PG2VG - Parents Guide to Video Games: Prologue

Tech-Kid: Dad, Mom, I think you should read this book!

Anti-Guy: I don’t need a book about your annoying video games!

Calming-Wife: Don’t talk like that to him, he is your son. Try to listen, please?

Tech-Kid: Really, this book can help you understand that video games are not just noise and violence, but also great educational and family-bonding tools.

Sensitive-Kid: Mom and dad, you could both play with us, and stop yell at us to stop playing all the time?

Anti-Guy: This is just a game catalogue!

Tech-Kid: No, it said on the cover that it can show you “what and how you can enter as a parent the new and frightening world of electronic games”.

Calming-Wife: we do need some help there...

Sensitive-Kid: Please?

Anti-Guy: I am tired of throwing good money on these games.

This particular dialogue I still didn’t hear, but I did witness many of the other dialogues in this blog. In a matter of fact I usually witness only their beginnings, and rarely their happy endings and good resolution. I’m sure that you’ve had these discussions or arguments about video games in your family before. Sometime it is the mother who is the “Anti-Guy” and sometime it is the father. The “Calming-Wife” can be the mother who tries to create a family of love, or the father who wants some harmony around him, and maybe to have a better connection with his beloved children. The “Tech-Kid” can be the “know-it-all” girl, that reads and knows every thing around, or it can be the older boy that just reassembled the family VCR for the 7'th time. You may recognize all these characters in you, and in the people around you. I hope that while reading this guide you’ll be able to lead these frequent dialogues to their happy resolution, from a basis of solid knowledge instead of rumors and first impressions. Let’s face the facts that families are here to stay, and generation difference is something that you can’t avoid, and that electronic games are and will be part of our life. Now that we know that, let’s make the best out of it, and the best is really good.

It is time to start a journey, that won’t take you to the edge of the world but far beyond it. It won’t cost you thousands of dollars on flights or hotels, but only few dollars a month. It won’t take you away from your work or from school, but you can enjoy it from the comfort of your home. It won’t take you away from your friends and family, it will bring you much closer to them.

Let’s first see the resolution of the conversation that we started listening few seconds ago:

Tech-Kid: With this guide you can “save a lot of money, by choosing the right games and making each game a long and lasting experience for the entire family”.

Calming-Wife: How do you know all that?

Tech-Kid: One of the kids in class brags that his father is buying him amazing games, playing with him and the family is working together to advance through the games. He told me that he found a copy of this book by his father’s bed.

Sensitive-Kid: I think that I know what to buy you for Christmas, mom and dad.

Calming-Wife: Just like the cheese cakes book that you bought us last year?

Tech-Kid: We do get better deserts this year.

Anti-Guy: I really didn’t believe that I will be able to love making cakes.

Calming-Wife: You always knew how to make us better parents and family.

Tech-Kid: Are you ready for the next improvement in our family life?

Anti-Guy: I don’t want to wait until Christmas.

Calming-Wife: Each one is giving his share and we can buy this guide together.

Sensitive-Kid: Great idea, mom. Here is my share.

Tech-Kid: It worth every penny, here is my share.

Anti-Guy: How can I refuse you, my darling family? Let’s start a new adventure together.

Do you have kids between age 3 and 12? Do you work with kids in these ages? This is a great time and opportunity to learn something new things about and for them, with this guide for electronic games.

This is not a guide for “which new games can I buy for my kids”! This guide is about “why and how can I enter as a parent the new and frightening world of electronic games”. It is not intended as yet another gift catalogue, but more to be a parents’ guide.

If your kids are just a burden for you, and you just want an easy way to make them quiet, look somewhere else. There are plenty of guides that will help you quiet them and your conscience with some new games and toys to buy. This guide is for parents who want to enrich their kids and improve their family life. If you read parents guides before your kids were born, whenever you had a crisis like death in the family, or just when you wanted to help them gets rid of their diapers, this guide is for you. It covers the psychological aspects of games and the short and long benefits of various game types. It also contains a massive collection of tips based on my experience that will help you handle the problems along the way. After reading and understanding these topics you will be ready for the last part with an actual list of games to play with your kids. When you’ll get there, you’ll understand why I wrote “to play with you kids” and not “buy for your kids”. This is the time to choose if you want to continue reading, or move to the easier “gift catalogue”. I don’t promise you the easiest path, just the more beneficial and fun, which is what games are all about.

Another desired target audiences are our children’s teachers. They spend a lot of effort educating and teaching our kids, using various tools like books, work sheets, fun books, educational software etc. But the more advanced electronic games are still rarely used, if at all, in the struggle for the attention and mind of the children. I’m sure that once these dedicated professionals educators and teachers understand what lies behind the disturbing cover of these games, they will find excellent ways to improve our children’s education. Making school and homework a more pleasant and enjoying environment.