Video Games

Video Games Before computer games flourished through the past eras, patintero, sungka, tumbang-preso, tumba-lata, tagu-taguan and sipa were one of the most anticipated outdoor games inside our country. Experiencing these kinds of games imprints almost our half life and we can’t have a complete childhood experience without getting tapped hard on the back, been hit by a flying slipper for it missed the target, playing with shells, screaming and cheering over your teammates, jumping over a person and avoiding getting hit its body part, and hiding and camouflage in a place to prevent from being the ‘it’ of the game. Try asking a child what was his favourite childhood experience, and would tell either scratched his knee from running away from his opponent or been scolded by mother because of going home late due to exceeding allotted time of playing outdoor games. And try asking a child from the present century what he has been doing lately, and might get an answer playing tekken with PSP, or Super Mario or Pacman with Nintendo or Xbox. Difference spotted?
When a child is in the climax of playing and been taking the game seriously, he doesn’t want to be disturbed for in some instance might loose on his opponent and can’t advance to the next upgrades. A common reaction received by parents when they call their children to gather around while their kids were busy pressing on joysticks and keyboards and faces were just centimetres away from the screen would be “Mom! Can’t you wait because I’m already on my way to take down Bowser!” And two probabilities might happen after: either the parents would start screaming and repeat on telling to set aside their loving gadgets or the children would get irritated on the booming loud voices and start stomping away and lock themselves in a room where they could continue praising themselves for they have defeated the ‘boss’ in the game. With the help of advanced technological innovation that has spread around the globe, the beginning of 3D and multi-player online gaming (MMORPG) have surfaced and hooked children the most. Children fell into the gaming world, spending more time in virtual rather than in real, which sooner turns to be their life. Like, children must have a deviant childhood like these; playing computers during their free time and having fun with his co-gamers. They feel like they can play anytime any of the newest released games go on without ending, they continue forever, and they can pick up any character they wanted on the virtual world. If a child started to feel in contact more with gaming, he will spend more time in solitary seclusion. It is difficult for some adolescents (particularly male adolescents) who are vulnerable to the area of prone to video game addiction since it might be transparent to say how popular gaming is in children of all ages, which results to mostly negative results. A report like found in Elyria, Ohio, where a seventeen year-old boy named Daniel Petric shot his parents in the head after they confiscated his copy of 'Halo 3. ' His mother was killed and his father wounded due to the gunshots, and the troubled teen fled the murder scene with solely one item in his possession: the 'Halo 3 ' game (Ridgefield, 2009). A similar report flashed on television says that a child has accidentally killed his playmate, stabbed with a knife after playmate got a higher score on the game Flabby Bird and now been sent under the care of DSWD. Several reports similar to this have rang the ears of the mass since the effect of gaming has become more serious. It all started from playing innocently, never knew slowly by slowly they are being eaten with intoxication of gaming and now swallowed of gaming addiction. Results like killing have been a serious warning to those who are sensationally indulged in playing, but often just ignored. The video games are common to be blamed, which we neglect the fact that some might have done crimes since they are often being neglected by parents. Coming from a single-parent family isn’t a factor, but how a parent sees after his child while growing. Far from my knowledge, it is the duty of the parents to look after their kids when engaged into different aspects of real and virtual life. But most children dare to say that they’ve been controlled over their life, treated like human robots; like told to eat properly, sleep on time, do school assignments and how to spend their time practically. But nobody commands them when they got the chance to get hold of gaming materials, because in there, they call themselves the “Thug Lords of Gaming”. Fond to their name, with raging adrenaline rush cannot escape the virtual life.
Restricting kids from playing won’t help to drive the addiction either, for playing is part of our childhood. The more we drag them away, the more they rebel and really determined into getting along with playing. Personally speaking, life with no play is never fun. Who wouldn’t like to experience playing sipa, tumbang preso, luksong-baka and patintero? Who wouldn’t like to meet a childhood friend? None right? Those might not be similar to the games inside the computer world, but those are the basic foundation of gaming not until the late centuries where video games were invented. With increasing percentage of latter sides of gaming, some parents are over-protective over their kids to the extent that they lock their offsprings into a jail afar from their supposed fun childhood. They never had the chance to have ‘real’ playmates. In some instance, a child who has this experience growing up gathering medals for their parents is the only thing instilled in their minds. On contrary, a child who spent more time in playing grows up quitting almost 70% of his social life. This might lead into several serious effects like having a psychological disorder due to excessive malfunction of the brain. And here’s the tricky and dangerous part: they are the ‘unhappy teenagers’ which later have a growing percentage in the globe. They have lost their confidence in communicating and lowered their self-esteem. They’ve spent all of their time interacting in a virtual world and are extremely uncomfortable when dealing with real people in real time. In order to retrieve the part of them which just got lost, they seek attention from others. Or a probability that they would drive all away from himself and just have a life with the unreal, which might lead to serious killing crimes like what we’ve been fearing to happen. Being a gamer isn’t dangerous. It is having a hard time kicking the habit who’s the real enemy. It is not a dissatisfaction to play computer games, but be careful of getting addicted. Think twice before engaging wholly, for everything that is excessive can cause vicious effects, double the harm we think it would cause to us. We, as being the most users of techno-gaming, are the ones in charge of what might happen when we are drowned in the pool of virtual scenes. And as a gamer, too, playing has just been part of my life. It is just how we balance our time between real and virtual space. Even up to this extent, I would be happy if given a rest time and spending it playing with my favourite computer games and would even dare to challenge my siblings into a multi-player game once again. But my playtime has limits too, and I’m the one who limits myself from the red line before stepping into it.

References:
Ridgefield, A. (2009). Video Game Addiction. Teen Ink. Retrieved April 23, 2014, from http://www.teenink.com/opinion/movies_music_tv/article/82305/Video-Game-Addiction/

References: Ridgefield, A. (2009). Video Game Addiction. Teen Ink. Retrieved April 23, 2014, from http://www.teenink.com/opinion/movies_music_tv/article/82305/Video-Game-Addiction/