It's that time of year again: a large publication has had decided that kids play too many games, and this time it's a COVID-flavoured special, courtesy of the New York Times, designed to make parents feel guilty for letting their energy-filled children play video games after being cooped up all day doing online school.
I won't pretend that video games are actually perfect, although it's tempting to go on the defence, here. There are a lot of predatory practices in games, like microtransactions and gambling mechanics that can easily seduce kids into getting addicted. Plus, the last two generations - the ones that grew up with technology - are so used to everything being served on a screen that we often struggle to be alone with ourselves for any stretch of time at all without one in front of us. Yes, we all take our phones to the toilet. Yes, we play Switch on the sofa while we watch movies. Can you blame us? Technology is so delicious, and life is so short.
But I do want these publications to consider the kids' point of view. They're bored! They're stuck inside! They miss their friends! Where's the empathy for this generation of children that is spending a significant proportion of their lives in a global pandemic, where nothing they do is right, learning is near-impossible, and the governments keep rewriting the rules?
Honestly, if I was a kid during all this, I'd have rioted.
It's not much of a hyperbolic statement when I say that video games have kept me sane during all this. If this pandemic had happened during the early 2000s, I would have only been in touch with my chums through MSN Messenger, limited to short bursts of text and spamming of the wilted rose emoji to symbolise how sad we were. I would have had my tiny library of Game Boy Advance games to entertain myself. I probably would have read more books, but they'd be books I'd read before, anyway.
In 2020, I can ping my friends on Discord and be running around a virtual world with them in a matter of minutes.
The NYT piece references increased online use being associated with anxiety, depression, obesity, and aggression, which - in my experience - can be true. Going on Twitter makes me anxious. Trying to beat a difficult platformer, like Guacamelee or Ori and the Blind Forest, makes me stressed. Playing games all day and not going outside makes me gain weight.
Do you know what else is true? Winding down with Hades actively helps me when I'm anxious, because it gives me something to hyperfocus on. Playing Ring Fit Adventure every morning not only helps me stay in shape, it makes me actively want to go outside and do more exercise. Streaming games helps me feel less alone in a pandemic where I'm separated from almost all of my friends.
A couple of weeks ago, around New Year's Eve, I played Among Us for the first time with a group of friends. I haven't seen them in a year and a half - they live in England, I live in Canada, and we're in a pandemic, so taking flights across the ocean to have a cup of tea and a natter is frowned upon.
Now, I've never murdered any of these friends on a spaceship in real life, so take this with a pinch of salt, but when we're playing games together, it feels a lot like hanging out. Even when those games are about betrayal and lying (which I did very successfully, by the way). We also play Dungeons and Dragons together, watch Bridgerton together, and goof around on co-op games like Animal Crossing and PHOGS!, when we can find the time. I don't feel like I'm trapped in a house, on the other side of the sea, unable to go outside - I feel like I have a rich (albeit virtual) life.
My partner and I spend most of our evenings in front of a screen. Sometimes we do jigsaws while watching a movie; sometimes we play Final Fantasy VII Remake together; sometimes we get a couple of friends together to demolish each other at Puyo Puyo Tetris. The key is moderation - we also cook together, go on walks into town, and eat most of our dinners at the table. We even banned phones at bedtime, so we read or talk instead. This balance was hard-won, and we slip up a lot. But when we lived apart for the first few months of the pandemic, we would play Minecraft for hours together. That time wasn't any less high-quality than the time we spend screen-free. Gaming has enriched our lives and our relationship, and life would be very different without it.
To see a bunch of children getting increasingly depressed and worried during an unprecedented global pandemic, and then blame said depression on gaming - their only release, and maybe their main way of socialising - is unkind and unfair, and it comes from a place of fearing what we don't understand.
I grew up with games. I understand their allure and their dangers. I won't pretend to know anything about parenting, because I've never had a child (although I was one once), so I won't lecture anyone on how to raise their kids. I know that these pieces are written for exasperated parents, who want their fears confirmed when their kid is throwing a tantrum about the wi-fi being turned off. I get it.
