Conference rusure::nintendo

    We have had Nintendo in my home for over a year.  At first it is
    the greatest thing since canned beer and both my sons (6 & 10),
    would fight to get to the game.  What has happened over a period
    of time is that Nintendo has just become a game they can go to to
    take off the edge.  Both are very active in other activities which
    is the key to success in my home.  
    
    I always lose in the games we play against each other so that was
    never an issue.  They love to beat me, and I don't care.  Give it
    some time, limit it's use, and find other activities if available.

    Re .0:
    
    There are other possibilities.  I don't know which one is correct.
    
    Video games aren't necessarily the cause.  People routinely have
    concerns that they keep inside themselves (even children, for whom the
    world is a much bigger place with much more important problems than
    adults have).  Something absorbing like video games provides an outlet,
    a way to express oneself.  What an observer sees then is not a change
    in personality being caused, but simply something that is normally kept
    inside instead of released where others can see it.
    
    > It got to the point where, in Ice Hockey, if I really beat him bad
    > [which of course I did every time just to keep him in line :) ] he
    > started to really get burned, and not talk to me after !!!
    
    If I were in a world surrounded by people bigger than me and with
    limited control over my own life, and I had something I really liked
    and that was really special for me and that gave me pleasure to do well
    in, and one of the big people beat me really bad, I wouldn't be very
    happy either.  Everybody wants _something_ they can call their own.
    
    
    				-- edp 

    I think there are both positive and negative aspects of children
    playing with Nintendo.
    
    Some positive points:
    
       o My son started playing Nintendo before he could read. He couldn't
         wait to start reading so he could understand the lettering on the
         screen.
    
       o There are some games that have forced my kids to think and has
         given them great pleasure when figuring out something.
    
       o It shows them perseverance. They realize that quitting will not
         get them anywhere.
    
      
    Negatory points:
    
       o They do get frustrated at times.
    
       o They become too competitive.
    
    
    I've noticed that Nintendo does not get much time during good weather
    so I see it as a Winter or bad weather game.
    
    Also, in regards to one on one games and the question as to whether or
    not parents should try to beat their kids....I ALWAYS try my best to 
    beat them....I'm not always successful....some games I do well others I
    do not....but when they are victorious they know that they earned that
    victory....I guess Nintendo also teaches them how to win or lose also.
    
    Mike     

    re.2 I think you have made a few assumptions based upon what ever,
    that I do not find a common point of ground on.
    
    Further more, the little smile face was a toung in cheeck in regards
    to beating him in the games.  Infact, I'm very hard pressed to actually
    beat Shawn in Ice hockey, but whne he wins, he knows he's won, and
    Dad did not let him win.  I do not restrict him from gloating either
    cuz he's "Kicked my but, fair and square" And I might add he has
    a very good knack of letting me know that.
    
    re:3
    
    I agree with all your points 100 percent.

    

    If you don't want your kids to get too involved in a game then do
    not buy games like Legend of Zelda or Metroid.
    
    If you want them to get outside more trade your Nintendo for a Atari
    2600(yuck!!).
    
    Matt
    

    
    I have to agree with the earlier replies that mentioned that Nintendo
    can cause the competitive juices to flow. My son, age 9 loves to
    compete...at everything. Whether it's a soccer game or checkers,
    he plays to win. Come to think of it so do I. So it's not surprising
    that Nintendo does the same thing. I have to draw the line though
    when he shoves his 4 year old sister out of the way because she
    happened to walk in front of the tv at a critical moment of a game.
    It is after all, a game. And you have to keep that in perspective.
    That goes for the adults as well as the kids. If you lose your last
    life just as you were about to win some game that you just spent
    hours (days? weeks?) on, you don't slam your controller on the floor
    or kick the tv. I tell my son that if the game gets THAT frustrating,
    then shut the damn thing off! And some of the games he plays can
    be VERY frustating at times, which is why I generally stay away
    from them. I think games should be FUN and ENJOYABLE. When they
    cease to be that, I don't play them anymore.
    
    As an aside, one game that I think is terrific, is Contra. When
    you play the 2-player version and work together with the other
    person, ignoring your scores, it can be a real lesson in cooperation.
    You really need to devise ways of covering for each other, etcetera,
    in order to win. I'm sure there may be other games like this, but
    our collection is very small. BTW, you'll be glad to know we slayed
    the Red Falcon yesterday and saved the WORLD! Now don't you feel
    a little bit safer? 8^)
    
                                               Happy Gaming,
                                               Paul
    

    Here's my two cents.
    
    
    	Nintndo games can get frustrating, I've seen people throw their
    actual nintendo because they've died. I don't know anyone who likes
    losing. The changes in mood that were mentioned earlier are probly due
    to the fact that your son wants to prove something. He wants to prove
    either to himself or someone else that he can do it; that he can save
    the princess, that he can beat Gannon, that he can beat his dad at Ice
    Hockey. The game may become very frustrating, but I think that the
    satisfaction of winning is worth it. Changes in mood can happen if he
    looses a baseball game. The only real problem with Nintendo is that is
    highly addictive. If it seems like the Nintendo is 'possesing' someone,
    let it. Eventually they will get sick of it, I know I'm starting to.
    
    				Someone who's played too much nintendo,
    						Pat..
     

      The other day a 4-year-old angel leaned over, patted me soothingly
      on the shoulder and gently said,

            "Grandma, it's only a game."


     (her father was beating me at Donkey Kong!!)

Betty     

    I think he's coming out of it.
    
    Slowly but surely.
    
    He still doesn't like losing..
    
    Still loves to rub it in my face when he beats Dad.
    
