Video games... rethought

I've been posting about collaborative writing lately, and that has been a wonderful adventure, but today I'd like to return to the topic of video games and thus continue my threat there. So far, I've talked about the harms and "addictions" from video games, mostly from my own perspective. Today, I'd like to focus on the positives.

As I believe I've already mentioned, one of the reasons I got into video games in the first place was because of my brothers. These geniuses - yes, I think of them as such - played plenty of games when I was a young girl, and I'd love to watch them because the games were so fascinating. One of them, I believe it was the second oldest, but it may have been the oldest, condescended to teach me how to play WarCraft. I couldn't believe it! My brother was teaching me how to play his games. From then on, I was hooked. What was to coolest thing about it was that I could play games with my brothers, either on their teams or against them. Mostly, my brothers had mercy on me and allowed me to tag along on the same team. That meant that my teenage brothers were selflessly giving their little sis. a break and playing something she wanted. What a teaching experience for all parties!

When these brothers moved out, I continued to play - alone or with friends - but it kept a kind of connection between us. When they came home to visit, we'd play xbox or N64 and the whole family would get involved - this was usually Tetris or Fusion Frenzy. I'd also play plenty of N64 games with cousins whenever we had a chance to get together. Later, my oldest brother tweaked my xbox for me, yet again a selfless act which made me respect and love him so much more. these games brought us all together and gave us reasons to just play.

After two brothers were married and had moved away, I rarely saw any of them. My youngest brother, still much older than myself, had a friend with the newest Zelda game: Twilight Princess. Knowing that I loved Zelda - he was the one who bought Ocarina of time with me - he invited me over to play it. What a lucky younger sister I was..

More recently, video games have brought me closer to friends and to my younger relations - A.K.A. nephews and nieces. When they visit, we always play the wii together and the kids all know they can count on me to have and play their favorite games. On the wii - and I believe most other up to date consoles - you can play with someone across the country as long as your consoles are connected via the internet. My nephews and nieces will play together in Boston and San Francisco. Who would have ever dreamed that was possible?

There are more benefits, but for now, these are the social positives I have seen. I will continue soon with research on health and cognitive benefits... You can also view positive aspects on gaming at https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B77j0wph5s9pcDFzLUhPbkd4WFU/edit. There will be more information on this project in following posts.