But kids are people, too. They're lonely, they're probably scared, and they want a way to escape for a little while. Do you remember how stressful being a kid was? It doesn't seem that much to adults, who have real responsibilities and jobs, but having to go to school every day is wayyyy more taxing than most jobs, where you largely get to do the thing you're good at, and you get paid for it. There's social dynamics to navigate, basic human functions to figure out, and the horrifying vague threat of puberty, all while trying to remember when Henry VIII died. Wouldn't you want to play games at the end of that, too?
Yeah, we'd all rather that kids were outside, running around, making friends, and soaking in the sun. Right now, though, we're all just trying to survive through this, physically and mentally. Video games aren't scary. They aren't evil. They're just another way to entertain yourself, and a lot of them are just really good.
I keep thinking of this one quote from the NYT article:
The family dog died on New Year’s Eve and James said that playing games with his friends helped him to not think about the loss. This concerned his mother, Kathleen Reichert, who felt that her son was escaping the emotions of real life.
“What are you going to do when you’re married and stressed? Tell your wife that you need to play Xbox?” she said to her son during the interview.
Listen, one day, this kid is going to grow up, and maybe marry someone. He will still be into playing Xbox, because that was his childhood. He will probably still play games to connect with friends, and to handle his emotions. Is it the healthiest way to cope? Maybe not. Is it better than not coping at all? You bet your butt. I just hope this kid finds a wife to whom he can say, "I'm going to play Xbox", and she'll understand. Maybe she'll even join in.
[source nytimes.com]
Comments 73
Cool. I love these soapboxes
I’ve probably been playing too much. Completed 10 Assassin’s Creed games since August and about 40% through Odyssey. That’s with 3 platinums and I’ve also platinumed a few other games in the last couple of months. So much to play, so much time to waste. Ah well, back at uni this week and might finally get back to my half-finished Punch-Out/Mother style game via 18th Century Paris via 1990s suburbia character-driven RPG.
I wouldn't recommend gaming all the time, but like everything else it's good in moderation.
It's just as important to do "useless" things as it is to do work, exercise, socialising, whatever you're doing.
I think the world would be much safer and saner if people spent more time playing games and less time consuming news media.
I know playing games a lot isn't the healthiest thing, but without it during winter or pandemic, I would struggle. My eyes and body think weak, short winter sun is expletive
There used to be a couple indoor ramp facilities within a short drive where I could ride in the winter, but those places are gone... and pandemic.
Why is it always too much gaming they go on about and never TV? (Well at least in recent decades)
I've NEVER understood why if I tell my colleagues I spent the weekend gaming they act like I'm a weirdo who lives in a dungeon, yet someone else can say they binge watched the latest trendy Netflix show all weekend and that's socially acceptable?!
If anything gaming is more healthy than TV as at least you're nurturing your brain power more and other skills like creativity, reflexes etc instead of just passively consuming something!
You lost me at "The New York Times".
You are disgusting taking your phone to the toilet. Im not shaking your hand. Ever.
Gotta confess... That's exactly what I'd do, and if I'm married to the right person they'll join me on the sofa. Sure, we havelaundry to do, a dish washer to empty, and a lightbulb to replace in the pantry... But those things will still be there in thirty minutes, and that 30 minutes to destress is important.
@Kevember The FAILING New York Times as some would say. 😉
Isn't NYT on team lockdown? There's so much I want to say about that, but this is NL, so must use restraint. That said, what do they expect people to do?
@Kevember Third-largest newspaper in the US by circulation (behind USA Today and the Wall Street Journal), coming up on 170 years old this year, most Pulitzer Prizes won (at 130) of any newspaper ever. The literal origin of the term "paper of record" was in reference to it. Also, they've got a pretty kickass daily crossword.
You should check it out sometime.
Who cares what the new york times thinks... about anything?
When I have kids, I’d rather them escape reality through video games and not drugs/alcohol.