    But, he's growing tired of it, and opting for other things, like
    a game of chess (and for a 9 year old he's decent) model building,
    playing guitar (something I've been teaching him since he was 6)
    etc.. before he'll run for the game.  
    
    Seems that it got worse before it got better, then got better
    real quick.  My guess is that this will run in stages, but now I
    understand more of how "he must see things" thanks to some of the
    noters here.  Kids are so hard to read, so impressionable, and if
    you don't let thme run and be kids, you don't learn, they don't
    grow.
    

>    As an aside, one game that I think is terrific, is Contra. When
>    you play the 2-player version and work together with the other
>    person, ignoring your scores, it can be a real lesson in cooperation.
>    You really need to devise ways of covering for each other, etcetera,
>    in order to win. I'm sure there may be other games like this, but
>    our collection is very small. 
>


	If you want a game that requires team work try Tennis.  It can not
be played one-on-one with two players.  If you play two players it's 
against the computer.  

	Mike

	

    Copied without permission from Newsweek - March 6, 1989 :-) Pg 68
    
    In an article titled The Nintendo Kid the following appeared:
    
    The Model Nintendo Parent
    -------------------------
    
    Given their way, most kids will play Nintendo around the clock.
    Assuming there's no ignoring this new video craze, here's some advice
    for the anxious mom and pop.
    
    - Get used to it. If you forbid Nintendo at home, your child will only
    find somewhere else to play it.
    
    - Know when to say no. Let Nintendo be "part" of yoyr child's life-not
    his or her "entire" life.
    
    - Speak the language. Learn to play the game that means so much to your
    child.
    
    - Find moral in the mania. Nintendo is an excellent way to teach
    sportsmanship among playmates.
    
    - Believe in just desserts. Let Nintendo be a reward for finishing
    homework or eating that last bite of peas.
    
    - Beat other parents to the punch. On Christmas Eve, know how to find
    the last copy of Super Mario Bros. II
    

    Taken from March 1989 issue of Parent's Magazine (without permission)
    
    Authors:  Julius & Zelda Segal
    
    		Julius Segal, Ph.D. - a psychologist, author and lecturer
                                      whose latest book is WINING LIFE'S
    				      TOUGHEST BATTLES
    
    		Zelda Segal         - a school psychologist and educational
    				      consultant in private practice
    
    Section:     As they grow:  5 & 6
    
    Title:	 The Video Advantage
    
    Marty, a bright and eager six year-old, sits trsnfixed in front
    of the video screen, his hands poised to press the buttons that
    will lift his spaceship into the stratoshpere.  His mission is 
    critical: to retrieve letters of the alphabet floating in space
    and return them safely to their appropriate docking space on the
    ship.
    
    Marty is one of millions of young children who routinely play
    electronic home video games as casually as their parents skipped
    rope.  Through such games, kids can practice mathematical and
    verbal skills, create visual designs, play in a World Series, fight
    a war, chase a criminal, corner a monster.  Do such games, as their
    manufacturers maintain, help children widen their interests and
    sharpen their intellectual skills?  Or do they pose problems that
    impeded learning and even encourage bad attitudes and habits?
    
    The potential is there for video games to work for rather than
    against children, but parents need to take an active role to make
    sure that this happens.  Here are some guidlines to keep in mind.
    
    MATCH THE GAMS WITH YOUR CHILD'S NEEDS.
    Given the variety of video games available, it is a good idea to
    select the ones that most likely will sharpen your child's capacities
    in areas that you and his teacher believe may need strengthening
    - from vocabulary and math to motor coordination and concentration.
    It also makes good sense to choose games that incorporate a subject
    of budding fascination to your child - whether it's science, sports
    or music.
    
    Make sure, though, that playing video games doesn't isolate your
    child.  Video games can dominate the leisure time of children and,
    because they can so easily be played alone, discourage social
    interaction.  It is a good idea, therefore, to set reasonable
    limits on the amount of time children spend in solitude, trans-
    fixed by the narrow world of the video screen, no matter how 
    eductional a game's content may be.  Certainly those youngsters
    who already tend to be shy and withdrawn hardly need the added
    influence of solitary games to wall them off from contact with
    others.  Stimulation and feedback from a peer can be more precious
    by far than the impersonal kind offered mechanically through a
    video game.
    
    MONITOR THE VIOLENCE QUOTIENT:
    Some home video games invite children to practice violent behavior.
    While improving their vocabulary or dexterity, kids may be engaged
    in bombing submarines, destroying space creatures, or firing at
    enemy ships or planes.  "When I hear the wine of those bombers and
    the rat-a-tat of those guns," says one mother of a five-year old
    "I wonder what that game is really teaching my child to do".  Her
    concern is valid.  We already know tht seeing violence and
    aggression on TV tends to encourage similiar behavior in real life.
    In the case of video games the potential is even greater, since
    the kids are participants rather than merely passive observers.
    
    CHOOSE GAMES FOR GIRLS, TOO:
    Many video games on the market tend to be geared toward boys,
    featuring competitive sports such as football and baseball, military
    exploits and aggressive monster chasing.  It is important, therefore
    to offer young girls and opportunity to select games consonant with
    their interests and skills or games that at least feature activities
    and characters that are not stereotypically male.  It is wise also
    to select at least some games that appeal equally to both sexes.
    
    The verdict on video games, then, is this:  If they are used sensibly
    there is no reason to banish them from the home.  They can be pure
    fun - and children need relaxing diversions as much as adults do.
    And at their best, video games can successfully merge the fanciful
    world fo play with the practical world of learning.  Accomplishing
    this however, will tkae good judgement and wisdom on the part of
    parents as they survey the ever widening horizons of their children's
    electronic universe.
    
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