games can help kids learn, hell im 21 and i just learned what a comma splice was (thanks persona 3!) but i do belive they can help, i dont think so much the gun filled bloody games, but more of the cutesy 'life lesson' games yah...
Wed Sep 17 2008 12:54PMYou get two kinds of games
Educational which are basically spell the word to make the duck dance...
And the other kind Warcraft for example which gets addictive.. You play it because your bored When you get bored of Warcraft you play more Warcraft because your bored.. etc Bloody or not games that arent developed to be educational just aint.
Games take us away from the boring world where our most excitement is probably sex.. Where as ina game you can be a famous dragon slayer or and all powerful Wizard or the most evilest guy in the world. Without harming anyone maybe your physical health but your gonna die some day anyway.
Enough said games dont help your kids out but dont bust there balls for playing em.
Wed Sep 17 2008 5:43PMI knew playing WoW excessivley was good for something.
Wed Sep 17 2008 9:00PM99% of the MMO that are out today are nothing more than a waste of time.
Educational games ??????
Wed Sep 17 2008 11:09PMActually to tell you the truth my first MMO was Runescape and that was medieval times that helped me in social studies alot, I didn't even know what was a sapphire in 3rd grade and I answered it , Games like WW1 or WW2 are not educational games but you learn from them, Empires of the New World shows you how the make colonies , that is a big help in American History , Not every game does that but it also does make you start thinking about things for instance COH made me think about how similar crime life is exactly like it , Sims is exactly how life works and how you do your plan on that game you can do it on the real-life making it look simple, and it makes you think about life to. All I am saying is that their are games that are not toward in being educational but they do help , people should not spend 4 hours on games, they should think about their future, school, exc.
Thu Sep 18 2008 12:21AMAnother thing is that WOW , first of all is no were near educational , Buisnesses are thinking of making workers play MMORPG because when you go farm you get something out of it right , thats what buisnesses want - money.
Thu Sep 18 2008 12:23AMMMORPG.com writes:
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