@Kriven Technically reporters don't want to cover crap like that, but it's what brings in the money so we have to. Reaffirming beliefs, gossip, and funny cat videos... Here's southern American business man Sam Zell telling a reporter off for expressing such concerns: https://youtu.be/LDy7vn7-LX4
Even Nintendo Life does it. Its not quite the same, but we just got done reading a soap box piece criticizing a NYT post that we all know is absolute dribble that's been disproven time and time again. Nintendo Life posts about Sakurai's tweets like they're the gospel, Kojima's thoughts on the Switch, job posting rumors and speculation, career transfers... The list goes on.
As someone who spends waaaaay too much time gaming, I went several months without playing any games back in 2019.
It didn't fix anything, really. I wasn't magically more productive or social. I just binged Netflix and read a bunch of comics (which costs waaaaaay more than gaming in the long run)
@Fath A once well respected institution. I prefer independent media these days.
These are probably the same people who are like "lol I love binge watching my favorite shows!!"
@Crockin correct. These are the same people watching entire seasons of shows in one night.
@Kevember Lemme guess, ‘independent media’ is a code name for Breibart. Or Newsmax.
1991 called, NYT, they want their headlines back
The media: "everyone needs to stay under lockdown, stay in your home all day, don't go outside unless you absolutely need to, don't go out and socialize with anyone, don't even go out to a restaurant unless you're simply picking up takeout. Just don't do anything!"
Also the media: "why is everyone just hanging out at home all day playing video games? Clearly this is a bad thing, they should be doing nothing besides listening to us all day!"
Imagine if one day, the powers that be regulate gaming. Hike up subscription fees (I don't know, a gaming tax if you will) and / or restrict play time.
...looks at my Switch physical games.
Phew.
I’ll just say it: kids in the 90’s had it better, there’s no way we spent the hours on a single game back then like games facilitate nowadays. Especially if you had a game boy or Genesis. I probably could have spent a much longer time trying to beat Ecco the dolphin, but like a lot of games back then the difficulty ramped up so much I’d just shut it off. Who shuts off anything anymore? The trade-off? We didn’t beat our games, lol. Ah but who cares because now there’s a whole 30-something adult community streaming the same damn games for hours!
I've been on kind of a "Switch/gaming hiatus" recently, I think mostly because the weather has been unusually nice for the winter, so I'm trying to get outside more to hiking, bike, ski, etc. I also think I played so much early in the pandemic that I burned out a little bit. I just beat Hades (which takes A LONG time) and was in the middle of Ori 2 and I was just like "you know what, I need a time out from this." I'm also not watching the YouTube videos because so many of them just repeat the information here on Nintendolife or they speculate things they have no basis or knowledge if they are happening. Switch UP has basically become my one and only YouTube channel for gaming news, with sometimes Jim Sterling or Scott the Woz.
I went down the "Smash Bros Cringe Compilation" YouTube rabbit hole this past weekend, and based on the physical appearance of both the competitors and those in the crowd, I would have to say yes, playing video games too much is bad for you.
@NinChocolate
Very true.
When I think back to "playing video games a lot" as a kid, I'm thinking of renting an SNES/N64 game on a Friday night, binge playing it for 8-10hrs and returning it Sunday before 6pm. Outside of that, the rest of the week I didn't really play anything.
Now there are kids playing online games 4hrs+ each day! I can't even imagine that.
Well said! Really enjoyed this article ^.^
Who gives two dead rat’s pelts what the NYT weirdos think?
In my opinion... Mario has a repetitive loop that can become addictive. Monster Hunter adds extreme grind to the same loop. Celeste adds stakes and difficulty to the same loop. These add to the addictive nature of the games. Some people develop unhealthy behaviours in response to this, but the must be a certain type of person to start with. If you occupy your who life with anything, even exercise, it is unhealthy.
