One of the major criticisms of video games is that makes people withdraw from the real world and that gaming has been often unfairly used synonymously with irresponsible behavior.  But there are a lot of positive behaviors that games can influence, if used in the right hands.

I recently picked up “Wii Sports Resort” for my family.  I cannot under emphasize how much I love many of the Wii games that cater towards party and family play.  The Wii alone has made my wife a big time gamer, and Wii Sports is a welcome addition to our family gaming library.

My eldest son, who is about 4 1/2 years, really picked up on Basketball.  He still has trouble with shooting, but is a real monster when it comes to slam dunks.  After playing a few games with him to learn the ropes, I quickly stopped giving him a handicap and found that I had to play at my best to win.

My eldest son is highly competitive and doesn’t like to lose.  After a grueling round of playing, I was barely in the lead and half a second before I could claim victory, my son pauses the game and hits “restart.”  He “rage quit.”  I couldn’t believe it.  I told him that I would not play with him if he did that again because it was rude and unfair.  So, after some tears and some encouraging words from my wonderful wife, my son came back said he was sorry and said that he will just try harder next time.  A gaming experience became a wonderful life lesson.

Monster Slam!

But what surprised me even more was that the following day, my son asked me if we could play real basketball.  I’m happy that he loved playing laundry-basket ball more than the Wii.  But he would never have discovered it, had it not been for the game.

This phenomenon is more common than one would think.  Apparently, there has been a notable increase in musical instrument sales – especially rock band instruments – since the debut of games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

You're going to be seeing more dudes like this.

Now, there are certainly games that take people away to mythical fantasy worlds to explore places they have never seen before.  And there is certainly temptation to go off into these worlds and never come back.  But this phenomenon is not peculiar to games as many a bookworm would tell you.

Not all games take people away from the world.  Sometimes it is games that make more people interested in the world around them.

So after this teeth-grinding and harrowing month I had at work, I am taking a long stay-cation and treating my wife and family.  Don’t worry, I plan to do some major blogging again.  It’s just that my eldest son has been playing this particular game and has been begging me to show him what it is like for real.  I’m more than happy to oblige.

Gone Fishing

I’ve been buried alive at work and after yesterday, I have now resurfaced – better, stronger, and more convicted to building my games.

Unlike development work which requires collaboration time and meeting with coworkers during regular business hours (except during crunch time when you are bunking at the office), server maintenance is a job that purposefully avoids times when normal people are working.

My wife and sons have been very gracious to me in keeping odd working hours, sleeping in even odder hours, and being available at the oddest times of the day. It was heartbreaking having to cancel two weekends in a row, including a holiday weekend.

It’s hard, but I want to push through this and really get things going with my own projects and ideas. My dream is to have a business where I my sons can come home from school, break out their homework and work alongside their father – so they can see what I do and so that I can show them how what they are learning at school applies to what I am doing.

There is no field of academics that games doesn’t apply. From the hard sciences like biology, chemistry and physics with mathematics to the humanities such as history, composition, story construction, psychology, sociology, art and economics. More than anything, I want to show my children that what they learn at school really matters.

And one day, my greatest hope is that we can work on a game together.

It is these thoughts that help me pull through these long arduous nights and grueling schedules. The hope that these days are making me strong enough to build my dreams for my children.