It has been a few weeks since the kids ripped off the Christmas wrappings and, after plugging in a few cables, soared off into the private universes inside their new video games.<\/p>\n\n
Since then, most of them have been slaying armies of evil aliens, orcs, zombies or Nazis. Then again, they may \u2014 with pounding pulses and razor-sharp reflexes \u2014 have slaughtered innocent bystanders, bedded prostitutes, sold hard drugs to children and used stolen vehicles to flatten cops.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cGamer\u201d Jeff Hooten is worried that most parents have no idea what is going on in the digital domains behind those closed doors.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cParents probably know that some researchers say these games are bad and that other researchers say they\u2019re OK. \u2026 Also, these games aren\u2019t in the news because no one has walked into a school lately and shot the place up,\u201d said Hooten, author of a first-person Citizen Magazine essay entitled \u201cPoint. Click. Kill. A Father\u2019s Confession.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cBut these games have changed and matured so much. It\u2019s a whole new world and parents need to know that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The statistics describing the video-game industry are both stunning and almost irrelevant, since it is growing so fast. But when it comes to media sales, the gaming industry is poised to overtake music and movies in the next decade. The Entertainment Software Association claims that half of all Americans have played video games and a 2003 Gallup survey found that 70 percent of teen-aged boys had played one of the \u201cGrand Theft Auto\u201d games, which are rated \u201cmature\u201d or even \u201cadults only.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Hooten wanted to explore this world, so he mastered \u201cHalo 2,\u201d \u201cDoom 3,\u201d Resident Evil,\u201d \u201cVice City\u201d and other popular games intended for players 17 and older. He got used to the profanity and the sight of dismembered bodies. He felt no major pangs of guilt, until his young son walked in and asked: \u201cDaddy, can I watch you play the bad game?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
One hard question leads to another. Is \u201cvirtual sin\u201d real? Should parents forbid their children to play video games or, like television and movies, teach them to make wise choices? Should religious leaders and politicians seek tighter controls on the most violent and lurid games?<\/p>\n\n
While researchers have focused on how these games affect the lives and habits of children, Christine Rosen of the Ethics and Public Policy Center is convinced that it\u2019s time to ask about their impact on our culture as a whole.<\/p>\n\n
For millions of people, video games are the \u201cnew playgrounds of the self\u201d in which players create imaginary identities that let them do things that they would never do in the real world, noted Rosen, in the journal \u201cThe New Atlantis.\u201d Digital technology allows a person to morph from one imaginary personality to another \u2014 from chatty teen to midnight cyber assassin, from high-tech entrepreneur to lonely spouse seeking solace from online lovers. The interactive game world combines all of this.<\/p>\n\n
A study called \u201cGot Game\u201d quoted one enthusiast saying: ?Games give us freedom to be, think, do, create, destroy. They let us change the answer to the question, \u2018Who am I?\u2019 in ways never before possible. Games let us reach the highest highs and the lowest lows, let us play with reality and reshape it to our own ends. They give us hope and meaning, show us that our journey through life is not pointless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
For real? At some point, argues Rosen, someone must ask: \u201cAre we becoming so immersed in virtual reality that we end up devoting more time to the care and tending of our multiple, virtual identities than to the things in the real world that contribute to the formation of healthy identity?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Hooten isn\u2019t ready to go that far, in part because he believes many of the games are creative and fun. But parents must wake up and pay attention.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying that video games are the devil\u2019s playground,\u201d said Hooten, who currently works as an Internet editor at Focus on the Family. \u201cWhat I\u2019m trying to say is, \u2018This is what I did. This is what it felt like. This is what these games are all about.\u2019 \u2026<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt is like entering another world. I guess that I had fun, if that\u2019s the right word for it. You really get immersed in these games and it\u2019s hard to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It has been a few weeks since the kids ripped off the Christmas wrappings and, after plugging in a few cables, soared off into the private universes inside their new video games. Since then, most of them have been slaying armies of evil aliens, orcs, zombies or Nazis. Then again, they may \u2014 with pounding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[180,259,324,639,909],"class_list":["post-1369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-childhood","tag-computers","tag-entertainment","tag-parenting","tag-video-games"],"yoast_head":"\n