This issue of "gaming too much" comes along every so often. One thing I've found in my life is that to people who don't understand a particular hobby, you're ALWAYS doing it too much. This isn't limited to just video games. Video games, TV, computers, even fitness. I can't count all the times I've heard someone say "get off the computer you've been on there all day!" after only 20 minutes. I can play 2 hours of a game and it becomes "all day". I've even heard that I spent too much time at the gym. I spend too much time eating. I spend too much time sleeping. I spend too much time at work, in the shower, or the bathroom. There's no end to it. They don't understand it so they think it's a waste of time. You're engrossed in an activity because you enjoy it and in a lot of ways it may be the only thing keeping you sane as the author has expressed.
I was blessed in the sense that my parents were very supportive of my hobbies. They not only didn't restrict my time on them, they bought things to enrich my interests. I had an interest in reading, writing, video games, fitness, and other pursuits. They bought me books, a typewriter (and later a computer), video games, and when I expressed an interest in weight lifting my mom would take me to the local gym after school. In high school I would stay after school to use the gym, library, or computer lab and my parents were fine with it. Outside of my parents though, other family members and friends were more critical of the time I spent doing these things. The idea you can spend too much time reading or exercising is astounding to me but it wasn't uncommon to hear it. My gaming was especially something I did "too much" of and when I amassed a sizeable collection, I was told numerous times I had an addiction and needed help. I always felt alienated as a result and legit believed I was doing something wrong.
One day while I was browsing a flea market to pick up some retro games, an older man had a lot with a bunch of NES, SNES, etc. games on it and I spent about 200 dollars on them and when I realized how much I had bought, I made the comment that I "really have a problem" and nervously laughed at myself. The older man said that it's better to spend your time and money on something you enjoy that isn't hurting you or anyone else. He told me about how his son had struggled with a drug problem for over 10 years. After that I realized that even if I do have some kind of problem, there's far worse problems out there. I think everyone has something they need to keep themselves sane and happy. Now that I'm older, I'm a lot more comfortable with myself and I really don't pay much attention to what other people say. No one should dictate how you spend your time but you.
The nyt and this kids parents are idiots trying to get revinue from clicks. Don't read the article and don't support this kind of malicious behavior from nyt. It's been proven time and time again video games help more than they hinder in various ways. Anyone trying to vilify games in a world with much worse things like alcohol abuse and drug addiction need to screw off. Obviously it's not healthy in every case but I'd argue generally a lot of games are a better option than books or TV since they teach problem solving skills and team work skills as well as communication.
@Clyde_Radcliffe It did used to be "too much TV". In the Seventies and early Eighties, "too much TV" was very much a thing that concerned parents worried about, and media outlets definitely played on that all the time. They warned you about the health impact, about the psychological impact of the horrors kids could watch freely on TV, about the emotional disconnect, about obesity, etc. Almost exactly like they talk about video games now.
My mom was obsessed with limiting my TV time, making sure that most of the shows we watched as a family were wholesome or vaguely educational, and generally policing my TV intake. When she wasn't watching me, I was watchng Tom and Jerry on our tiny black and white TV every chance I got.
(For the record, I support her 100%. Being "deprived" of TV as a child was a very, very good thing for me, and when it was my turn in the parenting seat, I followed her example in limiting and guiding my kids' TV intake. That said, I am not nearly as worried about it as my mom was.)
But at some point in the last couple of decades, TV stopped being a thing that parents worried about and started being a thing that is EVERYWHERE. Now everyone has a TV in every room in the house, and many of them are on 24/7. Go to the doctor, there's a TV playing in the waiting room. Go to McDonald's, there's a TV. No one worries about it anymore. We as a society have accepted that TV is a welcome and omnipresent part of our lives. So, of course, helpful media outlets like the NYT switched gears. They stopped warning everyone about too much TV and started cautioning us about video games - with exactly the same warnings of dire consequences that would befall our children if they played too much Fortnite or Animal Crossing.
It doesn't mean anything, really. If you go back far enough, you can find helpful articles in the newspapers cautioning parents about the dangers of cinema, radio, and hell, there were probably warnings about books too if you go back a few centuries. The same thing always happens -the kids that everyone worried about grow up with cinema/radio/TV/whatever, embrace it and find some newer technology to worry about. This has already started happening with video games. Give it another decade or so, no one will care about kids playing video games and they will all be worried about the new dream chips or something else.
