Episode 34: Re. The kid that doesn't know his role...

Says Leala and Kenny... who DON'T HAVE KIDS! lol

Seriously though, it is all up to the parents to gauge what the kid is into, and what the kid wants out of playing... WoW or any other game. I don't feel that Haf, me, the listener who wrote the e-mail, or any other parent, should be judged or belittled if they are letting their kids play games, and determining what they what their kid to get out of the game.

Last night I played WoW with my son and all he wanted to do was help the neighbor girl in the level 1 starting area. Fine, let's run around in circles killing plainstriders. I am down for what he wants to do. But, when it comes time to do quests, he knows how to assist, loot, and be responsible with chat. In general, I am teaching my kid how NOT to be a dumbass. That is what he wants out of the game, and that's what I want to teach him. And I would get that much out of fucking Club Penguin or Free Realms, or whatever else we would play together.

Go squeeze out a kid. I bet your views would be different. They don't come with a manual on how to do things... you have to figure it out for yourself. Haf and I grasp onto EVERYTHING that interests our son and use it as a teaching tool. "You like reading Captain Underpants because it is funny? HERE, I will buy you the entire fucking series!"... "Yes, Lego Star Wars is awesome, and you are great at it! If you save up money you can get Lego Batman and Lego Indiana Jones!"... Every occasion holds varied opportunities for teaching life lessons. If it happens to be in a video game, fucking kill me for trying.

Kenny D wrote:

I'm never going to ween any life lessons away from the game, and I think if I did I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the mirror.

As a parent, I look for every opportunity I can find to help my son become a better person. Whether that's just being a good citizen or knowing how a toaster works (he likes science so electricity is a fun subject for him). If he says there is a lot of heat coming off the stove while Stomp is cooking, I will tell him how heating elements on the stove work. He says he's hungry and would like something to eat and asks if he can help cook it, we talk about how the microwave works. I could either look at all the mundane things around me as being mundane or I can take the opportunities I find to help my child learn from them. I suppose, ultimately, it just depends on how you look at it.

There are lessons in virtually everything you do if you bother to look for them. If you don't realize that THEN you shouldn't be able to look at yourself in the mirror.

Just to clarify a couple of things in case you misunderstood. None of my examples or anything I was saying was directed at you, Stomp and Haf and how your raise your family. I never mentioned you two specifically because I'm fairly certain you don't do the things I used as examples and because you already told us all how you play with your kid. Ie, he enjoys the game, you play in the way he enjoys and limit his time to an appropriate level. That was never in question to me.

The discussion was in relation to the listener that (from the limited portion of the email we heard) sounded as if he was pushing his kid to care about an area of the game he didn't care about on his own. And pushing him to perform to adult standards. Two things that I think are inappropriate. I gathered this from your reactions and responses on the podcast where you talked only about teaching game mechanics for the sake of the kid playing better so he wouldn't screw up in a group and piss people off.

There was no mention of any other learning or teaching method or valuable take-away from game time. I don't disagree with what you are saying here about things like teaching him to be respectful of others online, etc. But again, what I was reacting to was what I heard on the show which didn't mention that, or things like playing more age appropriate games. It felt like the answer given to the question was very literal like "how do I get my kid to not suck at playing a hunter?" and you gave literal answers instead of evaluating the question and the context of the question. That's what I'm trying to do, evaluate the question and the context as a spark for discussion. I'm not saying that I think you act in the ways I've used as worse case scenario examples. (Calling the kid a huntard because he messes up, etc.)

I'm not writing this or any of my responses because I'm looking to argue. I just genuinely think its a really interesting, if not slightly frustrating, topic. Its actually the most interesting subject I've heard about in a while. Typical game mechanic and patch note discussions are boring to me compared to social and personal interaction stuff with relation to the game.

Isn't that what discussions are for? To make people think? Aside from that Stomp, you specifically gave a call out in Twitter for everyone to come and weigh in on the forums. And I didn't see a disclaimer saying "except if you don't have kids in which case you aren't entitled to an opinion on this subject". Musta missed that .

Smarty panties. lol

I just feel that it is a heartless opinion if you can't relate to the subject.

Crikey, this thread has exploded!!

Emeny.

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