Here’s a strange thought, that occurred to me the more I thought about Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the different reactions to it, and just the state of the world. Now following along with me while I delve into this thought train for a moment, even though it might not make any sense.

We have various depictions in books, movies, and especially games about different worlds where various realities occur. Such as; people with super powers, psionics, great wars, aliens, apocalypses, and all manner of other alternate-earths/alternate histories. Now of course take into account we have people out their whom really believe in the conspiracies they profess and how the world just seems so wrapped up in a manner of what do we really believe, what is really real and what isn’t.

Now then if it ever came to pass that one of these conspiracies, alternate worlds and so on actually turned out to exist, what would that do to society and really if we were actually living in them the whole time, how does this affect our creative works. It really would turn the whole thing upside down. Would we then stat making games that are based around the world we know it to be now?

Kind of a twisted thought I know, but it reminds me of the Matrix, the real world isn’t real but a creation by the system, which really is just a big life sim to keep humans occupied and then I wonder if our popular fiction and science fiction is left over programming of what our life sim in the matrix could be. Just thinking about this makes one’s head spin.

Of course I don’t believe any of it, but it does lead to some interesting creative thoughts. If our world suddenly changed into one where our fiction was truth, what would we do to make games in that world? What kind of games would those be? It’s like shifting your thinking to decide how to create games that fit as an escape for a game world?

I wonder now if there’s a potential wealth of new games to be created from thinking not outside the box but inside the box and creating to suit the world inside the box for the world playing outside the box.

It’s like this, we live in World X (Real world) but if I lived in world Y and I was a game designer in world Y, what game worlds would I make to fascinate and thrill the people of world Y? So you design your game based on the possible audience of world Y but deliver it to the people of World X, thus you have alt world Z where it’s so far flung no one thought of it before because everyone’s designing games world X.

Did I lose you yet? Probably but that’s okay as the idea will grow on you. I think I’m going to invest sometime thinking about this and maybe I’ll come up with something that would both trill and excite World X and Y. it’s a stretch and my logic is a little off today, but consider what we know.

-          Players like amazing fantastical worlds, Alternate reality worlds, and exciting new worlds to explore and play in.

-          Players want to experience something different, somewhere different.

Both those said, building something different within the framework of something different to begin with could have some pretty amazing results. I’m going to sum up with an example and leave it go as that.

If we lived in an alternate reality where aliens were an every day occurrence and psionic abilities were just a normal part of humanity, and we already fought and prevailed against a zombie outbreak, what kind of video games would be made for the players of that world?

How does that tickle your muse?

Right so as the gaming community is now chewing on the speech by President Obama with his usual comment regarding video games, I had a conversation the other day with Epi on this issue. So like anything else in the world that pings my brain for longer then 5 seconds I’m going to write it up.

Let me start off by saying that I do not in any way have a problem with the idea of play in moderation. I do think many times kids are left to much to their own devices by parents and many spend way to much time gaming. I know I certainly did as a kid and even today it can still be a bit tricky to put the game down to get work done. However, like most arguments by the anti-video game lobby I disagree with most of their tired old bullshit. Not that I count the Pres in that segment but when it comes to certain times, he does come off a bit overboard when he mentions video games in his speeches, or perhaps makes the reference far to often.

But I’m going to look at the other side of things this time around, I don’t feel like ripping the anti game establishment a new one right now. Let’s look at our children, our education system and our society, and take some things into accounting.

Consider the pressure our kids are under from day to day, and for those of us able to remember it hasn’t changed all that much in the last 50 years though perhaps the pressures themselves are different to some extent. (Yes I know as adults we are under pressure in our own lives but that’s a story for another day hmmm?)

Our kids start school usually at 5 years old, though around here they’ve started including some four year olds, and holy shit has primary changed from when I was a kid. They have homework and start on the fundamentals a lot sooner then we did. Most of what I remember from Primary was reviewing the ABCs, counting, playing with blocks and chasing cute girls around the playground. Now kids come home with homework that range from printing, spelling, basic math, reading and so on.