@Onion great points and well said. I especially liked the part at the end about the older man and what he said. In fact, we live in a society where some harmful things have been, or had been, normalized. Cigarette smoking was once extremely common. I've known lots of people whose idea of a good time was partying way too much, something I was never into. Like you, I've been into fitness, along with video games. One way I have practiced fitness is with martial arts. It was the kind of thing that, like many other things, took a lot of time and practice if the goal was to get good. It required sacrifice and could be seen as unreasonable to some. But it''s also a skill set I'll have for many years. What's important is whether it's hurting anyone else or dominating your life to the point where it is hurting you. And a lot of things can fit that description.
Luckily this is also your job, so you know...that helps.
I played WAY too much in 2020 due to Covid. Despite a somewhat ho-hum year for the Switch, 2020 ended up being a personal record for number of hours played on a console.
....I’m not gonna read what the New York Times said about video games....I will say however it depends upon how they projected video game playing. As some have mentioned....binge watching Netflix or Cable TV is a good thing, and playing an hour or two video games (which has good effects by some studies) is bad??
I guess I just listed a double standard right there.
But it just sounds like a case of the NYT taking itself too seriously.
I'm not sure what the point was supposed to by in that quote near the end(this criticism is to the person who said it and the writer who included it in the NYT paper, not to the author of this piece). In 2014, I lost a beloved cat that I found as a kitten on my birthday in 1997. Her kidneys were failing for a while. At that time, I was suffering from poor absorption of food, extreme light sensitivity, and terrible back pain. I spent several hours a day, in the dark, letting her sit on my lap which was terrible for my back pain to maximize the time we had and to comfort her. She died right next to me. That same night, I played some Shock Troopers because, for me, that's never not fun. It's not that I didn't think or feel anything, but there's no need to wallow in it or dwell on it either. It was just a way of coping for a while and feeling something good. The feeling of loss is waiting there when it's over, and the brain has a way of thinking about these things even when you're doing other things. Even when my grandfather died, I went to work the next morning because my way of coping is to go about things as normal.
With that said, I think there is something to the playing too much with some games. It depends on the type of games. I believe some games, are specifically designed to be hyper addictive. I think we see that with the social aspects, in-game purchases, and other techniques. I've also noticed that large, open-world, 3D games feel to me like it takes a lot more time to feel like I've accomplished something as opposed to older games where I can feel more satisfaction playing through a few defined levels(modern save states make it so easy to be able to play in small chunks and pick up where I left off). That's just me and I'm not crusading against the existence of these big, open games people like now, but I do think there might be some link between the scope and longer play sessions simply because 20 minutes is nothing in games designed to take several dozen hours or 100+.
@Kevember do you not understand the big words they use?
I wish I played more. I am a wanna be gamer. I get frustrated and quit too easily....
@Crockin I highly doubt that. That doesn’t make any sense.
NINJA DOUBTS THE VALIDITY OF YOUR CLAIM
I still take time to sleep, cook and binge series on no more than 4 streaming services (and like 3/4 of the planet, I'm not the one paying for netflix). I also took time to post this useless comment.
The NYT has been a joke for quite some time now. Their sheen of prestige has been tarnished for quite longer....
Moderation is key, in all things not just gaming. Water intoxication proves as much.
@Kevember Either you haven’t seen the many, many articles the NYT has published about the Xinjiang affair, with heaps of investigative journalism put to good work, or you’re just choosing to ignore it.
My psychiatrist thinks video games are evil, he tells me screens are the worst thing for your mental health, he doesn't realise that most days video games are the one thing keeping me going and taking all my meds. he even gets on me for listening to audio books because it's on an app on my phone.
Great article. I haven't read the NYT article, but I appreciate this article's call for compassion towards kids. We all badly need compassion, especially when there is a pandemic going around, when economic inequality is running rampant within countries as well as globally, when rigid judgmentalism seems to have a strong grip on many in all religions as well as materialists and atheists, and when there is so much spying and manipulation being perpetrated by corporation and governments (and many mixtures of those two things such as Blackwater or various groups created by the Mercers and Kochs etc.). So hell yes to compassion!
