Parents Don't Understand / Science Proves Games Are Good For You

by The Freelancer

Mistress Nightshadow? I feel your pain. Usagi Vindaloo? I wish I had parents like yours! Phah! My parents are probably worse than Mistress Nightshadow's!

It's a typical summer day. I wake up, and head to the computer, hoping to get an early start on my website pre-production before my Mom wakes up and starts complaining about how I don't get enough exercise, and that video games have been dulling the minds and bodies of young children these days. Then I hear several "Stop playing the computer!"s. I reply by merely saying, "I'm not playing the computer. I'm doing something productive, like you told me to." Of course, this inevitably leads to a huge argument, and I end up getting my Playstation taken away for a month. Okay...now the Playstation wasn't involved in any way or form...so what's up? Of course, this doesn't have anything to do with any of you, so I'll leave my personal life story at that.

But wait. Why are pretty much all parents substantially supportive of Pokémon? Shouldn't parents be supportive of all rpgs? All rpgs require a level of thinking that is immensely greater than that of any other game, and immeasurably incomparable to the level of thinking required in Pokémon. So why aren't parents supporting rpgs? Don't rpgs promote what parents want things to promote? Thinking skills? Strategic elements? Suspenseful, mind entangling plots threaded into gameplay, rather than mindless fighting-games?

Oh, but I forgot. All video games rot yer brain, according to parents and grandparents alike. Well, let me tell you something. I did an official scientific experiment for my school science fair (really...it didn't win because a judge was biased against games) proving that video games help figural thinking skills. I administered two different tests dealing with shapes to 6 people; one before playing Mario Kart 64 / Starfox, and one after playing Mario Kart 64 / Starfox. Everyone improved drastically in his or her after-game-test. The judges said that the tests were too familiar, so "that's why their scores were falsely improved." But, they really improved...in time and accuracy. At the end of my presentation, one judge said "I know how to keep my kids from playing video games, don't buy them at all." I swear...he put that unnecessary emphasis on that last phrase.

This proves that we can not change the minds of mindless parents, even if they are shown official, cold, hard facts. It's really a shame