Now that in and of itself isn’t anything overburden some I suppose if the kids are prepared for it, but parents may not be bothering unaware of it, or plainly to busy. (Again a story for another day) So now kids are faced with this whole new environment, learning new things, concepts and in an enclosed world/social ecosystem. Now look at the fact that from start to finish in most cases kids are in school for the next 13 years of their life. Facing new challenges of learning every day save summer and Christmas vacation.

Add into that they are growing up, going through puberty, first loves, first enemies, changing world perceptions, and all the extra activities they are either willingly or by parental directive joining after school.

When you take a step back and look at the situation objectively, kids have a whole lot of shit thrown at them from a young age till they are nearly adult. Now add in during (usually) the teenage years they become drivers at 16, they deal with sexual issues starting anywhere from 10 and older these days (Scary as that is but I digress), and all that noise they get from their peers and family.

From their parents they will hear how they have to have good high grades, get into this university or that, find a good job, go to the Olympics or some other big dream plan dreamed up (usually) by the parent(s). Hell of a lot of pressure to put on a young individual still coming down off of hormonal turmoil, changing life perceptions and sexual awareness.

From their peers, we know what that all entails, sex, drugs, everything else under the sun that kids might experience to get them into trouble. Even more pressure atop from school, physical changes, emotional changes, and parental/family/cultural pressures.

It’s no small wonder kids can implode sometimes and why they turn to things like drugs, gangs, and other things that are far removed from parents expectations. People complain about video games like their something evil, yet video games are often one of the few pressure valves kids have. Sure some kids go outside and play, and that’s all well and good, but the video games also provide cerebral experiences that can relax a weary brain, assist in hand/eye coordination, and with online games, kids who deal with social anxiety/awkwardness/shyness might blossom into their own personality online more readily then in more physical social environments.

As I parent I certainly try to make sure my children have a balanced amount of video games vs. outdoor/indoor play, physical activity, and study homework time.

Do I think video games lead to children becoming violent mass murderers?

In some rare cases perhaps, though in many cases I suspect where the games not available to these few kids their violent outburst/explosion would likely have happened sooner rather then later.

We as a society need to look at the amount of pressures we place on our children, teenagers, and even our selves and think long and hard about how we can work to take some of the stress out of our day to day lives. Provide children with the love, encouragement and support to deal with their own pressures give them the room they need to grow and guide them towards the future.

Allow them what they need to relieve their pressures in a safe environment. If a couple hours of daily video game playing help your child wind down after the hell we know as School, then what’s wrong with that? After some time cooling off on some good fun playing games they enjoy (though you all know well I don’t advocate violent or mature games for kids their not intended for so don’t give me any shit on that) They’re more likely to be refreshed enough to tackle their homework either following some relaxation time or knowing they’re entitled to it upon completion.

Everything in moderation is true, be it play, or be it work and stress/pressures. We should be more forthright with our kids and involve them in serious discussions. We expect kids to grow up way to fast and we stuff so much “adult” information on math, sciences, and other subjects in school, yet we don’t hold real discussions with them because their “just kids”

The differences between their education and the way we treat them outside of school borders on naked hypocrisy.

We expect our kids to learn their biology, physics, chemistry, calculus and so on and get high grades, but we can’t seriously discuss important subjects like sex, drugs, and balancing their work and play time?

We allow kids to learn how to handle cars at 16-17 but we stumble over the idea of actually involving them in choosing or finding a direction in our lives?

I’ve covered some of this before so I won’t harp on it, video games and violence, video games and drugs, video games and gangs, video games and sex. All hot topics with the anti video game lobby, yet has anyone pointed out to these paper-asshats that Violence, Drugs, Gangs, and Sex has been around a helluva lot longer than video games. All these evil things video games cause in kids, predate video games by something in the way of oh I don’t know, most of human civilization.

But enough ranting from me, my closing points are simple.

Everything in moderation is a good idea, especially, the “Everything” part.

Our kids are under immense pressure all through school, then university especially when they dive right from one to the other. We need to look hard and long at our education systems.

Video Games won’t cause anarchy amongst our youth, but they might keep our youth from going bonkers.