I could go on and on - I've sometimes interacted with games in an addictive way, but I'd like to stop with a call for more compassion. We all need to learn how to be gentler with ourselves and treat ourselves decently. It's the only way we can authentically wish for other's happiness. I think Ram Das said something like the only thing I can do for you is take care of myself, and the only thing you can do for me is take care of yourself. He obviously meant it in the sense of we are all in this together, not every person is an island. Covid-19 is constantly proving we are one giant living organism, we need to start acting like it.
@Kevember You do realise that the New York Times literally published the Xinjiang Papers? They’re one of the most consistent publications to be outspoken about the CCP so honestly, if you stick by your opinion that they’re a mouthpiece for the Chinese then you’re just plain dense. The evidence is there for everyone to see, cold hard facts. I’m not a fan of them as I have my issues with print media in general but your argument is plain silly.
Kids play games these days? All the youngins I know of just watch the Youtubes all day long.
Imagine giving a rebuttal to what anyone says at the NYT?
Instantly assume these people are making stuff up (Because they often do), and move on.
Screw the Nyt and all MSM. pompous jackasses.
That's what my bird kept squawking about in his cage. He must have read that rag before he took a crap on it.
Great article Kate, well said!! 🙌
I never trust New York Times along with the rest of those faceless far-left media.
People like having neat and easily definable scapegoats to blame complex problems on. For the last couple decades, problems with youth have usually been traced back to "the video games" because that's an easy target after stuff like the Columbine shooting.
Articles like that NYT one just read to me like the standard 'old man yells at cloud' kind of rant. Clearly, kids are getting more socialization and entertainment via tech platforms than kids from a few decades ago, but is that really a bad thing? Moreover, it's not like we can do anything about it anyways; change on that scale can't just be reversed.
@Kevember I assume you’re referring to the one article by Regina Ip. Given that other opinion pieces dealing with China by every single other author the past year have been negative in their portrayal of the CCP, I would say it’s you who are ill-informed. They’ve had pieces calling China’s South China Sea claims unlawful, pieces covering China’s crackdown on their Covid stats leaving the country, pieces covering their spyware network and pieces covering the massive human rights abuses in Xinjiang. You’ve taken one article which had a backlash, and rightly so, as it was written by a member of Hong King’s executive council. It doesn’t represent the wider newspaper in the slightest especially as you yourself have just said that editorials are completely separate. It would be like labelling Fox News far-left because they called the election for Biden first - that’s just not how things work.
@nessisonett I was wondering who kept buying the endless conveyer of Assassin's Creed games. It's you! 🙂
This is great, it takes the heat off all the metal bands I listen to. If metal is satanic then I am on the highway to hell 🤘
@LaytonPuzzle27 Far left? The NYT? HAHAHAHAHA! 😂😂😂 They're neoliberal /moderate at best. The very same paper that co-endorsed Warren & Klobuchar, the latter who is unapologetically moderate. The same paper who smeared Sanders, (a mere social democrat by Canadian & Western Europe/UK standards) and any politician relentlessly who wants to do anything socially democratic for regular working class Americans.
Also, and it's shocking how arrogant some are, it was the radical far-right media of Fox, OAN and NM, nutcase loons like Giuliani and Powell, who all peddled election fraud BS from day one with zero evidence, which culminated in a far-right chumpist riot, 5 people dead, nudged on by an orange insurrectionist. No principles. No policies. No convictions. Just crybabies who had their fee-fees hurt cause daddy lost. The "party of law and order", my ass. So embarrassing and pathetic. 🙄
I genuinely feel bad for the US's future. So much dishonesty from all their corporate media, people unwilling to actually research things and craft a well informed opinion, and facts and objectivity thrown aside in favour of conspiracy theories, partisan hackery and tribalism.
