Fight... Fire down the hole... Attach... Destroy them... Finish him! Those are the voices that you'll hear in video and computer games. Shocking? Yes, these words and voices are for real but the most shocking of all is what the children see. But what drives children to still play these video games?
Video Games and there alike as a whole are created to entertain people, adult and children. Most of them are fun to play with especially when you know how to play the game. These games vary in their creation it may be as easy as Pacman and as difficult as Starcraft or Counterstrike but all in all they are all just click and play. But what really drives them? One thing for sure its visual, something look beautiful and appealing to the eye is worth watching plus add up the interactivity then viola! You got yourself hooked up.
A lot of Filipino children don't have this kind of entertainment showcase in their house. So how would these children play as often as they want too? Let me see... hmm... video games... where can we find these video games? Well to name some, there are lots of Arcades in malls and play station in some computer cafe or rentals. So that's where they get to play those games. A walk away from their house and one ride of jeep to the mall makes every video game accessible to kids anywhere and everywhere.
I remember when I was still a child the first video game that I have played was made by Atari. Shooting the parachute falling from above which are rendered in a black and white, the main objective was don't let those parachute land on your territory. Too simple ha! As a kid back then I was really amazed and that was a decade and a half ago. Now, these video games had evolved and become more appealing to children and they can easily influenced by whatever they see and hear. They are more likely compared to a computer what would be the input would be the output.
Just recently, I manage to read some article from the Philippine Pediatric Society about the effect of the video and computer games that children play. It is said that most of these children who's playing computer or video game lives a sedentary lifestyle. What was a sedentary lifestyle? According to the Philippine Pediatric Society it is a motionless activity of body parts and if children are living this kind of lifestyle it may increase the possibility of having a cardiovascular disease, obesity or morbidity. Why? It is because they don't exercise and do something. There are only few parts of their body does the movement. Some of these are the eyes, hands, fingers and the butt. Sitting for hours will sure give you a Guinness World Record. According to the article these are just the physical effect, so meaning there are more side effects. In terms of socialization children become socially inadequate and immature. A child with a playmate instills the feeling of having a playmate unlike in video or computer games, they instill the feeling of competition and reset button whenever they fail to do the task. Also according to the article children do have hard time coping with frustration and failure because of the idea of resetting. It is also expressed in the article that children may become short-tempered, aggressive and prone to commit violence because of some gruesome scene in the game. It is indeed true because you will really notice it to children in the community and it shocking to hear a six year old kid saying some of those words.
The rampant increase of these video and computer games are uncontrollable but if parents have established a deeper relationship with their child and having a parental guidance or a family conversation once in a while telling that this games are not good to play for their age. It is also good if parents will encourage their children to play out-door games like run and tag or the like with this it will instill and restore the value of child play.
