by: Paul Wilson

Children spend at least 13 to 30 hours a week gaming. Most computer games are violent and aggressive and do little to inculcate moral values. Studies indicate that gaming results in aggressiveness and violent responses in children. And, children are less concerned and helpful towards their peers and families. They become socially stunted.

The onus of minimizing the effects and ensuring that children receive a rounded upbringing falls on parents. It is important to introduce character building activities and to censor games, ensuring suitability.

• Study guidelines established by the Entertainment Software Board. They indicate suitability for different age groups. Read the content label which will summarize the game, this will serve as an appropriateness guideline.

• Know your child. If you find any signs of being unsettled withdraw games that cause this change in behavior. Introduce games that titillate the imagination and make use of the mind. Avoid violence and aggression.

• Visit www.ESRB.com this provides game ratings as well as reviews.

• Rent a game and play it yourself. First hand knowledge will serve you well.

• Communicate with other parents. You will glean the trends, know the popularity.

• Play the games with your child. Know their reactions and learn their responses.

• Establish an open relationship where your child becomes comfortable even talking about what is inappropriate or disturbing. Establish gently what is right and wrong. Bullying does not help.

• Set up the computer and gaming console in a family room. All games will then be out in the open. You will be in a position to judge and monitor.

• Feel free to contact the manufacturer and voice your opinion.

• Study in detail the plus and minus points of computer usage.

• Interact with your child at all levels.

• Be a cautious buyer –question claims of advancing brain development.

• Introduce a variable routine for your child. Outdoor activities interwoven with computer related activities.

• Focus on social and emotional development. The child must be confident, curious, and forthright; display self control; be able to relate linearly, be caring and cooperative, and be communicative.

• Choose games that are fun and have a degree of effective learning.

• Introduce games that require two or more players—this fosters social interaction.

• Playing games should be a privilege not a right. Emphasize that parental approval is a must.

• Use games to maximize your child’s interests. If the child is mechanical minded purchase games that encourage this talent.

• Choose games that require decisions and strategies. Games should be more than shoot, blow up, destroy, and kill. Avoid killer machine games.

• Explain why a game is not to be played. Never just take away a game. A child needs to understand why you are against playing certain games.

Gaming is a part of life. It introduces computer technology, problem solving, and logic. It improves motor as well as spatial skills. Games are not just entertaining, they can be therapeutic too. Choose wisely and guide your child.

 by: Alex Marias

Play is a state of mind that is safe, inquisitive and exists in the moment. It is also a bodily state of relaxation and an uplifting and engaged emotional state. Some say play is a spiritual state of profound connection and joy. Play can be something we do by ourselves or with others, but it is also something we can watch others do. Play is often described as a time when we feel most alive, yet we often take it for granted and may completely forget about it. Play can be entirely positive, or have a negative.

Most people believe that play is unproductive, and therefore inferior to “productive” activities. Perhaps this is because we equate play with feeling –happy joyous feeling –that traditionally is seen as less important than thinking. Many of us have lists, at home and at the office, prioritizing tasks by how productive they are. When we run out of time, we cut the fun stuff and do the “productive” stuff because we may feel guilty or bad if we play hooky or goof off by playing a game of golf or chess, taking a hike in the woods or daydreaming for an hour. New research on the brain contradicts this cultural dismissal of play, by emphasizing the importance of feelings and the necessity of feeling safe and relaxed in order to think clearly and productively. Play teaches us how to manage and transform our “negative” emotions and experiences; it supercharges learning, and is a foundational factor in good mental and physical health. And, it can make work more pleasurable.

How can play trigger the flow state?

Psychiatrist and writer Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, (pronounced “chicks send me high”) studied play in Sidney, Australia and described it as a flow state that requires just the right balance of challenge and opportunity. If the game is too hard or too easy, it loses its sense of pleasure and fun. Maintaining a flow state in games with others requires all participants, regardless of age or ability, to feel challenged, but not overwhelmed. Csikszentmihalyi’s research has been undertaken and confirmed in several countries, and now reaches 250,000 surveys. In the flow state we feel:

Why is play an important part of our lives?

Humans are designed by nature to play, and have played throughout evolution. Playfulness is an inborn ability that is hardwired into our genetic code. Play is part of how humans have adapted and survived everywhere on Earth, from the tropics to the great deserts to the Arctic Circle. We want to play because it is instinctive and fundamental to our existence; it is one of the evolutionary mechanisms that enabled us to develop as a species. Playing helps us survive by connecting us to other human beings and to sources of energy and excitement within ourselves. Play is simultaneously a source of calmness and relaxation, as well as a source of stimulation for the brain and body.

Play will be important to our future. Some futurists have said that we’ll need to be more inventive, creative, and flexible to handle the tasks, flow and rhythm of life in this century and beyond. A sure (and fun) way to develop these abilities is to play – with your children and grandchildren, your officemates and friends.

