| |
| |
|
Game Information |
|
|
|
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.com. Where you use the telephone, they use instant messenger. An even greater difference can be found in how they play games. Where the games of their parent's generation may have involved a board, cards, or at their most sophisticated a console system, the games your children play on the net can be far more complex. They mine gold, spread empires, fight dragons and aliens alone or with tens, hundreds, even thousands of their fellow gamers. All of this makes for a confusing mish mash of names, places, jargon and lingo that can leave you with no idea what your kids are actually doing and a vague feeling of uneasiness that some part of it might not be good for them. What's appropriate for your kids is a decision only you can make. How much violence they are exposed to, how much time they spend in front of a screen and how much contact they have with the faceless strangers so common to the net are all questions you must grapple with and, in the end, decide for your family. While we can't help you make these rough decisions, we can certainly help you get the information you need to understand your children's hobbies better, both to make informed judgments about what they should and should not be doing, and to help you reach into another part of their lives that may have previously seemed like something of a puzzle box. The Easy Stuff The simplest type of online game is the sort of Flash or Java driven game that you generally see running inside your web browser. This type of game tends to be relatively simple compared to the stand alone games discussed later. Common examples include Bejeweled, Zuma, and Diner Dash. These games are almost universally single player and have none of the sort of violent or mature content that keeps parents up at night. Were they movies, they would be G Rated, with perhaps the occasional game stretching to PG. If this is the type of game your kids are into then first, be relieved. Then, try the game out. Many of these games can be very enjoyable for even the most casual of players. Some, such as Bookworm, even have genuine educational content. These games can be as much an opportunity for bonding and learning as throwing around a baseball in the backyard, and have the added bonus of being much easier to get your kids to sit down with you and play. FPSs: Finding Something to Shoot. FPS stands for First Person Shooter. They are First Person in the same since that a story might be. That is, the player sees the world through the eyes of a single character and interacts with the game environment as though he were that character. Shooter comes from the primary goal of most such games, the shooting of whatever happens to be the bad guy. FPS games are among some of the most popular online. Common examples include Doom, Battlefield:1942, and the X-Box game Halo. From a parental perspective, these games can be cause for concern. They vary widely in the amount of realism, degree of violence, language, and general attitude. The only way to get a good idea of the content issues is to watch the particular game. If your kids don't want you watching while they play, then fire up the game yourself sometime when they aren't around. There is a sizeable variation in how violent and how personal FPS content can be from game to game. The single player portion of Halo, for example, has players fighting against alien invaders with largely energy weapons and a minimum of realistic human suffering. In contrast, WWII themed games tend to go out of their way to show realistic violence. Given the subject matter, this is appropriate for the game, but may not be for your kids. Online play presents a potentially greater concern. The goal of online FPS games is almost always killing other players. While some games do have various modes where this is a secondary goal, all of them give the player a gun and encourage him to use it on characters representing other people. Simulated gore and the use of violence against others to achieve goals may be things you don't want your kids exposed to. Again, these are your decisions to make, but we encourage you to make them with as much information as possible. Talk to your kids. Find out what they think, in their words, is going on in the game. Make sure they see the line between what happens in the game and what happens in the real world, between what it's okay to simulate and what it's okay to do. The answers may surprise you. If your children understand the differences, see real violence as deplorable and simulated violence as part of the game then FPS games, even online ones, can be a perfectly healthy way to have fun and let off steam. In the end, it falls on you to make sure that what your child gets out of the game is good for him or her. Next time, we'll talk about RTS and MMORPG, the two other common types of commercial online game and touch on the twin demons of addiction and predation. 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: http://www.grandmatrix.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
The Game Tester It's not easy to be a hardcore gamer. It's hard. UAV Swarm Reconfiguration for computer war games The modern battlespace is changing in the real world and in the very near future swarms of UAVs with be a tactic and weapon of choice. Is your computer game software ahead or behind the curve of inovation. Malicious Advertising Advertising is a necessary irritant in the world today. You can't drive down the street without coming across an ad, either a billboard suspended over a road or a large poster plastered down the side of a bus. Popular Electronic Games - They Are Not Just For Kids Anymore Superheroes battle monsters and space invaders in fast action games. Players take on the role of these superheroes in epic battles. 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. Computer Game on Mars; Design for Communication Device Powering up hand held wireless devices in the field for Business Uses, Educational Issues, Monitoring Sensors for Security Purposes or Blue Force Tracking for military troops in the field for net-centric warfare is possible even in the most remote locations can be possible using simple principles which will provide small amounts of energy. There are a few new innovative ways to do this, which appear to have been overlooked. Computer Traumas It has happened! Computer games have started to control my life on and off the screen. No complicated games like Age of Empires, just the simple one of Tetris. PC Gaming Video: Meeting the Demands If you have an interest in playing PC games that were made at least in the past couple of years, you've probably seen the serious video demands these games now have. It's not only that you need a fast system that can handle all of the information in today's games, but you need a major performance video card to handle computer game video too. How To Save Time, Energy, and Money by Renting Your DVDs and Games Online As a bit of a movie buff I recently discovered that the best way to rent movies and games these days is online using one of the Online DVD and Game Rental Services.If you're into renting movies or games these services simply can't be beat for their time saving convenience and value. Securing Your Accounts With Well-Crafted Passwords In the past I've never really paid much attention to security issues when it comes to user names and passwords. Frankly I figured it was all a lot of overblown hype. Codename Revolution - Nintendos Next Generation Gaming System Over the past year or so plenty of hype, mystery and controversy has been raised over the new Nintendo Console. Systems like the Xbox have taken the lead in gaming with offering capabilities such as online multiplayer. UAV; Hunter II and RQ-1A Predator UAVs Needs Additional Modifications Since the Predator has inverted "V" shaped stabilizers these stabilizers should contain wheel pants and wheels underneath to lessen weight and save costs in manufacturing, we need to bring down the costs of these units. Less mechanism will save weight and we can use that savings in weight for increased payload or more fuel to extend loitering time. Halo 2 Multiplayer Tips for Beginners and Advanced players Here are some general tips from an advanced player for all of you who are looking for an edge in this game. You may know some or all the things in this article depending on your skill level. Another Title by Atari Released on StarForce Protected DVDs "Atari has selected StarForce to protect their brand-new game called Race Driver 2", a supervisor from StarForce has stated today."Race Driver 2" is produced by Codemasters and distributed by Atari. 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. A Comparison Of the Next Generation Gaming Consoles (Part 1) It's been about 5 years since we have seen a new video game console. By spring of next year all three major companies will have released their new systems. Drawing Hand Held Surface to Air Missile Fire at Night Using UAVs One of the easiest ways to draw shoulder launched missiles at night is to fly UAVs very close and use the simulated sound of an Apache Attach Helicopter, Howling of a jet fighter or a few UAVs flying together the combined sound of a four engine transport. At night you could have a few UAVs with strobe lights or a tint of green glow simulating reflections off the canopy of an attack helicopter along with sound used by a whistler on the UAV, or even a whistler, which mimicked a high frequency sound which caused their equipment to whistler. 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. 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. 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.
|
| Article List | Index | Site Map |
|
All logos, trademarks and articles on this site are property and copyright of their respective owner(s).
The comments are property of their posters, all the rest is Copyright © 2006 CanadaSEEK.com - All Rights Reserved. |
