A shout from one of the cooks, “Put away your devices, get your drinks, dinner is ready!”
Grandad chuckles, “In my day, mother called us to wash up, dinner is ready!”
Seven adults and five children scramble around the hand-made farm table. Fast-paced, high-spirited but congenial debate evolves into our common discussion of tactical experience versus technological experience.
“I like it when my cuzeen teacheded me how to find a Gym.” the three-year-old offers, referencing the current Pokemon Go craze. A mix of opinions spanning ages and genders ends the evening in a pleasant feeling of exercised minds.
I represent the oldest generation in this cast of family. I have long been a fan of Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I positively believe that the world will be saved by an unknown genius who spent many hours gaming in varieties of worlds, levels, times and spaces limited only by the imagination of the creators and players.
Our future generations will need to be proficient in virtual planning and strategies. Already there is a need for defense of information and people. The primary weapon will be technology as in Ender’s Game. This fantasy novel written in 1985 is eerily relevant in 2016. Set in the future, Ender Wiggen is the hero of the story. He begins like all the other children in the story playing complicated video games. The world has been defeated twice by an alien invasion. Ender’s combination of human empathy and skilled warfare learned through gaming leads to the eventual defeat of the aliens in the third and hopefully final battle. While we have not reached the outer space alien enemy world we certainly do have alien enemies whose beliefs defy comprehension. Planning and following strategies are just some of the benefits.
Cheryl Olson, Sc.D., a researcher in the first large project on video game effects on pre-teens through a 1.5 million dollar federal grant for Harvard, focused on over one thousand students in South Carolina and Pennsylvania. The conclusions note an improvement in self-esteem for boys and girls especially for those with ADHD or other developmental disabilities. In addition, kids are able to try varying roles and behaviors in a safe environment. Dr. Olson and her husband, Lawrence A. Kutner, Ph.D. have written a book called Grand Theft Childhood. They allow their teenage son to play video games.
Many games have violent themes yet the FBI reports no significant correlation between violence committed by youths and mature rated video games. Child obesity, another concern, has a higher link to hours spent watching television than gaming. Another study conducted by Michigan State University of 482 children found no statistical link between video game playing and weight gain. The study also found that boys who spent hours on realistic video sports spent more time on actual physical sports activities.
My eight-year-old grandson is hearing impaired and has some developmental issues along with the ever popular ADHD. He also reads, computes and comprehends in the 95th percentile. His favorite video game is Minecraft, a world building game focusing on gathering and surviving. He explains to me with a great focus the ins and outs of teleporting, portals, texture packs and the myriad of other creative aspects. Enamored with my friend’s fairy garden, a kind of real world Minecraft, he wants to build a fairy structure with me. We did it today. He gave the vision and direction while I handled the tools. Without his vision, I might have failed. Without my hands on skill, he might have failed. This could lead one to believe that video games v. hands on is a stand-off. I stand on the side of not so. My reason lies in the fact that it is July, it is 101 today in our neck of the woods, and Halloween is the last thing on my mind. Yet, my grandson spotted some Halloween themed tape in my collection of crafty things and his imagination kicked into high gear. Not only did he provide a theme he also decided a tree house would be the perfect structure for conveying the spooky. He is able to think outside the box, not limited to convention. He was not adept at handling a glue gun but he sure knew where the glue needed to go. I can’t say I was much better and have the blister to show for it.
High-fiving me after my squealed curse, “Way to take one for the team G-ma!”
Between us, we built a fantasy any real fairy would be happy to abide in.
The adults in my family play a fantasy game of our own creation, the stolen title is Zombie Apocalypse. The title covers a variety of disasters that may befall our world including plague, war, economic collapse and meteorological disaster. All of our scenarios involve the collapse of modern technology. The primary weapon will be the ability to adapt and create. I have undeveloped property in the Blue Ridge Mountain foothills of southern Virginia. Most of our fantasy quests involve getting to this property from our scattered locations while gathering and collecting things we may need. We are in no serious way doomsday preppers, we are more like arm-chair what iffers. Our schemes involve building a small society of family and friends who survive and thrive in a post apocalypse world. I know our little fantasy gamers even without modern technology will guide and focus working hands to build the best new world on the property should all hell break loose. At least our little corner of the world will be saved. Other little gamers will do the same in their corners and life will go on ready for the next world or level or time or space.
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