Why is it important to play at work?

When researchers follow pre-teen children’s attitude about play, they discovered that some children called almost everything they did “play” while others called almost everything they did “work”. Reconnecting with the children at the end of adolescence, the children who thought of everything as play were more successful and happier in school and were more content socially than the people who saw everything as “work”.

Success at work does not depend on the amount of time you work. It depends upon the quality of work, and the quality of work depends on the level of well-being of the workers. The level of well-being depends significantly on the how often they replenish themselves through play in any of its forms. Work is where we spend much of our time. That is why it is especially important for us to play during work. Without some recreation, our work suffers. Most of us have been working faster, harder, and smarter, and with diminishing free time. We first thought that working faster, harder, and smarter would handle our increased workload, but that is not the case. We still got behind and became chronically overwhelmed. When the project you’re working on hits a serious glitch (as they frequently do), heading out to the basketball court with your colleagues to shoot some hoops and have a few laughs does a lot more than take your mind off the problem. If basketball isn’t your cup of tea, having a model airplane contest, telling stories, or flying kites in the parking lot will also allow your relationship to the problem to shift and enable you to approach it from a new perspective. Interjecting play into the work cycle: keeps you sane and functional during times of stress; refreshes your mind and body; renews hope; triggers creativity; and increases energy.

Playing non-violent computer games can be a great way to relax and combat stress, at home and at work, by children and adults. There are many sites on the Internet with free or resonable priced non-violent computer games, such as:

http://www.fungamesplaza.com

http://www.fungamesplaza.com/pc-kids_games.html

http://www.fungamesplaza.com/pc-addicting_games.html

http://www.amicgames.com

Children’s Entertainment – Who Needs Entertaining?

 by: Rachel Branston

What price to entertain our children? How much entertainment do our children need? At the risk of sounding like an old fuddy duddy, how were children entertained a 100 years ago when there were no television or computer games? Very simply I would imagine.

Imagination – The key to all adventures. Babies and small children will play with simple things like empty boxes, clothes pegs, pots and pans. To them they are all sorts of things because they use their imagination. They don’t expect to be entertained with expensive toys or computer systems they just need to touch and feel things to have fun. Simple songs with actions will be remembered well beyond childhood years and hopefully be passed on to the next generation of children needing to be entertained. Dressing up, making things out of cardboard and paper, the possibilities are endless all that is needed is a little imagination.

Birthday parties used to be simple affairs, nowadays our children expect to have an entertainer or bouncy castle at their parties. Whatever happened to pass the parcel or blind mans buff? The more entertainment we provide for our children the more they seem to need.

Today’s society seems to dictate the trend, maybe we should all try and steer our children gently back to simple entertainment. Switch the ‘telly’ off, dig out the board games, if you can survive the moans and groans of your children then you might just be able to persuade them that entertainment needn’t be just by means of televisions and computers. You can have fun together. You can talk and communicate and entertain each other. Go out to the theatre, see a pantomime, all good fun ways of entertaining the whole family. Memories are precious, if you have a great family night out and have fun together, you will keep the memory for a long time.

Small children used to be given colouring books and pencils, now the trend is to plonk them down in front of the television and let it entertain them. Who knows what information they are subjected to. Children will learn to be inactive, not a healthy pastime.

How often have you heard the words “I am bored”. Does this mean the child needs to be entertained? Certainly not, if you were to suggest that you can find something for them to do you will find that your child miraculously finds something to entertain them.

Something as simple as playing with a ball can be healthy, amusing, fun, and the more people taking part in the game the merrier. Which one of us hasn’t been involved in a football game or game of cricket or rounders, which has grown into an incredible amount of people on both sides. Who cared who won? Playing and entertaining you was all that mattered and it was healthy!

Interaction with others will stand our children in good stead by teaching them social skills and encouraging them to lead a healthy active lifestyle. So encourage your children to go on out there, go with them, entertain, be entertained and have fun !!!

 by: Allan T Price

The term computer game might have one more meaning than you realize.

You are familiar with one kind, games that run on computers? They are set in eras from prehistoric and Roman times up to the present, and into various wonderful and depressing future worlds.

There are also games in the physical world, played with pens and paper and imagination which involve the characters doing things in the virtual world of the Internet. Players, and the referee, sit with pen and paper pretending to be using computers. Instead of clicking a mouse to make a computer barbarian use his sword, these gamers roll dice to have their character ‘Google’ their enemy’s name, or hack into their computer.

Yes, this seem ludicrous even to me, and I’ve done it.

Remember, paper-and-pen role-playing games have evolved since their invention, just like personal computers and computer games. So, while the popular media is portraying the equivalent of ‘Pong’, gamers are playing the pen-and-paper equivalent of Myst or Dark Age of Camelot.