But but but far-left radical antifa socialist BLM commies! Okay, good luck with that... 🙄👍
Pshhhh... they are opinion pieces written by people with no experience in the field of gaming. Their opinions are ill inforned and useless.
My kids are learning how to read better with Zelda, get problem solving skills and even learn a bit of English here and there.
They learn to share, and right now, my 8 yr old is actually reading a book because he loves that too.
As with everything in life, moderation is key.
Also, Castle Crashers with my 3 kids is my dream come true.
I don't recall asking you, NYT. Now if you'lle excuse me, I have a backlog of games to get through. Good DAY!
@Kevember In all your discussion here today, you never have provided even a single example of the "independent media" that you claim meet your standards for journalism. Awfully easy to lob bombs when you don't actually stand for anything yourself.
I’m definitely old because the last thing I would do is use my phone while watching a movie.
I think if I showed the NYT my backlog they'd probably think I'm not gaming enough.
New York times is written by people stuck in the past. Funny considering their name. Amazing thing about having a large platform is if you update it selectively each article will have more bite, but if you update so frequently that you are starved for content you'll end up writing stupid garbage over and over. Amazingly were back on "vidyo gaymz er bad" again. AGAIN! People can choose to spend their spare time how they want. Double edged because yeah it gives them encouragement to write this crap but also think about the fact that people having fun playing games aren't hurting anybody whereas reading fake news like this lowers your brain cell count.
Probably some level of escapeism is familiar to all of us here. I think it's a good thing, if you need a break or a time out at some point. At the same time, I have seen escapeism prohibiting people to take the next step in their life, taking on a job or studies with its hardships. When it becomes easier to hide your low self esteem rather than to develop yourself, I do think it's a problem. With schools closing down and parents stressed out, the chances on that happening is higher than ever.
This year I experienced some loss (haven't we all?), playing Spiritfarer was an incredibly mental and emotional experience. The story line in that game really helped my thought life.
@Kriven Thanks, but I am guessing those are English? Not our native language. Breath of the Wild has Dutch subtitles (which really surprised me).
Just communicate with your kids and spend time with them. Learn about their favorite games and hobbies with them, understand why they like them. Let them learn and understand stuff about you. Show them other things. Be a parent. Have family board game nights or movie nights if you’re stuck inside. I don’t know. Probably harder than it sounds, but you don’t need NYT to tell you this. Haha
As a parent myself with young kids, things like the 2ds are a blessing, especially when they need a break from each other. My oldest(5) is even teaching her little sister (2) how to play around with Nintendogs and it's the sweetest bonding moment (and also some of the quietest as they're generally pretty noisy). Sometimes my eldest plays pokemon and untitled goose game with me and together we've turned our animal crossing island into a giant kids playground.
When I was pregnant (both times) my 3ds and my Switch were both my sanity lifelines because we live nowhere near other family or friends and being able to interact with them through games helped so much and reminded me I wasn't all alone sitting around pinned to a chair under a sleeping baby miles away from anyone (heck my youngest Still pins me down to a chair when she's got the chance). Games are a huge part of my life, some great memories with my own brother and parents were around video games (not all of them, but there's a few that stick in the mind) and I'd like to share this with my own kids, but at their pace with what interests them.
We also paint, play puzzles and usual kids stuff I mean they do have alot of downtime away from technology, but I'm finding they're learning alot having spent time together regardless of when, where and how we do it. Play is good for everyone.
Get out the pitchforks bois we headin to NY
The NYT is it is a publication of rich people for generally older rich aspirants and other rich people who wish to feel morally secure and morally superior then others simply because they got lucky enough to have some money. So it's no surprise they ran with this moralizing propaganda.
Persona 5 Royal is seriously saving my sanity during this pandemic. In the game, I get to simulate a social life: hang out with friends, dine at a restaurant, watch a movie at the theater, walk around a large city, take the subway everywhere like I did when I frequently visited New York City before Covid. I've noticed that if I don't play the game in a 3-day time span, my general mood suffers. I need that reminder of how things were.
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