My Interview with a Gamer

A friend of mine's son, who is a senior in HS, was very candid about his online gaming experiences.  Just to get an idea, he is gaming from 5 to 10pm on school days after his sports or when he doesn't have any after school sports, from 3 to 10pm.   Then he gets kicked off to shower and go to bed.

He seems to have gravitated to games that he had a prior off-line interest in, such as those involving characters from Lord of the Rings, Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology, and Norse mythology.  Liking Lord of the Rings in middle school, he found an interest in Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, or just Oblivion. He likes the fact that it brings you to a made up world.  To me, this is the same attraction I feel for a book when I can picture the characters and the setting.

For roll playing games he also liked Fall Out.  It is based on a post apocalyptic current time that is 50 years after the "nuke was dropped in the 50's." He likes the fact that he is able to rebuild society. I found this same appeal with other gamers I spoke with.

As for "shooters," he likes Call of Duty and Halo on his XBox.  He said that at the entry to each level there is a video about different battles fought in WWII.  He felt he learned more from these videos about various historical events, than he did in school!  WOW!  That got me thinking that using the videos and getting kids to watch them is an important learning tool on these games. The only way to get some kids to watch them and not skip them would be to have useful information given in these videos to help them later in the course of the game. I can see a great tool for historical perspective that I would not have otherwise thought of.  Imagine a game that recreated the Civil War?

The negatives he found were it is very addictive and there are some mean people.  He said that you can mute anyone who is inappropriate and he is generally not bothered too much by them.  When I asked if he felt that he had as much a social life when he is at home, he said he did. Whether he is hanging with his friends at his house or everyone at their own houses on headsets playing together, it wasn't much different. He did admit that he felt less inhibited to say or try something while role playing than in real life. He felt role playing actually gave him more courage to approach people in real life situations because of the role playing experience.  I am glad that I had that conversation with him. His perspective was very interesting.

Just in case you were wondering, Dragon Age 2 came out the next day and he got it.  He has Dragon Age 1 and recommends it.  After a follow-up conversation with his mother, she reports that he has now taken over the living room large screen TV for better and bigger graphics.  I am sure there will be future conversations in regards to this at their home.