One of the better game systems in my opinion is The Storyteller System from White Wolf Game Studios. Mostly set in modern times, they feature werewolves called Glasswalkers who are proud of being hi-tech and fond of mobile phones and personal organizers. Another game, Mage the Ascension, features a group called the Virtual Adepts who try to help humanity and change the world for the better using computers and the Internet: Just like some people in the ‘real world’. I’m sure Virtual Adepts would love the idea of giving African children wind-up laptops.

But remember, Mage is ABOUT computers, not ON computer. Players and the referee just pretend to be using the Internet, using dice and imagination.

Of course like the rest of the world, Mage exists in the virtual world too. The storyteller games, and White Wolf, have websites devoted to them, both official and fan-based. There is a remarkable amount of good information about Mage available online.

So, you’ll find websites about how to pretend to surf the Internet, or create a website using a pen, paper, dice and your imagination. Or buy printed books online to help you play your Virtual Adept’s online adventures. You can also probably buy the same books in PDF format. This is useful if you use your laptop instead of pen and paper, as my friend Jess does.

I’m amused to imagine someone using their laptop to play Dark Age of Camelot, swinging swords in a computer generated world, while waiting for their fellow Mage players to arrive at their house. Then, when their friends ‘physically’ arrive, logging off and using their computer and a handful of dice to pretend to surf the web as a virtual adept.

 by: Nathan Holsing

There is a common misconception that you have to take out a second mortgage on your house if you want to get a computer that will run all of the latest and greatest games. I don’t know who started the rumor that you need to spend $3000 to get a gaming computer. The truth is, if you are smart about it, you can easily afford to get a high-end gaming computer. Here are a few simple rules to follow to put a gaming computer within reach.

Rule 1. Never buy the newest technology.

I know we all want to be the guy or girl with the newest toy, but you will never be able to keep up with technology. That top-of-the-line graphics card that came out today will be old news in just a couple of months and a new one will be released that is “so much better”. Guess what happens to the price of the new graphics card you just broke the bank on? It dropped by about 50%. If you would have just been patient you could have purchased it for a fraction of the cost.

Rule 2. You only have to keep up with the software.

Rule 2 closely correlates to Rule 1. It usually takes software companies two years, give or take, to develop a new game. During this time there are new technology breakthroughs. If they went back and re-engineered the game every time a new processor or a new graphics card came out, the game would never be released. Another important factor is that they want the game to be available to the largest number of consumers. For this reason they do their best to make sure the game can be played on a wide variety of systems. Check out the system requirements for some of the more popular games. A 1.8GHz processor and a Direct X 9 compatible graphics card will run just about everything out there. Granted you might have to turn some of the settings down but it will run it.

Once you reach a certain point the added performance of the new technology is noticeable. For example, the Athlon 64 chip has been out for more than a year, yet there are very few applications that require a 64 bit processor. If you check out benchmarks on the new PCI Express graphics cards you will see that they are running games at 300+ frames per second. When you watch a movie it runs at roughly 60 frames per second. A game will still run relatively smoothly at 20 frames per second. Basically anything over 60 frames per second likely will not be perceived while playing the game. You will only see the difference in your benchmark programs.

Rule 3. Build Your Own Computer

This is important for two reasons. First, you can be assured of better quality components when you pick everything out on your own. When you buy an off-the-shelf system, chances are you are getting a big name CPU and everything else is most likely generic. Do you know what motherboard, power supply, or type of RAM you are getting? This of course, is my personal opinion, I’m not saying every manufacturer builds sub standard machines, but from experience I’ve had greater longevity from the computers I’ve built myself. I’ve also noticed that you will often get little system memory, unless you pay a great deal more for it. You will often get 256MB of RAM with these base system. Windows XP will run, but likely with problems, on 256MB of RAM. It seems to be the most stable with 512MB or more. Other areas they cut costs is by using integrated graphics chips. This saves them having to put in a graphics card, but you will pay the price for it when you try to play a game.

The second reason to build your own computer is that you can cut your costs by stealing parts from your old computer. You can save hundreds of dollars by reusing the drives, case, monitor, keyboard and mouse. Plus, you don’t have to worry about calling a technician to install RAM or a new graphics card because you’ll already know how to do it.

How Much Can You Build A Computer For?

I just checked out some pricing and you can build a very nice midrange gaming computer for around $600-$700 using an AMD Athlon 64 3000+. If you can steal a DVD drive from your old computer and maybe the case, you can bring the cost down even more. You can build a high-end machine for under $1000. The internet is full of useful websites about how to build computers. Look around and you’ll find all the information you need. There are several books published about the topic as well. If you follow these simple rules and do a little research you can enjoy all of the best computer games even if you are on a shoestring budget.